Naoíse Mac Sweeney discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Naoíse Mac Sweeney is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Vienna. She previously held posts at Cambridge and Leicester Universities, and has won numerous academic awards for her work on classical antiquity and myths both in the UK and the EU. Her previous book was shortlisted for major awards, and she has appeared on Thinking Allowed on BBC Radio 4 and was a reporter on BBC4’s Digging for Britain TV series with Alice Roberts. Her new book is The West: A New History of an Old Idea.
Dillie Keane discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Dillie Keane is a performer and songwriter best known as one third of the satirical trio, Fascinating Aïda. Of late, she has taken to blogging about ecological issues having been a doom-mongering greenie for many decades. Her ecoblog, shityoudontneed.blog, aims to persuade people to change their planet-damaging habits in an entertaining way.
Dillie has been awarded two doctorates for her contribution to the gaiety of nations. Well, the citations didn’t exactly say that, but she can’t think why else she might have got them.
And in spite of all efforts to kill it off several times, Fascinating Aïda is still going after 40 years. The indomitable trio are planning yet another tour which starts in September this year. https://www.fascinatingaida.co.uk/tour-dates/
Tim Richardson discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Tim Richardson is an historian and critic specialising in landscape design and art. He is the author of more than 20 books on landscape and garden subjects including Arcadian Friends: The Invention of the English Landscape Garden, The New English Garden and Sissinghurst: The Dream Garden. He began his career at Country Life magazine as gardens editor (where he was also theatre critic for 23 years), was subsequently editor of the award-winning (but short-lived) New Eden magazine and landscape editor at Wallpaper. He is a garden columnist on the Daily Telegraph and is currently art critic at The Idler. He lectures at institutions around the world and has taught landscape history at post-graduate level for several years; his course on English landscape history is currently available online via Oxford University. Tim is a published poet and founder-director (from 2012) of the Chelsea Fringe Festival, the independent not-for-profit alternative gardens festival. He lives in London.
Kate Mosse is the author of nine novels & short story collections, including the No 1 bestselling The Joubert Family Chronicles – The Burning ChambersandThe City of Tears – as well as the multimillion selling Languedoc Trilogy – Labyrinth, Sepulchreand Citadel – and No 1 bestselling Gothic fiction including The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist’s Daughter, which she adapted for the stage for 2022. Her books have been translated into 38 languages and published in more than 40 countries. Her latest book, part detective story, part family history and part dictionary of 1000 women missing from history – Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World – was published in 2022. She has also written three others works of non-fiction – including An Extra Pair of Hands (Wellcome Collection, 2021) – four plays, contributed essays and introductions to classic novels and collections. Her novel for Quick Reads, The Black Mountain, came out in April 2022 and she’s one of twelve writers contributing a story to a new Miss Marple Collection of Short Stories – Marple – which published in 2022.
A champion of women’s creativity, Kate is the Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction – the largest annual celebration of women’s writing in the world – and sits on the Executive Committee of Women of the World. She is the Founder of the global campaign – #WomanInHistory – launched in January 2021 to honour, celebrate and promote women’s achievements throughout history and from every corner of the world. She was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to literature and women and was named Woman of the Year for her service to the arts in the Everywoman Awards and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is a regular guest on book & arts shows on radio and television. She also writes and presents documentaries. To celebrate her 60th birthday, she launched her own YouTube book channel – Kate-Mosse-on-Books – with a monthly show ‘Mosse on a Monday’.
Kate hosts the pre performance interview series at Chichester Festival Theatre in Sussex, chairs Platform Events for the National Theatre in London, as well as interviewing writers, directors, campaigners and actors at literary and theatre festivals in the UK and beyond. Kate was awarded a Fellowship at the Writer’s House in Amsterdam in 2019. She is also Professor of Creative Writing & Contemporary Fiction at the University of Chichester.
Kate lives full-time in Chichester, though visits Carcassonne whenever possible. She is currently preparing a theatre tour for Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries for Spring 2023 and working on the third novel in The Joubert Family Chronicles, a historical crime thriller set in 17th century France, Tenerife and South Africa for publication in July 2023.
In 2019, Kate was honoured to be presented with a medal for services to culture by the City of Carcassonne. It is because of buying a tiny house in the shadow of the medieval city walls of Carcassonne in 1989 – and becoming inspired by the landscape, the beauty and the history of the region – that Kate became the writer she is.
Kevin Jared Hosein discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Kevin Jared Hosein is a Caribbean novelist. He has also worked as a secondary school Biology teacher for over a decade. He was named overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2018, and was the Caribbean regional winner in 2015. He has published two books: The Repenters and The Beast of Kukuyo. The latter received a CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature, and both had been longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His writings, poetry, fiction and non-fiction, have been published in numerous anthologies and outlets including Granta.com, Lightspeed Magazine, Moko, Wasafiri and adda. He lives in Trinidad and Tobago. His new novel is Hungry Ghosts.
Rosie Andrews discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Rosie Andrews was born and grew up in Liverpool, the third of twelve children. She studied history at Cambridge before becoming an English teacher. She lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and daughter. The Leviathan is her debut novel.
Raymond Baker discusses with Ivan six aspects of financial secrecy which should be better known.
Raymond Baker is the Founding President of Global Financial Integrity and the author of Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System, published by John Wiley & Sons and cited by the Financial Times as one of the “best business books of 2005.”
He has for many years been an internationally respected authority on corruption, money laundering, growth, and foreign policy issues, particularly as they concern emerging market and developing countries and impact western economic and foreign interests. He has written and spoken extensively, testified often before legislative committees in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, been quoted worldwide, and has commented frequently on television and radio in the the United States, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia on legislative matters and policy questions, including appearances on ABC News’ Nightline, Al Jazeera, BBC, Bloomberg TV, the CBS Evening News, CNN, NPR, PBS, and Four Corners (ABC1 in Australia), among others.
Steve Cross discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Dr Steve Cross helps experts to become the most fun, engaging and effective versions of themselves. He’s a comedian and trainer and has previously failed at careers in science, museums, charities, education and universities. Steve runs Science Showoff events across the country and can be heard on his messy Dungeons and Dragons podcast, Chaotic Adequate. His website is drstevecross.com and you can find him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Better Known 