Reimagining classics: Pat Barker on the Regeneration Trilogy
Content warning: Mentions of rape, sexual assault, and war.
In this episode of The Writing Life, bestselling author Pat Barker shares insights about the art of retellings, and the craftsmanship and research needed to write reimaginings of classic literature.
Pat Barker was born in Yorkshire and began her literary career in her late thirties, when she took a short writing course taught by Angela Carter. She has published sixteen novels, including her masterful Regeneration Trilogy which includes the Booker Prize-winning The Ghost Road. The Silence of the Girls was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and won an Independent Bookshop Award 2019. The Women of Troy was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. The Voyage Home continues the series.
She sits down with NCW’s Holly Ainley to discuss her Regeneration Trilogy, and how retellings can bring stories to new audiences. They touch on offering fresh perspectives to Greek mythology, finding inspiration in unexpected places, and how reimaginings can make stories accessible to readers through contemporary language and references.
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Writing contemporary crime fiction: Val McDermid on Past Lying
In this episode of The Writing Life, award-winning writer Val McDermid shares insights on writing contemporary crime fiction, and the importance of learning patience as a writer.
One of the UK’s most accomplished and respected novelists, Val McDermid has sold over 19 million books to date across the globe and is translated into more than 40 languages. She is perhaps best-known for her Wire in the Blood series, featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan, which was adapted for television starring Robson Green and Hermione Norris. She has written four other series: private detective Kate Brannigan, journalist Lindsay Gordon, cold case detective Karen Pirie, whose debut appearance in The Distant Echo is now a major ITV series. The second in the series, 1989 was published in paperback in February 2023. Val has also published several award-winning standalone novels, books of non-fiction, short story collections and a children’s picture book, My Granny is a Pirate. Val returns to Karen Pirie with her latest book, Past Lying.
She sits down with NCW's Chief Executive Peggy to discuss her writing career, and how her research process and routine have changed over time. Together, they discuss Val’s Harriet Martineau Lecture at Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2025, her journey into new genres and styles, and what readers can expect from the next book in her Inspector Karen Pirie series.
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Becoming a published author: Wen-Yi Lee on representation, writing residencies, and building a readership
In this episode of The Writing Life, writer and Dragon Hall Cottage resident Wen-yi Lee shares insights into building a writing career, and the process of taking a project from conception to completion.
Wen-yi Lee likes writing about girls with bite, feral nature, and ghosts. She is the author of historical fantasy When They Burned the Butterfly and YA horror The Dark We Know, and has also published speculative fiction and essays in venues like Lightspeed, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Reactor, and various anthologies. A University College London alum, she is currently based at home in Singapore. In February 2025, she completed a residency in our Dragon Hall Cottage.
She sits down with writer and mentor Kate Worsley to discuss her journey as a multi-genre writer, and the importance of representation in literature. Together, they touch on navigating queer storylines, finding a writing community online, and striking the balance between vulnerability and protection when exposing parts of yourself in your writing.
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Writing between genres: Michael Pedersen on Muckle Flugga
In this episode of The Writing Life, prize-winning poet and writer Michael Pedersen shares his experience writing between genres, and how pushing the boundaries of literary categories can enhance your writing.
Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning poet and author of the memoir Boy Friends, which was a Sunday Times Critics Choice and shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish National Book Awards. He was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship and is the current Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh, and Edinburgh’s Makar (Poet Laureate). Muckle Flugga is his debut novel.
He sits down with NCW Chief Executive Peggy Hughes to discuss Muckle Flugga, a lyrical, windswept novel of a lighthouse keeper and his son, whose lives are turned upside down by a stranger’s arrival. Together, they discuss the beauty of fusing elements from different genres in one work of writing, his decision to heighten the fantastical elements of a real-world setting in his fiction, and the importance of being excited about what you are writing.
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World building in horror fiction: Julia Armfield on Private Rites
In this episode of The Writing Life, prize-winning writer Julia Armfield shares insights on world building in horror fiction, and writing catastrophic and intense circumstances.
Julia Armfield's work has been published in Granta, The White Review and Best British Short Stories 2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. She is the author of salt slow, a collection of short stories, which was longlisted for the Polari Prize 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize 2020. Her debut novel, Our Wives Under The Sea, won the Polari Prize 2023 and was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award 2022. She lives and works in London.
She sits down with NCW’s Steph McKenna to discuss her second novel Private Rites, a stunning, unsettling novel following three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world. Together, they discuss her use of imagery in her fiction, the influence of horror cinema on her writing, and how she maintains a blanketing sense of dread throughout her novels.
We’re a podcast for anyone who writes. Every week we talk to writers about their writing journeys and techniques, from early career debuts to self-publishers and narrative designers. We’ve featured Margaret Atwood, Jackie Kay, Sara Collins, Antti Tuomainen, Val McDermid, Sarah Perry, Elif Shafak and many more!
The Writing Life is produced by the National Centre for Writing at Dragon Hall in Norwich.
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