Loves Labours Watched

This episode we speak to debut author Sophie Haydock about The Flames, her historical novel about four women who were painted by Austrian artist Egon Schiele. Sophie chatted to us about recentering women in history, her inspiration for the novel and her popular corresponding Instagram account @egonschieleswomen. Later, we chat about the return of Netflix fave Bridgerton. Find out all our thoughts on Kate and Anthony, our hopes for next season and why we were so excited to see Rupert Young AKA Merlin's Sir Leon pop up (expect some spoilers for Bridgerton Season 2) Get in touch with us with your thoughts @RealLLW on Twitter and @LovesLaboursWatched on Instagram. Shout out to Alex Egge (@aneggeaday on Instagram)for our lovely logo too!

We're back and we're thrilled to be interviewing Meg Mason, author of best-selling hit Sorrow and Bliss, a novel that's taken the world by storm. The bittersweet tale of Martha, a woman whose marriage is on the rocks and who is struggling with an undiagnosed mental illness, is warm, candid and unforgettable. Meg spoke to us about her writing process, comparisons to Jane Austen and how the book balances humor and realism. Our chat isn't too specific, but from 24:46-28:10 and 34:33-34:45 there are some spoilers around the novel's ending, so skip those parts if you haven't got round to reading the book yet. Later in the episode we discuss Red (Taylor's Version), Taylor Swift's rerecorded and released version of her classic 2012 album. Expect a deep dive into the lyrics, imagery, music and, of course, the All Too Well short film. Get in touch with us @RealLLW on Twitter and @LovesLaboursWatched on Instagram. Shout out to Alex Egge (@aneggeaday)for our lovely logo too!

This month on Loves Labours Watched we're speaking with author Rosanna Amaka about her beautiful debut novel The Book of Echoes. Switching between London and Nigeria, the novel is about love, hope and time, charting how history is never static, but reverberates through to the present. Rosanna wrote The Book of Echoes to celebrate the African Caribbean community in which she grew up in Brixton, south London, and she worked on the book for 20 years. It was published in 2020, and is out in paperback in the UK now. Later in the episode, we continue our Marvel chat with a discussion of new Disney+ show Loki, along with our thoughts on Scarlett Johansson-led movie Black Widow, also starring LLW fave Florence Pugh. Expect spoilers for both! Plus, we're absolutely delighted to have a brilliant new logo designed by Alex Egge, who you can find at @aneggeaday on Instagram. We hope you love it as much as we do, and enjoy the episode!

This month on Loves Labours Watched we're speaking with author Zakiya Dalila Harris about The Other Black Girl, her New York Times bestselling debut novel. We talk to Zakiya about publishing's diversity problem, and how she blended elements of realism, sci-fi and horror to depict the ways in which white supremacy asserts itself in the workplace. Zakiya also discusses the novel's upcoming TV adaptation, which she's working on with Rashida Jones, and why she loves TV show Search Party. Later, Helena and Francesca chat about Bo Burnham's Inside, the comedian-writer-director's Netflix comedy special that takes a humorous but pointed look at the role of the internet in our lives, and which was filmed over the course of the past pandemic year. If you enjoy this episode, please leave us a rating and review, or get in touch on social media. See you next time!

This month we connect with New York Times bestselling author Maggie Shipstead about her new novel Great Circle, an enveloping, lyrical and ambitious novel about a 1940s female aviator and the modern-day actress who is hired to play her in a biopic. We enjoyed a fascinating discussion with Maggie all about how the megastardom of the Twilight stars influenced the story, her globe-spanning research process and how Great Circle plays with ideas of narrative and storytelling. We then continue the bookish chat with a discussion of this year's Women's Prize for Fiction nominees, which include previous LLW guest Brit Bennett. Finally, Francesca updates us on her WandaVision-prompted Marvel journey and so we discuss some (mostly Sebastian-Stan-related) thoughts on the Captain America series. Enjoy!

This month we're chatting to Laura Kay, author of the heartwarming new rom-com The Split. We chat to Laura about how she centered queer narratives, why main characters don't have to be likable and why Louise Rennison's Angus Thongs series remains a masterpiece to this day. Later, we dive deep into WandaVision, the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first Disney+ offering. We discuss how the show recreates sitcoms past, why Elizabeth Olsen's performance is so spectacular, how the show plays with themes of narration and storytelling and why its resonating with former MCU sceptics, including Francesca. Enjoy!

Welcome back to LLW, this month we speak to author Lucy Jago about her new novel A Net For Small Fishes, which examines two real life women who were at the centre of a 16th century English scandal. We speak to Lucy about her wealth of historical research, recentering female narratives and why tearing War and Peace in half is the way to finally get round to reading it. Then, continuing the historical fiction theme, we deep dive into Bridgerton, which Helena first encountered age 13 on her Palm Pilot and has now become a Netflix TV show that’s broken records and made waves across the world. We discuss the colour conscious casting, the romance novel genre and what we hope to see from the second series, set to star Sex Education actor Simone Ashley. Recommendation wise, Francesca is seeking post-Bridgerton escapism via Netflix’s Virgin River, while Helena is enjoying more historical discussions via BBC podcast You’re Dead to Me. Stay safe and well everyone, and we’ll see next month!

For our first episode of 2021, LLW connected with Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age, the smash-hit novel long-listed for the 2020 Man Booker Prize. In our chat, Kiley discusses the novel’s themes of storytelling and social media, plus how she uses the writing process to get inside her character’s heads, why she chose the multi-layered title and the limitations of the anti-racist reading list. Our chat was mostly spoiler-free, but we do discuss the novel’s ending from 23:05 to 26:16 and again from 27:38 to 28:17, so skip those parts if you haven't read the book yet. It was fantastic to connect with Kiley on the eve of the UK paperback release of Such a Fun Age, which is out now in all good bookstores. Later, we chat about questionable-yet-entertaining Netflix festive films The Princess Switched 2: Switch Again and Christmas on the Square, which we watched together via Netflix Party over the holiday period. We hope everyone’s staying safe and well as we begin the New Year and we’ll be back with a new episode

This week on LLW we speak to Zaina Arafat, author of You Exist Too Much, a coming of age story about a young Palestinian-American woman caught between two worlds. Zaina, an LGBTQ, Arab/Muslim-American writer, speaks to LLW about her protagonist, who struggles with her dual identity, her complicated relationship with her mother and her internalised homophobia. We also discuss how Zaina settled upon You Exist Too Much's vignette-style structure and her choice of a first person narrator. Later, we chat about why we’re so excited for the return of BBC/HBO’s His Dark Materials and have some thoughts on the Netflix adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. Enjoy!

After a month hiatus, LLW is back! We're here to chat about two recent Netflix big hitters: new movie Enola Holmes starring Stranger Things' Millie Bobbie Brown and so-bad-it's-good TV hit Emily in Paris. Find out why we were charmed by one and bemused by the other and get stuck into a discussion about breaking the fourth wall, a saccharine vision of Paris and whether TV shows are always aware when they've created unlikable characters. We're delighted to be back and have more book/cinema/theatre discussion coming up!

This week we had the pleasure of chatting to Helly Acton, author of debut novel The Shelf. The Shelf follows protagonist Amy, who is unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend on a new reality TV show and tasked, alongside six other contestants, to complete challenges that'll turn her into a 'keeper' and win the show. We had a great time listening to the audiobook, which is read by Normal People star and LLW fave Daisy Edgar-Jones. We also loved connecting with Helly to discuss feminism, sexism and reality television and followed that up with all our thoughts on reality TV in today's modern world, from Love Island to new hit Selling Sunset. Enjoy!

Welcome back to Loves Labours Watched! This week we're chatting to Susannah Dickey, author of compelling new novel Tennis Lessons, a coming of age story showcasing snapshots of a young woman's life from her childhood to late twenties. It's visceral and compulsive and we speak to Susannah all about her knack for observing the minutiae of daily life. Also...Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer's rewriting of Twilight, is out and of course Helena has read it and has many thoughts. Plus, we discuss some of our past interviewees who've recently had books optioned for TV, including Beth O'Leary, Naoise Dolan and Brit Bennett. Enjoy!

This week on Loves Labours Watched we’re chatting all about How to Build a Girl, the new movie adaptation of Caitlin Moran’s 2014 novel of the same name. We speak to director Coky Giedroyc, who brought the book to the big screen with a vivacious energy that matches the bighearted performance of Beanie Feldstein as protagonist Johanna Morrigan. Coky talks to LLW about the importance of creating a film that was truthful and reflected the reality of being a teenage girl and how her fast paced camerawork mirrors her protagonist’s journey. We also discuss the v swoon-worthy performance by Alfie Allen and how the movie ranks against our favourite coming-of-age dramadies. How to Build a Girl is available to watch on demand in the US and via Amazon Prime in the UK. Speaking of music, we later get into all our thoughts on Taylor Swift’s surprise new album folklore. Plus book recs including Candice Brathwaite’s I am Not Your Baby Mother. Enjoy! (And please rate and review the podcast if you’ve liked it/get in touch on

This week on Loves Labours Watched we speak to memoirist Tamsin Calidas, author of I Am An Island, an account of Tamsin's fraught yet transformative move from London to an unnamed Scottish island. Tamsin speaks to LLW about the process of memoir-writing, wild-swimming and her belief in the importance of living cohesively with the natural world. Later, Francesca discusses I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel's explosive, genre-defying TV series, available on BBC iPlayer and currently broadcasting in the US on HBO. Meanwhile Helena is obsessed with Netflix's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams. Plus, we discuss new Netflix series Cursed and question whether it could ever top the dizzy heights of BBC's iconic noughties series Merlin.

This week we connect with author Brit Bennett, whose second novel The Vanishing Half has shot to the top of the New York Times bestsellers chart and is causing a buzz across the literary world. We talk to Brit about how she tackled themes of race, discrimination, gender, performance and identity. Later, we talk about Mrs Dalloway, which Helena's reading for the first time and is about the impact of the First World War on London society. We consider whether the Covid-19 pandemic might produce similar literary and pop culture ruminations and get excited about Zadie Smith's upcoming essay collection about lockdown life, Imitations, due to be published this summer. Follow us and get in touch on social media, we'd love to hear from you. We're @RealLLW on Twitter and @LovesLaboursWatched on Instagram. We hope everyone is staying safe and as well as possible in this strange time and we'll see you in a couple of weeks.

This week we had the pleasure of chatting to journalist Gavanndra Hodge, author of new memoir The Consequences of Love, about the sudden death of her younger sister and its impact on her family. We talked about grief, memoir-writing and what it was like for Gavanndra growing up as the child of addicts. We also bring back our bi-weekly book segment. This time round, we discuss some fiction and non-fiction written by black authors that discuss racism in Britain and in the US. We talk about Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age, Andrea Levy's Small Island and Tayari Jones' An American Marriage. This is just a small selection -- there are so many more important novels and works of non-fiction that could help educate readers on race relations and discrimination in Britain, the US and across the world. We have many more on our reading list and we would love to hear recommends from listeners, too. Follow us and get in touch on social media, @RealLLW on

This week on Loves Labours Watched we connect with acclaimed author Curtis Sittenfeld. You may have read Curtis' bestselling 2008 novel American Wife, which imagines the life of a fictionalised American First Lady who shares many biographical similarities with Laura Bush. Or perhaps you devoured her wry collection of short stories, You Think it, I'll Say it, published in 2018 and set to be adapted into a Reese-Witherspoon-produced TV series. Now, Curtis' back with an explosive new novel, Rodham, a fictionalised account of what might have happened had Hillary Clinton decided not to marry Bill. We discuss Curtis' motivations for writing the novel, what it was like marrying real life with fiction and what she thinks Hillary herself might think of the book. It was a fascinating chat and we then dive into our thoughts on the book (the chat and discussion is largely spoiler-free!) Later, more book chat as Francesca discusses writer Emma Gannon's debut novel Olive, and Helena is gearing up to read new novel Tsarina

Welcome back to Loves Labours Watched! This week we were delighted to speak to Lenny Abrahamson, Oscar-nominated director of the 2015 movie Room and the filmmaker behind hit BBC/Hulu show Normal People, based on the bestselling novel by Sally Rooney. We chat to Lenny about adapting the novel for screen, reflecting the novel's intimacy and interiority on film and we take a deep dive into the themes and mood of the series. Later, we also discuss why Helena is not-so-secretly freaking out about Twilight author Stephanie Meyer's long-awaited Midnight Sun. Plus, some thoughts on the recently released Parks and Rec online reunion special. Enjoy!

This week on Loves Labours Watched we welcome back author Beth O’Leary! Our first repeat guest, Beth last chatted to us back in May 2019 about her debut novel The Flatshare, a super heartwarming and gorgeously told story about the power of connection. The Flatshare became an international hit and now Beth’s back this spring with The Switch, a vivacious, warm and funny novel about a grandmother and her granddaughter who temporarily switch lives, with results both humorous and life-changing. We had a fantastic time catching up with Beth and hearing about her whirlwind last year and we absolutely loved The Switch. Plus, Francesca’s enthusing about Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other and the new TV version of Malory Towers, while Helena is enjoying the TV version of What We Do in the Shadows, and just did a mammoth book order. Don’t forget to sign up to our Patreon for bonus content! This time round, we discuss The Phantom of the Opera with a Phantom newbie in honour of its recent livestream via The Shows Mus

This week on Loves Labours Watched, we're chatting to author Naoise Dolan. Dubbed "the next Sally Rooney", Irish writer Naoise just published her first book Exciting Times, which explores the intricacies of human relationships and connection via the story of three young people living in Hong Kong. There's so much well-deserved buzz surrounding the novel, we both loved it. We had a fantastic time chatting to Naoise about why she chose Hong Kong as the setting, the assumptions made about young female novelists, subverting expectations, how she transplanted the themes of the Victorian novel to the present day and why we would watch a socially-distanced-version of Derry Girls. Later, we discuss the tiny joys getting us through this strange time: Helena's getting excited about Eurovision Again and we're both enjoying the roster of plays offered by National Theatre Live. PLUS exciting news about how we're growing the podcast, check out the last few minutes to find out more.