For this episode, Red is joined by Irish author Sheila Armstrong whose writing has been described as, "elegiac and atmospheric, dark and disquieting." Her debut novel, Falling Animals, was inspired by a real-life mystery and like the sea off the coast of her native northwest Ireland, the tale it tells is alive with undercurrents. Each chapter focuses on a different character caught up in the wake of an unidentified man’s body appearing on a remote Irish beach. It’s a haunting tale which, like...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Irish actor and voice artist Aoife McMahon, who is one of the most in-demand audiobook narrators in the business. Her range is astonishing. She has appeared in leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. Ece Temelkuran is an award-winning author and journalist and one of Europe’s most highly respected political thinkers. Her 2019 book, How to Lose a Country: The Seven Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship, was hailed as an urgent call to...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. Pamela Mulloy’s debut novel, The Deserters, was published in 2018, and explores the tangled relationship between a lonely wife on a New Brunswick farm and an American soldier who goes AWOL while on leave from Iraq. Whereas The Deserters...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. By her own admission, Dr. Catherine Raven is more comfortable in nature than among people. The biologist, university lecturer and former U.S. National Park Ranger lives off the grid in the wilderness of Montana. Her prizewinning memoir,...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. Sara Sheridan is a Scottish author who writes historical novels based on the real-life stories of late Georgian and early Victorian explorers. She has also penned a highly successful series of cozy crime noir mysteries set in 1950s...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this, the second of two special episodes focusing on the history of audiobooks, Red is joined by Professor Matthew Rubery. In his book, The Untold Story of The Talking Book, Prof. Rubery not only explores the origins of a form of...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this, the first of two special episodes focusing on the history of audiobooks, Red is joined by Professor Matthew Rubery. In his book, The Untold Story of The Talking Book, Prof. Rubery not only explores the origins of a form of...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. Caroline Graham has been dubbed, "Simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christie," and, like Poirot or Miss Marple, she has found a truly global audience through the TV adaptation of her novels. The first five episodes of Midsomer...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. Jonathan Whitelaw is an author, journalist and broadcaster with a darkly comic sense of humour and a love of detective fiction. Having worked on the frontline of Scottish politics, he has now turned his skills to writing cozy crime. His...

Ellen Jovin is a self-confessed grammar nerd. So passionate is she that, in 2018, she decided to set up a table outside her New York home to answer questions about the correct use of grammar and other knotty linguistic problems that passers-by might have. It proved an instant success and soon she and her husband took the table, and a selection of reference books, on tour around the United States. In Rebel With A Clause, Ellen documents the most common grammar questions and complaints she...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Val Wood, an award-winning author of romantic historical fiction, whose work is often compared to that of Catherine Cookson. In Val’s case, she has chosen her seaboard locale of Hull and the East Riding of...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Szell for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by writer and journalist Ed Caesar. In his first book, "Two Hours," Ed explored the quest to run a sub-two-hour marathon, and the men determined to break that seemingly impossible barrier. His follow-up, "The...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Champion of the Classics, Natalie Haynes. Through her best-selling novels, her sell-out stand-up comedy performances, and eight series of her hit radio show, Natalie has brought the myths of Ancient...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Szell for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Marilyn Davidson Elliott, author of The Blind Mechanic. The book chronicles the life of her father, Eric Davidson, one of the most extraordinary survivors of the Halifax Explosion of 1917, which remains...

For this episode, Red is joined by John Keay, a British historian with an international reputation for writing accessible biographies of India, The Far East and China. In his new book, Himalaya: Exploring the Roof of the World, he presents us with a meticulously researched and characterful history of one of the world’s last great wildernesses and, in particular, of the bizarre discoveries and improbable achievements of its pioneers. It has mesmerized scholars and mystics, sportsmen and...

This time, Red is joined by Josie Lloyd who, since her debut in 1997, has written a string of best-selling novels, including the international smash hit Come Together, which she co-wrote with her husband Emlyn Rees. Although her books are a celebration of life, love, and friendship, Josie has never shied away from difficult subjects, but she invariably does so with a sense of hope and humour. This was particularly true of her 2021 novel, The Cancer Ladies Running Club, which she wrote in...

Red is joined by Kate Summerscale, an award-winning author and journalist who achieved international recognition with the publication of "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher." The book was a ground-breaking re-examination of the infamous Road Hill House case, a grisly Victorian murder that became the blueprint for the classic English country house murder story. Since writing "Mr. Whicher," Kate has turned her forensic light onto several other seemingly inexplicable cases, including those of "Mrs....

In this episode, Red is joined by Graeme Macrae Burnet who, in his four novels to date, has created a cryptic and compelling sub-genre: false true crime. His second book, His Bloody Project, was a runaway hit, shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize and translated into more than 20 languages. Now, his fourth, Case Study, which has recently been published in Canada, seems destined to equal, if not outperform, it. In its pages, he entwines the fictional biography of Collins Braithwaite, a...

For this episode, Red is joined by Kevin J Anderson, the internationally best-selling author of over 170 novels, including the Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., series and the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns. He has also written spin-off novels for Star Wars, The X-Files, and co-authored the prequels to Frank Herbert’s Dune series. But perhaps his proudest achievement comes from his collaboration with legendary Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. Their 2012 novel, Clockwork Angels,...

For this episode, Red is joined by Ben Macintyre, the award-winning author of over a dozen historical biographies that reveal some of the most fascinating and entertaining true spy stories of 20th-century history. From double agents operating during World War II to legendary Cold War spies such as Kim Philby and Oleg Gordievsky, Ben’s research has given him access to some of the most closely guarded secrets in the history of espionage. His outstanding biography of Operation Mincemeat, a...

For this episode, Red is joined by Premee Mohamed. The Alberta-based author is one of the most original and engaging voices in speculative fiction today. And with dual scientific degrees in molecular genetics and land reclamation, she is well-qualified. Premee’s writing, like her academic studies, is not constrained by genre boundaries. Her latest novella, "The Annual Migration of Clouds," combines elements of sci-fi, cosmic horror and dystopian fiction to explore the possible consequences of...