Maggie Gee's 17th novel, The Red Children, is out this week and Curtis and Hajar will be chatting about it when we kick off our review episodes again! In this guest special, Maggie speaks to Hajar all about the craft of writing, fitting in at Oxford, and why it's so important to have the freedom to figure out what you actually think. The Orange Prize shortlisted author also treats us to readings from The Red Children, a fable about migration and global warming that will restore your belief in...

Losing motivation to get that first novel done? This is the episode for you. Hajar talks to the brilliant Lorraine Brown, debut author of The Paris Connection, all about her journey to authordom! We talked about her previous jobs, the struggle artists with day jobs have to call themselves professionals, and why cities are so great to write about. We also can't help but bring up Emily in Paris and the disappointing Sex and the City reboot! Support this show...

We're back!! Hajar finally read a book! We chat about Women's Prize-winning Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and enjoy ourselves as we read the countless 'Emperor's New Clothes!!!' one-star reviews. Read the novel? Tweet us what you think... @dabblersbooks Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-dabblers-book-club.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hajar's still not in the reading swing of things and only managed half of Crome Yellow, so she and Curtis decided to get on with an episode for the hell of it, and talk a bit about the last few months - what they've read, what they haven't read, and why Crome Yellow was a no-go for both of them! This is an apology episode for being SO behind, but we promise we'll be back reading and chatting again!! Date for the diary: On Sunday 12th September at 2pm in King's Place, London, Hajar will be...

Colin Lancaster is a Wall Street professional who's run two of the highest profile global macro businesses for the top-performing hedge funds in the world.... it's an alien world to Haj but Colin's managed to make it that bit more accessible by turning his experiences into a novel. Fed Up! is a fictional take on Colin's life as a macro trader and offers an inside view of the 2020 market crash. He joined Haj to talk about writing the book, wealth inequality and moral dilemmas in a...

Hajar met AJ Pearce in 2015 on a writing retreat in North Wales, where they were both tutored by the brilliant Rowan Coleman and Julie Cohen.  In the six years since, AJ didn't just pick up agent, get published, and find herself shortlisted for a British Book Award, she's also about to release her second novel, Yours Cheerfully. Picking up where her debut Dear Mrs Bird left off, Yours Cheerfully follows Emmeline Lake as she manages career, family and friendship in wartime London. Hajar loved...

Hajar had a whale of a time talking with the brilliant poet Joelle Taylor. Joelle's latest collection C+nto is an exploration of gender and sexuality through the private lives of women from the butch counterculture, telling the inside story of the protests they led in the '90s to reclaim their bodies as their own - their difficult balance between survival and self-expression. We didn't intend this interview to coincide with Pride Month but it's as good a time as any to celebrate Joelle and...

Haj dislocated her knee and Curtis has been reading all sorts of horrifying things. This episode is just a quick hello to say sorry for the delay and that we haven't forgotten about books altogether! Curtis talks a bit about Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom and we look at a couple of 1-star reviews. REMINDER: please leave your book reviews on the website - head to dabblersbookclub.com/submit-a-guest-post to submit your quick book review or guest post! 

Describing himself as 'working-class by Radio 4 standards', comedian and BBC Sounds podcaster Jacob Hawley shares some fascinating and funny insights into class, culture and life as a comedian and new father in a pandemic.  Bucking the 'books that changed my life' trend, Jacob opts to talk about one of the trashiest novels he's ever read, The Trench (part of The Meg series), as well as giving a nod to a more traditional choice in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Listen to the podcast, then check...

We were joined by the brilliant Vicki Kellaway to talk about this 2021 Women's Prize shortlisted novel. Vicki is a writer, editor, translator and university teacher amongst many, many things! She lives in Bogota, Colombia and you can find her brilliant books on Amazon. She makes a very strong case for this rather divisive novel that touches on online culture, Twitter conversations and grief. Enjoy!

Join us for our overdue fourth episode where we talk about the utterly charming Japanese bestseller, 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold'. This is a short and sweet time-travel novel set in a Tokyo cafe, and while it didn't leave us with a huge amount to delve into, it did spark conversation about who we'd travel back in time for, and our position on spoilers. Haj describes this novel as an 'ice cream sundae' of books, so if you want a little light relief, it'll take you two hours to get through...

The wonderful, warm and wise Douglas Stuart joined Hajar for a very special guest episode and she's still buzzing from the chat! You don't have to have read the Booker Prize winner Shuggie Bain to soak up Douglas's fascinating insights into class,...

The Dabblers discuss Kafka's The Trial

Hajar and Curtis are joined by Hajar's mother Trudi Miles to talk about Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

We're really racking up the guest specials now and our fifth one is with Tawseef Khan. He's an immigration lawyer and human rights activist and has just released his book “The Muslim Problem: Why we’re wrong about Islam and why it matters”.We talk about...

Well this book really affected us! Douglas Stuart's Booker-winning debut about a young Shuggie Bain growing up in working-class Glasgow with an alcoholic mother is not the most uplifting of reads but it had a huge impact on us. We talk parents, council...

If you only listen to one DBC episode, make it this one! You'll get serious wisdom and insight into life, society and thoughts on writing. Hashi Mohamed came to the UK age 9 as a Kenyan-born Somali refugee. He grappled with poor housing, schooling and...

We caught up with founder and editor of Strong Words magazine, Ed Needham, to find out all about his literary loves and why, in a digital age, he started a paper magazine all about books. Strong Words "takes the guesswork out of your next purchase,...

Before we kick off Series 3, we're treating you to another super special guest episode! We spoke to Jess Impiazzi about the books that changed her life and how writing her memoir Silver Linings helped her to heal after trauma. From dropping out of stage...

We're saying goodbye to a miserable year and welcoming in what will probably be an even s*****r one, but who cares? At least we still have books! At the end of our second series, we have a little chat about our reading highlights both on and off our...

If you haven't watched the Netflix series yet, READ THE BOOK FIRST! Our final episode of the series, and the year, marks a whole year of The Dabblers' Book Club... and Haj is letting her stress show in this episode. She's triggered by a trigger warning....

Booker shortlisted Burnt Sugar is Avni Doshi's searing debut about living with the demons of parental cruelty as roles reverse. In our penultimate episode of the series, we end up giving the book the same score, despite very different overriding...

Ever wondered what life would've been like if one ancestor had made a slightly different decision? Well, BBC World journalist and TV producer Nadia Ragozhina saw all the possibilities in her research for her family memoir, Worlds Apart. She discovered ...

We sooooo wanted to like this book. Loved the concept, loved the writing but it all just fell a bit flat. Have a listen for our ranty takes on what didn't quite work for us about Ishiguro's 2005 Booker shortlisted dystopian sci-fi about human clones...