Not Too Busy To Write
Episodes
Ilona Bannister on the humanity and pleasure of thrillers
29 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Ilona Bannister, long time friend of Not Too Busy To Write is on the podcast talking about her new novel and her move from literary fiction to thrille...
Jane Harper on beginning at the end
22 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Harper is the Gold Dagger award winning, bestselling author who defined a new sub genre - Australian Noir - with her breakout debut The Dry in 20...
Catherine Newman on the tragicomedy of midlife
15 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
New York Times bestselling author Catherine Newman is back on the podcast talking about her hilarious new novel about midlife anxiety Wreck. Catherine...
Helen Thorn on total honesty on the page
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
6 years ago comedian Helen Thorn's life was turned upside down when she discovered her then husband was having a years long affair. Within two years s...
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett on writing how women are seen
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is an author and journalist, and today we talking about her new novel Female, Nude, a sexy sultry book about seeing and being s...
James Hunt on writing what can't be said out loud
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
James Hunt's debut memoir Love Needs No Words is the story of a unique fatherhood, caring for his two sons, both of whom are non-speaking and autistic...
Lauren Currie on the new rules of confidence
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Lauren Currie OBE is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker and founder of Upfront, an organisation on a mission to change the confidence of 1 million women...
Jodi Wilson on breathing space for creativity
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jodi Wilson is a health journalist and author of A Brain That Breathes: Essential habits for an overwhelming world. Jodi talks with me today about ho...
Francesca Segal on creating hope in fictional worlds
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Francesca Segal is the author of Welcome to Glorious Tuga and Island Calling, the first two novels in a trilogy about the delightful fictional island ...
Literary agent Ciara Finan, Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin and Alice Trew on the Women's Prize Discoveries
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today I am in conversation with not one but three guests! We're talking about the incredible impact of the Women's Prize Discoveries from three perspe...
Suzy Reading on the art of being selfish
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chartered psychologist, coach and author Suzy Reading believes women need to learn to be a bit selfish. After many books on the subject of self care a...
Lily Dunn on the transformative craft of memoir
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lily Dunn is the author of the acclaimed Sins of My Father and her latest book Into Being brings together her experience as a writer and teacher of li...
Claire Lynch on hidden histories
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Claire Lynch is on the podcast this week talking about her incredible debut novel A Family Matter, the story of a family torn apart and the decades of...
Alice Slater on writing dark and immoral characters
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sunday Times best selling author Alice Slater is with me today talking about her second novel Let The Bad Times Roll, a dark and delicious follow up t...
Caro Giles on radical memoir
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Caro Giles is an award winning writer and author of two memoirs. Unschooled is about Caro's experience raising children who don't fit in to the school...
Lily King on writing about love in challenging times
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lily King is an award winning and best selling author of 6 novels and a short story collection. Her latest novel Heart The Lover is an exquisite and p...
Series 11 Trailer
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Not Too Busy To Write is back from series 11 from October 15th with some incredible authors. Here's a little preview of what's to come.Linkspennywince...
Bonus Episode - Finding Motivation
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A bonus episode today! It's peak inside the writing coaching audio sessions of my new writers membership The Fold. This audio session is all about fi...
Alice Kinsella on blending genre
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alice Kinsella is a poet based in the west of Ireland. She's the author of the poetry pamphlet Sexy Fruit, the prose poem memoir Milk: On motherhood a...
Sarra Manning on writing romantic fiction
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarra Manning is the author of 8 adult novels, over 15 YA novels. She began her career on teen magazines and has been writing about love and sex ever ...
Grants for Writers with The Society of Authors
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Want to know how to get funding to write?Today I'm speaking to Robyn Law, head of Fundraising, Grants and Prizes at The Society of Authors, a UK trade...
Aime McNee on why we need your art
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Aime McNee is a writer and creativity coach and author of We Need Your Art - a look at the power and essential nature of creativity and how to kick st...
Alice Wilkinson on writing personal non-fiction
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alice Wilkinson is an award winning journalist and the author of How To Stay Sane in A House Share, her debut book about the joys and challenges of co...
Grace Timothy on writing and ADHD
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Grace Timothy is a journalist and author of Is It My ADHD? On the podcast today Grace talks about getting a late diagnosis of ADHD and how wading thro...
Tessa Hadley on the pleasures of fiction
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tessa Hadley is an award winning author of eight novels, many short story collections and one of my personal favourite writers. In this conversation T...
Daisy Buchanan on reading yourself happy
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Daisy Buchanan is a bestselling author, journalist and broadcaster. Today we're talking about her latest book Read Yourself Happy and the unique power...
What's to come in series 10
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A little taster of what's to come in series 10 featuring Tessa Hadley, Daisy Buchanan and Grace Timothy.The new series begins 5th FebruaryYou can subs...
Women's Prize Discoveries 2025 with Dreda Say Michell, Chloe Timms and Emma Van Straaten
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join me for a special episode digging deep into the Women's Prize Discoveries 2025, a prize and program for unpublished women fiction writers in the U...
S9 Ep5. Lucy Gough - from interior stylist to author
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lucy Gough has come to writing via her career as a stylist and art director. From working in house at magazines, to freelance art direction with John ...
S9 Ep4. Alice Vincent on finding home in the garden
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alice Vincent is a writer and broadcaster, and the author of Rootbound: Rewilding a life and Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival,...
S9. E3. Clover Stroud on home and belonging
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sunday Times bestselling author Clover Stroud's latest book The Giant in the Skyline begins with a difficult decision about whether to uproot her fami...
S9 E2. Kerri ni Dochartaigh on finding home in the Irish landscape
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kerri ni Dochartaigh is the award winning author of Thin Places and Cacophany of Bone. Kerri's work delves deep into home and belonging, from her chil...
S9. E1. Penny Wincer on why Home Matters
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The tables are turned for the first episode of series 9 - host Penny Wincer is being interviewed by author Caro Giles about her new book Home Matters....
Stacey Heale on writing about death and life
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Stacey Heale is a fashion academic and writer whose husband Greg was diagnosed with terminal cancer when their youngest daughter was just a baby. Greg...
Jesse Sutanto on writing a best selling series
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jesse Sutanto is the best selling author of Dial A for Aunties and Vera Wang's Unsolicited Advise for Murders and the winner of the Comic Writer in Pr...
Charlotte Wood on writing craft and Australian fiction
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte Wood is an award winning Australian author of 10 books including the 2016 Stella Prize winner The Natural Way of Things and the 2020 interna...
Tamu Thomas on women who work too much
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tamu Thomas is a transformational coach whose debut book Women Who Work Too Much helps over-achieving, over-functioning women set boundaries, find joy...
Bijal Shah on the power of bibliotherapy
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Author Bijal Shah is a trained Bibliotherapist who brings the power of reading into the therapy room. It's a technique that dates back to Ancient Gree...
Amy Arthur on pacing yourself as a writer
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Amy Arthur is an award winning writer and science journalist whose new book Pace Yourself is a practical guide to pacing - a tool developed to the man...
Jessica Bull on blending fact and fiction
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jessica Bull's debut novel Miss Austen Investigates sets Jane Austen up as an amateur sleuth, when a dead woman is discovered at a ball and her belove...
Katherine May on writer boundaries
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Katherine May is the Sunday Times and New York Times best selling author of Enchantment. Today we talk about the challenges of writing a follow up to ...
Marisa Bate on writing the political and personal
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Marisa Bate is a freelance journalist, women's rights advocate and author of Wild Hope. Part memoir, part reportage and part social history, Wild Hope...
Laura Bates on the power of storytelling in activism
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Bates is a Sunday Times Bestselling author, an activist and speaker. Laura founded the Everyday Sexism Project in 2012 and has gone on to w...
Huma Qureshi on fiction and borrowing from life
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Award winning writer Huma Qureshi returns to the podcast to discuss her debut novel Playing Games, a story about two sisters, their very different way...
Karen Haller on publishing non-fiction as an expert
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What's it like to publish a book as an expert in your field? Karen Haller is a behavioural colour and design psychology expert and is the author of Th...
Kate Sawyer on second novels and career changes
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Sawyer is novelist and podcaster with a background in theatre producing and acting. Her first novel The Stranding was shortlisted for the Costa f...
Marchelle Farrell on memoir and belonging
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Marchelle Farrell's debut memoir Uprooting is about a year of tremendous upheaval and Marchelle's attempt to find home in a garden. In this conversati...
REPLAY: Beth Kempton on being a fearless writer
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Summer REPLAY seriesBeth Kempton is a Japanologist, a best selling author and a writing mentor whose books have been translated into 24 languages. Her...
REPLAY: Evie Wyld on writing about male violence
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You can sign up to the waitlist for Penny's next Non-Fiction Book Proposal Group at pennywincerwrites.comSummer REPLAY seriesEvie Wyld is an award win...
REPLAY: Abigail Bergstrom - literary agent and novelist
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
To sign up to the waitlist for Penny's next Non-Fiction Book Proposal Group Program visit pennywincerwrites.comSummer REPLAY seriesAbigail Bergstrom i...
REPLAY: Chloe Ashby on writing art in fiction
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Summer Replay SeriesChloe Ashby is an arts journalist and author based in London. Her debut novel Wet Paint is about a young woman struggling to move ...
Marina Benjamin and Caro Giles on writing and caring
09 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's Carers Week in the UK so I have recorded a bonus episode of teh podcast with two fellow writer carers. Marina Benjamin is the author of many book...
Daisy Buchanan: from journalist to novelist
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Daisy Buchanan is an award winning journalist, author and broadcaster who has had a varied writing career beginning in teen magazines, and now as a no...
Nicola Washington on social media for writers
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Are you tearing your hair out about social media? Do you want to use it to grow your profile as a writer or shout about your book but it makes you unc...
Suzy Reading on rest
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Suzy Reading is a chartered psychologist, yoga teacher and coach whose work all centres around giving people the skills to nourish themselves. Her lat...
Joanna Wolfarth on non-fiction and writing intimate cultural history
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Joanna Wolfarth is a cultural historian with a PhD in Southeast Asian art history. Her first book Milk: An intimate history of breastfeeding is a fasc...
Lucy Werner on how to promote your book
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lucy Werner is a PR expert and founder of The Wern, an agency specialising in PR and branding for creative small businesses. Lucy is not only an exper...
Catherine Newman on laughter, death and embracing your voice
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Catherine Newman is a writer with a varied career including two parenting memoirs and a middle grade novel. She had written for the New York Times, O ...
Caro Giles on memoir, nature and putting yourself in the foreground
25 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Caro Giles is a writer based in the north east of England, whose first book Twelve Moons tells the story, across a year, of raising her 4 daughters al...
Janice Hallett on turning crime fiction on it's head
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After a varied writing career including speech writing, journalism and screen writing, Janice Hallett turned to crime fiction and became a best-sellin...
Not Too Busy To Write - Series 6 coming soon
04 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Not Too Busy To Write will be back for a new series on January 18th. Guests for series 6 include memoirists, debut novelists, non-fiction authors...
Lindsey Kelk on writing Romantic Comedies
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lindsey Kelk is a Sunday Times bestselling author of over 20 novels. Her latest The Christmas Wish is a hilarious and delightful time loop story set d...
Novelist and Discoveries Prize Judge Chibundu Onuzo
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chibundu Onuzo is a novelist whose first book was published when she was just 21 years old. Her third and latest novel Sankofa was short listed for th...
Writing an illustrated interiors book with Emily Henson
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Emily Henson is an art director and stylist and the author of five books. Her latest is Create: Inspiring homes that value creativity over consumption...
What is publishing a book really like?
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ali and Penny are back together talking about the experience of publication. It has been three months since Ali's book The Last Days came out and it s...
Winnie M Li on complicity and power in fiction
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Winnie M Li is a Taiwanese-American author and activist originally from New Jersey. Her second novel Complicit is about a film lecturer in an obscure ...
Shakaila Forbes-Bell on Big Dress Energy
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Shakaila Forbes-Bell is a fashion psychologist and the author of Big Dress Energy: How fashion psychology can transform your wardrobe and your confide...
Margaux Vialleron on writing about friendship and food
26 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Margaux Vialleron is a French born, London based writer. Her debut novel The Yellow Kitchen centres around the friendship of three very different wome...
Beth Kempton on how to write fearlessly
19 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Beth Kempton is a Japanologist, a best selling author and a writing mentor whose books have been translated into 24 languages. Her Latest book The Way...
REPLAY: Huma Qureshi on short stories and taking fiction seriously
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Huma Qureshi is a former Guardian and Observer journalist and is the author of the memoir How We Met and her latest book Things We Do Not Tell The Peo...
REPLAY: Cathy Rentzenbrink on life writing
28 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cathy Rentzenbrink is a Sunday Times best selling author of The Last Act of Love, A Manual for Heartache, Dear Reader and Everyone is Still Alive. Her...
REPLAY: Julia Silk - Literary Agent
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Julia Silk is a an agent with Greyhound Literary. Julia spent many years as an editor before becoming an agent who represents a wide range of fiction ...
REPLAY: Sophie Howarth on the joy of being an amateur
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
REPLAY: This episode was originally released in April 2022Sophie Howarth has a varied and unique career spanning art, entrepreneurship, teaching, acti...
Lulah Ellender on the personal and the universal in life writing
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lulah Ellender is an author, creative non-fiction writing teacher and writing coach based in Sussex. Her latest book Grounding: Finding home in a gard...
Angela Hui on food and belonging
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Angela Hui is an award winning food and lifestyle journalist whose first book Takeway: Stories from a childhood behind the counter is about growing up...
Michelle Gallen on writing about community trauma with dark humour
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michelle Gallen is an Irish author raised in a border town in the north and now based in Dublin. Her first novel Big Girl, Small Town was short listed...
Ali Millar on The Last Days and writing the truth
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our very own Ali Millar is on the podcast today talking about her debut book The Last Days. We talk about how writing this memoir was a necessity in t...
Chloe Timms on dystopian fiction and writing about outsiders
06 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chloe Times is an author, podcaster and former teacher based in Kent. Her debut novel The Seawomen, a dystopian tale about a closed community and one ...
Chloe Ashby on writing about art, grief and being seen
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chloe Ashby is an arts journalist and author based in London. Her debut novel Wet Paint is about a young woman struggling to move forward after the tr...
Ilona Bannister on writing challenging women
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ilona Bannister's second novel Little Prisons, is set in one building, from four perspectives, each one a woman experiencing a kind of imprisonment. E...
Sophie Howarth - on writing about art and the joy being an amateur
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sophie Howarth has a varied and unique career spanning art, entrepreneurship, teaching, activism and writing. She has been Curator of Public Programs ...
Sian Meades-Williams on freelancing writing, making money and newsletter love
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sian Meades-Williams is the brains (and muscle) behind the hugely popular Freelance Writing Jobs newsletter and co-founder of the award winning lifest...
Maggie Gee on Empathy, language, and the non-human in fiction.
06 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Maggie Gee reads extracts from her stunning new novel, The Red Children (Saqi Books). Set in the near future against a backdrop of inc...
Lizzie Damilola Blackburn on romantic comedies and writing the character you couldn't find
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lizzie Damilola Blackburn's debut novel Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? tells the story of 31 yr old British-Nigerian Yinka, who is feeling the pressure...
Clover Stroud - Death, life and writing memoir in real time
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Clover Stroud is a Sunday Times best selling author of a number of books including The Wild Other and My Wild and Sleepless Nights. Her latest book, T...
Doreen Cunningham on nature, climate change and motherhood
02 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Doreen Cunningham began her a career as a climate science researcher and has spent the last 20 years as a journalist. Her memoir, Soundings: Journeys ...
Writing the Literary Memoir with Lily Dunn
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's episode Ali talks to Lily Dunn, the author of Sins of my Father (W&N, 17th March) about the craft of memoir. Together they discuss ...
Abigail Bergstrom - debut novelist and literary agent
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Abigail Bergstrom is a literary agent and consultant, former editor, and now debut novelist. What A Shame is a darkly funny novel about grief, friends...
Different phases of writing and juggling multiple projects
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our writing lives don't always look the same. Depending on which phase you're in, drafting, editing, submitting, publishing or promoting - our rhythms...
Charmaine Wilkerson on her fiction debut Black Cake
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Caribbean-American writer Charmaine Wilkerson's incredible fiction debut, Black Cake is a sweeping family tale about inheritance, memories and secrets...
Write It All Down - life writing with Cathy Rentzenbrink
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cathy Rentzenbrink is a Sunday Times best selling author of The Last Act of Love, A Manual for Heartache, Dear Reader and Everyone is Still Alive. Her...
End of year writing round up
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's that time of the year and Ali and Penny have a chat about where they are at with their writing projects and if they are where they hoped they wou...
Where do you get your ideas?
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A bit of a tongue in cheek question this week... Where do ideas come from? Ali and Penny talk all about ideas, sniffing them out like a blood hound, s...
Different Approaches to Life Writing
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ali and Penny come together to discuss life writing this week. They have both used different approaches to life writing and they discuss why they made...
Julia Silk - Literary agent on finding and supporting authors
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Julia Silk is a an agent with Charlie Campbell Literary Agents. Julia spent many years as an editor before becoming an agent who represents a wide ran...
Huma Qureshi - on short stories and taking your fiction seriously
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Huma Qureshi is a former Guardian and Observer journalist and is the author of the memoir How We Met and her latest book Things We Do Not Tell The Peo...
Claire Lynch - experimental memoir, perspective shifts and motherhoods
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Claire Lynch is an author and academic whose first book Small: On Motherhoods is a memoir about her experience of becoming a parent and the tiny thing...
Evie Wyld - on awards, writing about male violence and how motherhood changes your writing
27 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Evie Wyld is an award winning author of three novels, the latest of which, The Bass Rock, won the Stella Prize 2021. We discuss writing a novel about ...
Writers Groups
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ali and Penny discuss the pros and cons (yes there are sometimes cons!) of being in a writers group. What are they best for? How do you find one? Or b...
Penny Batchelor - Domestic noir, disability in fiction and writing female friendships
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Penny Batchelor is a thriller writer whose first novel My Perfect Sister was nominated for the Guardian "Not The Booker Prize" 2020. We discuss her la...