The Midnight Train by Matt Haig with Matt Haig
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I'm Sarah Pascoe. And I'm Cariad Lloyd. And we're weird about books. We love to read. We read too much. We talk too much. About the too much that we've read. Which is why we created the Weirdos Book Club. A space for the lonely outsider to feel accepted and appreciated. Each week we're joined by amazing comedian guests and writer guests to discuss some wonderfully and crucially weird books, writing, reading and reading. just generally being a weirdo.
You don't even need to have read the books to join in. It will be a really interesting, wide-ranging conversation and maybe you'll want to read the book afterwards.
We will share all the upcoming books we're going to be discussing on our Instagram, Sarah and Cariad's Weirdos Book Club.
Thank you for reading with us. We like reading with you. This week's book guest is The Midnight Train by Matt Haig. What's it about? A man rides through the important moments of his life. What qualifies it for the Weirdos Book Club?
Well, the man is dead. In this episode, we discuss steam trains, Sheffield, Ulysses, modernism and Def Leppard. And joining us this week is Matt Haig himself. You know Matt Haig, he's a global international bestseller. He's written incredible novels like The Humans, How to Stop Time, The Midnight Library. He's also written children's books, A Boy Called Christmas, which became a major feature film. He's written non-fiction, Stay Alive, The Comfort Book. His most recent fiction, The Life Impossible, was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller. It's been published in 56 languages and he is an incredible human and he's going to be here with us talking about it. Trigger warning, in this episode, there are mentions of suicide.
Matt Haig, everybody. Welcome to the podcast.
We're so excited to have you. Thank you so much for joining us.
I'm honoured. This is my favourite book podcast.
No.
It genuinely is. It's always on my feed.
Stop it. Matt Haig, I'm a bit blushy by that. It's incredible.
What is the main theme of The Midnight Train by Matt Haig?
I think maybe Matt's a very charming fibber.
Yeah, if you watch the start of any podcast I'm on, I will say this is my absolute favourite podcast.
This is my absolute favourite podcast about cats.
Well, it's the one I see the most. That's good.
Take that. You don't listen to it, but you see it.
No, but that must mean I like it, doesn't it? Because it's the algorithm. The algorithm expects you to like it.
Yeah, that's true. Well, we do really like books, and you've written a book about the importance of reading books.
How does Matt Haig describe the significance of trains in his book?
Kind of. I think so, yes.
say about trains? I was like, and we do like books and you've written a book about trains. No, sorry, carry on, carry on.
You were so confident with it and I was like, Sarah, where are you going with that? I just thought you were going to say trains. I've noticed this because it happened with Stephen Mangan the other day. Whenever I start a sentence, Carrie Azawarish says a lot about our friendship.
No, it's like, it was the way you said it didn't sound like it was going to be books because I think I forgot that this book is also about the power of books. So I was like, she must be about to say trains. That's what happened. Okay, so this is interesting, Matt.
You've got two readers here. One of them thinks your book's about trains. One of them thinks it's about the importance of reading.
It's actually neither. What is your book about, please? I've no idea. It could have been called The Midnight Bookshop, I suppose.
Yeah. The book is called The Midnight Train, as to be clear. The Midnight Train.
The Midnight Train brackets to bookshops.
Okay. Yeah, and it is a sort of a sister book to The Midnight Library in the world of... Yeah, definitely.
It's kind of having an argument with it.
Okay, so tell us what The Midnight Train is about. Obviously, trains is the big selling point.
It's about a man who dies and he's at a train station and the train he gets on takes him back for his life and he sort of sees all his... childhood and his regrets and his successes and he's not allowed to get off the train and um he wants to because he especially to do with his relationship um to a woman called maggie which he sort of uh
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:04–1:48
2
What is the main theme of The Midnight Train by Matt Haig?
1:48–2:16
3
How does Matt Haig describe the significance of trains in his book?
2:16–9:22
4
What personal experiences influenced Matt Haig's writing process?
9:22–12:49
5
How does the concept of death play a role in the narrative?
12:49–15:59
6
What insights does Matt Haig offer on the importance of reading?
15:59–17:31
7
How does the internet impact our perception of literature?
17:31–20:51
8
What reflections does Matt Haig share about the writing process?
20:51–53:59
Speakers
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