Author's Afterword
Charlie Place
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Top 10 Author's Afterword Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Author's Afterword episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Author's Afterword for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Author's Afterword episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
100: Liz Fenwick (The Secret Shore)
Author's Afterword
06/24/24 • 47 min
Charlie and Liz Fenwick (The Secret Shore) discuss the women cartographers who were fundamental in the Allies winning the Second World War and the way women at university at the time had to choose between their career and having a family. We also discuss Liz's love of Cornwall, her use of Dorothy Sayer's Gaudy Night, and we go back a few times to the people who were involved in the secret flotillas that preceded the Normandy landings.
A transcript is available on my site
General references: My previous interview with Liz is episode 35 Liz's TikTok plot walk on Frenchman's Creek The Woman's Hour episode including women's intuition
Books mentioned by name or extensively: Daphne Du Maurier: Frenchman's Creek Dorothy Sayers: Gaudy Night Ernie Pyle: The Best Of Ernie Pyle's World War II Dispatches Liz Fenwick: A Cornish Stranger Liz Fenwick: The Returning Tide Liz Fenwick: The Path To The Sea Liz Fenwick: The River Between Us Liz Fenwick: The Secret Shore Liz Fenwick: A Portrait Of You
Release details: recorded 25th March 2024; published 24th June 2024
Where to find Liz online: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram || TikTok
Where to find Charlie online: Website || Twitter || Instagram || TikTok
Discussions
01:45 You'd wanted to write about the secret flotillas for a long time? 02:58 Women's work in cartography in the Second World War 05:48 Furthering this discussion we go to Liz's character, Merry, or Dr Tremayne, and begin a discussion on what Liz left out of this book 09:42 More about Merry's work in the context of how a woman had to choose between a career and having a family, particularly in the context of Oxford University 16:06 Merry's mother, Elise, including her story in The Secret Shore 19:46 The romance in the book, including the love story 23:00 Liz's love and use in her novels of Frenchman's Creek, Cornwall 25:06 Ridifarne! 27:01 Is heart or head more important? 28:16 Liz's use of Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night and the character of Peter Wimsey 31:19 The real people in the book and how Liz made it all happen 33:38 All about Maurice Cohen and the mouse 35:22 The sacred wells in Cornwall 38:14 All about Liz's plot walks, which she releases to TikTok 41:03 Does it feel strange when you're not writing about Cornwall? 44:10 Liz's next book, A Portrait Of You
Disclosure: If you buy books linked to my site, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops
96: Lucy Barker (The Other Side Of Mrs Wood)
Author's Afterword
04/22/24 • 43 min
Charlie and Lucy Barker (The Other Side Of Mrs Wood) discuss Victorian mediums both factual and fictionalised - their work, the spiritualism that led to their popularity, the social circles, the rivalry, the rumours of fraud, and the women's roles as early grief counsellors. We also talk about the early days of the Suffrage movement and various aspects of the book's ending.
Please note there is a very mild swear word in this episode.
A transcript is available on my site
General references: The Courtauld's exhibition of Georgiana Houghton's spirit paintings A preview of Tracy Ann Oberman's audio version of The Other Side Of Mrs Wood Lucy's blog post on the postal service in Victorian times One Night At McCool's Lucy's blog post on using Notting Hill
Books mentioned by name or extensively: Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford George Gissings: The Odd Women Lucy Barker: The Other Side Of Mrs Wood
Release details: recorded 27th November 2023; published 22nd April 2024
Where to find Lucy online: Blog || Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online: Website || Twitter || Instagram || TikTok
Discussions
01:50 The real mediums who inspired the book: Agnes Guppy and Florence Cook 05:17 Lucy talks about how mediums in general were able to escape accusations of falsehood despite many being outed as frauds 08:53 The fickleness and loyalty of medium patrons 10:35 Why the Victorians were in to Spiritualism 14:00 The importance of the references to America throughout the book - America's own spiritualism 15:27 Mrs Wood, Miss Newman, and Miss Finch 19:07 The very early days of the women's suffrage movement 22:30 About Mrs Wood's circle of people 26:35 How Mrs Wood seeing herself as providing a service for grieving people, and the role of mediums in early grief counselling 29:34 The comedy in the book, and Lucy speaks briefly about her next book in the context of humour 30:58 Lucy's use of letters in the book, and Mr Clore's columns 33:23 The ending: why Lucy chose the ending she did for Mrs Wood and Mr Larson 35:32 Charlie thought it was going to be revealed that Miss Finch could really talk to spirits - Lucy discusses this point. Listen in! 37:24 The ending: Mrs Wood and Miss Finch and their terms 39:20 Lucy tells us about the locations in the book: Victorian-era Notting Hill, Portobello Road, Ladbroke Grove 42:32 Lucy gives us more information about her next book
Disclosure: If you buy books linked to my site, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops
101: Jacquie Bloese (The Golden Hour/The Secret Photographs)
Author's Afterword
07/08/24 • 46 min
Charlie and Jacquie Bloese (The Golden Hour/The Secret Photographs) discuss early erotic photography, Victorian erotic stage performances, and the beginnings of bicycle use for women which had a huge impact on female agency.
Please note there are mentions of suicide and abuse in this episode
A transcript is available on my site
General references: The photograph of Marie Berin Marion Sambourne's diary I can recommend the keyword phrase 'early bicycle wear women' for lots of pictures of the outfits Jacquie describes Wikipedia's article on the history of women cycling (bicycling and feminism)
Books mentioned by name or extensively: Jacquie Bloese: The Golden Hour
Release details: recorded 3rd April 2024; published 8th July 2024
Where to find Jacquie online: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online: Website || Twitter || Instagram || TikTok
Discussions
01:26 The whys of this book and the inspiration, particularly in the context of the photography 03:56 More about the model written about by Linley Sambourne, who committed suicide, and how Jacquie was influenced by it 05:47 Why Jacquie chose Brighton, and why she chose the Victorian period in that context also 09:00 About the female photographer, Marie Bertin, that Jacquie mentioned 09:58 About Holywell Street in London 11:30 The women points of view of The Golden Hour - Ellen, Clem, and Lily 16:23 Harriet (Harry) Smart and the music halls/theatres 20:28 More about The Vigilant Association 24:08 How Jacquie plotted her book and kept all the secrets straight in her mind 28:34 How Ottile had a bigger role in previous drafts 31:46 The importance of the questions of sexuality 34:53 Ellen and Reynold's mother, her story and the significance of her story 38:05 Women! Cycling! And the importance of cycling for women at the time 42:09 About Jacquie's inclusion of cats and the way they influenced the book 44:35 What Jacquie's writing now, her book that includes silent films
Disclosure: If you buy books linked to my site, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops
89: Rachel Abbott (Don't Look Away)
Author's Afterword
01/08/24 • 46 min
Charlie and Rachel Abbott (Don't Look Away) discuss young carers and the guilt they can feel, trafficking in Cornwall - both fact and fiction - and having her series' policewoman staying in the background of the story rather than take the spotlight. (We talk about that a couple of times, I loved it!)
Please note that there are mentions of suicide in this episode.
And So It Begins Stranger Child Come A Little Closer Sleep Tight About the trafficking at Newlyn Harbour in late 2019
Where to find Rachel online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:40 The inspiration for Nancy and Lola's story 03:15 Nancy's feeling of guilt as a young carer who failed to save her mother 06:23 The way Rachel really fleshes out the non-police characters in her thriller 11:05 How long Lola will be in prison 13:48 Research Rachel does in terms of the police 16:55 How important is policewomen Stephanie (the linking factor of the books) compared to Nancy (one of this book's victims)? 20:18 Stephanie is written in the third person and Nancy is in the first person... 22:20 Why set the book in Cornwall, and why create a fictional village in Cornwall 25:36 The trafficking in the book and real situations 29:34 How Rachel goes from one plot to many - the expansion 33:15 How Rachel uses technology in her books as opposed to finding tech makes things too easy 35:03 What's next for Stephanie King, book 4 in the series? 41:26 Was there anyone that Rachel's editing agent didn't like, or did really like? 43:26 Rachel's current work on her next Tom Douglas book
Photo credit: Andrew Crowley.
84: Amanda Geard (The Moon Gate)
Author's Afterword
10/09/23 • 58 min
Charlie Place and Amanda Geard (The Moon Gate) discuss Tasmania in WW2 and in general, Australia's famed poet Banjo Paterson and his fellow Bush Ballad writers, British Blackshirts and the Mitfords, and the Moorgate Tube Crash in London. On a lighter note, Amanda also tells us much about the writing of her book, including a lot of what she left out in order to reduce her book from the lengthy draft it was to the mere 500 hardback pages it is.
Amanda was the guest in episode 63 in which we spoke about The Midnight House Waltzing Matilda The Man From Snowy River The Mitfords - Letters Between Six Sisters The Moorgate Tube Crash I spoke to Kate Thompson about the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster in episode 76 Penghana
Where to find Amanda online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:50 The inspiration - Banjo Paterson's Bush ballads and mining in Tasmania 03:17 Keeping up with all the characters and planning the timelines 08:43 How there is so much of Amanda in this book 10:51 Mining on the West Coast of Tasmania, and Amanda's dad 13:41 Banjo Paterson and Australian poetry 17:49 Tasmania in WW2, including Prime Minister Robert Menzies 26:01 Women Blackshirts in Britain (including Diana Mitford) and the awfulness of Edeline 30:47 The Moon Gate's lengthy first draft 33:12 Moon Gates and rebirth 35:45 The focus on grief 37:23 Including the Moorgate Tube Crash 40:44 Amanda's Balinn returns! 42:45 The epilogue and what was left out 44:45 Rose and what might have been 47:20 The House of the book, Towerhurst and Australia's Federation houses, and huon pine trees 52:46 What Amanda found when renovating an old Irish house 55:07 More on Amanda's current manuscript, a story looking at occupied Norway
78: Eleanor Shearer (River Sing Me Home)
Author's Afterword
07/10/23 • 50 min
Charlie and Eleanor Shearer (River Sing Me Home) discuss how slavery didn't really end when it was abolished, and Eleanor's experiences studying the Caribbean during this time and the knowledge she gained. We also explore different versions of freedom, and the way Eleanor's family influenced her writing.
The Windrush Foundation Samuel Smith's To Shoot Hard Labour Toni Morrison's Beloved Marianne Hirsch V S Naipaul's The Loss Of El Dorado Wikipedia's extensive article on Black Nova Scotians Andrea Levy's Small Island
Where to find Eleanor online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
00:47 The 'apprenticeships' that happened after slavery had 'ended' 02:47 About Eleanor's two 'main' inspirations 06:23 On reparations 10:23 Rachel, and Eleanor's family 15:41 The order in which Rachel finds her children 17:53 Nobody 21:21 The children's fathers 23:42 The theme of motherhood 26:36 Eleanor's wanting to use Creole languages but wanting to keep it accessible to non-Creole speakers 28:28 Mary Grace's muteness 31:59 The oral storytelling 34:34 The different versions of freedom 37:30 The theme of water 40:24 The Maroon communities and their movements 42:27 The Rising of Demerara 45:57 Eleanor's use of the search for El Dorado 47:34 What's next?
Photo credit: Lucinda Douglas-Menzies.
74: Kristina McMorris (Sold On A Monday; The Ways We Hide)
Author's Afterword
05/08/23 • 33 min
Charlie and Kristina McMorris (Sold On A Monday; The Ways We Hide) discuss the harrowing photographs of children that inspired her last two novels, why she chose to focus - in the first book - on the news reporters rather than the children, and changing the fictional outcome of the stories.
The photograph of the children for sale and an article with the basics Kristina's Facebook post about her and RaeAnn's appearance on NPR Interview with RaeAnn for North West Indiana Times Interview with David McDaniel Christina Baker Kline's Orphan Train The first sentence on Sold On A Monday ended up being: 'Outside the guarded entrance, reporters circled like a pack of wolves.' (The photograph that inspired The Ways We Hide is a photograph of some of the children who died in the Italian Hall Disaster and shows them laid out after death.) "How Monopoly Helped The Allies Win WW2" article The videos of the various MI9 tools are listed on Kristina's website
Where to find Kristina online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:21 Tell us about the photograph Sold On A Monday was inspired by 06:09 Changing the outcome for the fictional children 07:40 The book's focus on the reporters rather than the children 11:11 How Kristina's experience in media informed her writing 13:41 About the original title 17:55 The reliability of the characters 19:10 Ellis and Lily 22:33 Theme of family and motherhood 23:45 The photograph that inspired The Ways We Hide 27:17Fenna! 28:25 The four books Kristina is currently working on 32:29 Kristina introduces the extra content on her website
06/17/24 • 48 min
Celebrating 100 episodes of this podcast, Charlie is joined by Gill Paul, Elizabeth Fremantle, Amanda Geard, and Maggie Brookes for a general bookish chat. We get all philosophical about genre, discuss film adaptations (Elizabeth’s Firebrand is out), whose books we wish we could have written, and best fan encounters.
A transcript is available on my site
General references: Firebrand - the UK release date it 14th June A Royal Affair House Of The Dragon Netflix's The Queen's Gambit Amanda's interview with me on The Moon Gate is episode 84 Elizabeth's appearance on BBC Front Row The Irish Times' article on Amanda's house (includes a photo of the room we discuss) Father Ted The Historical Novel Society 2024 Conference
Books mentioned by name or extensively: Amanda Geard: The Midnight House Amanda Geard: The Moon Gate Diana Gabaldon: Voyager Dodie Smith: I Capture The Castle Elizabeth Fremantle: Queen's Gambit Elizabeth Fremantle: Disobedient Elizabeth Fremantle: The Sinners (working title) Gill Paul: The Secret Wife Gill Paul: Another Woman's Husband Gill Paul: The Manhattan Girls Gill Paul: A Beautiful Rival Gill Paul: Scandalous Women Jenny Ashcroft: Echoes Of Love Kerry Fisher: The Secret Child Maggie Brookes: The Prisoner's Wife Maggie Brookes: Acts Of Love And War Maggie O'Farrell: I Am, I Am, I Am Paula McLain: The Paris Wife Walter Tevis: The Queen's Gambit
Release details: Recorded 26th September 2023; published 26th February 2024
Where to find Elizabeth online: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Amanda online: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Gill online: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram || TikTok
Where to find Maggie online: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online: Website || Twitter || Instagram || TikTok
Discussions
02:36 What is historical fiction - what does it do, what it is for? 06:09 If you wrote in another genre, what...
93: Kristy Woodson Harvey (The Summer Of Songbirds)
Author's Afterword
03/11/24 • 59 min
Charlie and Kristy Woodson Harvey (The Summer Of Songbirds) discuss whether we should like her character, Lanier (who stops her best friend and brother being together); the various plot threads she left out of the book (including alternative endings); and US summer camps (both Kristy's experiences, and the effect of the pandemic lockdowns). We also spend a good amount of time discussing the pre-actor's-strike announcement of an adaptation of Kristy's Peachtree Bluff series and her next two books.
Kristy's The Wedding Veil Kristy's Christmas In Peachtree Bluff Friends & Fiction Kristy's interview with Susan M Boyer The announcement about the Peachtree Bluff adaptation on Kristy's website
Where to find Kristy online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
02:14 The inspiration: a sailing trip at a summer camp Kristy went to with her family during the pandemic 06:49 So Lanier and Rich came first?... 08:02 How Kristy doesn't write in chronological order and how it ends up working well 12:01 How Kristy feels about Lanier 15:35 Why was important to write about Daphne's family and the problems there are there? 19:21 Why no narrator for Mary Stuart? 25:39 This book was originally longer (what got cut) 29:24 Kristy's childhood experiences of US summer camps 33:52 Why Kristy ends her book with a scene about Daphne, Lanier, and Mary Stuart's children going to camp 34:51 Real camps that had to close due to the lockdowns 36:24 The concept of 'hard things' 40:27 Other endings Kristy had in mind for The Summer Of Songbirds 44:43 A sequel? 48:18 The on-hold Peachtree Bluff adaptation 52:16 What's next (A Happier Life, and and very, very brief peak at Kristy's 2025 book)
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FAQ
How many episodes does Author's Afterword have?
Author's Afterword currently has 121 episodes available.
What topics does Author's Afterword cover?
The podcast is about Literature, Fiction, Society & Culture, Interview, Author, Podcasts, Books, Nonfiction and Arts.
What is the most popular episode on Author's Afterword?
The episode title '89: Rachel Abbott (Don't Look Away)' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Author's Afterword?
The average episode length on Author's Afterword is 43 minutes.
How often are episodes of Author's Afterword released?
Episodes of Author's Afterword are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of Author's Afterword?
The first episode of Author's Afterword was released on Oct 18, 2019.
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