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PODCAST

Lit with Charles

Welcome to Lit With Charles, a podcast on all things literary! I"m Charles Pignal, and every fortnight I’m asking guests about the four books which have made the biggest impact on their lives and work. If you"re like me, you love literature – but maybe aren"t always sure what you should be reading. The aim of this podcast is to make literature exciting and accessible; in each episode writers, artists, and other interesting people are giving real recommendations, to help you discover new books

arts books

All Episodes

00:37:16

Gethan Dick, author of "Water in the Desert Fire in...

Lit with Charles ·

2025/08/04

My guest today is artist and writer Gethan Dick, an Irish-born author, living in Marseille, who has written a very interesting book about survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Specifically, how pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing interface with a desperate quest for humanity’s continuation. In the episode, we talk about the emotional and philosophical questions that arise when survival becomes the only goal, and Gethan shares her inspirations, her writing process, and how her journey through

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01:00:05

Damon Galgut, author of "In A Strange Room"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/07/28

In this episode, I sit down with celebrated South African novelist and playwright Damon Galgut, a literary voice I’ve admired for years. Damon Galgut is the acclaimed author of The Promise, winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, and has been shortlisted for the prestigious literary award three times over the course of his writing career.We discuss his lifelong relationship with literature, his unique approach to fiction writing, and how his novels grapple with themes of identity, morality, and the

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00:40:43

Ed Park, author of "An Oral History of Atlantis"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/07/21

Sometimes you meet a person who seems to have done it all – and today’s guest is definitely one of those guys. Ed Park is an American writer, journalist and general man of letters, born in New York, of Korean extraction. And, along with writing truly remarkable fiction, over the last few decades, he’s been involved with all sides of the literary sphere. We met on a rainy morning in New York City where we recorded this interview to discuss his latest book An Oral History of Atlantis, which is coming

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00:45:19

Sue Prideaux, author of "Wild Thing"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/07/14

It was an incredible honour to interview an author I have been following for a long time, and itching to get on the show. Sue Prideaux is an acclaimed Anglo‑Norwegian biographer and novelist. Her works include I Am Dynamite!, a biography of Friedrich Nietzsche I read and reviewed last year, and more recently Wild Thing, a biography of French artist Paul Gauguin. I Am Dynamite! was named The Times Biography of the Year for 2018, and won the Hawthornden Prize for ‘imaginative literature’, and Wild

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00:42:53

Aatish Taseer, author of "A Return to Self"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/07/07

My guest today is someone I’m lucky enough to have known personally for many years, so getting the chance to interview him today was a real treat. Aastish Taseer is a writer and thinker who straddles many cultures – Indian, American, British – and this cultural journey infuses his writing with refined and penetrative insights. I first met him in India, when I was living in Delhi and he took me under his wing and introduced me around & gave me some great tips on how to navigate this massive city

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00:46:57

Lee Cole, author of "Fulfillment"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/06/30

To kick off the new season, I’m joined by the brilliant Lee Cole, whose writing captures the heart, complexity, and contradictions of contemporary America. Raised in rural western Kentucky, Lee’s fiction explores themes of identity, class, and belonging with a rare mix of tenderness and clarity. In this episode, we talk about the power of literature to reveal lives and landscapes we might never otherwise encounter, and why writing about home can be both fraught and freeing.If you love stories that

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00:38:22

Best of Season 2

Lit with Charles ·

2025/05/19

Time to close another season of the Lit with Charles podcast! During this second season, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to some truly amazing authors about the books that have influenced them, the books they’ve written, and how they approach their work. For this episode, I've gone through the archive of interviews to shine a spotlight on a few of my favourite moments. It's an eclectic mix of authors sharing their thoughts on a varied list of subjects and books, and I hope you enjoy it!Lit

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00:40:06

Francesca Wade, author of "Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/05/06

Gertrude Stein is a name that inspires equal amounts of both awe and fear in prospective readers. An absolute icon in her time, she was an unparalleled tastemaker: collecting work from Picasso and Matisse when they were unknown local painters; mentoring Hemingway and Fitzgerald as bright-eyed, unpublished hopefuls; and hosting ‘talk of the town’ salons at her Parisian abode. However, when it comes to her writing, things have always been a bit more complicated.To help me unpack the life, legacy, and

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00:46:28

Sarah Maria Griffin, author of “Eat the Ones You Love”

Lit with Charles ·

2025/04/21

In this episode, I’m joined by Irish writer Sarah Maria Griffin to talk about the four books that have most shaped her creative journey – from early influences to enduring literary obsessions. It’s a fantastic conversation, ending with her newest work, Eat The Ones You Love, a bold and visceral work of feminist horror. In the episode we talk about writing as transformation, the power and joy of horror, and what it means to create with teeth.Sarah Maria Griffin’s four books were:Howl’s Moving Castle

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00:26:02

Book Club Bites: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her...

Lit with Charles ·

2025/04/07

Today’s episode looks a lot like the last one. Again, I wanted to dive deeper into one of our Book Club selections and in March, we read “Dream Count” by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In this episode, we look at her biography, at this specific novel, and how it fits into her wider work. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and follow me on Instagram (@litwithcharles) to keep the literary conversations going. Let’s get more people listening - and reading!

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00:13:25

Book Club Bites: James Baldwin, author of "Giovanni's...

Lit with Charles ·

2025/03/24

Today’s episode looks a little different – rather than interviewing a guest about their work, I’m getting to grips with our last Lit With Charles book club pick. We read James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room last month as a community, and I, along with many of you, absolutely loved it. So, I’m using this space to reflect on that experience, share my thoughts and feelings about the book, and take a moment to dive deep into Baldwin’s life and bibliography. I’d love to hear from you what you think about this

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00:41:56

Oluwaseun Olayiwola, author of "Strange Beach"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/03/10

Today, I’ve got an absolute treat for you: I sat down with Oluwaseun Olayiwola—poet, choreographer, and all-around creative powerhouse—to talk about his latest collection of poems, Strange Beach.Oluwaseun is one of those rare artists who moves seamlessly between the page and the stage. As a choreographer, his work has graced performance spaces from London to Paris, and as a poet, he’s got a voice that feels like it’s bending language in real time. His collection Strange Beach grapples with

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00:43:46

Ben Markovits, author of "The Rest of Our Lives"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/02/24

In this episode of Lit with Charles, I sit down with Benjamin Markovits to discuss his latest novel, The Rest of Our Lives. This beautifully reflective book follows Tom, a middle-aged father who, after dropping his youngest daughter at college, keeps driving, embarking on an unplanned journey that forces him to confront the unresolved trauma of an affair, a failing marriage, and a mysterious health condition. Blending the themes of a road trip novel, midlife crisis, and personal reckoning, Markovits

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00:47:09

Maryam Diener, author of "Parallel Lives"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/02/10

The improbable destinies of two Soviet female spies, connected by a modernist building in North London, is an intriguing premise for any spy novel, let alone one that introduces elements of architectural design in its story. But when those destinies reflect a larger literary opus and sources of inspiration, as they do for today’s guest, then the conversation expands significantly. My guest today is Maryam Diener, an Iranian-born author, publisher and poet, whose work has been translated into French,

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00:38:23

Michael Amherst, author of the "The Boyhood of Cain"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/01/27

Childhood, and specifically adolescence, is a period of life that can be pretty tough and at times traumatic. It’s very fertile ground for literature but it’s not easy to get right. In this episode, I'm joined by Michael Amherst, the author of the upcoming novel The Boyhood of Cain which deals with the period of adolescence, and themes of moral & sexual turmoil. The book feels timeless, with an eeriness that mirrors the protagonist’s growing confusion about himself and the world around

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00:50:32

Rachel Cockerell, author of "Melting Point"

Lit with Charles ·

2025/01/13

In today’s episode I have the pleasure of speaking with Rachel Cockerell, a London-based author, whose first foray into writing began as a family memoir, and evolved into a remarkable and innovative work of historical non-fiction called Melting Point.Melting Point is a great 2024 release from Headline, and will be coming out in Spring of 2025 in the States. The book was longlisted for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize, and explores the origins of the Zionist movement, and one of its particular,

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00:35:55

The Best Books I've Read This Year

Lit with Charles ·

2024/12/16

Well, we’ve made it to the end of 2024. I love putting together this list each December because it forces me to look back on a year of reading, try to create some order out of the chaos, and figure out what it is about the stories that I came across that I did and didn’t appreciate.Some books were clear losers. But some took me on crazy journeys, which I knew from the first few pages would stay with me long after the story was finished. I don’t want to spoil my picks here, so I’m not going to say

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00:42:12

Lionel Barber, author of "The Gambling Man"

Lit with Charles ·

2024/12/02

There’s something about the idea of a ‘genius’ that has always captivated us. Whether it’s the artist painting their masterpiece or the entrepreneur betting on the future, we’re captivated by people who seem to see the world differently – and stake everything on that vision. While Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos might be household names, there’s one figure who I’d argue is even more fascinating: the maverick billionaire investor and founder of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son. Equal parts visionary and gambler,

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00:45:21

Susanna Crossman, author of "Home is Where We Start"

Lit with Charles ·

2024/11/18

The memoir is a fascinating form to explore. I’m always intrigued as to how an author can adapt their life and fit it into the confines of a page. How does one capture all its complexities, contradictions, and fleeting moments, in a narrative that feels both honest and coherent? My guest today is Susanna Crossman, a British-French writer, essayist, and clinical arts therapist, who has just published Home is Where We Start with Penguin Random House. The book is her own account of growing up in ‘the

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00:46:30

Arthur Larrue, author of "La Diagonale Alekhine"

Lit with Charles ·

2024/11/04

So this episode is a bit unusual for a variety of reasons. First of all, it’s with a good friend of mine – novelist Arthur Larrue. As you might have guessed from his name, though, Arthur Larrue is French and this entire interview is conducted in French. So unless you speak French, or are trying to test your linguistic abilities, this episode might not be the one for you. However, if you are a fellow Francophone, join me for a lively and insightful chat with an author who has navigated both the

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