Yesterday’s radio all went very smoothly, thanks in no small part to Seth, my engineer, being available again. It is so much easier presenting the show if you don’t have to be constantly thinking about running the desk as well.

We began with an interview with Becca Lloyd, a local writer of strange and macabre tales. Becca and I talked about obsessive people with odd ways of seeing the world, and a penchant for killing people. We also discussed how the peculiar reticence of the English might contribute to such behaviors. Becca’s latest books: Mercy (from my good friends at Tartarus Press) and The View from Endless Street are newly available and are having a little party at Foyles tomorrow night.

Next up was the interview with Mark Wright about Heartman, which I have been trailing for the past few days. It is well worth a listen. Mark talks intelligently and respectfully about the difficulties of a white Englishman writing a book featuring mainly black characters. It would be great if someone like Tobias Buckell could get the same sort of deal that Mark did, but the world doesn’t (yet) work that way. Indeed, as Mark noted, the publishing industry wasn’t that keen on him to begin with (which is why his book is being published by a small press from Edinburgh). It wasn’t until the TV people started sniffing around the rights that the book started getting noticed. Right now, of course, all Mark has is payment for an option. But if that does turn into a J.T. Ellington TV show I see no way it can be whitewashed, given that almost all of the major characters in the book are black. I’m less sanguine about it getting filmed in Bristol, but we can hope.

One thing I forgot to mention on the show is that the book does include quite a few murders of women. That generally requires a content warning. However, I was discussing this with another woman who has read the book at the launch party, and we agreed that this isn’t a misogynist book. Guys, we can tell when you are salivating over the deaths of pretty women.

You can listen to the first hour of the show here.

The third half hour was given over to Outset, a Bristol organization that helps people from disadvantaged groups set up their own businesses. This is a fine thing to be doing, and I note that it is jointly financed by Bristol City Council (George, unsurprisingly, is a fan) and the EU. Yes folks, the European Union is subsidizing business creation in Bristol. Take that, UKIP.

Finally Jayne Graham-Cummings from Bristol Pride came in to preview next week’s events. On air we mainly talked about what people could go and see, because that’s what most people would be interested in. Off air Jayne and I were chatting about how we could keep Bristol Pride fully trans-inclusive and methods of keeping a political edge to the event.

You can listen to the second half of the show here.