The Waterstones Podcast

Artist Jackie Morris and writer Robert Macfarlane have already blessed us with The Lost Words and The Lost Spells and their third project together is a field guide like no other. The Book of Birds asks us to really look and listen to a selection of birds whose future is under threat. We sat down with them both to discover more about the importance of drawing and painting from life rather than death, how to find the voice of each bird and what any one of us can do to engage more with the wonder of these incredible animals.

The investigative reporting of Patrick Radden Keefe has already given us non-fiction classics like Say Nothing and Empire of Pain. In London Falling, he turns his eye to the story of Zac Brettler, who plunged to his death from a luxury London apartment at the age of just 19. What his parents then discovered was an alternative life that had led their son through the capital’s dangerous underworld to that Thames-side balcony. We spoke with him about what makes a story compelling, his conversations with Zac’s parents, and what ultimately led to that fatal fall.

For the first time ever, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize assembles our shortlisted authors and illustrators for a special interview in which we discover more about the joy of picture books, the nature of world building, and how they incorporate important and mature themes as readers get older. Ahead of our winners announcement on 26 March, sit back and enjoy the brilliant creativity of them all.

The legends surrounding the figure of Rasputin are so well-trodden we may think we know the story, but how did a man born as a peasant come to find himself within the Tsar’s inner circle and how instrumental was he in the downfall of the Romanov dynasty. Luckily, we have historian Antony Beevor to answer every one of these questions and more.

Booker Prize-winner George Saunders takes us back to that space between life and death in his new novel, Vigil, leading to a fruitful conversation about providing comfort at the end of life, why repentance at the end might not make the difference and why he’s always happiest raising questions and providing no answers.