In this episode Martin Nathan and Tabitha Potts interview Lead Curator Dr Eleanor Jackson and Julian Harrison, about the British Library's latest blockbuster exhibition, Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, where visitors will discover how the voices of medieval women still resonate across the centuries and speak powerfully to our world today.

We discuss famous historical figures such as Joan of Arc and Julian of Norwich as well as discovering forgotten women such as the the rebel Margaret Starr who joined in the Peasant's Revolt, Maria Moriana, a woman who argued that slavery was illegal in order to prevent herself being sold, and the mediaeval Welsh poet Gwerful Mechain who wrote a poem praising the vagina.

Medieval Women: In Their Own Words runs at the British Library from 25 October 2024 – 2 March 2025. The exhibition is supported by Joanna and Graham Barker and Unwin Charitable Trust.

Reading: Hafsa bint al-Hajj, translated by Yasmine Seale.

Music: Early Music New York, Frederick Renz, Director, which comes from "Music for Medieval Love; Early Music New York, Frederick Renz, Director; exCathedra Records, USA."

This episode was produced by Tabitha Potts

Tabitha Potts is a short story writer and novelist, recognised with an Honourable Mention in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. Her debut novel will be published by Rowan Prose Publishing in 2026.

Our second live recording of six writers reading their work in the intimate surroundings of the Colony Room Green bar. There will be occasional drink mixing and pouring, laughter and doors opening!

Listen to Lana Citron talk about food as an aphrodisiac, Sue Hubbard read her novel Three about food as a source of emotional renewal, Lindsay Gillespie read her story about ravenous mermaids enjoying a night out at a seaside resort, Dr Stuart Gillespie talking about the way capitalism and agribusiness has corrupted our global food supplies, Martin Nathan reading a short story about how food evokes memories and Tabitha Potts reading a speculative short story about alien sin eaters.

Content warning: Lana Citron's reading at the beginning of the podcast includes a description of animal abuse/cruelty from the writings of the Marquis de Sade which some listeners may find disturbing.

Lana Citron is a prize-winning author and scriptwriter with twenty years' professional writing experience. She has published five novels, two non-fiction books and numerous short stories, plays, poems, film scripts, articles and book. Extracts read today are from her book Edible Pleasures, a Textbook of Aphrodisiacs.

Sue Hubbard is an award-winning poet, novelist and art critic who is new to Story Radio. She has published five collections of poetry, Everything Begins with the Skin (Enitharmon), Ghost Station and The Forgetting and Remembering of Air (Salt), Swimming to Albania (Salmon Poetry) and Radium Dreams (Women's Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge) in collaboration with the artist Eileen Cooper RA, and a series of poems, God's Little Artist (Seren).

Her novels include: Depth of Field, (Dewi Lewis), Girl in White (Cinnamon and Pushkin Press), Rainsongs, (Duckworth, Overlook Press US, Mercure de France and Yilin Press, China) and Flatlands (Pushkin Press and Mercure de France). Rothko's Red, her collection of short stories, was published by Salt. She is currently working on a fifth novel, provisionally titled Three, which she reads in this podcast.

Lindsay Gillespie was born in South Wales, and lives in the South Downs. In between she has been a graphic designer and illustrator, lived in New Delhi, Washington DC, France and taught English in Tokyo. In 2018-2019, she was enrolled in the Creative Writing Programme of New Writing South. She writes short and not-so-short stories and was a Costa 2021 Short Story Award finalist. A year later, she was a finalist for the Bridport Short Story Prize. Other short stories have been shortlisted in nine competitions in recent years including Fiction Factory, Exeter, Oxford Flash Fiction, Fiction Factory Flash, Rhys Davies, Frome, ChipLit, Edinburgh and Fish.

Our next reader is Dr Stuart Gillespie, a non-fiction writer who’s also new to Story Radio. He has four decades of experience in nutrition and development since his first position as nutrition coordinator in a rural development project in southern India in the early 80s. His book Food Fight tells the tale of how the food system we once relied upon for global nutrition has warped into the very thing making us sick. It will be published by Canongate in 2025.

Martin Nathan's short fiction and poetry have appeared in various journals. His novel A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing. His dramatic writing has been shortlisted for the Nick Darke Award and the Woodward International...

In 19th-century Sweden, Caesaria is kept in a doctor's mansion as a trophy: she is the first baby to be born alive from one of his c-sections.

In a Gothic ambience, Caesaria narrates in first person her experiences in the mansion and her encounters with its mysterious inhabitants and visitors. Does she know where she comes from? Where is her mother? Is there a world beyond these walls?

We interview Hanna Nordenhök about her Gothic tale, published for the first time in English by Heloise Press on the 24th October 2024. Inspired by a real-life nineteenth-century medical miracle, it explores issues - women's bodies and women's rights - that are vitally contemporary.

Our wide-ranging discussion covers some international writers and film-makers whose work listeners might not be familiar with so we thought we would list them here.

Authors

Ágota Kristóf - 1935 – 2011: Hungarian author

The Notebook Trilogy and The Illiterate are available in translation

Birgitta Trotzig 1929 – 1935: Swedish author

Her work seems currently only available in Swedish or translated into French or Spanish.

Fernanda Melchor (b.1982) Mexican: Paradais and Hurricane Season published by Fitzcarraldo

Films

The Wild Child - Francois Truffaut 1970

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser Hans Werber Herzog 1974

The Knick - Steven Soderbergh (TV series) 2014-15

Hanna Nordenhök (Malmo, 1977) has been awarded several major literary honors for her work, both as novelist, poet and essayist. Her novel Caesaria (2020) scooped Swedish Radio’s Literary Prize and was shortlisted for Vi’s Literature Prize. Nordenhök also works as a translator from the Spanish and has been praised for her translations of Fernanda Melchor, Andrea Abreu and Alia Trabucco Zerán. Her last novel Wonderland (2023) was listed among the Best Books of the Year in Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen, Borås Tidning, Hufvudstadsbladet and Magasinet ETC, as well as shortlisted for Vi's Literature Prize.

Saskia Vogel is a writer and translator of over two-dozen Swedish-language books. Her novel Permission was published in five languages. She is a recipient the Berlin Senate grant for non- German literature, the Bernard Shaw Prize, two English PEN Translates Awards, and was a PEN America Translation Prize finalist. She was Princeton’s Fall 2022 Translator in Residence. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she lives in Berlin.

This episode was produced by Martin Nathan.

Martin Nathan’s short fiction and poetry has appeared in a range of journals and his novel – A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing. His dramatic writing has been shortlisted for the Nick Darke award and the Woodward International Prize.

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'At the Watts Memorial EC1' is a haunting recreation of some of the true stories told on the famous memorial in Postman's Park. The memorial commemorates brave people who lost their lives trying to save others in acts of heroic self-sacrifice in the last three centuries - most recently in 2007.

We hear the heart-breaking stories of William Donald of Bayswater, a railway clerk, Sarah Smith, a pantomime artiste, and Solomon Gamalan, an eleven-year-old boy, among others. One of these stories can also be heard in the September Writers Salon, where the author read it live in the Colony Room Green.

Written and read by Simon Roberts

Simon Roberts, based in West London, writes short stories and flash fiction. His story Dirty Chicken & Rice was a 2024 Plaza Prizes finalist, and his adaptation of The Slaves of Solitude was produced by Questors Theatre in 2024. He was longlisted for the 2022 Fish Short Story Prize.

Produced by Tabitha Potts

Tabitha Potts is a short story writer and novelist, recognised with an Honourable Mention in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. Her debut novel will be published by Rowan Prose Publishing in 2026.

Music credits Poignant Piano Melodies Creating a Melancholic Atmosphere by Nancy_Sinclair | License: Creative Commons 0

Donate

We are a volunteer-led organisation and appreciate any donations towards our running costs.

Buy us a coffee

Become a patreon

Contact us

Visit our our website Storyradio.org

Writers Salon: Bohemia Theme – Brought to You from the Colony Room Green, London

Welcome to the first-ever Writers Salon, hosted at the Colony Room Green, an artist-run bar in London. The theme was Bohemia, with tales of 1980s art models, 19th-century stage acts, clubbing in Tenerife, and a famous musician dying in hospital. Thanks to all the amazing writers who participated; our next event will be on November 11th.

Featured Writers:

Kristin Burniston

Kristin Burniston, an MA Screenwriting graduate from University of the Arts London, has had her short film scripts TREE and HAIRY MARY selected by festivals like City of Angels and Best-Script London. Kristin is working on a children’s animation, a crime fiction TV series, and a feature film based on her novel.

Lindsay Gillespie

Lindsay Gillespie, from South Wales, now resides in the South Downs. She has lived in New Delhi, Washington DC, France, and Tokyo, where she taught English. A Costa 2021 Short Story Award finalist, she was also a finalist for the 2022 Bridport Short Story Prize, with stories shortlisted in Fiction Factory, Exeter, and Oxford Flash Fiction. Find her on Twitter @LindsGillesp14.

Darren Coffield

Darren Coffield, an artist and author, studied at Goldsmiths, Camberwell School of Art, and Slade School of Art. His exhibitions have appeared at the Courtauld Institute and National Portrait Gallery. His books include Tales from the Colony Room and Queens of Bohemia, which celebrates the brilliant women of Soho. He shared readings from Queens of Bohemia.

Goran Baba Ali

Goran Baba Ali, a writer and journalist, has published in Kurdish, Dutch, and English. His debut English-language novel The Glass Wall draws from his experience as an ex-refugee from Iraqi Kurdistan. He is the founder of Afsana Press.

Miki Lentin

Miki Lentin completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck and was a finalist for the 2020 Irish Novel Fair with Winter Sun. His short stories have been published in Litro and Story Radio. He released his short story collection Inner Core in 2022, and his debut novel Winter Sun was published by Afsana Press.

Martin Nathan

Martin Nathan’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in various journals. His novel A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing. His dramatic writing has been shortlisted for the Nick Darke Award and the Woodward International Prize.

Tabitha Potts

Tabitha Potts is a short story writer and novelist, recognised with an Honourable Mention in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. Her debut novel will be published by Rowan Prose Publishing in 2026.

Simon Roberts

Simon Roberts, based in West London, writes short stories and flash fiction. His story Dirty Chicken & Rice was a 2024 Plaza Prizes finalist, and his adaptation of The Slaves of Solitude was produced by Questors Theatre in 2024. He was longlisted for the 2022 Fish Short Story Prize.

Photos courtesy of Miki Lentin. Some sexual swearwords are used in these readings so the episode has been marked as Explicit.

A young girl goes for a walk in the country with life-changing consequences. This short story by Lana Citron was originally published in US magazine Thin Air, 2022 under the title "The Understanding".

Trigger warning: The following short story contains content and or references of a violent and sexual nature. These may be distressing or triggering to some sensitive listeners. Please proceed with caution. If you find these topics difficult to engage with, you may choose to skip this story.

Lana Citron is a prize-winning author and scriptwriter with twenty years’ professional writing experience. She has published five novels, two non-fiction books and numerous short stories, plays, poems, film scripts, articles and book reviews. You can read more about her at www.lanacitron.com.

The sound engineer was Gabriel Hansen and the producer was Tabitha Potts.

Music from freesound.org P: Sad Music by Nancy_Sinclair

Photographer credit: ©Valentina Lari

We interview Daisy Goodwin, novelist and screenwriter, about her latest novel, Diva (Head of Zeus March 2024), inspired by the life of the brilliant soprano Maria Callas.

The novel opens at a time when Callas is at the height of her extraordinary career but in a stultifying marriage and haunted both by her unhappy childhood and the ever-present fear of losing her voice.

When she meets Aristotle Onassis, she believes she has finally met her soulmate. But as the novel makes clear, just like the tragic heroines she embodies on stage, even her fame and brilliance cannot save Callas from heartbreak.

We talk to Daisy about the nature of the word 'diva', musical genius and the fragile nature of the human voice.

Daisy Goodwin is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter. She is the screenwriter of the PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria and lives in London.

She is also Tabitha Potts' sister and they have worked together in the past.

This month we have two auto-fiction stories about parents and children.

Our first auto-fiction piece, "Close to Revelation" written by Janet Lawrence, is set during the pandemic and tells the story of a woman trying to get pregnant using IVF while chaos erupts all around her.

Janet Lawrence is a writer, journalist, and video producer based in New York City. In her writing, she often examines life's "small" moments to try and find truths that unite us. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and her two children.

Narrator/Voice Over actor: Alexandra Echavarri

Music Composer: Olga Gonithellis

Our second auto-fiction piece, "Check Your Tire Pressure" by Corinne Noufi, tells the story of a father and daughter and how their love for each other is expressed in seemingly mundane, but very important, rituals that bring them closer together.

This episode contains a swear word.

Corinne Noufi is a marine scientist dedicated to promoting sustainable ocean practices and preserving our waters for future generations. With 17 years spent in Colorado and another decade in Washington State, Corinne now calls Brunswick, Maine, home. She brings her passion and expertise to her role at the Aquaculture Research Institute at the University of Maine, where she runs her own podcast, "Salty Talks." In her free time, Corinne enjoys biking, hiking, cooking, and, of course, podcasting! Join her on "Salty Talks" as she dives into fascinating conversations about aquaculture, marine conservation, and the future of our oceans

The readers are Corinne Noufi and her father Rommel Noufi.

Music used in "Check Your Tire Pressure" is courtesy of Podcastle/Salty Talks.