Showing results by author "Holly Newson" in All Categories

Following the release of the fifth instalment in the Robert Langdon series, Dan Brown talks to Audible about his long-standing passion for music and modern art and how it contributed towards the creation of Origin. In Origin, listeners will be reunited with the amiable and courageous Robert Langdon as he travels around Spain in search of answers to the most important existential questions of our time.

In this World Mental Health Day Audible Sessions Special, producer and presenter Holly Newson meets 10 individuals who talk frankly about their mental health. In these conversations, guests share stories about their anxiety, depression, paranoid schizophrenia, eating disorders and other mental health problems. The theme for World Mental Health Day in 2019 is suicide prevention, and some of the contributors talk of their own experiences with suicidal thoughts.

Gyles Brandreth has had a wide, varied and illustrious career as a writer, broadcaster, actor, public speaker and minister of parliament. As the honorary president of The Oscar Wilde Society, the author of the Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries and owner of over 100 books on the eminent figure, it is fair to say that he is also a committed Oscar Wilde enthusiast.

Gray has written for many major publications, such as The Guardian, The Telegraph, Grazia, BBC Earth and Marie Claire. During her 20s, Gray worked for Glamour and Cosmopolitan. As you might have read in her debut book, The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, Gray battled addiction to alcohol during her 20s and early 30s but managed to keep holding down her job. We spoke to Catherine Gray about what counts as ‘fun gratitude’, what the significance is of the Hedonic Treadmill and why ordinary things are so great.

Growing up in Dublin, Biala focused on science, completing an undergraduate and master's degree in Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance and Regulation. However, in 2019, she left her job as a professional scientist to take part in reality television series Love Island. Following her departure from the show, Biala became a social media influencer and published articles discussing racial re-naming and the damage it causes. The huge interest in this article led her to write her first book, Reclaiming, which discusses everything from microaggressions, to career choices.

After working as a creator for the journal Nature for a decade, being a frequent contributor to The Guardian newspaper for years and a regular host on BBC Radio 4, Rutherford realised that at some point he had become a writer and broadcaster on science and genetics. A natural at making the deepest depths of science understandable, Rutherford has again taken up his pen (and microphone) and this time enlightened us on the story of eugenics and study of genetics.

The Patient Assassin covers the events of the Amritsar Massacre of 1919 in which hundreds of lives were lost when the army opened fire on a crowd with no warnings. An injured survivor, Udham Singh, vowed, wiping blood-soaked earth onto his forehead, that he would kill the men responsible. The Patient Assassin follows him through Africa and the US and across Europe to end up in front of Sir Michael O'Dwyer, who had sent the men to attack.

Award-winning mental health campaigner, film producer, public speaker, writer and vlogger Jonny Benjamin talks to us about the release of his debut audiobook, The Stranger on the Bridge. Jonny first emerged in the public eye in 2014 after launching the #FindMike campaign, and you might remember him as the real-life protagonist of It’s A Wonderful Life, saved from the grips of depression not by an angel but by a stranger on a bridge.

The writer and filmmaker Kevin Toolis joins Holly Newson in the Audible Studios to discuss his book, My Father's Wake: How the Irish Teach Us to Live, Love and Die. In this intimate and original memoir, Kevin gives us an insight into the history of the Irish wake amongst the backdrop of the death and wake of his father. Kevin tells Holly about the inspiration of the book as well as the process of researching the history of the Irish wake.

Stephen has been performing at the Edinburgh Festival for over 15 years on top of touring, appearing on multiple panel shows and presenting various documentaries. Not to mention performing at the Royal Variety in 2007. Having more than earnt his comedy stripes, his Talk Show features guests from all stages of their comedy careers, chatting about the industry, performing and many personal, funny anecdotes. When Stephen joined us in studio, he spoke about diversity in comedy, how he came to feel okay with things going wrong on stage and what keeps comedians returning to Edinburgh year after year.

We'll be asking Kate Muir about Everything You Need to Know About the Pill (But Were too Afraid to Ask), debunking myths, discovering why women are often given the wrong advice, and the prospects of a male pill. Muir worked for seven years as chief film critic for The Times before turning more towards investigative journalism. She has written three novels but her more recent works have looked at the hormonal issues that women face, often needlessly. She has produced documentaries on the menopause, as well as becoming an expert public speaker.

In this interview, geneticist Dr Giles Yeo discusses how genes influence our eating habits and tells us about his key areas of research. He visited Audible Studios to talk about his audiobook, Gene Eating: The Science of Obesity, and the truth about diets, and we talked about what role scientists should play in our ‘post-truth’ world, how much we know about the gut microbiome and why we should avoid extreme diets.

Joining us in the Audible Studios to talk about playing the role of Drumknott in Terry Pratchett’s Unseen Academicals is British writer, illustrator and dramatist Stephen Briggs. The writer and illustrator behind many of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld subsidiary works and merchandise, Stephen Briggs, who also classes himself as a ‘civil servant who dabbles in amateur dramatics’, has provided the voices and narration of Discworld and its characters in more than 20 audiobook recordings both in the UK and in the US.

Bob Roth, meditation teacher and CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, joins us to discuss his latest audiobook, Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation. Roth’s audiobook examines what we might do to combat the growing stress epidemic which has gripped the world and why he believes that transcendental meditation is a key tool. In this interview we discuss what transcendental meditation is, how he first came across the technique and how the view of meditation has changed over the years.

Joining us at Audible Studios is Christopher Paolini, author of the Inhertiance Cycle series and the youngest author of a best-selling series for The New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly. Paolini's newest book has been released: The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm, from Tales of Alagaësia. Eragon has departed the world of Alagaësia in order to create a new home to train the next generation of dragon riders, to construct a dragonhold and protect dragon eggs; through these three original stories, we also see more of Eragon's personal journey.

Rising to fame as a pop star as part of The Communards, Richard Coles has had a very varied career - he has worked as a vicar for several parishes after finding religion later in life, has appeared on many panel shows. He shared his life through his memoirs, including details of his civil partnership and grief following the death of his partner. Coles has begun writing fiction – the Canon Clement Mystery series – starting with Murder Before Evensong, and is with us to talk about the second in the series, A Death in the Parish.

Joining us at Audible Studios is British racing driver Jenson Button, who won the 2009 Formula 1 World Championship. Button began racing at the age of eight, when his dad bought him his first kart, and he entered Formula 1 in 2000. As with the career of any F1 driver, there are ups and downs due to car issues and failures, but Button was on his way up. In 2009, Button won the Formula 1 World Championship, and at every race along the way, his father was there cheering him on.

Rory Stewart has had a far-reaching career over a multitude of different countries and positions. Having been educated at Eton and then Oxford University, Stewart went on to join the Foreign Office where he worked primarily in military intervention and international development, serving in Jakarta and Southern Iraq. Following these postings, Stewart walked alone across Afghanistan, relying on its people to house him on his way. He consequently wrote a book about this journey, and has gone on to become a bestselling author.

Coming to prominence in the mid-'60s as the founder and lead singer of rock band The Who, Roger Daltrey has had an iconic career spanning more than 50 years. Famed for his stage presence and powerful voice, Roger has also carved a solo career as well as an acting one. His memoir, Roger Daltrey: Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite, was published in October 2018. Roger Daltrey talks to us about the time he was chucked out of The Who, making his own Fender guitar and discovering he had three more children after his 50th birthday.

Fearne Cotton discusses how we can all be less stressed and tells us what her new guilty pleasure is as she visits Audible Studios to talk about her new book, Calm: Letting Go of Stress and Searching for a Happy Centre. She discusses her own mental health, what calm really means and how we can find it, and how the advice of her dearest friends can help you too.