Always Take Notes

Latest Episodes:

#157: Sally Hayden, journalist and author Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

Rachel and Simon speak to the journalist and author Sally Hayden, who won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2022 for her book "My Fourth Time, We Drowned". Currently the Africa correspondent for the Irish Times, she has also worked with the BBC, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, the Guardian, the New York Times and the Washington Post. In 2019 she was included on Forbes's "30 Under 30" list of young media stars in Europe. Sally's reporting focuses on migration and human rights; that led to "My Fourth Time, We Drowned", an investigation into the migrant crisis across North Africa. Alongside winning the Orwell Prize, the book was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing. We spoke to Sally about entering the world of journalism, reporting from countries across Africa and the Middle East, and the genesis of her book.

You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.

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#156: Fraser Nelson, editor, The Spectator Mar 21, 2023

Show notes

Simon and Rachel speak with Fraser Nelson, who has edited the Spectator magazine since 2009. Previously a financial journalist with the Times and political editor of the Scotsman, during his tenure at the Spectator Fraser has overseen a near doubling of the magazine’s sales. He is also a columnist with the Daily Telegraph, sits on the board of the Centre for Social Justice, a centre-right think tank, and has presented two Channel Four documentaries on the subject of inequality. We spoke to Fraser about the process of running a weekly magazine, his earlier career in newspapers, and adapting a print title to the digital age.

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#155: Karolina Sutton, literary agent, Creative Artists Agency Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

Rachel and Simon speak with the literary agent Karolina Sutton. After a brief stint in advertising, she got a job as an agents' assistant and quickly started putting together her own list. She has worked with authors including Margaret Atwood, Ed Caesar, Anthony Doerr, Haruki Murakami, Tara Westover and Malala Yousafzai. In 2020 she won Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards. Earlier this year she moved from Curtis Brown to CAA. We spoke to Karolina about moving from advertising to agenting, working with high-profile clients and what she looks for in a book proposal.
You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.

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#154: Ian McEwan, novelist Feb 21, 2023

Show notes

Simon and Rachel speak with the novelist Ian McEwan, the critically acclaimed author of 17 novels and two short-story collections. His first published work, a collection of short stories, "First Love, Last Rites", won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976. Ian's novels include "The Child in Time", which won the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award in 1987; "The Cement Garden"; "Enduring Love"; "Amsterdam", which won the Booker Prize in 1998; "Atonement"; "Saturday"; "On Chesil Beach"; "Solar"; "Sweet Tooth"; "The Children Act"; "Nutshell"; and "Machines Like Me", which was a number-one bestseller. "Atonement", "Enduring Love", "The Children Act" and "On Chesil Beach" have all been adapted into films. We spoke to Ian about his experience as the first-ever student on the University of East Anglia creative-writing course, his extraordinary run of success in the 1990s and early 2000s, and about his new novel, "Lessons."

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#153: Tessa Hadley, novelist and short-story writer Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist and short-story writer Tessa Hadley. She is the author of eight novels, including "Accidents in the Home" (2002), for which she was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and "The Past" (2015), which won a Windham-Campbell Literature Prize. Tessa regularly publishes stories in the New Yorker;a new collection of her short fiction, "After the Funeral", will be released in July. We spoke to Tessa about being published for the first time in her 40s, writing in different mediums, and her latest novel, "Free Love".

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#152: Orlando Figes, historian Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

Simon and Rachel speak to Orlando Figes, author of nine books on Russian and European history which have been translated into over 30 languages. Born in London, Figes studied history at Cambridge and, as a graduate student, completed archival research in the Soviet Union in the 1980s. He rose to prominence in 1996 with his second book, "A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924", which the Times Literary Supplement later named as one its "100 most influential books since the war". His subsequent works include "Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia", "Crimea: The Last Crusade" and "The Europeans", and until recently he was a professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London. We spoke to Orlando about reaching a popular audience with his history books, "The Whisperers" and "The Europeans", and his timely latest project, "The Story of Russia".

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#151: Moya Lothian-McLean, contributing editor, Novara Media Jan 10, 2023

Show notes

Rachel and Simon speak to Moya Lothian-McLean, contributing editor at Novara Media. She began writing articles about music for Vicein 2015 while studying at university; in 2016, after graduating, she joined Stylist as an editorial assistant and wrote features as well as articles for the website. In 2020 she joined gal-dem, an independent magazine, as politics editor. Now she is contributing editor at Novara Media and writes for the New York Times and the Guardian, among other publications. Alongside her editorial work, she presents "Human Resources", a podcast about Britain's involvement in slavery, and appears on broadcast media. We spoke to Moya about breaking into freelancing, her stint at gal-dem and her current role at Novara Media, and the differences between journalism and content creation.

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#150: Mohsin Hamid, novelist Dec 27, 2022

Show notes

Simon and Rachel speak to the novelist Mohsin Hamid. Born in Lahore, he grew up mostly in Pakistan but spent part of his childhood in California and returned to America to attend Princeton University. He worked in New York and London as a management consultant before returning to Lahore to pursue writing full-time. Mohsin's first novel, "Moth Smoke" (2000), was published in 14 languages and won a Betty Trask Award. His second novel, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" (2007), recounted a Pakistani man’s abandonment of his life in New York in the aftermath of 9/11. Published in over 30 languages, it became a million-copy international bestseller and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A film adaptation followed in 2013 starring Riz Ahmed and Kate Hudson. Mohsin's other novels include "How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia" in 2013, "Exit West" (2017) and most recently "The Last White Man." We spoke to Mohsin about the moving from Pakistan to America and from the corporate to the literary world, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" and the shadow of 9/11, and his new book "The Last White Man".

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#149: Merve Emre, author, academic and literary critic Dec 13, 2022

Show notes

Rachel and Simon speak to author, academic and literary critic Merve Emre. After a stint as a management consultant, she completed a PhD and taught English literature at McGill University in Canada, before taking up a role as an associate professor at Oxford. (This year she is a distinguished writer-in-residence at Wesleyan in the US.) Alongside her academic work, Merve has written books including "Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America", "The Ferrante Letters" and "The Personality Brokers" (published in Britain as "What's Your Type?"), about the Myers-Briggs personality test. She is also a contributing writer at the New Yorker and her essays have been published in the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic and the London Review of Books. We spoke to Merve about the differences between academia in America and Britain, her books and her criticism.

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#148: Oliver Bullough, journalist and author Nov 29, 2022

Show notes

Simon and Rachel speak to the journalist and author Oliver Bullough. After studying history at university Oliver moved to Russia, where he worked first for an English-language magazine in Saint Petersburg, then for The Times of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan, and subsequently for Reuters, where he covered the war in Chechnya. Oliver's early books - "Let Our Fame Be Great" in 2010 and "The Last Man in Russia" in 2013 - examined respectively the Caucasus and a dissident Orthodox priest. His more recent books have focused on financial crime, with "Moneyland" in 2018 and this year with "Butler to the World". Oliver's journalism also appears in the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the New York Times, and GQ. We spoke to Oliver about writing about oligarchs in the year that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, navigating the complexities of English libel law, and the response to "Butler to the World".

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