The Sunday Salon with Alice-Azania Jarvis

Christina Patterson is a journalist and author, whose new book Outside The Sky Is Blue, is an absolutely beautiful reflection on family, illness, grief and love. I worked with Christina many years ago. In fact, she sat next to me when I was a very green reporter working on the gossip column of the Independent newspaper. She, in contrast, was an extremely erudite and glamorous columnist, writing about big issues like politics and literature - and she was absolutely lovely to me. What I hadn’t realised was that she’d had to deal with an enormous amount of grief and hardship in her life. Outside The Sky Is Blue recounts the story of her family - whom she calls, at one point, “the mad, sad Pattersons”, including her sister’s schizophrenia, the premature deaths of her mother, father and brother, and her own struggles with lupus and cancer. This might sound depressing, but in fact Outside The Sky Is Blue is very far from a misery memoir. What Christina has done so well is inject humour, nostalgia, and even glamour into her story, whether that’s in recounting her strange time as a member of an evangelical youth group and her exciting, action-packed rise through the world of publishing and the arts and into journalism; or relaying anecdotes about her love life. I absolutely adored the book, and I loved speaking to Christina about it. What a special interview to end on. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 
Buy the book here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/outside-the-sky-is-blue/christina-patterson/9781472282620
Twitter: @aliceazania / @queenchristina_
Instagram: @aliceazania / @queenchristinawriter
Edited by Chelsey Moore

I adored this episode. Lily King is the author of five novels - including, most recently, the phenomenal best seller Writers and Lovers, which documents the creative and romantic travails of aspiring writer Casey Peabody. It's one of my favourite books of the year and so speaking to Lily felt like a fitting finale to this series. I loved hearing about everything from why she writes by hand to how she forces herself to work even when she's not feeling inspired and so much more. It was a gorgeous conversation and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/writers-and-lovers/lily-king/9781529033137
Edited by Chelsey Moore

If you're after an eerie thriller to curl up with over Christmas, the New York Times Bestseller The Sanatorium would be pretty perfect  - and I loved interviewing its author Sarah Pearse. She was full of practical advice for getting published, having started by writing short stories for magazines before attempting novels.  And I loved her down-to-earth attitude to writing. We also spoke about Reese Witherspoon, who included Sarah's book in her online book club -and with whom she had a pretty surreal Zoom call. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-sanatorium/sarah-pearse/2928377075873
 
Edited by Chelsey Moore

Arifa Akbar is the Guardian's Chief Theatre Critic and the author of the phenomenally powerful Consumed: A Sister's Story. It's an astonishing read, which tells the story of Arifa's sister's death from tuberculosis, which was somehow missed by medics at a top London hospital. It delves into the aftermath - Arifa’s search for answers to questions such as whether her sister’s history of poor mental health meant she was taken less seriously, and spools back to their childhood, growing up in poverty in North London having moved to the UK from Lahore. It examines the complexities of sibling relationships, the bonds, shared behaviours, and the arguments, and looks at Arifa and her sister's struggle with binge eating. It's a brilliant, multilayered book - and I found speaking to Arifa about how she wrote it absolutely fascinating.

Buy the book:https://www.waterstones.com/book/consumed/arifa-akbar/9781529347524

Edited by Chelsey Moore

Tahmima Anam has had a fascinating life. Born in Bangladesh, she has lived in Paris, New York and Bangkok - and is now based in the UK. Her first novel, A Golden Age (2007), won the Commonwealth Writers Prizes' Best First Book award and launched a highly acclaimed trilogy concerned with telling the history of Bangladesh as an independent nation. Her most recent book, The Start Up Wife, is extremely different - a sort of "romantic comedy" (to use her phrase) which satirises the start-up industry, tech bros, and Big Tech's messianic tenancies. It's hilariously funny and bitingly sharp - she draws on her own experience of working in the field. We talked about all of that and more - including the incredibly difficult experience she had when her son, as an infant, refused to eat for the first five years of his life. I hope you find her as fascinating as I did - and apologies for my naughty, noisy cats playing in the background! 
Buy the book: https://tinyurl.com/startupwife
Instagram / Twitter: @aliceazania
Edited by Chelsey Moore