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A very special Inside Story brings together Goldster Conversations’ two founding hosts Lucinda and Humphrey Hawksley in both a Zoom and in-person audience event at Kingfisher Wharf, Riverstone, Fulham. Three years ago, at the height of the pandemic, with millions isolated and alone, Goldster founder Mike Reid had a vision: What if he could deliver activities, social interaction, community and stimulus straight into people’s homes. With his experience in health and well-being, Mike did exactly that to make Goldster the brilliant success story it is today. His plan included a Book Club to encourage discussion and reading. This became Goldster Conversations where Humphrey and Lucinda have hosted hundreds of fascinating guests.
Today, the tables will turn with Lucinda asking Humphrey about his books and work. Why did work is passage to Australia straight after leaving school? What drew him into journalism to become one of the BBC’s most respected foreign correspondents? Find about his long-running campaign against slavery and quiz Humphrey on world affairs? Are we heading for war? How can we secure peace? And where did he get the idea for his highly-acclaimed Rake Ozenna thriller series, based on a remote Alaskan island?
Being Goldster, of course, where anything goes, you might find Humphrey quizzing Lucinda, especially as she is the great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Dickens and, in her blood, carries his campaigning literary talent with an array of books on history, travel and, yes, beards. -
High-stakes casinos, black market gambling, Formula One racing, drug trade espionage, shipping piracy, sports fixing and a cast of intriguing characters created by Doug Stewart . One of the most compelling is Insp. Todd “Ratso” Holtom, whose latest adventure Deadly Hush is published at the end of February; a serial killer on the loose leaving a playing card with each victim. All of the above comes from imagination of a distinguished lawyer who has worked courts and cases of London, Las Vegas and beyond. Doug is part-time chair of the Isle of Man Employment Tribunal and, now in his early eighties, he is getting his ducks in a row to make a full-time career as a thriller writer.
He knows first-hand how to follow the money whether the billions bet legally and illegally on sporting fixtures or the mechanism behind organising a freighter’s pirate seizure or a shipment of heroin from Afghanistan to European streets. Humphrey Hawksley will be digging behind Doug’s book covers to find the risks he takes in getting his startling information, how he moves so easily between London’s Mayfair clubland, the Mediterranean and Caribbean. How does he harnesses his ideas and what trouble has he run into over his long career as an author and lawyer. What is the Purpose, Passion and Grit he needs to keep going. -
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Join Lucinda Hawksley for the final Inside Story, with special guest Karim Alrawi, who will be joining us very early in the morning his time, from Canada. Karim grew up in both of his parents’ countries: England and Egypt. His experiences of both countries’ literary heritages have made him a superb writer, able to master several genres.
Karim’s first produced work was a radio play submitted, when at university, to a BBC competition. After graduating, he became a playwright, literary manager of the Theatre Royal Stratford East, and resident writer at London’s Royal Court Theatre. His plays have won awards, including an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First and the Samuel Beckett Award for the Performing Arts.
After accepting an offer to teach creative writing at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, Karim set up the censorship monitoring unit at the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and was elected president of Egyptian Pen. Subsequently, he received an International Fulbright Scholarship to the USA and took up residencies at theatres in the US and Canada. He also taught creative writing including at the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia and the University of Iowa (home of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop). Karim also wrote articles for publications including The Guardian, the New Statesman, the Globe and Mail, the Literary Review of Canada and the LA Review of Books. He was senior editor of Inquiry magazine, managing editor of Middle East Insight magazine and editor in chief of Arabica magazine.
After 9/11, he was commissioned by the US State Department and the Canadian International Development Agency to develop and supervise media training programmes on conflict-mitigating, reporting in 14 countries from Morocco to Nepal. He was also an advisor to the United Nations, and he helped to develop a framework for a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, laying the groundwork for the Annapolis Conference (2007).
Karim’s first novel was the superb and award-winning Book of Sands and he has just completed a second novel, The Burning Book, based on his experience training Iraqi journalists during the country’s occupation by western coalition forces. -
Juliet Campbell was the first of Britain’s pioneering female ambassadors -- ‘An inspiration for those with ambition to make a difference in the world’, says diplomat, Karen Pierce, Britain’s current ambassador to the United States. In Playing Britannia Juliet tells her story through letters and diaries she kept at the time. Besieged in a chateau with the Queen, looping the loop in a jet and meeting top Chinese Generals in the Great Hall of the People became everyday stuff for Juliet, who rose to be Ambassador to Luxembourg and went on to be appointed Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge.
From joining the Foreign Office in 1957, when only a handful of women served on its 1100 staff, Juliet rose through the ranks working in Brussels, Bangkok, Paris and Jakarta as well as stints at the heart of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Her career spanned almost exactly the years of the Cold War, working as the Berlin Wall was built and as it came down. In the Asian megacities of Thailand and Indonesia she witnessed the unfolding of the region in the aftermath of the Vietnam war and the beginning of the rise of China. Join Humphrey Hawksley with Juliet for this fascinating Goldster Conversation of her career as a woman in a man’s world working at the heart of Britain’s foreign policy. Goldster Inside Story Friday January 19th 2024. -
Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, and Sylvia Plath are three of our most famous authors. In her new book, Rachel Trethewey tells the story of the remarkable mothers who shaped these amazing women, through first-hand testimony and rigorous research.
Julia Stephen, Clara Miller, and Aurelia Plath were fascinating women in their own rights, and their relationships with their daughters were exceptional; they profoundly influenced the writers’ lives, literature, and attitude to feminism. Mothers of the Mind charts their complex, often contradictory, bond and offers a new perspective.
Rachel Trethewey read History at Oxford University, where she won the Philip Geddes Prize for student journalism. She has a PhD in English, is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and recently received the Antonia Fraser Award from the Society of Authors for a biography of a woman or women for Mothers of the Mind. She will be joining Lucinda Hawksley on 11 January; join them and be part of the Goldster Conversation.
To watch the original recording of this episode, please click here. -
Michael Muthukrishna is a psychological and behavioural science specialist at the London School of Economics. Drawing on the most recent research across the sciences, humanities, and the emerging field of cultural evolution, Michael paints a panoramic picture of who we are and exactly what makes human beings different from all other forms of life on the planet. He argues that it is our unique ability to create culture, a shared body of knowledge, skills, and experience passed on from generation to generation that has enabled our current dominance.But it is only by understanding and applying the laws of life - the need for energy, innovation, cooperation and evolution - that we can solve the practical challenges we face as a species.
A Theory of Everyone attempts to provide solutions for how to solve the most pressing problems of our collective future, such as polarization, inequality, the "great stagnation" in productivity, and the energy crisis. Michael’s work has been praised as ‘mind expanding’ by Times columnist Matthew Syed: “This book will change your view of the world forever'.
Peter Frankopan describes A Theory of Everyone as 'Wonderfully refreshing and thought-provoking'. In this Goldster Conversation with Humphrey Hawksley Michael will lay out his thoughts on how we can create a better future for ourselves in the generations to come. Goldster Inside Story 12.00 London time Friday January 5th 2024.
To watch the original recording of this episode, please click here. -
Amanda Craig is the author of nine novels, including her latest book, The Three Graces – which is about three friends in their 80s, who have retired to Tuscany, where they must stop one grandchild from a disaster wedding, redeem another and save a life…
A State-of-the-Nation novelist whose work has been compared to that of Dickens, Trollope, E.M. Forster and Kate Atkinson, Amanda combines strong, interlinked characters and plots involving crime, romance, social comedy and satire about modern life. Two of her recent novels, Hearts and Minds and The Golden Rule were long-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and The Lie of the Land was made into a Radio 4 ‘Book At Bedtime’. She writes, she says to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”
To watch the original recording of this episode, please click here. -
Many people feel like they’re in the dark when it comes to their finances. Insecurity about money often stems from past experiences and how you grew up. Unfortunately, this can also lead us into some bad habits and feeling like the ability to save money is out of our reach. Sometimes the idea of investing can be overwhelming and in our busy lives, who has the time to learn and really understand what your money can do for you? Kalee Boisvert profiles herself as a Money Guru. Her passion is creating new possibilities in women’s lives by showing them the ropes when it comes to money, to create understandings about wealth, investment and finance.
With inspiration from her own life, Kalee has developed an easy-to-use system for women, young and old, to take control of their finances. In her book Make Money Your Thing she lays out an approachable guide to take women on a journey to feeling comfortable and in control of their finances. There are simple action steps to learn the basics of money management, understand the importance of balancing the books, and embrace the uniqueness of your own personal situation. “When money is your thing”, says Kalee, “you can feel completely at ease about making it work for you–and feel confident that your financial goals and dreams are all very possible.”
to watch the original recording of this episode, please click here. -
Calling all fans of Jane Austen. On 13 October, Lucinda will be interviewing Ruth Leigh, author of A Great Deal of Ingenuity: A Collection of Pride and Prejudice Stories. The pages of Pride and Prejudice sparkle with household names: proud Darcy and prejudiced Elizabeth, book-loving Mr Bennet, the snobbish Bingley sisters, predatory Mr Wickham and oily Mr Collins. But what about all the other people busy cooking, mending, flirting, walking and socialising in the background?
In this collection of short stories, Ruth shines a light on the lives of nine characters from the novel. How is married life at Hunsford? Will Maria Lucas ever find a husband? How does Sally the maid feel about mending Lydia’s worked muslin gown? Which Meryton matron will triumph in luring a marriageable young man into their parlour? This charming collection of stories gives the reader a window into the worlds of Meryton, Rosings Park, Pemberley and Hunsford as you’ve never seen them before.
Ruth Leigh is also the author of the witty Isabella M Smugge series about a single parent of four who moves from London to the countryside, becoming an “instamum” and turning her life into an award-winning ‘brand’ yet struggling with the actual, non-instagram realities of life. -
“Quite early, I came to terms with the fact that I was gay,” explains Goldster Purpose, Passion and Grit guest, Roger Leslie. “But as a spiritual person, I assumed that my sexual orientation meant that I was fundamentally flawed and would have to live without love. That terrifying revelation directed me toward an unprecedented journey that opened my life and elevated my destiny. My determination to live— and love—lit my path on the journey that redefined my life, showed me what mettle I was made of, and revealed to me my soul.”
Roger Leslie, a highly acclaimed author and international speaker, has just released his debut memoir Light Come Out of the Closet: Memoir of a Gay Soul, that is a riveting testament of the challenges and tribulations for anyone who identifies life within the LGTBQ community and strives for equality in human spirit. Roger will talk movingly about the emotional rollercoaster of living life in a gay marriage where they have been judged and forced to overcome challenges brought on by views of society. But ultimately being together became a celebration despite all obstacles.
This is a story about the struggle to reconcile his sexuality with his religious, explores his journey of rediscovering the God of love he learned about as a child, a powerful testament to hope, healing, and self-discovery in the face of prejudice and adversity. . -
Phillipa Ashley was one of the first authors to come onto the Goldster Book Club, and she is making a welcome return to talk about the art of seasonal writing. Phillipa is a Sunday Times, Amazon and Audible best-selling author of uplifting romantic fiction, and on 15 December, she’ll be talking to Lucinda about her Christmas-themed novels.
After studying English at Oxford University, Phillipa worked as a copywriter and journalist before turning her hand to writing. Her debut novel, Decent Exposure, won the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers Award and was filmed as a Lifetime TV movie, 12 Men of Christmas, starring Kristin Chenoweth and Josh Hopkins.
Since then, her novels have sold well over a million copies and been translated into numerous languages. Phillipa lives in an English village with her husband, has a grown-up daughter and loves nothing better than walking the Lake District hills and swimming in Cornish coves.
To watch the recording of this episode, please click here. -
Lord Richard Dannatt was a soldier for forty years concluding his military career as Chief of the General Staff – the professional head of the British Army. Since retiring from active duty in 2009, he was Constable of the Tower of London until July 2016. In 2011 he became an independent member of the House of Lords.
His military career began in 1971 with a first tour of duty in Belfast as a platoon commander. During his second tour of duty, also in Northern Ireland, he was awarded the Military Cross. In 1977, however he suffered a major stroke, taking two years to recover. His commanding officer encouraged him to stay, and Lord Dannatt went onto hold the Army’s highest military rank.
Lord Dannatt is the author of two high-praised books, his autobiography, Leading from the Front and his latest he co-authored Victory to Defeat: The British Army 1918-1940.
To watch the recording of this episode, please click here. -
Alison Hill’s brand new biography, Pauline Gower, Pioneering Leader of the Spitfire Women, tells the story of the amazing woman who led the 164 Spitfire women during WW2 and left a huge legacy for women in aviation. On 21 October, Alison will be joining Lucinda to talk about Pauline’s life – from convent school ‘glittering figure’ to pioneering pilot and beyond; she set up the first female joyriding business in 1931 with high-achieving engineer Dorothy Spicer and took up over 33,000 passengers over six summers. In 1939 Pauline was appointed Commandant of the women’s section of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) and achieved equal pay for her women pilots. She enabled them to fly ‘Anything to Anywhere’, including Hurricanes, Wellingtons and – their firm favourite – the Spitfire.
Author and poet Alison Hill was awarded an Arts Council grant for her third poetry collection, Sisters in Spitfires, which celebrates the lives and flights of the women pilots of the ATA. In 2018, she was delighted to be flown to the Isle of Wight to meet Mary Ellis and hear her first-hand memories of Pauline, and to talk to other ATA pilots Joy Lofthouse and Molly Rose. Alison’s previous collections include Slate Rising, Lyrical Beatsand Fifty Ways to Fly (ed.), which featured a poem by Pauline Gower. She is an RSA Fellow and a member of the Spitfire Society. -
Goldster Conversation delves into the fascinating world and minds of teenagers and young adults with author K. T. Anglehart. She weaves a captivating blend of witchy fantasy, ancient Irish tales, and real-world intrigue in her debut novel The Wise One and her November 2023 sequel The Twin Flame. Drawing on the imagination of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series, she explores landscapes and folklore of Ireland and Scotland in a genre known as Young Adult Urban Fantasy.
How does this genre influence our culture? We have to remember that J. R. R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter are also Young Adult fantasies as is the fantasy of the hit television series Game of Thrones which began as the Song of Ice and Fire saga series. These stories are now part of our everyday conversation. In The Wise One, 17-year-old McKenna has a vivid dream of burning at the stake and is thrust into a world of faeries, spirits and a high priestess who tracks her every move. In The Twin Flame, impulsive, reckless McKenna realises she is a witch and that she keeps reincarnating as one. But only her mother knows why: McKenna has to find her. -
On 23 November, Lucinda will be talking to lucid dreaming and sleep expert Charlie Morley, about his new book Wake Up to Sleep. Charlie is a best-selling author who, for the past 6 years, has been developing a trauma-sensitive, breath- & body-based approach to stress or trauma-affected sleep. Originally developed for British military veterans, his system has now been adapted for the general public. It combines breathwork, lucid dreaming and Yoga Nidra, to help regulate the nervous system and integrate trauma – and, it works!
In 2018 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship grant to research PTSD treatment in Military Veterans and continues to teach people with trauma-affected sleep a set of practices called Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep. Charlie believes that most sleep hygiene tips are either ineffective or unsustainable. Instead he offers a pioneering new approach to troubled sleep and trauma which has been proven to improve sleep quality in 87% of participants.
Join Lucinda and Charlie to find out more about how to improve your sleep patterns and how you can use lucid dreaming methods to transform nightmares.
To watch the recording of this episode, please click here. -
Billy Kenber is an award-winning investigative journalist at The Times who has taken the lid of a section of the health care industry. In his explosive book Sick Money, The Truth About the Global Pharmaceutical Industry, Billy maintains that medicines have become nothing more than financial assets and that how drugs are priced and who has access to them is now dictated by shareholder value. He cites the example of an American hedge fund manager who hiked the price of an HIV AIDS pill from $17.50 to $750 overnight and of a children's cancer drugs left intentionally to expire in a Spanish because it was more cost-effective. Billy explains industry culture such as the reluctance to invest deeply in vaccines because once the disease is conquered profits fall and an eagerness to put research money into chronic conditions like diabetes.
Unless we take action, Billy argues, we risk a dramatic decline in the pace of drug development and a future in which medicines are only available to the highest bidder. But how right is he? Do we not need the drug companies, warts and all, to step up the plate when we have to tackle a pandemic like Covid-19? Billy will also discuss Goldster healthy ageing techniques and how draw that balance between that lifestyle and only turning to medicines when necessary.
To watch the original recording of this episode, please click here. -
Join us, either in person or online, for what promises to be one of our most exciting Goldster Conversations so far. On 16 November, the legendary Bonnie Greer OBE FRSL will be joining Lucinda Hawksley for a Goldster Live event at Riverstone Kensington, London!
Bonnie is an author, playwright, journalist, critic and former Deputy Chair of the British Museum. An advocate of free speech and higher education, Greer is passionate about both the arts and sciences and is determined to see that the voices of women and minorities are heard in both realms.
Greer has been awarded the Verity Bargate Award for Best New Play and is a columnist for The New European and Byline Times. Greer has appeared as a panellist and guest on a number of television and radio shows, including Question Time. Her podcast In Search of Black History is available on Audible. She has just completed a two-year conversation series at the British Museum, 'The Era Of Reclamation', with former British Museum Director Hartwig Fischer, in which they engaged with artists, scholars, and activists of colour on a range of issues of the day.
To watch the recording of this episode please click here. -
John R. Seeger is a retired Senior Intelligence Service officer who was with the CIA for more than twenty years, leading small teams on many dangerous operations. In 2001, he went in Afghanistan after the Nine Eleven attacks on the United States in an operation captured in the Netflix documentary Spy Ops. On his final 3-year assignment at CIA headquarters, he worked as a chief of operations for a geographic division in the Directorate of Operations and then as a deputy director and deputy chief of the CIA Counterterrorism Centre. Since retirement, J. R. Seeger, as he is known, has set up training courses and given lectures on counter terrorism and other issues involving intelligence work.
He is also the author of the highly acclaimed Mike 4 thriller series about a family who have been part of the special operations and intelligence community from World War II to the present and of his Steampunk Raj historical fiction series with the latest A School for the Great Game. “If you like good tales of the shadowy, often hard-edged world of counter-terrorism, read Mike 4! Written by a veteran of ‘the community,’ it will teach while it entertains.” praises General Stanley McChrystal, while former CIA officer John Sipher says, “Seeger has developed enduring characters who allow him to explore issues related to war, family and betrayal.” Join J.R. Seeger with Humphrey Hawksley for a revealing Goldster Inside Story on spying and war at 12.00 Thursday November 9th 2023.
to watch the original recording of this episode please click here. -
Join the Goldster conversation with Lucinda Hawksley as she chats to the author Francesca Wade about her fascinating debut book, Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London between the Wars. It looks at the lives of five extraordinary women, including Virginia Woolf and Dorothy L Sayers, all of whom lived in the same square in London. Square Haunting was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. Francesca is now working on her second book, about Gertrude Stein. Her work proposes a form of biography centered on women’s lives, on collectivity and community, on recovering hidden histories, and on challenging the scripts by which lives are lived and stories are told.
Francesca is a former editor of the literary quarterly the White Review, and her writing has appeared in Granta, the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, and the Paris Review. She will be talking to Lucinda on 26 October, as 12pm. Come along and discover more about the intriguing lives of the women whom Francesca has brought back to life in the pages of her book.
To watch the recording of this episode please click here. -
Would you like to know how to take greater control of your brain, to become more efficient, effective and successful? The brain often overcomplicates matters, leading us to feel overwhelmed and lacking in confidence. Yet we can take control. Are you interested? Then, come meet neuroscientist Dr Lynda Shaw who knows which bits of our brains do what and how to control them – at least as best we can. Once we understand, the impact on our lives can be profound as Dr Shaw lays out in her book Your Brain is the Boss: Using mind power to develop influence, creativity and work satisfaction. How we think effects everything, our work, our family, all corners of our lives. In conversation with Humphrey Hawksley, Lynda Shaw will explain all, showing ways to banish toxicity, create empathy, motivate those around us and come up with new ideas and ways of making a better world by thinking and working together.
Whether an event in your local community or a project in the boardrooms of multi-national companies, Lynda Shaw has a rare talent of turning the complex into the accessible and is passionate about teaching how our brains effect our behavior and, of course, vice-versa. Humphrey will quiz Lynda Shaw on how we can be happier, healthier, more confident, more friendly in a way that sets us on the path to achieving our goals. He might also ask about today’s politicians! - Visa fler
