The Way to the Sea, my first book, is out on 6 June 2019 with
@GrantaBooks
.
This is the gorgeous cover. Inside, it has maps and drawings by
@FacciniEmily
.
It's about the Thames estuary, nature, family, books, class, history and more.
Pre-order here:
My book is out! The Way to the Sea, published by
@GrantaBooks
, hits the shelves today. Excited and exhausted all at once. If you'd like to read it or hear me talk about it, all the links and details are available here:
I'm a cartoon in Private Eye this week?! That's not something I ever thought I'd be able to say. And it is really quite accurate — that is something I would google...
For
@GrantaMag
, I wrote a piece about the Red Sands towers out in the Thames estuary, touching on Screaming Lord Sutch, Rose Macaulay's ruins and The War of the Worlds
As well as being the last week of
@srslypod
, this is also my last week working at the New Statesman after 6+ years. I've been partly freelance for the last 18 months, and now I'll be entirely working for myself. Lots coming out in 2019, including my first book and new podcasts.
I have thought long and hard about the new Guardian website, and I have decided that the main problem with it is that they did not get rid of the comments.
Cover reveal! I'm so excited to be able to share the UK cover for
#ABodyMadeofGlass
from
@grantabooks
. The artwork is by Ramon Casas, it’s called ‘Tired’, and it was painted c.1895-1900. It's out on 11th April and is available to pre-order now:
So Knives Out is a feature length Jonathan Creek episode with a Hollywood budget and Daniel Craig doing An Accent. Which is high praise from me, Jonathan Creek is brilliant.
Jacob Rees-Mogg really has extraordinary levels of vocal fry, in case any of the haters who usually bother women podcasters but insist it's "not a gender thing" are looking for someone else to bother about it.
I'm very new to this whole "author" thing, but it's such a thrill when a reviewer really *gets* what you were trying to do with your book, as
@chakrabortty
has done here in
@guardianbooks
:
I had a busy week in Hot Pod this week — I wrote about the legal shenanigans involving a true crime podcast in Australia, plus I tried to work out why *that* episode of Reply All never quite did it for me. Read it all on
@vulture
now:
This new Agatha Christie series by
@Lucy_Worsley
starts tonight! I'm in episode three (I think!) so obviously you'll need to watch all of it to fully appreciate the subtlety of my performance aka having tea in a cottage with Lucy while we chat about Miss Marple
The last episode of
@Lucy_Worsley
's Agatha Christie series goes out on
@BBCTwo
tonight at 9pm, and you can catch me near the end talking about Miss Marple. Here are a few behind-the-scenes snaps from our very hot day filming back in July (Morris was there too, of course).
Some news! My next book, Suspended in Darkness: A History of Hypochondria, will be published by
@GrantaBooks
in 2024, in a deal by
@AgentSophieL
. More details from the
@thebookseller
here:
My article about honkaku mysteries and Japanese crime fiction for
@GuardianBooks
is out — if you enjoyed my recent
@ShedunnitShow
episode on this subject, it might be for you
Today in podcasting is a weird job news, I just spent an hour and a half trying to decide which recording of my own footsteps sounds most "footsteppy".
Look I don't want to alarm anybody, but I think I just discovered the ultimate productivity hack and it is this:
stop messing around and get on with stuff
game changing.
It's publication day! My new book A Body Made of Glass: A History of Hypochondria is officially out in the UK today. It's available in print and audiobook (read by me!) wherever you usually buy books, or via . Many thanks to
@grantabooks
and
@AgentSophieL
!
I'm working on a piece about podcaster burnout at the moment - if that's something you've experienced or have thoughts on you'd like to share, get in touch.
I was too overwhelmed with pride to post about this at the time, but the major achievement of this summer was Morris coming third in the "most handsome dog" category at the county show. Some might say he could have gone higher if he hadn't done a wee in the show ring...
A bit of newsletter news! I'm very pleased to be joining
@TheBrowser
to write a weekly podcast recommendation email on Sundays, as well as helping with their daily audio picks. If you like it when I tell you what to listen to, you will like this very much.
Remember a few weeks ago when I said I was working on a secret project on detective stories? Well, it's now live — it's a podcast called
@ShedunnitShow
and you should listen to the trailer now.
For a couple of decades between the first and second world wars, something mysterious happened. If you love the work of writers like Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham and co, this podcast is for you:
I'll be on the
@BBCRadio4
Media Show at 4.30 today to talk about Spotify and podcasts. Tune in if you'd like to hear me say "yes, $250 million *is* a lot of money to pay for a sports media company" with varying inflections.
Here's my piece from this week's Hot Pod about the excellent
@TheAnfieldWrap
— a Liverpool podcast outfit proving that it is possible to run an independent podcast business that doesn't just rely on sponsors.
Delighted to say that my hypochondria book has found a US home, with
@SJMurphy
at
@eccobooks
. In the UK, it will be with
@GrantaBooks
. And it has a firm title now! A Body Made of Glass, coming in 2024. All thanks to
@ameliaatlas
and
@AgentSophieL
, who make these things happen.
Spotify has bought both Gimlet and Anchor. If you're in podcasting, this is Big News — as
@nwquah
has said, the end of an era and the start of a new one. Here's the full press release:
I'm working on a ✨secret project✨ and I need some lovely people to help me! If you really like the detective novels of 1920-45 (eg Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Ngaio Marsh et al) and would like to tell me why, get in touch on carolinecrampton+mysteries
@gmail
.com
My book is out in paperback today! It has a new and gorgeous cover, and is available now at all good book retailers (I stole this picture from
@GrantaBooks
because they made it look so nice). I put some links to places you can order it here:
It's three years since The Way to the Sea came out — it's gone by in a flash and been the longest years of my life. Thank you to everyone who read it, and happy reading to those who still have the pleasures of the Thames estuary ahead of them
If you'd ever wondered at what point the whole 'writing a book' thing starts to feel very, very real, it's this bit, when your friends receive real life proof copies 🤤
Very excited to get home and find this thing of beauty waiting for me on the doormat! V lucky to get a sneak preview of
@c_crampton
’s THE WAY TO THE SEA - out in June
@AgentSophieL
I received the brilliant news today that I got a Blundell Trust grant from
@Soc_of_Authors
to help finish my first book.
@calflyn
recommended that I apply (thanks C!) — if you're writing a book without a big advance or private means, you should too
@jamesrbuk
Same here. I switched to R3 during the 2015 election campaign and never switched back. It's bad enough having to consume it via Twitter / news write offs
New episode: in advance of
#TheABCMurders
, we hear from
@PhelpsieSarah
about what it takes to adapt an Agatha Christie for the screen:
Listen now wherever you get your podcasts:
I've been writing about podcasting and burnout in
@hotpodmedia
recently, with contributions from
@HelenZaltzman
,
@leathau
,
@lonelypalette
et al. Now we're running a survey to find out more about how podcasters experience this, do take part if you can:
I've just had my first ever sponsorship inquiry for my email newsletter, No Complaints. From a product that calls itself "the original detergent pod". Finally, I am the laundry influencer I always dreamed of being.
There are so many great things about this and the book is fab, but let's just pause for a second to enjoy the tiny fact that there is an actual reason why I have spent every office job wrapped in huge layers of wool - office temperatures are set for men!
I'm very sorry to say that there will only be one more
@srslypod
after this. For the last 3+ years it's been a weekly treat to talk to our brilliant listeners, and we're going to miss it so much. More details in this episode:
a lovely but unexpected consequence of writing a book about the Thames estuary has been the letters and emails from people who also love it; it's especially good when they attach pictures of great rocks they have found. I've just had one that contains a woolly mammoth toe bone!
It was a delight to write this profile of
@OvercoatsWooden
and hear from
@felixtrench
and
@velvetbarnes
about how they're keeping their spirits up despite the pandemic-related delays to the podcast's final season:
@youngvulgarian
I am a big fan of Rukmini Iyer's The Roasting Tin book (and the new "green" vegetarian one too) — all her recipes are essentially just "put these things on a baking tray, leave it in the oven for a while, then eat it". Almost no washing up, and I've yet to make one I didn't like.
I gave a book talk at a WI tonight in a rural village hall while a storm raged outside and the debate raged inside about the correct way to make a knitted chick to decorate a postbox at Easter. I've never felt more like the Provincial Lady/EM Delafield and it was glorious.
What is the oddest thing a yoga teacher has ever told you to do? This morning, one suggested we 'wring out our organs to remove the stress', which I like the sound of but don't know how to do.
My sympathies to everyone who has to make a topical politics podcast this week. If it doesn't go completely out of date between switching the recorder off and transferring the files prior to editing, you've done really really well.
One really interesting consequence of the last year is being vindicated on how many meetings that previously required me to spend £90+ and a 5 hour round trip to London could be done... on the phone.
Three invitations for coffee and/or breakfast meetings so far today - which is a lovely idea. But the assumption that everyone in the media lives in London, or can make regular trips into London, endures. (I've yet to see anyone hop on a train from London to come see me. Rude!)
This is great news. Relatedly, something I like so much about the US is how as soon as you sit down in a cafe/restaurant they bring you tap water without the weird shaming conversation you have to have in the UK
For some reason* Twitter feels like a bad place for nice podcast recommendations so I'm doing them on the 'gram - mostly stories - instead
*I know the reason, it's because I do not wish to debate my taste with argumentative men I do not know
I wish, when a man was about to press send on an email, there was something that would pop up saying "you've been kind of a dick to the woman you're writing to here - want to have another go?".