Booktails Podcast

Ambrose Parry Interview - Death of Shame

Local Voices 3 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
This summer we are delighted to be bringing you some more interviews with local writers! 📝
The Scottish literary scene has never been stronger, and these writers are some of the most exciting working at the moment! 📚
This week is the turn of Ambrose Parry and ‘The Death of Shame’. 💀
In the latest Raven and Fisher adventure, they must investigate the mysterious death of a successful physician and dig into underground sex trafficking rings working in the cobbled closes of the old town, before time runs out… 🔍
Today Rachel and Serena are joined by Marisa Haetzman, one half of Ambrose Parry, to discuss if this is the end of Raven and Fisher, what was the inspiration behind the series and who really writes what! 🐟🐦‍⬛
As we sip on this week’s very ‘medicinal’ cocktail Chloroform, we will also play a classic game of Guess the Real Historical Remedy! Fingers crossed we cure our ailments and don’t make them much, much worse… 🩺

Andrew Meehan Interview - Hey Man

Local Voices 2 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
This summer we are delighted to be bringing you some more interviews with local writers! 📝 The Scottish literary scene has never been stronger, and these writers are some of the most exciting working at the moment! 📚
For this week’s episode we had so many laughs chatting to Andrew Meehan about his newest book, Hey Man. 👬
This little gem of a book is the story of a friendship between a monk and an actor that spans decades, marriages and life’s trials. 🌅
Join us to discuss the nature of friendship, one of the most interesting writing processes we’ve encountered yet, share some exciting upcoming projects and play a game to crown the ultimate male besties in literature! 👑
So grab yourself Tommy’s tipple and enjoy! 🥃

Chris Brookymyre Interview - Quite Ugly One Evening

Local Voices 1 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
This summer we are delighted to be bringing you some more interviews with local writers! 📝 The Scottish literary scene has never been stronger, and these writers are some of the most exciting working at the moment! 📚
We are starting off with someone familiar- Chris Brookmyre joins us to discuss his newest book, Quite Ugly One Evening.🩸
Jack Parlabane is back again, a little different than when readers first met him 30 years ago, but still climbing precarious balconies with his bare hands! In this book he finds himself investigating a celebrity family on board a transatlantic cruise, who have a few skeletons in their walk in closets… 💀
Join us to find out what keeps Chris coming back to Parlabane, the inspiration behind the characters, discuss family and legacy and play an epic game of Battleship! 🛳️So grab yourself a Parlabellini and enjoy! 🍑

Northern Boy by Iqbal Hussain

Pride Stories 4 🏳️‍🌈💖
Voulez-vous to come on a coming of age journey with us from 80s Blackburn to the Australia of today and back again with a little help from Bollywood, musical theatre and ABBA? Gimme gimme gimme! 🎶
That’s the name of the game and we will be thanking abba for the music, both metaphorically and as actual characters in the book, examining the tragic music teacher who shows Rafi what he could achieve then dies, and the very flawed nature of the main chiquitita, so take a chance on us! 💃
The Ginner Takes It All with this week’s fruity, spicy cocktail to sip alongside! 🍹 
Mamma Mia! 🌈

The Best Men by Lauren Blakely and Sarina Bowen

Pride Stories 3 🏳️‍🌈💖 Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today for the third  instalment of this year’s Pride Stories season, and it’s time for the wedding of the year! 💒
When the groom’s best friend and bride’s brother are sent ahead to prepare for the happy day they initially think the trip will be a nightmare, but soon sparks fly and their time trapped together will seem much too short…🎩🎩
Join Rachel and Serena to discuss infamous audiobook narrators (we’ll bet you can guess who!) naughty spreadsheets, the career vs love debate and how surprisingly common this plot is! 💍
So grab your Posh F***er cocktail and let’s toast to the happy couple, and their super hot wingmen! 🍾

Ry Herman Interview - This Princess Kills Monsters

Pride Stories 2 🏳️‍🌈💖
Once upon a time there was a princess, 12 identical huntsmen, a wicked stepmother, a talking lion and some magical teeth. And that’s only the half of it. 👑
We are so excited to be joined by this book’s author, Ry Herman, today to discuss familial and romantic love, imposter syndrome, the enduring appeal of fairytales and many new LGBTQIA+ picks to add to our TBR! 🧚
So, make a Lake Melilot to sip along with us and help us play a game of Fairytale Madlibs to pen what’s sure to be Ry’s newest bestselling story! And then we will all live happily ever after 🌈🌅

Palm Meridian by Grace Flahive

Pride Stories 1
Happy Pride month Book Besties! 🏳️‍🌈💖
We are starting off STRONG with the wonderful tale of a lesbian retirement community in the apocalyptic near-future. Resident Hannah is ill and has decided to end her life on her own terms and is celebrating with the party to end all parties! But will the long lost love of her life reply to the invitation before time runs out for good? 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩
Join us for discussions on found family and love that lasts forever, or maybe just for your golden years, pool noodles, golf carts and A/C units. 🏊‍♀️
This book made us laugh and cry and we will be thinking about it for a long time to come so grab this week’s tropical cocktail, complete with umbrella straw and let’s do some aqua aerobics, baby! 🍹

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

Bookshop Pick 2
We are continuing our Bookshop Picks this week! We found ourselves with a couple of episodes to fill before our next theme so we decided to have some fun!🕶️
Rachel and Serena set off to their local bookshop and decided to choose each other a random book!📖
But it wasn’t quite that simple! They had to choose two prompts from a hat to dictate their choice and had only ten minutes to select a book for the other that matched the prompts! This sounds a lot easier than it actually was! 📚
So… for our second Bookshop Pick Rachel had to choose Serena a book with a person on the cover and a faraway setting cover and the result was Scorched Grace 🚬
This is a murder mystery with a twist- a detective nun! We will be delving into the sweltering New Orleans setting, Sister Holiday’s checkered past and what impact that has on the story, fires fires everywhere and THAT ending (mini spoiler: more fire).🔥 
Speaking of fire, we set our cocktail smoking this week! We love any excuse to take out our beloved Hauntingly Good Spirits cocktail book and you know we needed a smoky Sazerac take for this New Orleans arson story! ⚜️

Galentine's Day by Rebecca Anderson

Bookshop Pick 1
It’s a bit of a different one for us this week! We found ourselves with a couple of episodes to fill before our next theme so we decided to have some fun!🕶️
Rachel and Serena set off to their local bookshop and decided to choose each other a random book!📖
But it wasn’t quite that simple! They had to choose two prompts from a hat to dictate their choice and had only ten minutes to select a book for the other that matched the prompts! This sounds a lot easier than it actually was! 📚
So… for our first Bookshop Pick Serena had to choose Rachel a book with a cartoon romcom style cover and an author with Rachel’s initials and the result was Galentine’s Day! 💖
So join us to discuss what makes a good friend and whether any of the protagonists qualified for us, which sleepover we would choose (Bali, obv) and which of the characters we saw ourselves in (spoiler: they all have their flaws) 🙈
We are going old school with our cocktail this week, hoping it might just remind you of 18-30 holidays abroad with your best girlfriends as you cry on each others’ sunburnt shoulders! 🏖️
So grab your popcorn and pjs, it’s time for a sleepover with your book besties! 🍿💄

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

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Blessed be the fruit 🍈
This week we are returning to Gilead to meet Agnes and Daisy and see a whole new side of a certain aunt we thought we knew. 🤫
Expect discussions on the differences in style between the Testaments and the Handmaid’s Tale, insights into entirely new factions of Gilead society and beyond, changes between the book and the adaptation and how scarily the Testaments reflects how society could be heading… 🪾
So grab a Mayday cocktail and your headband, it’s time to become a new pearl girl recruit and join us…
Praise be. 🙏