Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)

It has been a while but here we are again just on the cusp of Christmas itself with a special Christmas edition of For Whom the Book Tolls. Nicholas Graham and I discuss the question, “What makes Christmas?” We take a fast tour through stories, poetry, musicals and movies to ponder how our modern-day traditions came to pass and whether or not they will, indeed, pass on in the future.

I won’t provide links to everything we mentioned but here are the main works we discuss in the podcast:

• A Christmas Carol (obviously!) by Charles Dickens
• Knickerbocker’s History of New York by Washington Irving
• The Chimes by Charles Dickens
• The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Advent Street by Carol Ann Duffy
• A Dol’s House by Henrik Ibsen
• Lion in Winter by James Goldman
• The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
• White Christmas / Holiday Inn
• Die Hard
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• The Grinch
• The Polar Express
• Love Actually
• Call the Midwife

Nicholas Graham is the author of historical detective fiction ‘The Judas Case’ which won a Northern Writers Awards New Fiction Bursary, and is currently working on its sequel, ‘Solomon’s Vineyard’. He was a member of the Sidney Sussex College Cambridge team that won BBC2’s University Challenge – Reunited series. He lives with his partner in a remote coastal village close to a decommissioned nuclear power station, a location he regards as being at the heart of the realities of the age. Follow him on Twitter @ThatNickGraham and via www.thejudascase.com.

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

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