News & Blog Archive

Can a writer turn dark material into light and give readers hope? D. D. Johnston on Disnaeland

    In this short clip, D.D. Johnston talks about finding light in darkness while writing about the apocalypse. He identifies a process of crisis and positive change that can be applied to the lives of individuals and to wider society. Terrible wars, revolutions and disasters sometimes result in positive …

How do you write dreams into fiction? Sarah Walton on her psychological thriller The Silk Pavilion

  The Silk Pavilion opens with a disturbing dream. It is the first of many throughout the novel. In this clip, Sarah Walton talks about the inclusion of dreams, and how to avoid the pitfalls of this controversial literary device. Sarah is personally interested in dreams. She has trained in …

Richard Zimler explores the intimate relationship of Jesus and Lazarus in his novel The Lost Gospel of Lazarus

    Richard Zimler explores the intimate relationship of Jesus and Lazarus in his novel The Lost Gospel of Lazarus. In the clip, Richard tells us that the relationship between Jesus (who in this book is the Jewish mystic Yeshua) and Lazarus is many things; it’s homoerotic and romantic in …

Where does a writer get their ideas? D.D. Johnston on his inspiration for Disnaeland

  Author D.D. Johnston tells us how his ideas for Disnaeland were really a reaction against various apocalypse media. In apocalypse stories, humans are often presented as awful and savage. Without the boundaries and rules that society sets for us, humans seem destined to destroy each other. In Disnaeland, Johnston …

The Letter of Forgiveness – a powerful reading from Sarah Walton’s The Silk Pavilion

  A clear highlight of our online launch of The Silk Pavilion was Sarah’s powerful reading of The Letter of Forgiveness. Lucy makes it her mission to translate this mysterious scrap of paper, written by the grandmother of Miguel. Thanks to Keith Waithe, who’s composition for The Silk Pavilion begins …

Writer’s block and how to overcome it – D.D. Johnston on lessons learned from his novel DISNAELAND

    D.D. tells us that his creative journey with Disnaeland began in 2014, and was marred by writer’s block until the birth of his son in 2020. For this project, the symptoms of writer’s block were often external. The idea of Disnaeland originally came from the early 2010s’ cultural …

Richard Zimler’s Inspiration for The Lost Gospel of Lazarus

    Richard Zimler’s inspiration for The Lost Gospel of Lazarus came to him in a troubling, reoccurring dream. In this dream, his brother who’d recently died from AIDS returned to him. It made Richard think that there’d been some mistake – that he hadn’t really died. Except, Richard soon …

Martin Goodman on the inspiration for his novel On Bended Knees

  Martin Goodman tells us about his inspiration for On Bended Knees, his novel that went on to be nominated for a Whitbread First Novel Prize, a predecessor of the Costa First Novel Award. Martin admits that he has a tendency to write the ‘remarkable’. Indeed, On Bended Knees in …

How does a writer create rounded characters? D.D. Johnston on his novel DISNAELAND

  D.D. Johnston tells us about how he fleshed out his characters and gave them nuance in Disnaeland. He admits that at first, his characters were mostly satirical. It was his editor that encouraged him to flesh them out. To create these characters, D.D. drew on aspects of himself – …

Where does a writer get her inspiration? Sarah Walton on the origin of her novel The Silk Pavilion

  Sarah Walton’s inspiration for The Silk Pavilion came from many sources: staying in an eerie villa during a thunderstorm in Mallorca; thoughts about the novel Rebecca under a modern lens; the concept of creating intrigue about serial killers and the history of the Spanish Civil War – these are …

Full Recording – A deep dive into The Lost Gospel of Lazarus with Richard Zimler

  Back in April, Barbican Press partnered with Paper-Works Books & Print to host an online event to launch Richard Zimler’s The Lost Gospel of Lazarus. Here’s the full recording – Richard is interviewed by George Biggs about the book’s inspiration, his writing and research process and much more. It’s …

Sarah Walton on national vs personal trauma in her novel The Silk Pavilion

    The Silk Pavilion explores the buried trauma of a woman and Spain’s Civil War simultaneously. Here, Sarah speaks about their powerful thematic interplay. Sarah aligns personal trauma and national trauma through language, particularly the language of torture and war. Sarah also used specific historical references. For example, during …