The hit film The Ponds will be aired on BBC Four tonight, July 22nd. It was previously aired last May, under the title Swimming through the Seasons: The Hampstead Ponds.  

  The Royal Literary Fund’s ‘In Focus’ presents short films featuring RLF writers. In the latest film, we respond to the question ‘What’s Your Favourite Children’s Book?’ I chose Lima’s Red Hot Chilli. Watch the film.

  Channel 5 have re run their Inside Holloway documentary that first aired in 2014, in which I talk about the first women to be executed at Holloway, Edwardian baby farmers Amelia Sach and Annie Walters. It was during filming that I heard there were recently discovered archives inside the prison. Unfortunately, after the programme […]

  Vox is a series of bite-size audio recordings in which Royal Literary Fund Fellows explore topics around writing. I attempt to respond to the issue of ‘Writer’s Block‘…    

  I attempted to interview dad for the Royal Literary Fund Podcast, discussing how publishing has changed since his first books were published in the 1960s. Listen here

  The Royal Literary Fund’s ‘In Focus’ presents short films featuring RLF writers. In the latest film, we respond to the question ‘What’s Your Favourite Book in Translation?’ Mine is Mrs Pepperpot!  Watch the film here

  Vox is a series of bite-size audio recordings in which Royal Literary Fund writers explore topics around writing. Here I attempt to respond to the question of ‘Why I Write’… Listen here

  Today’s The World This Weekend on BBC Radio4 focused on climate change, and included a segment on the clean up of the River Thames. I was asked to talk about Downstream and the history of swimmers.

  The hit film The Ponds will be aired on BBC Four on May 20th, at 9pm, with the slightly different title of Swimming through the Seasons. Tune in for a ‘heartwarming celebration of eccentricity and sheer bloody-mindedness’ from some ‘unusual people’ (!)

  The Royal Literary Fund’s ‘In Focus’ presents short films featuring RLF writers. In the latest film, we responded to the question ‘What Book Are You Reading at The Moment?’ Watch the film here

  RLF Fellows feature in regular, bite-sized audio recordings, exploring issues related to the writing life. Here’s mine on ‘How I Write’. Listen here  

  October 12th I joined Yasmeen Khan on BBC Radio London to chat about Daisy Belle and the history of swimming in London. Listen here (1hour, 8 mins into the programme)

I joined the team at the Standard Issue podcast to discuss ‘The real women of Holloway Prison.’ Listen here  

  Manchester Metropolitan University have released videos of their Sports and Leisure Symposium held on the Cheshire campus in February 2016, including my talk on ‘Pulverising Records: Forgotten Women Champions and the Victorian Art of Swimming the Thames.’ The videos can be found on Playing Pasts, the online magazine for Sports and Leisure History. Watch […]

  I joined ‘Inspirational Conversations’ on talkRADIO’s award winning Badass Women’s Hour on May 12th, to talk about the inmates and staff of Holloway Prison. Listen here  

  I chatted about Bad Girls, the history of Holloway Prison and what will happen to the prison site now, with Georgina Godwin on The Weekend Edition, Monocle 24 Radio.

I talked about Bad Girls and the 164-year old history of Holloway Prison with Yasmeen Khan on talkRADIO. Questions ranged from ‘what is the point of prison?’ to what should be done with the derelict Holloway Prison site. Listen here

I chatted to Tina Daheley on Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio4, about Bad Girls and the inmates of Holloway Prison – including Selina Salter, a young girl imprisoned 60 times in the 1860s, the Duchess of Sutherland, jailed in 1893 for contempt of court, and the thousands of Jewish refugees locked up in World War Two […]

After speaking about Mary Size on the Moncrieff Show, two relatives have been in touch to say how happy they are that Mary is ‘finally getting the recognition she deserves’ for her work within the English penal system. They explained that Mary began her career as a English teacher at a local school in County […]

  I chatted to Sean Moncrieff on Newstalk about the history of Holloway Prison, and particularly the great reformer Mary Size (below) who hailed from County Galway. Mary was born in 1883 and became a prison wardress after moving to England. In 1927 she was appointed Deputy Governor of Holloway and introduced a whole range […]

Jo Good has long been interested in prison – she once played a prison officer in the 1999 TV mini series Daylight Robbery – and she had plenty of questions to ask about both inmates and governors at Holloway. She found Bad Girls  ‘such a good read…fascinating.’ Listen here

I joined Open Book, BBC Radio 4, to explain the importance of books to the suffragettes imprisoned in Holloway. While their cells were provided with a book on domestic hygiene, A Perfect Home and How to Keep It, the suffragettes wanted a more challenging read. Some favoured Dickens’ prison novels, others chose the work of […]