We'd Like A Word

26/08/2024

Look, don't blame me. It's in the papers, so I have to share it. No idea why the Bucks Free Press chose THAT picture (paul_waters_writer & Tony Kent - Author) instead of one with Louise Minchin....One and Only Jeffrey Archer Ian Rankin Peter James The Secret Barrister or Dempsey and Makepeace. But you should buy your ticket to in Gerrards Cross on Saturday 5th October, today - all in aid of the Centrepoint charity combatting youth homelessness. NB: I cannot promise that you'll meet Prince William even if he is the patron of Centrepoint and lives nearby. But I hear he's partial to a bit of singing - and we do end the night with our Murder A Song karaoke...

Best-selling authors and TV detectives will be converging on Gerrards Cross for the Chiltern Kills 2024 crime and thriller writing festival on…

24/08/2024

You know I dabble in a bit of festival organising... This year we're not doing badly on booking big names for the Chiltern Kills Crime-Writing Festival in Gerrards Cross (only 20 mins from London Marylebone) on Saturday 5th October. 60 authors on our Marple and Poirot stages, including Ian Rankin Jeffrey Archer Peter James Louise Minchin and The Secret Barrister - not to mention Dempsey and Makepeace, and many more. All tickets go to support Centrepoint combatting youth homelessness, and this year we have special Meet-An-Agent tickets so you can hone your book pitches and put your work-in-progress in front of an agent who is looking to add to their list. Tickets via www.ChilternKills.com We'd love to see you there - and you'll love Ian Rankin's Murder A Song karaoke performance...

22/07/2024

It’s here! Chiltern Kills Crime-Writing Festival 2024 is officially launched! Happening on Saturday 5th October in Gerrards Cross, only 20 mins from London Marylebone. All tickets via www.ChilternKills.com in aid of Centrepoint charity combatting youth homelessness. Featuring Ian Rankin, Jeffrey Archer, Peter James, Louise Minchin, Abir Mukherjee, Dempsey and Makepeace, the Secret Barrister, Harriet Tyce and many more. (You’ll also see me & Tony Kent Writes running around.) You should come. Last year was epic.

13/07/2024

Bienvenue baby! Celebrate Bastille Day at 6pm tomorrow (July 14th) at the Milton’s Cottage Pimms Party. And then watch England winning Euro 2024 afterwards. We’ll hear from Mirabeau, Chateaubriand, Voltaire, Lamartine and the Marseillaise. Tickets from here

The Friends of Milton's Cottage invite you to their annual Pimms party in the Garden of Milton's Cottage. Being the 14th July,...

03/07/2024

We have a new We’d Like A Word episode especially for listeners on JioSaavn in India. Contains hot news about the new IGF Archer-Amish Award for Literature. Bestselling authors Jeffrey Archer and Amish Tripathi tell co-hosts paul_waters_writer and Stevyn Colgan how to enter and what makes this $25,000 writing prize different. Of course you can hear We'd Like A Word on Spotify Apple Podcasts and the usual platforms, but on Jiosaavn it’s here https://www.saavn.com/s/show/wed-like-a-word/1/23.-igf-archer-amish-award-for-literature/cXmxVj3VdD8_?referrer=utm_medium=more&utm_source=more Thanks to the India Global Forum for launching this award.

21/06/2024

Good news! A new episode from the Jaipur Literature Festival at the British Library in London. paul_waters_writer & visiting co-host Jonathan Kennedy go behind the scenes with Mr India movie director Shekhar Kapur, Slumdog Millionaire author Vikas Swarup, JLF International organiser Sanjoy Roy of Teamwork Arts, Nazia Erum who wrote Mothering a Muslim, Irish crime fiction bestselling author Liz Nugent, & Bollywood experts Dr Sunny Singh & Yasser Usman. Lots of insight. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or here https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wed-like-a-word/id1458233596?i=1000658752136 (Soon also to be on Jiosaavn.)

British Library Ultra Bollywood MBC BOLLYWOOD Jaipur Literature Festival Jaipur Literature Festival Diggi Place jaipur

07/06/2024

A new episode of We’d Like A Word with Indian, Pakistani & Bangladeshi authors, poets & thinkers, recorded at the Khushwant Literary Festival at SOAS in London, hosted by paul_waters_writer & a new co-host Jonathan Kennedy. Guests include: Harinder Singh of Sikh Art UK & Sikh Lens on working with the Singh twins & Gopinder Kaur on Jewels From Sikh Wisdom; ; author Nadia K Barb on her book Truth or Dare published by Renard Press ; Farrukh Dhondy on Charles Sobraj ; Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi on her shocking book The Centre; Shirin Wheeler on her book about her father Charles Wheeler; Marina Wheeler on her book about her mother Dip and partition; poet Imtiaz Dharker ; Aneysha Minocha of Quantaco ; & Akshat Rathi of the Zero podcast, Bloomberg Green & author of Climate Capitalism.

Listen here https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wed-like-a-word/id1458233596?i=1000657932069 or wherever you get your podcasts.

NB - Your favourite WLAW host Stevyn Colgan will be back shortly. Phew!

Khushwant Singh SOAS University of London SOAS Library SOAS Library Brunei Gallery, SOAS Sikh Channel We'd Like A Word British Council Madhur Singh

25/05/2024

It was an intimate wee gig with John Hegley. Peace, love & potatoes & Clare Elstow the other evening at Miltons Cottage Museum with me (Paul Waters) & Stevyn Colgan for the We'd Like A Word podcast, but our lively audience drank all the booze, shouted a lot & asked questions about poetry, music & comedy. You can hear a condensed version of it - with essential Andy Daymond, Dan Draper, Gary Sired, Philip Sheppard & co wherever you get your podcasts or here https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wed-like-a-word/id1458233596?i=1000656719373 Chalfont St Giles & Jordans Literary Festival Chalfont St Giles Parish Council Seer Green Village John Milton

18/05/2024

This from my mate and We'd Like A Word partner Stevyn Colgan is cute. It’s from his puzzlingly popular Colganology YouTube channel about folk oddities (is that right Steve?). A visit to the Miltons Cottage Museum with added John Hegley performance…

Well, this was a treat. In fact, it was a double treat!My podcasting colleague Paul Waters and I hosted a live WE'D LIKE A WORD event this week. Our guest wa...

03/05/2024

Calling all music, poetry, Hegley & locals - I'm putting on this charity event on Thursday 16th May with national treasure John Hegley in Chalfont St Giles. Please come. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poet-john-hegley-live-at-miltons-cottage-chalfont-st-giles-tickets-803161306087

09/04/2024

Book covers - how to make them, what works, what doesn’t, and why do so many look the same? Find out from award-winning designer Mark Ecob with me ( paul_waters_writer )& Stevyn Colgan on the latest We'd Like A Word books & authors podcast.

‎Show We'd Like A Word, Ep 19. Book cover design with Mark Ecob (Part 1) - 7 Apr 2024

07/04/2024

That bloke with whom I host the We'd Like A Word books &authors podcast, Stevyn Colgan, also has a v popular YouTube channel called Colganology. Lots on the countryside, arcane lore, esoterica, Cornish traditions & me - having a pint in The Harp. (Lovely pub on Chandos Street in London.)

This week the subscriber count on this Youtube channel has gone ever so slightly bonkers. Thank you SO much! And thank you to those of you who have just popp...

06/04/2024

A lovely place

02/04/2024

Tickets on sale for an intimate charity evening with national treasure poet John Hegley at Miltons Cottage Museum in Chalfont St Giles on Thursday 16th May. It’s in the cottage where John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, so you’ll be very up close and personal. It’ll be recorded for later broadcast via the We'd Like A Word podcast with me paul_waters_writer & Stevyn Colgan. Music & poetry from John Hegley & Clare Elstow

National treasure John Hegley - poet, comedian & musician - live at Milton's Cottage, brought to you by the We'd Like A Word podcast

19/01/2024

National poetic treasure John Hegley will be appearing with the award-winning We'd Like A Word podcast (me & Stevyn Colgan) at the Chalfont St Giles & Jordans Literary Festival on Thursday 16th May at Miltons Cottage Museum. The cottage dates from the 1500s. John Milton dictated his epic poem Paradise Lost inside. It's a small space, so the event will be intimate - and raise funds for the cottage. Book your ticket before they're sold out. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poet-john-hegley-live-at-miltons-cottage-chalfont-st-giles-tickets-803161306087?aff=oddtdtcreator

02/01/2024

If you were at the Chiltern Kills Crime-Writing Festival you may be in the new episode of the We'd Like A Word books & authors podcast with me (paul_waters_writer / Paul Waters) & Stevyn Colgan. You’ll also hear Frederick Forsyth, Tony Kent - Author /Tony Kent Writes Leye Adenle Catherine Quinn Laura Marshall Derek Farrell Rachel Ward Sophia Bennett Susi Holliday Jenny Blackhurst Phil Williams Natalie Jamieson Laurie Stone Sue Dorman + exclusive reveals of who is appearing at the next on 5th October 2024 in Gerrards Cross

‎Show We'd Like A Word, Ep 16. Chiltern Kills crime writing festival with Frederick Forsyth - 28 Dec 2023

07/12/2023

The poet Benjamin Zephaniah has died. I had this poem of his on the wall of my house. Always liked sharing it. You should seek out his others. Kirsty Allison has another good one on her feed, The British. This one is White Comedy.

08/10/2023

The forecast today is glorious sunshine and murder at Chiltern Kills Crime-Writing Festival at Colston Hall, East Common in Gerrards Cross. 70 top crime authors, surprisingly varied tote bags (come with free Bellini), tickets on the door from 9am-11pm with all proceeds to Centrepointuk youth homeless charity. See you there…

07/10/2023

You knew this was coming - Chiltern Kills Crime-Writing Festival is tomorrow, 9am-11pm in Gerrards Cross. It’ll be sunny and fab. Tickets via www.ChilternKills.com in aid of Centrepointuk homeless charity

04/10/2023

So after a financial scandal finished his career as an MP, and he went to prison, and sold more than 300 million books (+ his latest, Traitors Gate), and entered the House of Lords, Jeffrey Archer met me & Stevyn Colgan for an episode of our We'd Like A Word books & authors podcast to reveal the secrets of a master storyteller. We really enjoyed recording it. I think you’ll enjoy hearing it - wherever you get your podcasts or here https://spotify.link/28RTY3iLCDb

04/10/2023

Just been to see Frederick Forsyth who is plotting a revelatory session on stage with Phil Williams of BBC Radio 2 at the Chiltern Kills Crime-Writing Festival THIS SATURDAY 7th October in Gerrards Cross. Loads of author top authors there too + many other treats. Tickets via www.ChilternKills.com with all proceeds to Centrepointuk youth homeless charity. See you there…

30/09/2023

I know what you did next Saturday - went wild at the Chiltern Kills Crime-Writing Festival in Gerrards Cross… 70 top crime & thriller authors, free Bellinis, panels & signings; the world premiere of a new play, Murder She Kinda Wrote; Murder A Song karaoke; bulging tote bags with your own personal pesto (I know, bizarre, right?) & free books. Out themed bar, the Marple Stage, the Poirot stage, 2 bars. All proceeds in aid of the Centrepointuk youth homeless charity. Even if I wasn’t organising it I’d still be there because it’ll be a hoot. And even more hooting with you there too. Tickets via www.ChilternKills.com

11/09/2023

This is good. Chiltern Kills is in The Bookseller magazine. Get your ticket for a “rollercoaster of crime” on Oct 7th with 70 authors in Gerrards Cross. Tickets £40 via www.ChilternKills.com in aid of the Centrepointuk youth homeless charity https://www.thebookseller.com/news/mackintosh-ware-and-more-confirmed-for-inaugural-chiltern-kills-crime-writing-festival

Authors Frederick Forsyth, Mark Billingham, Claire Mackintosh and Ruth Ware are among a raft of crime authors confirmed as part of the programme for the first ever Chiltern Kills crime writing festival in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.

11/09/2023

Hi folks - we’ve been hacked on Instagram. Please go to We’d Like A Word and report the account as hacked. Thank you

11/09/2023

My Insta account paul_waters_author has been hacked. If you’re able, please report it. Meanwhile I’m not really a bitcoin mogul.

10/06/2023

New episode for the books & authors podcast: Hosts & hear from bestselling Indian writer of historical fiction inside the very grand in . And the chat takes unexpected turns… Amish’s latest book is War Of Lanka based on Indian epic tales from thousands of years ago. But he must be adding something fresh to sell so many millions of copies. This is a 3-part episode available free on or wherever you get your podcasts.

07/06/2023

Help! We (me @ ) are interviewing & .author on the books & authors podcast tomorrow. We’d love to include your questions & comments. Add in the comments below or via email wedlikeaword AT gmail DOT com
Amish is the author of the Shiva trilogy & the Ram Chandra series - of which the latest is War of Lanka. He’s also an Indian diplomat. Very keen on Indian history & myth & faith.
Ajay is a v successful tech entrepreneur. He was behind Shazam! He’s also the author of the Kamil Rahman crime fiction series - the latest is The Detective.
Two fascinating & big selling writers.
But are they - and all authors - in danger of professional extinction from the threat of artificial intelligence & Chat GPT. Or is AI an opportunity?