For the latest SWH! podcast Ali spoke to writer and journalist Olga Wojtas about her novels Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar and Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Vampire Menace (both published on the Contraband imprint of Saraband Books).
Olga is one of warmest, wittiest, and downright readable writers around, and it was such a pleasure to be able to talk about her writing, the influences and inspirations behind the ‘Miss Blaine’s Prefect’ books, what she actually thinks about Muriel Spark and The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, the importance of a good mentor – and of a supportive publisher, the joy of writing about other times, people, and places, and why proper research is not just vital, but a pleasure.
The two chat about their concerns for journalists and good journalism, something which has been a bit of an regular theme on our podcasts recently, and you also get a strong lockdown reading recommendation as it turns out Ali and Olga are currently reading the same novel. What is it? You’ll have to listen to the end to find out…
If you are new to the Scots Whay Hae! podcast there is quite a substantial back-catalogue for you to discover. If you aren’t yet a subscriber you can do so, (or simply listen) at iTunes, on Podbean, with Spotify, by RSS (but you’ll need to have an RSS reader to do so) or on MixCloud.
You can also download the podcast by clicking on the relevant link to the right of this post, or, if you want it right here, right now, you can listen on SoundCloud…
..or on YouTube…
We will continue to bring you many and varied SWH! podcasts in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime you can always check out our back catalogue of over 150 interviews with some of the most interesting names in Scottish culture, including our Scottish Opera series and the Glasgow Film Festival 2020 podcasts.