Podcasts, time machines, and mushroom biryani

The other day I talked to fellow writer & Bristol pal Nikesh Shukla for his excellent podcast, The Subaltern. He's interviewed some amazing authors down the years so it was a treat to be asked. We talked about the duff tag 'aspiring' when attached to 'writer', problematic searches for book titles, and, um, our mutual adoration of donkeys... You can listen to our podcast HERE.

Nikesh's novella, The Time Machine, was published just recently. It's a moving story about one man's mission to recreate the food his mother used to make. The Time Machine is available as an e-book and costs just £1, with all proceeds going to the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. With its beautifully-described connections between the food we eat and the people we love, as well as enticing recipes, it'll soon have you craving Indian food... Buy it HERE - you'll be doing something good for charity, and yourself.

When I first moved to London, a country bumpkin lost in the city, my boyfriend and I discovered an amazing little neighbourhood restaurant called Hot Stuff. It remains one of my all-time favourite Indian restaurants, and I wrote about the experience of finding it (and finding our way in The Big Smoke) for Nikesh's blog - you can read my piece Bright Lights, Big City, Hot Stuff HERE.