Pod Insights Happy Place Book Club Meets: Fate, mortality, and psychics, with Liane Moriarty About this episode Is your fate already pre-determined? Or do you feel you have true free will to dictate your own destiny? ...and if you could, would you want to find out when you’re going to die? These are the questions Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment grapples with.
Here One Moment was our Happy Place Book Club read for November, and Liane joins Fearne to chat about why she wanted to explore chaos, chance, mortality, and psychic abilities in this novel.
Fearne and Liane talk about the importance of having ‘main character energy’ in your own life, while also acknowledging that others are living their own fully formed lives too.
Plus, how good are you at expressing yourself creatively without worrying how your efforts will be received? They talk through how to find intrinsic motivation for creative pursuits rather than relying on external praise...
Thank you to Penguin Audio for the use of Here One Moment audiobook, narrated by Caroline Lee.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 Hi, I'm Natalie Dormer and I'm proud to be an ambassador for Childline. This year, Childline turns 40. To mark it, I've made Child on the Line, a three-part documentary podcast. We hear why children needed a helpline in 1986, how it was built against the odds and the challenges children face today, from abuse and mental health to social media and AI. Search Child on the Line and listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:28 Speaker 01 Later, not a single person will recall seeing the lady board the flight at Hobart Airport.
0:33 Fearne Cotton? Welcome to the Happy Place Book Club with me, Fern Cotton.
0:37 Speaker 01 Nothing about her appearance or demeanor raises a red flag or even an eyebrow.
0:41 Fearne Cotton? Today, Hear One Moment by Leon Moriarty.
0:44 Speaker 01 One thing is clear: the lady is a lady. Not a single person will later describe her as a woman or a female. Obviously, no one will describe her as a girl. There is uncertainty about her age. Possibly early 60s, maybe in her 50s, definitely in her 70s. Early 80s? As old as your mother, as old as your daughter, as old as your auntie, your boss, your university lecturer. The unaccompanied minor will describe her as a very old lady. The elderly couple will describe her as a middle-aged lady.
1:25 Speaker 01 Maybe it's her grey hair that places her so squarely in the category of lady. It is the soft silver of an expensive kitten. Shoulder length, nicely styled, good hair, good grey. The sort of grey that makes you consider going grey yourself. One day, not yet.
1:44 Speaker 01 The lady is small and petite, but not so small and petite as to require solicitousness. She does not attract benevolent smiles or offers of assistance. Looking at her does not make you think of how much you miss your grandmother. Looking at her does not make you think anything at all. You could not guess her profession, personality, or star sign. You could not be bothered.
2:10 Speaker 01 You wouldn't say she was invisible as such. Maybe semi-transparent.
2:18 Speaker 01 The lady is not strikingly beautiful or unfortunately ugly. She wears a pretty green and white patterned collared blouse tucked in at the waistband of slim, fitting grey pants. Her shoes are flat and sensible. She is not unusually pierced or bejewelled or tattooed. She has small silver studs in her ears and a silver brooch pinned to the collar of her shirt, which she often touches as if to check that it's still there.
2:46 Speaker 01 Which is all to say, the lady who will later become known as the Death Lady on the delayed 3.20pm flight from Hobart to Sydney, is not worthy of a second glance, not by anyone, not a single crew member, not a single passenger, not until she does what she does.
3:07 Speaker 01 Even then, it takes longer than you might expect for the first person to shout, for someone to begin filming, for call buttons to start lighting up and dinging all over the cabin like a pinball machine.
3:21 Fearne Cotton? So, we're on a plane, we've got a flight attendant who's working on her birthday, a mum struggling with her two young children, a young man returning from his best friend's funeral, all these people in this small space who are all on their own journeys. But they're about to encounter an elderly woman who in just a few words will make a prediction that will tie them all to her and to each other. This is the plot of Leon Moriarty's Here One Moment, which was our Happy Place Book Club pick for November. Now, obviously, the best part about a book club is that we all get to read a book together and chat about it afterwards, which is exactly what you've all been doing on Instagram over on at Happy Place Book Club. This is what Sarah made of the book.
4:04 Fearne Cotton? I read this book and I've never read another Leon.
4:08 Speaker 03 Liane Moriarty book. So I had absolutely no idea what to expect. And when I started reading it, I thought, oh, you can tell what's going to happen to all the characters because she's predicting what's going to happen. And in some cases it did, but in others it didn't. And I couldn't put it down. I just enjoyed finding out about everybody. I just thought I'd worked out what was going to happen and it didn't. And it kept me guessing. So I thought it was an amazing book. Really, really good. I'm so glad you've chosen it for the book club.
4:37 Fearne Cotton? Yeah, thanks, Sarah. You're so right. The plot really keeps you guessing. I just couldn't stop guessing till the end. Okay, Flair has asked a question. Love that, Flair. Give it to me.
4:47 Speaker 04 So I'm an author of non-fiction and I'm always so interested in the creative process for fiction writers. Especially in stories with multiple characters, um interconnected storylines and plots. So what I was wondering about here one moment is, do you think that Leanne writes each character's story out in full and then splits them up and makes connections in between? And do you think she follows the same creative process and plot development and editing structure for each of her books?
5:20 Fearne Cotton? Hmm, that's bloody interesting, Flair. I wish I'd asked her that question.
5:27 Fearne Cotton? It's a really, really good question. Well, having spoken to Leon, I think her process is pretty fluid and she's going with the flow without a huge plan. You'll hear her say that. So I don't think she wrote out each personal story then split them. I think she went, she kind of just wrote as she went with it. For me, I mean, probably quite similar, I think, to what I'm imagining Leon's processes, which is just to sort of let the story unfold. I, well, Scripted was my first novel, which I released in June this year. And obviously I'd never been through that process, although I've written a lot of non-fiction books. But I was pretty thorough in working out the characters' motivation and why they were acting in such a way.
6:10 Fearne Cotton? But I didn't write a sort of bio for them. I just tried to incrementally draw out their path throughout the story. Okay, let's get to Leon then. By the way. That is how you pronounce her name. Oh, fucking hell. I called her Leanne, didn't I? What a dick. Um, I've been calling her Leanne for years, just thinking it was Leanne. Why didn't I think there's only one N? It's got to be Leon. I didn't. But do you know what? As I said, Leanne at the start of the chat, I thought, forgive yourself, Fern. Forgive yourself. You're a human. You're fallible. You make mistakes like everyone. Don't beat yourself up about it. And I got over the embarrassment in, I reckon, three seconds, which is a new personal best for me. So I'm pretty glad about that.
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8:10 Fearne Cotton? Right, let's do it. Here's the show.
8:34 Fearne Cotton? Hey Leanne.
8:35 Speaker 01 Hello Fern. Now, I should say, it's actually Leon.
8:38 Fearne Cotton? Leon?
8:40 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:41 Fearne Cotton? Why am I only learning that now? I've been calling you Leanne for a thousand years.
8:46 Speaker 01 I know, a lot of people do. It's my mum's fault, but it's actually Leon. I'm not being posh.
8:54 Fearne Cotton? No, no, no. Look, I've got a weird name, spelled really strangely, and no one ever either says my name right or spells it right, so I feel your pain. I get it.
9:03 Speaker 01 We're together, yeah.
9:04 Fearne Cotton? We're together in this. I'm so happy to talk to you today. We find you towards the end of your day and very much the beginning of mine. You're in sunny Australia, we're in extremely cold London. It's something like minus one here today, and we've had a bit of snow, and it's just really quite miserable, actually. How's things your end?
9:25 Speaker 01 Actually, it's been a little bit of a grey day, but yes, it's warm. Having said that, I quite like the cold, so I'd rather be over there.
9:35 Fearne Cotton? I don't know. This is the sort of cold where you can't get warm unless you have a bath, or like neck a lot of soup. You just can't get warm, it's impossible.
9:45 Speaker 01 Yes, I know what you mean, but I love the excuse to have a bath.
9:48 Fearne Cotton? Oh, me too. I love a bath. Speaking of which, my favourite place to read is in the bath, and this bloody brilliant book of yours, here one moment, this is our Happy Place Book Club pick for November. I read it in about three days. I couldn't put it down, I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's just, I'm just so in awe of your writing and your characters and the plot. It's just the most brilliant. I love all of your books, but I really bloody loved this.
10:18 Fearne Cotton? Now, the idea for this book came to you whilst you were actually sat on the tarmac, waiting to take off on a plane. I'm always so fascinated, whether I'm talking to authors or musicians, how these ideas arrive. There's some sort of strange magic to it. It's not like you're sat there brainstorming. Often when a great song or a great book lands in your head, it feels quite otherworldly, like something's arrived out of your control. Talk to me about how this idea came to you.
10:49 Speaker 01 Well firstly, thank you so much for choosing the book. Book, I'm for the lovely things you've said about the book. Uh, because I'm in the middle of writing a new one, so I'm still, I'm, I need the approval. Thank you.
11:03 Speaker 01 Uh huh. So I was sitting, you're right. I was sitting on a plane and I'd just left Tasmania, which is the little island state at the bottom of Australia. And I'd had a week's writing, which meant that I'd been on my own for a week. And I do find, you know, I'm quite an introverted person, but when I've spent that long on my own, I do find myself turning into my mother. Uh, in that I start talking to people in shops. So I can always remember, uh, on that trip, actually, that I bought some earrings and I wanted to chat so much to the woman behind the counter that I made up a whole story about how they were for my sister and she's allergic to certain types of earrings.
11:48 Speaker 01 Um, and my sister, who's a lawyer, said I was contractually obliged to give her those earrings, which I did not. But that was my frame of mind. I think that my, I was sort of inward looking. And yeah, I was on this flight and, oh, this is crucial to the story. I did not have a book. And so it was one of those, um, times when you're all buckled in and then they keep saying, okay, just it'll be another 10 minutes, another 10 minutes. And people were starting to make phone calls to people back home cancelling things. And then I was looking around at all the people
12:26 Speaker 01 and the thought came into my mind that every single passenger on this flight was going to one day die. And when I think back to that time, there are a few reasons why I think I had my mortality on my mind. Um, there are a few things that happened. First of all, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. Uh, then we lost our dad. Then we had the pandemic. And then I myself was diagnosed with breast cancer. And also, I think just being in my 50s, it's a time in your life when people around you, every event, we sit down and we start talking about all our ailments. That thought, when it came into my mind, I was thinking about the fact that one day,
13:10 Speaker 01 at some point in the future, somebody would be, that information would be available as to how each of us on that flight had died. So the age and cause of our death, so I guess 100 years from now, somebody would be able to look that up. And it sort of blew my mind that those were actual facts. There's just no doubt about that. Those were just facts that were not available yet. And that's when I thought, imagine if somebody stood up and started walking down the plane and shared those facts right now.
13:46 Fearne Cotton? Oh my god, I mean, it's, I love how the idea formed. But also the fact that you can explain the plot of the book essentially in that one sentence of imagining that woman standing up and pointing at people gives me goosebumps. It's just so bloody brilliant. And the subject of death is so interesting. I'm writing my second novel at the moment. And my first novel was quite light and, I mean, there was some sort of deeply important messaging to me in there, but it was, there was some humour and whatnot. But this new one, I've really honed in on death. I started writing it maybe a year ago and probably for reasons similar to the ones
14:29 Fearne Cotton? that you've described, death's been on my mind, you know, losing a friend and other reasons. And it is a really strange subject to write about. It's very confronting at times, you know, there's no escape for any of us with that one. It's deeply confronting and can be terrifying, but also just completely mind blowing. It's such a sort of abstract concept almost. It's such a strange topic to look at. Whilst you were writing the book, or perhaps after you finished writing the book, did your thoughts around death change at all? Did you have a slightly different perspective of it post finishing the book?
15:11 Speaker 01 That's an interesting question. Did I? I think I went into it thinking that I could work something out, that I could. Find some answer to it because it's exactly as you say, it's so abstract. And I started reading a lot of books about death. None of those really found their way into the book. Um, you know, a lot of research about how we we respond if we're primed to think about death. Apparently we spend more money if we think about death, so it helps capitalism.
15:43 Fearne Cotton? What's that about? Why do we do that? Why do we think, oh shit, I'm gonna die, I better buy some shoes. What's that about?
15:49 Speaker 01 Yeah, I I guess that's something, I'm trying to remember now. See, that's all the sort of thing that um I I learned at the time. But then I realised that if you were told this is when you're going to die, then the first thing you'd think is, number one, I don't believe it. It's exactly the same if you got a terrible diagnosis, then you you you know, you go through those stages. So you'd say, I don't believe it, I want a second opinion. And then you'd do everything you could to fight it. So um you'd um get, you'd say, I want to try any sort of clinical trial that there is. So I think then I thought, actually, I started thinking more about fate
16:30 Speaker 01 and how I could control my own destiny. I don't know that I really did by the end of it think, I certainly didn't come up with any answers. So I don't know that I changed what I I expect that I still avoid thinking about it and still secretly think that it's not going to happen.
16:49 Fearne Cotton? Well, it's too big of a thing for us to land on and go. You you just can't, like when you start thinking, oh my god, someone's gonna live in my house one day, like a hundred years. It's just, it's too much to cope with, it's too much to bear, I can't think about it. And okay, so let's talk about fate, because this is another theme in the book that I just loved and I I found it deeply interesting. We should probably explain for people that haven't read it so far, that the protagonist Cherry is thought to be a psychic, I won't say too much more because I don't want to ruin anything, but it's thought to be psychic at the start of the book, having these these ideas of how people on the flight are going to die and when. And also her own mother was a fortune teller. What were your thoughts going into the book about mediums? Or even, okay, I guess there's two topics.
17:34 Fearne Cotton? There's the sort of medium psychic part of it, but there's also the element of fate and destiny. And whether, I guess, you think we're all just here bumbling along, random things happening to us, and it's completely out of our control, and we're just sort of, I don't know, it's just a chaotic universe of people bumping into one another. Or do we have some sort of preordained path that we are walking down, whether we like it or not? And have your thoughts changed on that since diving into it?
18:06 Speaker 01 Well, first of all, so as you say, there's so many parts to it. So with the psychics and the mediums, I'm a skeptic, but I'm desperate to believe. So I would love, you know, I'd love if there was a medium that could put me in touch with my dad, but I would be very skeptical. I would not be one of those ones who the moment they said, oh, he loves you very much, that would not be enough. I'd want, I'd want more. And the same with fortune tellers. People tell me stories and I love hearing those stories. But for me, I haven't, I haven't found anybody who's impressed me.
18:46 Speaker 01 It was funny, I saw somebody and she said, your daughter, she likes the finer things in life. And she's 14 and she does very much like the finer things in life.
18:59 Fearne Cotton? Because she's on TikTok, probably.
19:01 Speaker 01 Exactly. So she likes whatever TikTok tells her to like.
19:04 Fearne Cotton? Yeah.
19:06 Speaker 01 She likes all those designers that I don't even know. But when I told her, she said, oh, who doesn't like the finer things in life? So there's that. Then there's this idea of fate, which I think I've always thought, and I've really thought about it a lot when I was writing this book. I think fate's a lovely thing to think about for good things. So it's really lovely for me to think, I had to go through all the bad boyfriends to meet my lovely husband. And of course, I was Always meant to be a writer. And thanks to my sister who was published first, but that was always meant to happen. And it could not have been any other way.
19:47 Speaker 01 But then when I think of people whose lives are cut short and who seem to have such bad luck sometimes. When you can't believe um the things that have happened to them. Then I can't think that that was always meant to be their fate. It doesn't work for me anymore thinking that it was always ordained that this ten year old would um die in this this terrible way. I can't, I can't, I don't believe that.
20:16 Fearne Cotton? Um.
20:16 Speaker 01 So I think it's probably as you began that it's all chaos. And I know a lot of people don't like to, they don't like to think that. And I think it's a natural inclination to try to find patterns and to try. And you may as well think that, why not? And why not think that the um the lovely things are ordained? And when the bad things happen, you can do what you can to cope with those things.
20:42 Fearne Cotton? Exactly, and I love that in the book, you know, you you forensically look at these subjects. But without applying your opinion or thoughts on any of it, I think you get to the end of the book and you think, oh, God, I'm I'm none the wiser. I don't, I don't know if I've got an opinion or not, and I love that about the book. You don't come away going, that's it, I I understand that we are destined to walk down this path. Or that, you know, that psychics definitely are right. You know, it's so brilliantly open ended and and a brilliant conversation starter, which is why I'm also excited to have it as our book club pick, because I just think people are going to have so much to say on all of these topics and what it what it means to them and and how it's perhaps shaped their life as well.
21:25 Fearne Cotton? So so look, we've got Cherry, the protagonist, who who we've mentioned already, who is the lady that stands up on the flight and has all of these ideas about how people are going to die and when. But then, of course, you've got these other key characters who are the beneficiary of such news. And they're really important characters. You've got all different types of people in there, from a flight attendant to a stressed out mother to a cool younger girl. Where did those characters come from? How do you, that seems like it needs more thought as to the kinds of stories that you want to tell alongside this, this bigger idea. How did they land in your head?
22:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, you'd think, you'd think there would be more thought that went into that. But when I try to look back, I'm trying to think, where did they all, I mean, obviously, you, I, you need, and because it's on a plane, you've got to have a variety of people. And I wanted all different ages and all different situations. But I honestly can't remember, and because I don't plan my books, I just started writing that scene where she stands up. So I must have had the very first character who responds to her, who's the civil engineer, the stressed out civil engineer. But I don't think then I knew any of the other characters.
22:43 Speaker 01 And I think maybe because he was sitting next to an older couple, I think probably they weren't meant to be important. They were just their minor characters in his life, which I always think is really interesting. You know, when you, you hear from somebody you haven't thought about for a long time and you think, but you were just a minor character in my life. But it's gone on, they've gone on living. We all think we're main characters.
23:11 Fearne Cotton? We're the star of the show. We're the star of the show.
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24:50 Fearne Cotton? Looking at your previous ginormous success in terms of not only book sales, but also adaptations for TV. When you start writing a book, is that now in the back of your mind? Like, this is probably going to be a huge TV show, and does that change how you write?
25:05 Speaker 01 No, it really doesn't. People think that it does, and I think people read it very much thinking that she's writing that way. But I've always had characters thinking one thing and then saying something else. I've always had a lot of introspection. I always say with Nine Perfect Strangers, there was one review that said she wrote it with one eye on the screen. But I had, it was a silent retreat for days and days. There wasn't a word of dialogue. So I think if I started thinking about that, then I would have to start putting in more dialogue. So, no. The only tiny thing that just from seeing the actors and how they inhabit the roles.
25:51 Speaker 01 And I really noticed how they build roles the same way that that we as authors. We look around and we notice things about people in our lives and we take little bits and pieces. I noticed that they do the same thing and but one thing they have to do is really think about certain gestures. So they've got to create a walk. And I always remember Meryl Streep in Big Little Lies, she was wearing a crucifix. And she kept on tapping it to her lip. And I was thinking, oh, she probably saw somebody doing that. And so one little thing that I've done is just because I often write down little things to remind myself and I just write down the word gestures as in don't forget that's another way to help build a character.
26:35 Fearne Cotton? Oh, I like that. I might be stealing that. I like that a lot.
26:39 Speaker 01 You can have it.
26:40 Fearne Cotton? Thank you so much. Do you worry about that then? So, you know, because it's very clear that with all of your characters, we do feel like we're in their heads. We're not just experiencing them in a dynamic where where it's all about the dialogue and how they're moving. We're very much in their psyche. Do you worry with those adaptations for TV that that won't translate in the way that you desire? Or is there just a moment where you've just got to let go and it is what it is?
27:08 Speaker 01 Yes, exactly. It is what it is. And I've I've done that from the beginning because I think if I started to hold on, then I'd want to hold on to everything. And I'd want to say, no, you've got to say it like this. You've got to look like this. And so I made a conscious decision to to let go. And I think some of them, they read the book and they maybe take, they use it as part of their preparation. Actors I think say they don't want to read the book, they want to only do the script. And the character becomes something entirely different. So I think it's another medium.
27:47 Speaker 01 Oh, that's the other thing I always think that's really interesting is that um people often come up to me at events. And they say something about the book and they get it a tiny bit wrong. And I know because I wrote the book. But there's something that's just um, you know, they might describe a beach. And I think, no, I never said that. But I've come to realise that it's something from their own imagination. So when they're when they're um uh reading the beach scene, they're seeing a beach from their own childhood. So therefore, every single reader has their own little adaptation going on in their head. So it's my imagination and their imagination.
28:31 Speaker 01 So therefore, every actor that comes in, there's all their own experiences that are coming in. And there's the director and there's, it's not meant to be um. Somebody somehow taking something that was in my head and literally putting it on the screen. I can sometimes see where they've tried too hard to be faithful. And I think, oh, I can imagine this came from the book and it would have worked really well in the book. But as a viewer, I'm thinking, why have we gone off on this weird little tangent? It's not working out.
29:03 Fearne Cotton? It's so interesting. I think this is why I just love books so much is that. You do have that autonomy as a reader to create your own version of that world. And I very often find myself, you know, I could be reading a scene in any fiction. And for some reason, I'll always go back to one of my friend's houses in childhood, in the little town that I grew up in. And I end up in Lucy's mum and dad's kitchen. And I'm like, why am I thinking of that kitchen? And it's so strange how you conflate it with your own history and your own ideas. And I love that about reading. It's just sort of, it's just, it's endless imagination. On that note. You know, I wrote a lot of non-fiction before I started writing fiction.
29:48 Fearne Cotton? And I did hit a bit of a wall where, you know, I don't like to plan my books too much either in terms of, well, I must in the next two years, write a book about this subject. You know, usually something happens in my life and I think, God, that was fucking awful. Let me write about it or whatever, or something brilliant. But I did hit a bit of a wall and I'm still in that space. Hence why I'm now exploring fiction, which seems to be more endless in terms of, I'm just having ideas constantly and observing what's going on around me. But I do wonder, do you ever fear after writing something as sensational as this book, well, all of your books, that there won't be another idea? That another story won't form in quite that way?
30:29 Fearne Cotton? That means you're that motivated to start that climb up a massive mountain of writing a novel? Because I think it's such a long process. It can be utterly laborious. You know, once you've started, you've got to continue because otherwise you've wasted months on nothing. Do you ever worry that that motivation or that idea just won't land in the future?
30:52 Speaker 01 Um, well, in a way, I think, because sometimes when I've looked at reader responses, I have seen people said that, um, that I peaked with, um, Big Little Lies and...
31:04 Fearne Cotton? That's bollocks!
31:05 Speaker 01 I know, but, but do you know what I mean? So therefore, and The Husband's Secret, and a few people have said that. And so therefore I, I, I feel like that actually has happened, that it won't be as... Because I think a lot of people really liked the thriller side of those books. And, and because I'm not the person I was back then, so maybe I'm, maybe I can never write that sort of book again. Stephen King was saying something that I was reading where he's saying, uh, no, but now I can't remember, so I shouldn't go off on this tangent. I'm not about to say anything interesting. He said something, he said something. Stephen King said something.
31:47 Speaker 01 Um, it was, it was something about, I think it was just about how you have some readers who like some of your books and not the others. And that people have said to him, oh, it's never been as good as such and such. So I think I've come to accept that it's not the end of the world when, um, when people will say, that people will definitely... Certainly tell me, oh, I didn't like that one. And yeah, it's never been as good as such and such. I think the motivation has to come that because there's always this wonderful point. When I'm about a third of the way through writing a book, where it's just absolute pleasure.
32:28 Speaker 01 And also, there's also this weird thing, which I'm at the moment where I think, well, nobody can. I mean, you're saying lovely things, but not everybody's said lovely things. And so I'm at the point where I think, well, nobody can hurt me now because it's all out there. The nice things have been said, the mean things have been said. Now I can just write again, and that's the best bit.
32:51 Fearne Cotton? Yeah, I think, you know, with anything that anyone does, certainly creatively. I think your motivation has to be it's because I'm loving the process because the rest is out of our hands. And I guess the tricky thing for you, having had such major success, is the benchmark is so high. But, you know, I mean, there's so many things I could say. One is, I just think the world now, you know, people are so used to thinking they can critique things. They don't really know anything about from, you know, in terms of skill set needed or any of it. It's just so easy to have an opinion and put it out there. And I think sometimes writers, artists, actors, whoever.
33:36 Fearne Cotton? Feel almost forced to take on feedback that's kind of irrelevant. Because it's just someone probably having a bit of a shit day and channeling something into something. That's not related to their own lives. I don't know. You're one of those authors for me that I know that because I love the style, the pace that you. That you use in your books, I'll read anything that you write in a similar way to Taylor Jenkins Reid. When people give her shit about certain books, I'm like, I love all of them. For me, there's no peak. It's just they're all an absolute joy. And for me, this one was just such an amazing sense of escapism. But also, as a, you know, I find it, I'm troubled by saying that I'm a writer, even though I've written lots of books.
34:20 Fearne Cotton? But I still feel like a fucking fraud. But anyway, as a writer, I, I learn so much when I'm reading your books about. What the rules are and what they don't have to be and that you don't have to, I don't know, I found this book particularly pacey and that taught me a lot about, yeah, just get to the fucking thing, like what's happened, what's the next thing and where are we going with this and, you know, so I'm, I'm here to massively big you up without any other commentary. I just loved it and I love all your books and I think you're just bloody amazing.
34:50 Speaker 01 Oh, well, you're, you're wonderful. And I think you're right that, that there's a certain core group of readers, and I've come to realise that, who will stay with me to the end.
35:00 Fearne Cotton? Yeah.
35:00 Speaker 01 And maybe, yeah, maybe a lot of the thrillers as I'm writing different sorts of books. And I, I think I'll keep going. And yeah, that certain readers will, will stay with me and it doesn't matter.
35:12 Fearne Cotton? I think it'd be so boring if every successful author stuck to exactly what their original offering was. I, I, I think it'd be boring for you, it'd be boring for the reader, like, just, I don't know, I just think push the boundaries and do, do the thing that feels right. And, oh, well, I just loved this book. I loved it so much. And it is just the, the perfect source of escapism and great storytelling. And, and just thank you so much for, for writing it and for chatting to me today. It's been an absolute privilege.
35:48 Speaker 01 Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. It's been like a little therapy session for me to get back to, to get back to my work. Thank you.
35:55 Fearne Cotton? Yes, get back to that next book.
35:57 Speaker 01 I will. And you are a writer. You, you definitely are. You are. Don't feel fraudulent at all.
36:04 Fearne Cotton? Oh, Leon. Leon. Well, if you're telling me not to feel fraudulent about calling myself a writer, maybe I'll get on board with that. I still find it so hard. I've written 15 books and I still can't say it. Anyway, I'll get over it. It's because I didn't go to uni, I'm all insecure, blah, blah, blah. Here One Moment was a Happy Place recommended read for November. And if you follow at Happy Place Book Club on Instagram, you'll find lots of extra content and discussions about that book and loads of other recommendations too. Do you want to start reading along with us every month? Please do. December's book is called She Speaks and it's by Dame Harriet Walter. Now she has played so many of Shakespeare's female characters in her acting career.
36:47 Fearne Cotton? So with this book, she's reading between the lines and reimagining what some of them might actually be saying. It's bloody fascinating. I'll be chatting to Harriet on the podcast in a couple of weeks, so do listen out for that episode. For now though, a huge thank you again to Leon, to the producer, Anushka Tate at Happy Place Studios, and to you, because you're brilliant.
38:03 Speaker 07 This message is brought to you by the Capital One Venture X Card. Venture X offers the premium benefits you expect, like a $300 annual Capital One travel credit for less than you expect. Elevate your earn with unlimited double miles on every purchase, bringing you one step closer to your next dream destination. Plus, enjoy access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. The Capital One Venture X Card. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. Lounge access is subject to change. See CapitalOne.com for details.
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