Quick Book Reviews with Philippa Hall

Philippa welcomes back Alison Barrow, PR director at Transworld, fresh from Capital Crime, for a fascinating look behind the curtain of book publishing and promotion.
The Business of Book PR
Alison shares insights from a recent masterclass on author publicity, including the eye-opening shift in how many times someone now needs to see a book before buying — and why there's no single magic trick to a successful launch.
They discuss:
Why book promotion is "an amalgamation of things" rather than one big lever to pull
How publishers start thinking about a book's positioning years before publication
The enduring power of bookseller advocacy and word-of-mouth recommendation
Why traditional media still matters even in a podcast and social-media-saturated world
What Transworld Is Publishing Now
Not That Sort of Girl – Andrea Mara
Getting Away With Murder – Shari Lapena
The Creative Compass – Emma Gannon
Data Empire – Ruha Benjamin (a history of data — and an unsettling glimpse at where AI is headed next)
What Alison's Been Reading
An Unlikely Visitor – Joanna Cannon (no, it's not about a dog — Philippa needed reassurance)
It Could Have Been Her – Lisa Jewell (a dark, Barbara Vine-esque departure)
The Whistler (Tom Lake) – Ann Patchett (on connection, memory, and a chance reunion four decades in the making)
Meet Me at the Museum – Anne Youngson, plus a celebration of novels-in-letters, including The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and the classic 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Listener Question: The Unlimited Budget
A listener asks what Alison would do with an unlimited budget to launch a book. Her answer goes well beyond money — covering proofs with sprayed edges, nationwide bookseller tours, and why most of the real value comes from time and human connection rather than spend. (A branded helicopter is briefly considered and wisely abandoned.)
Billboard advertising and marketing myth-busting are saved for a future episode — watch this space.
Get in touch
Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com
Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
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Philippa opens with a genuinely unbelievable true story — how a friend trapped in a locked Barcelona hotel toilet used her Kindle to prise the door open and escape. Reading saves lives, people.
Then it's three book reviews and a brilliant listener Q&A with crime fiction favourite M.W. Craven, talking about book eight in the Washington Poe series, The Killer's Mark, out 13th August.
📚 Book Reviews
The Midnight Train – Matt Haig
A beautiful, emotionally rich audiobook about love, regret, and the moments that matter. Uplifting rather than sad, and perfect for fans of Matt Haig's reflective style.
Octagon – C.J. Merritt
A fast-paced spy thriller following former MI6 agent Stella McCrae and ex-SAS operator Tommy Kane as they race to stop a devastating plot against the West. Cinematic and action-packed.
Rivals – Jilly Cooper
Philippa picked this up after the TV series left her on an emotional cliffhanger with five months until part two. 720 pages later, she has both more and fewer answers than she started with. Enjoyable — especially at the beginning — but perhaps a lesson in patience.
🎙️ Author Interview: M.W. Craven on The Killer's Mark
Poe and Tilly are back — this time as private investigators, drawn into a case that begins with a young American woman who has seen her supposedly dead mother in a porn film. Darker than some recent entries in the series, but with the trademark humour firmly intact.
Mike and Philippa discuss:
Why this book starts smaller and more personal than previous Poe adventures
The deliberate shift in the Poe/Tilly dynamic across the series — and who relies on whom now
A new teenage character and the questions only a 15-year-old will ask directly
The Martin Clunes passage that made Philippa nearly choke on her coffee (no spoilers, but it's brilliant)
His favourite in the series (The Mercy Chair) and the underrated Black Summer
Lessons learned writing a James Bond children's book — including deaf sensitivity readers, footnotes in place of deleted chapters, and why you can't spend three chapters setting up a single joke
Poe's Croft: completely fictional, despite what several convinced readers insist
Listener questions from the Quick Book Reviews Facebook group — including whether Tilly's mum is okay, who Poe's Croft is based on, and Mike's fantasy convention costume (spoiler: Gimli)
What he's reading: The Man with the Golden Compass by Vaseem Khan and the Vinyl Detective series by Andrew Cartmel
The biscuit answer: chocolate-covered Battenberg, fig rolls and Jammie Dodgers from Castle Chocolates in Carlisle — links in the show notes
The Killer's Mark is out 13th August — pre-orders matter!
🍫 Castle Chocolates, Carlisle
📚 📚 Pre-order The Killer's Mark by M.W. Craven at Waterstones
💬 Get in touch
Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com
Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Philippa sits down with Lindsey Kelk — writing as Elle Kelk — to talk about her brand new novel Hit or Miss, the first in the Junior Year Abroad series. With over three million books sold, Lindsey is one of the UK's best-loved romance authors, and this conversation is funny, warm, and unexpectedly moving.
In this interview, Elle and Philippa discuss:
Why Lindsey chose a new pen name for this book — and why it's not exactly a secret
What "new adult" fiction actually means (and why genres are, in her words, "all fake")
The joy of writing a college romance series set at a fictional UK university — think Oxford meets American campus life
Mia and Ethan: two characters running in opposite directions until they collide
Anxiety as a central theme — Lindsey opens up about her own late diagnosis at 32, how bad things got, and why she finally asked for help
Toxic masculinity and the pressure on men to silently hold everything together
Why the bookish community seems disproportionately affected by anxiety ("it turns out, it's all of us")
Dealing with bad reviews — especially when you suspect someone hasn't actually read the book
Writing in Vegas hotels at 2am, the importance of a bath, and why airports are the worst
Her wrestling podcast Tights and Fights — now 10 years old — and whether a wrestling romance might be next
What she's reading right now: Dungeon Crawler Carl on audio and The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice
The life-changing biscuit discovery: McVitie's Jaffa Cake Digestives (with a strong recommendation to dunk)
Hit or Miss is out now.
💬 Get in touch Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com
Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Philippa has just received the most exciting email of the year: her holiday hotel has offered to receive a box of books in advance and put them in her room on arrival. The result? An unstoppable 12-book, 4-graphic-novel holiday TBR — and an episode dedicated entirely to sharing it.
In this episode, Philippa runs through every book she's packing (plus the first line of each!), covering a wonderfully eclectic mix of:
The Confessions – Paul Bradley Carr (AI thriller)
Roman Mornings – Matson Taylor (historical fiction, Rome)
The Scandalous Ladies Football Club – Frances Quinn (Victorian women's football)
It Could Have Been Her – Lisa Jewell (domestic thriller)
Getting Away – Kate Sawyer (family saga across decades of holidays)
The Ark – Haruo Yuki (translated Japanese locked-room thriller)
How to Get Away With Murder – Rebecca Philipson (cat-and-mouse crime)
The Favourite – Fran Littlewood (family secrets, holiday implosion)
The Corfe Castle Murders – Rachel McLean (Dorset detective series, book one)
Against the Tide – G.D. Wright (crime series, book three)
This Can Never Not Be Real – Sera Milano (YA terrorism survivor testimonies)
Under the Hammer – Samantha Dooey-Miles (very angry woman, very bad landlords)
Plus four graphic novels — including the only authorised manga adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, The Bad Doctor by Ian Williams, I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner, and Clara and the Devil Vol. 1 by Olivie Blake & Little Chmura — many discovered at Hay on Wye Comics, a brand new graphic novel bookshop in Hay-on-Wye.
💬 Tell Philippa what you think! Should any of these stay at home? Is there a book she's missed? Get in touch: Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com
Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are hardback books too expensive, too heavy, and past their sell-by date? A recent Guardian article made the provocative case that hardbacks should die — and Philippa has thoughts.
In this episode, Philippa dives into the great book format debate, covering:
Why she strongly disagrees with calls to "ban" hardbacks
The real problem with hardback pricing — and those eye-watering £40 price tags
How long is too long to wait for a paperback edition?
The e-book pricing scandal: why is a digital file costing £15?
The case for libraries, audiobooks, and Spotify's free listening hours as budget-friendly alternatives
Sprayed edges (spreadges) — and why they might just be the best argument for buying hardbacks
Philippa's verdict? All formats are equal. Audiobook, hardback, paperback, e-book — just read the book.
This episode was inspired by a question from author Frances Quinn, whose new novel The Scandalous Ladies Football Club is out 2nd July.
💬 Join the conversation Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com
Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.