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15 Lia Middleton | Psychological Thriller Author
222 Plays4 years ago
Psychological thriller author and barrister, Lia Middleton talks about her debut novel, When They Find Her and how her work as a barrister played into the story. Lia shares her own personal journey and her experience of using her voice through early aspirations of acting to a career in law and finding her way to becoming an author.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
So our podcast is called Right and Wrong.
00:00:02
Speaker
Are these your notes?
00:00:03
Speaker
These are your notes about what we're going to say.
00:00:06
Speaker
What does it say?
00:00:07
Speaker
I thought it would be a good... I didn't even get the idea.
00:00:11
Speaker
Maybe I can just ask you the question.
00:00:14
Speaker
It's going well.
00:00:16
Speaker
It's going really well.
00:00:18
Speaker
Hello.
00:00:19
Speaker
Sorry.
00:00:22
Speaker
It was just because you always clear your voice every time.
00:00:26
Speaker
Like you're going to go on stage or something.
00:00:30
Speaker
I'm just like, wait a minute.
00:00:32
Speaker
Preparing my monologues.
00:00:35
Speaker
Okay, I'll not laugh.
Novel Summary and Inspiration
00:00:36
Speaker
I promise.
00:00:36
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Right and Wrong podcast.
00:00:40
Speaker
I'm Jamie.
00:00:41
Speaker
And I'm Emma.
00:00:41
Speaker
And today we are joined by the multi-talented author and barrister, Leah Middleton, whose debut novel, When They Find Her, is currently available to purchase.
00:00:51
Speaker
Hi, Leah.
00:00:52
Speaker
Thank you for joining us.
00:00:54
Speaker
Hi.
00:00:54
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me.
00:00:56
Speaker
Yes, welcome.
00:00:57
Speaker
Well, it's great to have you with us.
00:00:58
Speaker
Yes.
00:00:59
Speaker
Let's kick off right away with the book, When They Find Her.
00:01:05
Speaker
And for us and everyone listening, would you like to give us just a sort of quick rundown of the blurb, a spoiler-free rundown of the blurb?
00:01:17
Speaker
A spoiler-free rundown.
00:01:18
Speaker
So the main character is a woman called Naomi who essentially had her dream life.
00:01:24
Speaker
She had a very loving husband, a new baby daughter, and had moved back to her family home.
00:01:32
Speaker
And her life very rapidly fell apart.
00:01:36
Speaker
And her husband is now married to someone else.
00:01:40
Speaker
And her daughter, who is now three, lives away from her with him and his new wife,
00:01:47
Speaker
And she is granted her first overnight stay with her daughter since her husband left.
00:01:53
Speaker
Tragedy strikes and Naomi makes a very big mistake and decides to lie about what happened.
00:02:01
Speaker
And the story all kicks off from there.
00:02:03
Speaker
It does, yes.
00:02:06
Speaker
It's incredibly tense.
00:02:08
Speaker
It's dark.
00:02:10
Speaker
I'm sure that from that premise we all understand it's dark, but it's incredibly tense.
00:02:13
Speaker
And just reading through some of the prose, you really do capture this undercurrent of dread as you are reading some of these things.
00:02:25
Speaker
Where did the idea for this come from?
00:02:30
Speaker
I think the very, very initial idea was a long time ago.
00:02:35
Speaker
So it was when I was at university.
00:02:38
Speaker
I was actually doing drama in theatre before I transferred over to law.
00:02:43
Speaker
And we had to, I did a directing course and we had to direct like a half an hour sort of piece.
00:02:51
Speaker
And I essentially did like a modernised version of Medea,
00:02:56
Speaker
which I don't know if you know the story of Medea, but it's an ancient Greek story, essentially about a woman.
00:03:01
Speaker
And this is not spoiler at all.
00:03:03
Speaker
It's actually nothing to do with the book.
00:03:07
Speaker
I think ancient Greece is past spoiler due date.
00:03:10
Speaker
Yeah, probably.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:14
Speaker
So, yeah, she essentially murders her children to get revenge on her husband.
00:03:18
Speaker
That's it sort of condensed down.
00:03:21
Speaker
So that's not a spoiler for when they find her at all.
00:03:25
Speaker
But that sort of just started me thinking about
00:03:29
Speaker
how far parents will go to sort of try and hold on to their family.
00:03:39
Speaker
And that's sort of where the seed of the idea started for Naomi.
00:03:43
Speaker
And so if something really tragic struck, but you thought that you would lose everything that you still had, how far would you go to sort of hang on to that?
Career Path: From Law to Writing
00:03:55
Speaker
So that's where it started.
00:03:56
Speaker
But then I didn't actually start writing.
00:03:58
Speaker
I graduated uni in like 2010.
00:04:02
Speaker
And I didn't actually start writing when they find her until 2017.
00:04:05
Speaker
Always nice to take a break.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, just a nice long break of no writing at all.
00:04:16
Speaker
So yeah, then it sort of just was always sort of brewing there in the background, but I didn't actually decide to
00:04:22
Speaker
pursue writing properly until yeah 2017 and then obviously the idea transformed a lot over um over time yeah you know like as a obviously a barrister you specialize in prison and criminal law is that right um so how much did that play into the you know creation inception of of when they find her
00:04:46
Speaker
I think with being a barrister, so I used to prosecute.
00:04:51
Speaker
So I used to be in court every day and now I'm more of an advisory lawyer.
00:04:56
Speaker
But it's sort of, it's both a positive and a massive negative when you're crafting crime fiction because...
00:05:07
Speaker
In some ways, it's amazing because you get there are so many ideas when you're sort of exposed to criminal justice every day.
00:05:15
Speaker
Whereas it's a world that I guess a lot of people luckily never have to sort of dive into.
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:22
Speaker
So it's great for ideas and it's brilliant in terms of people watching and sort of seeing the lengths that people will go to in certain scenarios.
00:05:34
Speaker
But then it's also very tricky because I can become a bit obsessed with the detail, which sometimes gets in the way of actually writing the story.
00:05:45
Speaker
If I think, oh, no, but, you know, police wouldn't do that.
00:05:48
Speaker
So then you dig your way into a plot hole and then, you know,
00:05:53
Speaker
you just get stuck so that's been a bit of a nightmare but um yeah you can't let the truth get in the way of a good story exactly exactly so um yeah I've tried to be as um I I like to think that if anyone in the police read when they find her they'd they'd still be happy with what I've done but um some of it may be slightly pushed in terms of what would actually happen in real life yeah
00:06:18
Speaker
But that's why we read these stories, right?
00:06:20
Speaker
We don't want to read exactly real life.
00:06:22
Speaker
We want something slightly beyond real life.
00:06:26
Speaker
Yeah, pushing the truth.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:28
Speaker
Is this the first book that you've penned then?
00:06:32
Speaker
Or did you work on other books before?
00:06:34
Speaker
And is this kind of... No, this is my first.
00:06:37
Speaker
This is your first.
00:06:39
Speaker
Yeah, When They Find Us, my first.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:42
Speaker
So I'd...
00:06:44
Speaker
I like delved as a teenager into like, I think I got four chapters into a book as a teenager and then thought that I would be like an amazing screenwriter.
00:06:55
Speaker
And so I started writing a script that never went anywhere.
00:06:57
Speaker
But no, this was my first fully finished novel.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:01
Speaker
That's great.
00:07:02
Speaker
You've had stories planned for a long time.
00:07:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:06
Speaker
So I've always loved it.
00:07:10
Speaker
But I don't know what I think because I've been through various sort of obsessions with careers growing up.
00:07:17
Speaker
So as a teenager and then into university, I wanted to be an actor.
00:07:24
Speaker
Just like Emma.
00:07:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:25
Speaker
Oh, really?
00:07:26
Speaker
Yeah, I went to drama school.
00:07:28
Speaker
Did you really?
00:07:29
Speaker
Where did you go?
00:07:30
Speaker
Sorry, this is going to go off tangent.
00:07:33
Speaker
No, I went to Rose Bruford.
00:07:35
Speaker
I don't know whether you've heard of it.
00:07:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah, I have.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah, so I went there for three years and then worked as an actor and then went into journalism as well afterwards.
00:07:44
Speaker
So it's a similar route.
00:07:46
Speaker
We were chatting about that before.
00:07:47
Speaker
I was like, oh, well, we went into...
00:07:50
Speaker
Like it's, you know, love an actor, you know, thespian.
00:07:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:54
Speaker
Got to love a bit of acting.
00:07:56
Speaker
Exactly.
00:07:57
Speaker
So yeah, because I, because I wanted to act and then I went straight from acting.
00:08:01
Speaker
I went to law school and then trained to be a barrister.
00:08:05
Speaker
I think,
00:08:06
Speaker
I was so focused on those that even though I loved writing, I never just really even considered it as a career option.
00:08:13
Speaker
Right.
00:08:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:16
Speaker
Until I had my daughter.
00:08:19
Speaker
So I've got two children.
00:08:22
Speaker
And when I was off with my daughter, um,
00:08:24
Speaker
I started thinking more about stories and what I really wanted to do.
00:08:28
Speaker
And I thought, I want to write.
00:08:30
Speaker
Why have I not been writing this whole time?
00:08:32
Speaker
So that's when I decided to start properly.
00:08:35
Speaker
That's great.
00:08:35
Speaker
Brilliant.
00:08:37
Speaker
So just reading parts of your story, I was getting anxious.
00:08:41
Speaker
Sweating.
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:45
Speaker
As a mother, while you were writing some sections of this, it must have worried you deeply if you put yourself in that situation.
00:08:54
Speaker
Yeah, I always worry admitting what I'm about to say.
00:09:03
Speaker
It tends to not affect me that much.
00:09:06
Speaker
I know that makes me sound slightly psychotic, but I don't know if it's from working in...
00:09:15
Speaker
criminal justice where you're sort of so exposed to things like that every single day that um you tend to just learn to compartmentalize and sort of emotionally detach yeah there was I mean there was one time where I did just end up
00:09:36
Speaker
sort of sobbing at my desk which was um I was sort of really in sort of drafting mode like hammering away at my keyboard and I um I stopped and read back over what I'd just written and instead of Freya which is the child's name in the book I'd written my daughter's name
00:09:59
Speaker
Yeah, and it was quite a sort of really emotional part of the story for Naomi.
00:10:06
Speaker
And just seeing, yeah, my daughter's name in that context, I just like burst into tears.
00:10:12
Speaker
And I was just like sat crying at my laptop.
00:10:14
Speaker
But I think that's that there were times where it sort of was draining.
00:10:22
Speaker
Like I'd come to the end of the session and feel quite drained.
00:10:26
Speaker
Emotionally.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, emotionally drained.
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:29
Speaker
But luckily, in terms of sort of anxiety, I was able to sort of switch, I think, that part of my brain
Influence of Acting on Writing
00:10:35
Speaker
off.
00:10:35
Speaker
But yeah, it was quite draining, especially with the whole acting thing as well.
00:10:40
Speaker
I don't know if this is going to sound really pretentious, but I, yeah, I think...
00:10:47
Speaker
It's really sort of close first person as well, the way the book's written.
00:10:52
Speaker
So I was very much sort of trying, well, not even trying, I guess when you write a character for that long, you just quite easily slip into their mindset.
00:11:01
Speaker
Oh, definitely.
00:11:02
Speaker
It was quite draining in that way as well, because she's quite a chaotic mind to be inside.
00:11:06
Speaker
So, yeah, I think for the most part, I was able to sort of separate it from myself.
00:11:12
Speaker
But every so often it sort of snuck in there and caught me unawares.
00:11:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:17
Speaker
I mean, I'm not part of the thespian community like the two of you.
00:11:20
Speaker
Sadly, Jamie.
00:11:20
Speaker
Sadly.
00:11:22
Speaker
I know.
00:11:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:23
Speaker
It's a great regret in my life, but even I, when, you know, when I'm writing, I lose myself sometimes in the character you're writing because every character is just a part of you.
00:11:35
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:11:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:36
Speaker
No, I completely agree.
00:11:37
Speaker
Um, and sort of writing emotions, stuff like that, those emotions have got to come from somewhere.
00:11:43
Speaker
Um, it,
00:11:46
Speaker
you think of it as well you can think of it as quite a detached process but yeah the emotions are coming from inside you yeah so um yeah it's really interesting actually you're putting yourself in some way in that position yeah even at just like arm's length you're still putting yourself kind of near that situation yeah position definitely see you are a thespian exactly
00:12:09
Speaker
In another life, perhaps.
00:12:10
Speaker
In another life.
00:12:11
Speaker
You've got the accent for it, Janie, 100%.
00:12:13
Speaker
You've got the accent for it.
00:12:15
Speaker
Ah, splendid.
00:12:15
Speaker
Ah, splendid.
00:12:16
Speaker
Shakespeare, anyway.
00:12:18
Speaker
You do.
00:12:19
Speaker
The RP accent.
00:12:20
Speaker
The RP accent, yeah.
00:12:21
Speaker
I think I told you that before, didn't I?
00:12:23
Speaker
I was like, oh, receive pronunciation.
00:12:25
Speaker
You've got it.
00:12:27
Speaker
So, Leah, when did you, or how did you find going through...
00:12:32
Speaker
the process of submitting to agents and publishers and all that.
00:12:38
Speaker
Yes, the struggle.
00:12:39
Speaker
The really hard bit.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, the struggle.
00:12:41
Speaker
God, yeah.
00:12:42
Speaker
It's a struggle, isn't it?
00:12:43
Speaker
I think that...
00:12:48
Speaker
I had become obsessed with writing podcasts.
00:12:53
Speaker
So very much like this one.
00:12:55
Speaker
I just became obsessed with listening to sort of anything I could get my hands on, sort of trying to find out as much as I could about how the process works.
00:13:04
Speaker
I think if I'd gone in completely blind, I would have really, really struggled.
00:13:10
Speaker
So I sort of tried to get as much information as I could, like reading blogs, listening to podcasts.
00:13:16
Speaker
There's a little bit of YouTube out there, but I've found it's mostly American based.
00:13:22
Speaker
And a lot of it's storytelling based, but on films, which is applicable in many ways, but there's also big differences.
00:13:30
Speaker
exactly um so I really tried to sort of just find out as much as I could but um I my my submission sort of process happened around me having my second child um okay just to make it a little bit more challenging yeah yeah it was all a bit mad um so I I was desperately trying to finish the book well finish in terms of
00:13:58
Speaker
query ready um when I was pregnant with my son and then um I had him um and then uh so that was in like the May and then by the summer sort of like July I think it was August I was like right I'm ready to query we're just gonna go for it um so I had my little spreadsheet um
00:14:22
Speaker
which people told me to do.
00:14:23
Speaker
So I just followed blindly with a spreadsheet.
00:14:27
Speaker
And yes, I just sent it out in like small batches.
00:14:34
Speaker
I was really, I'm going to preface this with, I was very, very lucky that it happened quickly for me.
00:14:42
Speaker
So yeah, I was, I was very, very lucky.
00:14:44
Speaker
So I sent it to six agents all in the same day.
00:14:48
Speaker
But my agent, Kate Burke,
00:14:52
Speaker
got back to me that same morning asking for the full.
00:14:55
Speaker
Wow.
00:14:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:58
Speaker
And it's funny because people say about August, some people say August is a really bad time because the industry has kind of come to a standstill.
00:15:08
Speaker
But she said for her, it's the perfect time.
00:15:11
Speaker
And she finds a lot of her clients during August because that's when she's quieter.
00:15:15
Speaker
So she starts clearing her inbox.
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:17
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:15:19
Speaker
So I think I caught her at the right time.
00:15:22
Speaker
I think at another time of year, it would have taken her much longer to get back to me.
00:15:25
Speaker
Right, yeah.
00:15:26
Speaker
So I sent her the full, like, frantically, like...
00:15:30
Speaker
double checked.
00:15:31
Speaker
You're like, I'll just do one final proofread.
00:15:33
Speaker
It's just ridiculous.
00:15:35
Speaker
Um, sent it to her.
00:15:37
Speaker
And then 10 days later, she offered to represent me.
00:15:40
Speaker
Um, which, yeah, that's one of the most successful Cinderella turnarounds.
00:15:48
Speaker
It was like, it felt like a dream.
00:15:51
Speaker
It was very, very bizarre.
00:15:53
Speaker
Um, and we like had a long chat and we just, um,
00:15:58
Speaker
We got on so, so well.
00:15:59
Speaker
And I just really liked her.
00:16:02
Speaker
She's very editorial, which I wanted.
00:16:06
Speaker
So she used to be an editor before she moved over to agenting.
00:16:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:09
Speaker
Oh, very cool.
00:16:11
Speaker
Yeah, which was something I really wanted.
00:16:15
Speaker
I love working collaboratively on my writing.
00:16:19
Speaker
And she had really good suggestions.
00:16:22
Speaker
So I did the whole thing of...
00:16:24
Speaker
sort of nudging the other agents.
00:16:27
Speaker
But I'd already kind of fallen in love with her.
00:16:31
Speaker
So I ended up just accepting her offer.
00:16:36
Speaker
So yeah, signed with her.
00:16:37
Speaker
And then, yeah, we went from there.
00:16:39
Speaker
That's great.
00:16:41
Speaker
It's such a good story.
00:16:42
Speaker
I mean, that is some turnaround, isn't it?
00:16:45
Speaker
Compared to some of the people.
00:16:46
Speaker
It was very lucky.
00:16:47
Speaker
So great.
00:16:48
Speaker
But brilliant as well, because obviously she's read something, like you said, it's like,
00:16:52
Speaker
sometimes about timing isn't it like from what we've spoke about with people yeah sometimes it's about that and it's not all about getting everything right the first time but more just what the what um other people's positions are in and what what the agents are doing that day or whether they've had a nice sandwich i'm joking yeah exactly
00:17:13
Speaker
It's not actually to
The Publishing Journey
00:17:14
Speaker
do with sandwiches.
00:17:14
Speaker
What mood they're in.
00:17:17
Speaker
We'd like to hope it's not to do with sandwiches anyway.
00:17:20
Speaker
But did you have many people read your book before it went to the agent?
00:17:28
Speaker
Like, did you have any, did you work in any
00:17:30
Speaker
right in circles or send it to any friends or family?
00:17:35
Speaker
This is where, again, I kind of go against, I think, what you should do, which is no.
00:17:41
Speaker
Oh, really?
00:17:42
Speaker
I was in that.
00:17:43
Speaker
Wow.
00:17:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:45
Speaker
I was in a very weird, well, it's not weird because I guess there must be a lot of people who feel like this, but I felt very anxious about that.
00:17:54
Speaker
people seeing it and I know that sounds ridiculous because then the first people who ended up seeing it were agents which is quite an extreme position to be in but I just felt I felt very anxious about people seeing it and I felt like I just wanted to get it to a place on my own where I felt confident in it and
00:18:18
Speaker
And then if they all turned around and said no, then I would look for more feedback.
00:18:23
Speaker
But I'd gotten to the point where I thought, okay, no, this is, I can't get it any further on my own.
00:18:29
Speaker
So at that point I could have gone to beta readers and asked for feedback there, but I just wanted to see what reaction I got.
00:18:37
Speaker
So no, I mean, now I have a really, really amazing group of writing friends who I would happily send messages.
00:18:44
Speaker
my work to now.
00:18:45
Speaker
Um, but back then I didn't, I was very much somewhat alone.
00:18:52
Speaker
Um, there were people that I knew, but no one that I really felt close enough to to send it out.
00:18:58
Speaker
Um, so yeah, I just kind of went for it, but I, I mean, I think for you, I,
00:19:04
Speaker
I think feedback's amazing.
00:19:06
Speaker
And I mean, I work very closely with my agent on my writing.
00:19:09
Speaker
So I think, yeah, now I would love to work with beta readers and stuff, but no, I didn't do it the first time round.
00:19:15
Speaker
Was that hard?
00:19:16
Speaker
Having gone from, had no one reading it.
00:19:19
Speaker
Was it hard for you to receive that critique from your agent?
00:19:25
Speaker
I think the first sort of,
00:19:28
Speaker
So she did it very much how an editor would do it.
00:19:31
Speaker
So she sent like a document of like overarching notes and then she had just gone in on the manuscript, like with comments.
00:19:41
Speaker
And yes, so that was quite overwhelming because until then, yeah, it had just been my thoughts and you become so close to it, don't you, that you can't really see anything.
00:19:53
Speaker
from far away um so it was quite overwhelming um but then when i started sort of delving into her thoughts i just i thought that makes so much sense like that's why that doesn't work or oh yeah that that bringing that character more to the forefront would be a lot more compelling um
00:20:16
Speaker
So yeah, once I sort of got over that initial overwhelm, it was really great.
00:20:23
Speaker
And I've really loved that part of the process.
00:20:26
Speaker
Once I got over that sort of feedback, that feeling of getting feedback on something that you've worked so hard on, it's actually become my favourite bit.
00:20:35
Speaker
No, that's great.
00:20:36
Speaker
I think it's really important to have feedback, like you said, but very hard when it's something to do with
00:20:42
Speaker
I think I would be like that.
00:20:43
Speaker
You know, it's trust as well.
00:20:45
Speaker
You don't really want to send your work out and then you think, oh, I don't know.
00:20:50
Speaker
You need to send it to somebody that you trust in, I think, as well.
00:20:54
Speaker
I think it's super important.
00:20:55
Speaker
Moving on, are you working on something new at the moment or are you blissfully just chilling
Upcoming Projects and Future Plans
00:21:02
Speaker
out?
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:04
Speaker
No, I'm working on something new.
00:21:07
Speaker
So I got a two book deal.
00:21:10
Speaker
Oh, amazing.
00:21:11
Speaker
So I am working on book number two at the moment, which will actually be going to my editor at the end of this month.
00:21:18
Speaker
So that's quite exciting.
00:21:19
Speaker
That's great.
00:21:22
Speaker
Is it the same sort of style?
00:21:24
Speaker
It's, yeah, the same.
00:21:25
Speaker
So it's a standalone, completely separate when they find her.
00:21:28
Speaker
But yeah, still like a psychological suspense.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:34
Speaker
First person, past.
00:21:36
Speaker
It's yeah, first person, but it's, um, there's multiple narrators this time rather than just one, which was interesting because the, the, the challenge of making them different was through me at first.
00:21:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:53
Speaker
Always a good to keep challenging yourself.
00:21:57
Speaker
Um, you mentioned briefly that one thing you would have done if you were, if you could go back was probably, um,
00:22:04
Speaker
get a critique group involved although it worked out without one yeah if you could go back to if you could go back in time and meet yourself when you were a teenager writing your screenplays or writing your stories and could give you give yourself some advice with everything you've learned now what would you what would you say to yourself wow that is a question um what would i say to teenage me um
00:22:33
Speaker
I would tell myself to trust that my voice is something that I can use to pursue a career, even if it's not in the way I expect.
00:22:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:51
Speaker
I mean, acting was the obsession.
00:22:53
Speaker
I could not think of anything else that I wanted to do.
00:22:57
Speaker
And then everything that I learned doing acting, I ended up using as a barrister.
00:23:03
Speaker
And then I think both of those things, acting and being a barrister, have ended up making me the kind of writer that I am.
00:23:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:13
Speaker
And now writing is like the love of my life.
00:23:16
Speaker
So it feels like I've ended up where I was meant to be all along, but I just didn't know.
00:23:23
Speaker
And sort of when I decided, oh, maybe acting isn't for me, I was devastated.
00:23:27
Speaker
So it's...
00:23:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think it would just be to, yeah, trust that what I wanted to do would work out, but just not how I expected.
00:23:38
Speaker
That's really interesting.
00:23:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's so true as well.
00:23:41
Speaker
Because I think you just go through journeys that maybe, you know, maybe you will be an actor again.
00:23:48
Speaker
Who knows?
00:23:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:50
Speaker
You never know.
00:23:51
Speaker
You never know.
00:23:53
Speaker
You never know.
00:23:53
Speaker
But I think, like, it just depends.
00:23:55
Speaker
You can go backwards and forwards through things.
00:23:56
Speaker
And it's really lovely that you found...
00:23:59
Speaker
something that you now can use your voice in, as you said, and that it's, um, you're still telling stories as well, which is, I think a lot of the love about being an actor, you know, is to tell a story.
00:24:09
Speaker
So it's great.
00:24:10
Speaker
Um, and I think that leads us on to our dreaded or, you know, some people love it.
00:24:16
Speaker
Last question, which is, um,
00:24:21
Speaker
And I love Marmite, so I'm just throwing it out there.
00:24:24
Speaker
Me too.
00:24:25
Speaker
This is a pro Marmite podcast.
00:24:27
Speaker
Exactly.
00:24:30
Speaker
Which is, if you were to be marooned, Leah, on a desert island with...
00:24:37
Speaker
But you can only bring one book, but you could bring clothes.
00:24:40
Speaker
We've had this discussion with people before you can bring clothes.
00:24:42
Speaker
The book is the only thing that is, the book's not meant to keep you warm.
00:24:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:24:47
Speaker
So you can take sun lotion, you can take mascara, clothes, some food.
00:24:53
Speaker
Like it's not the only thing that you have to take because that has been questioned.
00:24:59
Speaker
So if you could take a one book, what would that be and why?
Desert Island Book Choice
00:25:05
Speaker
um so I'm gonna go left field here because I think that people would expect me to take a thriller because it's pretty much exclusively what I read now yeah um but every I like to go back to books I read as a teenager um that I read over and over and over again sort of religiously as a teenager and I can still go back to them now and love them
00:25:36
Speaker
and I think on a desert island that is what I would want rather than a thriller because I can't reread thrillers once I've read them I'm done so yeah I think it would be there's a trilogy called the wind on fire which was never massive and I never understood it I think it was because it was during the Harry Potter era and it was just
00:25:58
Speaker
it just couldn't stand up but um yeah exactly so it's by um a guy called uh william nicholson who was actually a screenwriter for the film gladiator um which yeah which i found amazing um but so it's a trilogy and the second book wait is this the wind singer is that the first one oh i've read it they're brilliant i love those aren't they so good oh my god the trilogy was called
00:26:27
Speaker
Yeah, the wind on fire.
00:26:29
Speaker
So yeah, when sing is the first one, and then it's slaves of the mastery.
00:26:33
Speaker
And then the last one, is that the wind on fire?
00:26:37
Speaker
No, Fire Song.
00:26:38
Speaker
That one's called.
00:26:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:26:40
Speaker
That was a great, I was so good, those books.
00:26:42
Speaker
Oh, so good.
00:26:43
Speaker
They're amazing.
00:26:44
Speaker
And I get overexcited and tell people about them and no one knows, like people, I'm so happy that you know them, Jamie.
00:26:52
Speaker
Because they're so, they're so, so good.
00:26:55
Speaker
And Slaves of the Mastery is just amazing.
00:26:58
Speaker
brilliant yeah um the whole trilogy is so so good but if i can i cheat and take the whole trilogy or can i have to choose many people have the precedent's been set exactly i'd probably take the trilogy but if i had to choose one i would choose slaves of mastery um it's so brilliant the characters are amazing for a children's book it's really quite dark um but even as a sort of i think i read them at around 12
00:27:28
Speaker
even at that age, I had quite a dark sort of aesthetic when it came to entertainment.
00:27:35
Speaker
Um, so, um, I, I just loved it.
00:27:39
Speaker
Um, but it's, it's, it's fantasy.
00:27:42
Speaker
So, and fantasy is what I read as a teenager, even though I don't really read as much of it now.
00:27:48
Speaker
Um, and I just think that would be perfect for,
00:27:52
Speaker
for an island yeah yeah so yeah some nostalgia as well some nostalgia yeah exactly exactly and it's comforting because you've read it before you know what's going to happen exactly um and you can i love rereading so yeah exactly that's great exactly that's
00:28:09
Speaker
great book well thank you so much Leah thank you so much for joining us it's been such a treat having you and speaking with you uh for everyone listening if you want to keep up with Leah's latest news you can follow her on twitter at Leah Middleton except in a twist the o is a zero big plot twist there so that's Leah Middleton someone took my name
00:28:34
Speaker
I can't get just Leah Middleton.
Social Media and Book Promotion
00:28:36
Speaker
I know.
00:28:38
Speaker
And if you want to follow her on Instagram, it's at Leah Middleton author.
00:28:42
Speaker
So a little bit simpler there.
00:28:44
Speaker
When they find her is available right now.
00:28:46
Speaker
So go out and buy it.
00:28:48
Speaker
It's great.
00:28:49
Speaker
It's brilliant.
00:28:50
Speaker
Definitely.
00:28:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:51
Speaker
Thanks again.
00:28:51
Speaker
It's been great.
00:28:52
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:28:54
Speaker
It's been so much fun talking to you.
00:28:56
Speaker
No, it's been so good.
00:28:57
Speaker
And to make sure you don't miss an episode of the podcast, follow us on Twitter at at right and wrong UK and on Instagram at right and wrong podcast.
00:29:08
Speaker
And yeah, thanks so much for tuning in and we'll see you next time.
00:29:12
Speaker
Thank you.
00:29:13
Speaker
Bye.