Hazel Barkworth, author of 'The Drownings' - Writer of dark, suspense discusses taking it seriously, going back to school, and a working balance
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hazel Barkworth is creative consultant, who graduated from Oxford with an English Degree, and when she decided she'd try and write fiction... she went back to school.
She enrolled in the Curtis Brown Creative Novel Writing Course, and published her debut, 'Heatstroke', to rave reviews in The Guardian and the Evening Standard.
Hazel's newest novel is 'The Drownings'. It tells the story of Serena, who grew up dreaming of being an olympic swimmer. When a brutal training injury wrecks those chances, she heads to University. One dark night, she saves a students life, and the process leads her to learn about a dark, twisted history unseen through the campus. We discuss why Hazel was desperate to write a Campus novel, and how she managed to pull together so many ideas and themes into one book, with one ending.
You can hear about the break Hazel took between novels, and what she learned in those 4 years, also about the balance of writing and working freelance, and why her plotting technique is based on vibes.
This week's episode is supported by the 'Quick Book Reviews' podcast, and by Fleur MacDonald's brand new novel, 'The Missing'.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week's episode of Writers Routine is sponsored by the Quick Book Reviews podcast. |
| 0:05.6 | If this show takes you behind the scenes of writing books, the Quick Book Reviews podcast takes |
| 0:11.2 | you into what makes them brilliant. It's all about the authors too. You can join Philippa, |
| 0:16.8 | who for the last six years has been chatting to some of the biggest authors around and discovering |
| 0:22.0 | their newest work. If you're a reader looking for new book recommendations and getting to know |
| 0:27.1 | your favourite writers, this is the perfect show for you with in-depth chats and spoiler-free book |
| 0:33.2 | reviews in perfect bite-sized chunks to fit easily into your day. You've got recent episodes in |
| 0:39.8 | there with Peter James, Jacqueline Wilson and Patricia Cornwell and more big hit is on the way to |
| 0:45.2 | Linda LaPlante, Vasine Kahn and Anne Cleaves. Philippa gets into all the fun questions too, |
| 0:52.6 | finding out what authors like to eat, where they want to go on holiday, and the gossip about bits of their life that you won't find anywhere else. |
| 1:01.9 | All that with some very speedy book reviews, getting right to the heart of all the newest stuff out there and the best ones for you to read. |
| 1:13.0 | The Quick Book Reviews podcast is a lighthearted look at authors and what you might love about their new book. |
| 1:19.5 | You can get two episodes a week, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:23.1 | Just search for the Quick Book Reviews podcast. |
| 1:26.4 | Also this week's episode of the show is supported by The Missing, the new book from Fleur MacDonald. |
| 1:32.6 | The Missing is Fleur's 26 novel. |
| 1:35.4 | There's prolific, and then there's 26 novels. |
| 1:39.0 | Fleur is a storyteller and knows how to get it done. |
| 1:42.6 | Known for her best-selling book, The Prospect, Fleur's novels brilliantly summon the spirit |
| 1:49.1 | of the vast Australian outback. |
| 1:52.3 | The Missing is the new one. |
| 1:53.4 | It tells the story of Max Galbraith, a teenager who goes missing in the middle of missing persons |
... |
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