When you have a success, it's hard and we both experience this to enjoy it.

It's hard to stop and savour it and think, okay, that was a good thing I did. Hi and welcome to art. Hi and welcome to Art Duesce's honest, generous and humorous conversations to feed your creative

soul and get you thinking with me, Louise Fletcher and today Alice is taking a break and I am joined by a special guest.

Jonathan Hall is an author so we're switching genres and he also happens to be my best friend so

but that's not why he's on the podcast. He's on the

podcast because he's gonna make an amazing guest. So hi Jonathan.

Hello very good to be here. Listen to episodes of these podcasts so it is a bit of a bit of a wish fulfilled to actually be speaking on

Podcast I'm really thrilled to have you because we we just were saying before we started recording that we usually sit and talk about creativity and compare our creative processes and we keep finding out that writing is just the same as painting and I imagine that making music is the same and that basically creativity is creativity and we all go through the same challenges and a little bit of that is what I want to talk to you about today.

But before I do let me just give everybody a little bit more information about you than that.

So I've known you for years. Yeah there's a there's a big round

number in there that's got a four and a zero in it somewhere.

We met each other at college and that's all we'll say during our college years and we've been close ever since and one of the reasons it's become clear to me over the years that we that we did bond so much is we are quite similar we seem very different but certainly in terms of work ethic, motivation and the importance of creativity in our lives, we are very similar, it turns out.

So Jonathan has always ever since I've known him carried a

notebook everywhere he goes. He has so many notebooks at home so he, I feel like you're a born writer. You were just a writer from the minute you popped out and you've always been writing. But you primarily for many years were writing plays and involved with playwriting and he's also taught playwrights. This writing hasn't been John's full time job until perhaps it will be soon. But he's a deputy headmaster of a primary school and in between that so he's always written these plays he said play stage in London and he's done various things but in the last few years and we'll talk about this together but from my perspective you've committed more even more time and even more effort into your writing and instantly that you did that, the rewards began to come in and you have a radio four series called Trust which I've mentioned on this

podcast a really good drama series and he has now published his first novel with

Harper Collins and it is doing really well so we're not talking about one of those books that just disappears and they'll sell like a hundred copies. This novel is doing really well and we'll talk all about that too.

So, before we get into talking about your

having quite an exciting time, so before we get into talking about your journey and everything, let's just do, we always do what we've been up to.

And you're having quite an exciting time at the moment, so tell us what you've been up to in the last few weeks.

Yeah, it's an exciting time but like I think like all exciting times it's very

unpredictable. It's very unpredictable and I find as a creative as an artist I do love my routine and my stability.

And suddenly I'm teaching a bit in school.

...