Hello, this is everything else, the FT Culture Podcast.

I'm Gris, commissioning arts editor in the London office.

And I'm Lila, the FTs community editor in the New York office.

This episode is our summer books special.

At FT Weekend, we've just published our guide to the best books of the year so far,

ranging across almost 30 categories, from politics, economics and business

to health, music, film and photography.

So we'll be talking to the FTs's innovation editor, John Thornhill,

about his list of the best books about technology published this year.

But before that, I spoke to the historian, broadcaster,

and FT contributing writer Simon Sharma in the London studio

about what makes good writing.

So, Gris, Simon Shama is very well known in the UK, but maybe a bit less so in the US.

Though I've noticed that when FT editors talk about him, they brighten up, they start to smile,

and I wanted to know if you could tell me a little bit about the magnetism of Simon Shama.

Well, I think magnetism is the right word, really.

It's a combination of his charisma and his knowledge, which goes very deep and very broad.

I mean, he writes for the food editor, the fashion editor.

He writes for us on the arts pages a lot. He does book reviews. I actually used to work for the food editor, the fashion editor. He writes for us on the arts

pages a lot. He does book reviews. I actually used to work for Simon for a few years as his

assistant. So I used to accompany him to book festivals and literary events speaking about all sorts

of subjects, often history, art history, but I once saw him doing a live cooking demonstration

...