Stig Abell, author of 'A Twist in the River' - Breakfast Show host discusses golden age crime fiction, why planning sets you up for failure, and why AI will kill culture
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stig Abell is a media polymath. He's worked for The Sun and LBC, was the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and now hosts the breakfast show on national Times Radio. He's just published the fourth novel in the Jake Jackson series, 'A Twist in the River'.
His debut fiction novel, 'Death Under a Little Sky', won the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award' and CrimeFest 2024. Since then, he's published 'Death in a Lonely Place' and 'The Burial Place'. He's written non-fiction, 'How Britain Really Works', and 'What to Read Next'.
'A Twist in the River', tells the story of Jake Jackson, an ex-detective who is hoping for peace in the countryside, but finds himself deep into an investigation when a young nurse disappears on the riverbank.
We talk about how a writing day looks when you need to get up at 2.45am to be on the radio. Also, you can hear why planning sets you up for failure, and why for Stig, writing is all about momentum.
Stig talks about his wide-interests, and balancing different projects while finding time to write. Also about looking up words, and why AI is coming for culture.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome along to a brand new episode of writers' routine. This week we're chatting to Stig |
| 0:13.4 | Abel about Twist in the River, the fourth in the Jake Jackson series. And he loves writing so much |
| 0:20.7 | that he's almost finished the sixth one |
| 0:22.5 | around a year early. |
| 0:24.5 | We talk about how a writing day looks |
| 0:26.6 | when you host a national breakfast radio show. |
| 0:30.2 | Also, why for him, writing is all about momentum. |
| 0:34.0 | Because I like writing so much |
| 0:35.5 | and I've really enjoyed living in the world of the books, |
| 0:39.3 | possibly because the real world is so awful. |
| 0:42.3 | I'm very far ahead of the game. |
| 0:44.7 | So the fourth book in this Jake Jackson series is out in April, |
| 0:50.4 | but the fifth one is already mostly edited and very nearly done |
| 0:55.6 | and I'm 60,000 words into the sixth one. |
| 0:59.0 | Now, my deal is for six books, that could be the end of it all. |
| 1:02.8 | But equally, I don't want to slow down too much |
| 1:06.4 | because part of the... I really enjoy doing it, |
| 1:09.0 | but to me, part of writing is momentum. I think people |
| 1:12.8 | are writers who can write out of order, or they could write for a week and then have two weeks |
| 1:17.6 | off and write for you. I'm sure that's... And you might even get better art doing that. But there |
| 1:22.3 | is something about momentum that I'm very attracted by that I think if I do it yesterday and I do it today I'll do it |
| 1:28.1 | tomorrow it feels like it will keep moving and why sometimes it's tricky to stick to the plan |
... |
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