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Hello, ho, ho! There you go, a festive greeting. I'm Nihal Arthaniaka and welcome back to the Penguin podcast where we

unwrap the world of writing. The air is filled with festive cheer. The tinsel is a twinkling.

And I'm here with more holiday puns than you can shake a candy cane at. As the temperature

drops and the days grow shorter, it can only mean one thing. It's time to snuggle up with your

favourite authors as we revisit the highlights of the past year on the Penguin podcast. It's been a

challenge, as you can imagine, to narrow down the selection for this compilation, because let's face it,

every episode is a gem. But we've chosen six of the best for our end of year roundup.

If you want to hear any of the conversations in full, don't worry, our podcast library is an

absolute treasure trove waiting for you to explore. So, whether you're a long-time listener

or just joining the Penguin podcast family. There's a sleighful

of literary delights for you to discover. Just head to www.penguine.com.uk slash podcasts to find all

our episodes. I began the year talking to Jane Fallon about her latest release, Just Got Real.

Few authors have mastered the art of blending humour, suspense and biting wit as skillfully as Jane has.

And it was great to be able to ask her, why revenge is such a recurring theme in her work?

You kind of want to stay in your wheelhouse, really, because I might have a brilliant idea

for a completely different genre, but I think it would alienate people.

There was a thing when getting rid of Matthew first came out, someone called it chick-noir,

which I really liked, because obviously as a female writer, you get the chick-lit,

even if you're not writing about relationships. Are you comfortable with that? Well, it hasn't got a K on the end, so I kind of let it off. You can kind of read it as chic, chic noir. I mean, no, it's kind of annoying. Like, no one's saying all men's books are lad, whatever. So it's a bit infantilising, but I liked the fact that I got my own little label that wasn't chicklet, because, you know, I've seen it with all other women writers that I know, they all get called chicklet if there's any kind of a relationship, even if it's just two friends doing something together. So I thought, okay, well, that's kind of my thing. My thing is chick noir. So I've sort of clung onto that so that I've got a thing, but it's a thing that I feel is my own unique little USP. And similarly with the revenge thing, more and more, you know, I started a few books ago. I remember there was a review that said, or the queen of revenge. And I thought, oh, I like that. That's my thing.

So I think as long as you're happy that you can make each book as individual, I think it's a bit like saying every thriller has a murder in it. Most of my books have revenge in them. It's my thing. It's what I do. But hopefully they're all very different. Okay. So what is it about your own nature, your own personality that draws you towards revenge?

I don't know. they're all very different. Okay, so what is it about your own nature, your own personality that

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