Val McDermid

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media

Society & Culture, Unknown

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Val McDermid tells Gyles her remarkable story. An only child from Kirkcaldy in Fife, the daughter of a welder and a shop assistant, Val became obsessed with books after being read to by her mother as a young child and, when the family moved opposite the town's Central Library, she read every book on the shelves. It was her favourite books - The Chalet School series - that inspired her to become a writer and to apply to Oxford University, despite the fact that she'd only ever been to England once, on a family holiday to Blackpool. Val also tells Gyles about the 3 months she spent in an isolation hospital when she was first born, forever effecting her relationship with her mum; about discovering her sexuality at university; and about her first career as a journalist. Val is now one of the best-selling crime writers in the world, and her latest book 'Past Lying', the latest in the Karen Pirie series, is out now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, lovely Rosebud listeners. I'm so glad you're here again, ready to hear the first memories of someone interesting.
0:08.0	Perhaps you'll be transported back to your own childhood. So, sit back, relax, enjoy the ride, or if you're out jogging, run faster and enjoy the ride.
0:19.3	Or if you're at the wheel, drive carefully and enjoy the drive. Or if you're at the wheel,
0:21.3	drive carefully and enjoy the drive.
0:23.9	If you're drifting off to sleep,
0:26.4	try to move in to the slow lane,
0:30.5	because it is safer there.
0:31.6	Music Hello, and before I introduce today's guest, I want to give you a heads up about something that's coming up later in the show.
1:02.3	There's a very special competition in today's episode in partnership with our sponsor, the J.W. Marriott-Grovenor House Hotel.
1:09.9	If you want to hear more details of this,
1:11.7	listen for the Groverna House advertorial later on in the podcast. It really is something quite
1:18.7	special. Now, if you love crime fiction, then the chances are you're a fan of Val McDermid,
1:26.5	who's my guest today. Val is one of the biggest
1:29.2	selling British crime writers of all time, and she is prolific writing a book a year. Her books,
1:36.0	which include The Wire in the Blood, and her characters like Karen Pirey and the clinical psychologist
1:42.3	Dr. Tony Hill have become iconic.
1:46.3	Val and I met in my house in West London, and we talked about her beginnings, growing up
1:51.4	among close family in Kirkote in Fife, reading everything she could get her hands on in the local
1:56.6	library.
1:57.5	We talked to about her experience as the first ever Scottish State School student at St. Hilda's
2:04.1	College in Oxford. And we find out about her early career as a successful journalist. If you're
2:10.6	a fan of Val's writing, you'll want to listen to this. And if you're not, I think by the time you've
	...

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