Val McDermid
Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 March 2024
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
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.
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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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