About

Not just another book podcast…

Paul, Gwyneth, Lara, Holly and occasionally Rob talk about novels, short fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction, libraries and their own creative writing: the journey is never boring, with laughter not far from the surface. Expect significant digression into films, music, art and nature, as we share the things we love: particular favourites include fantasy, historical fiction, tartan & scandi noir, poetry, adaptations (sometimes) and Thomas Hardy.

Each month we take a theme and explore books and writing related to it; we also feature interviews with authors, poets, librarians, publishers, festival organisers and many others from the world of books. Our themes frequently lead us to great music, so each episode has an accompanying playlist on Spotify.

The evolution of Bookylicious

Bookylicious grew out of a radio show, Calon Talks Books, which formerly broadcast on the community station Calon FM in Wrexham, North Wales, UK. In 2016 we started to produce a paper zine as a spin-off project from the show. We initially saw it as a place where we could recap all the books we’d discussed on air, with the odd additional article written (by ourselves) when the mood took us. It quickly morphed into something much bigger, and we were soon featuring contributions from guest authors and any other literary folk who crossed our path and expressed an interest.

Towards the end of 2016 we realised that producing a paper zine was quite a lot of work, not to mention geographically restricted in terms of who could read it. We therefore decided to embrace modern technology and go digital (and global), relaunching Bookylicious as an e-zine/website in April 2017. This incarnation lasted until summer 2018, when it too had to close, due to pressures of work and life. However, a book group had sprung up in the meantime, and the radio show continued, so the flame was kept alive.

When the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020, the radio show recordings moved to Zoom. It was then that we realised we could do something more with these tools and the flexibility they offered – and so the idea of the podcast was born. We didn’t want to lose all our history, however, so we have incorporated the e-zine articles into this site, and will continue this as a blog to supplement the podcast.

Join in

In addition to the podcast and blog, we have moved our book group online – so you can join us in reading the book and discussing it, wherever you are in the world! Edited highlights will be recorded for the show.

So, if you love books and reading, and are looking for inspiration for what to read next, this is the podcast for you! If you have any thoughts on the show or ideas for future episodes, we would love to hear from you.