Paula Hawkins

When The Girl on the Train came out in 2015 and went straight to number one on global bestseller lists Paula Hawkins was pitched like a debut. But in fact Paula had written several previous novels, romantic comedies, under a pseudonym, the last of which hadn’t done well at all, leaving Paula feeling seriously rejected. What I loved about talking to Paula is they even though she is now one of the most famous thriller writers alive, she remains extremely cautious and circumspect, with vivid recollections of how it felt before she was successful and before she started to really love what she was writing, Her latest book, A Slow Fire Burning, is out now and is, I think, her best yet, a really clever mystery with a lot of subverted tropes and jokes about book writing. We talk too about not being able to give publishers what they want, the horror of bad reviews - yep, she had them - and the book that The Girl on the Train very nearly was until another author wrote it. You can find me on Twitter at @francescasteele and Instagram at @Francesca_steele Don’t forget that I list my guests' books at my online shop . This helps fund the podcast so please do buy there! Also do rate or review the podcast on your app - it helps more people find out about Write-Off, and also I just really like seeing the reviews! The lovely Scott Elliott helped me produce this season. Please do consider him for all your pod needs. This season is sponsored by the wonderful Jericho Writers Listeners of the podcast can get an exclusive 15% discount on membership by going to and entering the code Write-Off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Paula Hawkins online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Paula Hawkins is an episode from Write-Off with Francesca Steele by Francesca Steele.

This episode is 45:51 long.

This episode was published on Mar 10, 2022.

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