Sara & Cariad's Weirdos Book Club - Welcome to Weird Street by Stephen Mangan with Stephen Mangan

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

This week's book guest is Welcome to Weird Street by Stephen Mangan, illustrated by Anita ManganSara and Cariad are joined by the brilliant actor, comedian, presenter and writer Stephen Mangan.In this episode they discuss Treasure Island, Green Wing, Stephen Fry and farts.Thank you for reading with us. We like reading with you!Follow Sara & Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club on Instagram @saraandcariadsweirdosbookclubProduced, recorded and edited by Naomi Parnell for Plosive.Artwork by Welcome Studio.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Pasco. And I'm Carriead Lloyd. And we're weird about books. We love to read. We read too much. We talk too much. About the too much that we've read. Which is why we created The Weirdo's Book Club.

A space for the lonely outsider to feel accepted and appreciated. Each week we're joined by amazing comedian guests and writer guests to discuss some wonderfully and crucially weird books, writing, reading and just generally being a weirdo. You don't even need to have read the books to join in. It will be a really interesting, wide-ranging conversation. And maybe you'll want to read the book afterwards. We will share all the upcoming.

books we're going to be discussing on our Instagram, Sarah and Carriads, Weirdo's Book Club. Thank you for reading with us. We like reading with you. This week's book guest is Welcome to Weird Street by Stephen Mangon, illustrated by Anita Mangon. What's it about? It's about little girl called Sarah who finds a lost cat and visits each house on Weird Street to see who it belongs to. What qualifies it for the Weirdo's Book Club? Well, it's set on Weird Street, you dig. In this episode, we discuss Treasure Island, Green Wing, Stephen Frye, and Farts. And during the this week is Stephen himself. Stephen is cool and sexy.

Stephen Magnan. It's the first for the podcast because your book saved my life today. Today, just now. I was on an e-bike and a bumblebee landed on my jumper and I thought, just leave it. Those bikes go so fast. I don't have you ridden one. They're very unsafe. And then it was just moving around and I thought, I'm just going to run over. And in my basket, bumping up and down was your book and I had to get it out and flick the bee off me. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then I nearly lost the book. but then I didn't.

So it wasn't because you read it and it changed something fundamentally deep within you. Oh, no. I should have maybe warned you to it. Yeah, it sounded like it was going somewhere else. It has made my life better.

Also, it's so great for us that you call it Welcome to Weird Street because we have a Weirdo's podcast. We don't need to struggle about how to introduce why is it good for the Weirdo's Book Club. We normally have to say, why is it a weirdo book? And now we're like, easy.

It would have been upsetting if you'd gone. It's not really for us actually. It's really for us. It's so for us. It's so for us. This is your, Ninth kids' book? Your ninth children's book.

Eight and a half. Eight and a half. I think, well, because it's short stories. We did, we did a, we did a, we did a, um, a book day book. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a sort of half a book. And you're saying we, because your amazing sister, Anita does all the illustrations. It's quite like a team. It is a team.

It's a team. And each book feels very distinctive, like, and she's done the illustrations from the beginning. So I feel like the characters have grown like you and Anita have created this world together. So nine. It's difficult for me. Yeah. because I don't even remember this. No, go on.

But I auditioned for a Victoria Pyle show, the one that she made after Green Wing. Campus. Campus, yeah. And when she next saw you, she held up my headshot and said, I looked so much like Stephen, I could be your sister.

Do you remember? And so when I saw your sister, I was like, that's me. Oh, yeah. Anita, me. That is so funny. I've forgotten all about that. Of course you did.

I had forgotten until I saw Anita, and it's like looking in the mirror. And you were like, oh, that's me. Someone said to me the other day, someone said, we saw you on Gogglebox, your wife doesn't half look like you. Oh my God. We've literally got the same face. It's the same face with different hair.

How could she be? You should dye your hair pink though. I will. I'm going to. That's next. You look so alike. It's ridiculous. But there's another sister as well, isn't it?

There is, Lisa. Lisa Marie. Does she look as, I think she looks quite as similar as you in Nita. No, but you can tell we're from the same. Yes. Yeah, yeah. But you Anita, I think, look very, yes. If I put any sort of wig on, it's just, I might as well be her, which I do, obviously, quite frequent. Anita is amazing.

We should shout out to Anita basically because she's an incredible illustrator and a brilliant human. How does the relationship work? Is it pretty much a classical thing where you send a written manuscript? Yeah, I do all the writing. I don't tell her really anything about it. And then I just send her the thing and draw that and then she draws it. But does she tech, because I have written kids book and you have a very professional relationship. relationship with the illustrator.

Never sleep with them. Carrehead will not. It's really good that she's got brown dress. Yeah, yeah. That's good. What's happening? But as a sister, does she ever text you being like, why have you put that?

I'm not drawing that. Or that shouldn't be there. No, she doesn't. I mean, she'll occasionally say, you said on page 42 that they've got pink hair and on page 43 they've got brown. Occasionally, things like that. And she will, I mean, you know, I'm her older brother,

so obviously I have to be annoying. Yeah. So she told me once the horses are difficult to draw, so I wrote a whole book. book about Rained It. You know, it's just my job. Yes, yes. That literally what inspired that book.

But she always does more illustrations than unnecessary. She just can't stop. Yeah. She loves it. This is very, I did have interviewed you in Anita before and I was speaking to Anita recently and she was saying the thing about... How are you speaking to her?

Because Stephen guested on ostentatious. Oh yeah. And Anita came to sit. Oh, I see me. So a little chat afterwards. I hadn't seen her for a while you dropped it in. It's just like, we just stayed in touch. We've got so well.

How kind of pals? How kind of pals with Anita? jealous when Carreyd has other friends. I have to check where she saw people. Yeah, you would like Anita a lot. She's very cool. She looks a little like you. Well, of course.

Maybe that's why I liked her. Yes. I was like, oh, you're my best friend. I like it now. I like it now. Yeah, yeah. We're on board. Very pro this now.

That's good. But she was saying to me, which I thought was really sweet, that she ends up doing more illustrating because she's like, oh, I'll just do. Yeah. Oh, I'll add it a little bit there. Whereas normally with illustrations and books, there's quite a strict.

These are the seven you're doing. And then the author goes, okay, they look what, like, vaguely what I did. But I thought, so, it must be so nice to have a relationship where you can, she's like adding stuff in and you're like, yeah, that's good. And it's so lovely to have like little, little ones. I know, the little one she does. Little beans.

Little beans. It's lovely an extra ones. Yeah, I mean, my favourite bit is when she's sending the illustrations, so she's doing them. And I, because I, you, I obviously have an idea of what the characters look like, but I don't really in that same way. I don't know, it's weird. I don't visualize them completely like that.

And her style is so distinctive. I think what's really nice about this one, having read lots of the other ones you've done. This one's called Welcome to Weird Street, and we start on this street that looks like a comma, and it's like we're kind of visiting each house, aren't we? So it's given Anita. She's had a lot of fun during all the different mad people who live in this.

And all the houses. Every chapter starts with a big drawing of the house. Yeah. But there's a real, like, a couple of these people, I was like, I don't know, some art school vibes. I feel like, is she starting to base them on, like, real people? But this is different because you normally write like a one long, big story. And this is like lots of little stories,

but they are kind of connected. And so our heroes, Sarah, you must have like that. Yes. I love it. You don't have a cat called Murphy, do you? I wish. No. My dog just chases cats, and my children sometimes stop to pet cats,

and we have to, like, stand two feet away with the dog, going, oh, oh. But what would he do? What would he do? I don't think he knows. A lot of the cats around our way aren't actually scared of him. It sounds like his all mouth and no drowsers. Maybe. Steve's really got a problem with my daughter.

I do, actually. I've really taken against him. What a gist. He's very sweet. Are you very much a cat man? Oh, I love dogs. We all love dogs. We'd love a dog, but there's too much chaos in our lives anyway.

So I think a dog would add an extra level that we can't cope with. It is hard. It's hard with working, being away. That's the kind of thing that then becomes another person. You have to make sure it's being looked after. Yeah, our three children. Yeah, because you've got three. How old are your children now?

10, 15, 18. Oh, yeah. Well, I thought that with a dedication. So when we worked together, which was my first ever acting job, Harry was this tiny little tiny man. Yeah, six foot three now. They're called babies. He can't have been half a foot tall.

No, I know. He's really, he's just grown from a small thing to a much bigger thing. And what, has that happened sort of like every kind of month? They all seem to be doing it. That's weird. So you did three agents. Matt Holness. And it was shot in film.

Anna Maxwell Martin. She was in it, yes. And that was your first acting job. And Tony Head. I think we couldn't believe that you were, because we were obsessed with Green Wing. Were you? Yeah. Obsessed with the DVDs.

We had the DVDs. We watched them a lot. And you listened to the new version of the new stuff we've done. Not yet. No, I've heard of it. It's really weird. I've heard of it. Is it on old divorce or something? It's two series. Well, the second series you've just done. But yeah, it's great. I didn't know it's two series. I'm sorry.

Well, the only, it hasn't come out. Okay, great. I was like, God, and now I feel bad. But it was good getting everyone together, getting everyone. Yeah, that must be nice. 20 years later. Yeah, God. We obsessively watched that DVD. Do you remember? And then when you got that job, we were very excited that you were going to be there. Free agents.

Free agents. You're acting like you weren't bothered. No, I was bothered. I was bothered. I remember because sometimes we'd sit around and they would go. We were living together at this point. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, we didn't say that bit. We were living at my mum's house. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I remember sitting around and they were sometimes going get us coffees. Can you imagine that? Because it was at Euston Station. Yeah. And I thought, I'm never going to be the kind of person that doesn't look the person in the eye when they get their coffee. Just puts their hand in the air. Because you said that Stephen. Stephen was doing that. She came back reporting. No, not Stephen.

I don't look anyone in the eye. Just horrible. You were exhausted. I think you were doing a play then as well, weren't you? I was. I was doing three plays. I mean, three plays in rotation at the old Vic. Yeah.

So we were filming every minute. I was like working. I think the only time I had off was between matinees and evening shows. The rest of the seven days a week I was working. And that was it. And so you had a bed in your dressing room, which wasn't a dressing room. Yeah. Which wasn't a dressing room.

And that's why I saw Harry, your child. Because like if your family wanted to see you, they had to sort of come and wait you up from a nap. It's terrible, isn't it? Oh my God. And now I'm going to do two more plays and not see them again. I still read to my 10-year-old every night. Do you?

And I'm doing six months in the theatre and I'm so worried that when I come out at the other end he's going to be like, I don't want to read to me. I'm convinced that's going to happen. Can you record it on audio so you can listen? I did. When Harry was very young, I used to, when we were going out, I used to occasionally, this is Sherry, shameful,

put on a CD of an audio book that I didn't. Until he was about six, he thought every story started read by Stephen Mangon. Isn't that awful? No, it's not because they were appropriate. It's awful. It's awful. It's awful.

No, but you're not, so you do, like, my daughter listens to Auntie Sarah reading the tweets because we have it and she has not, she doesn't quite understand that not everyone knows the people who've done the old dull adaptations. I suppose at least I wasn't like, why are you laughing? That bit's funny. But like, if you have it, why not? I know. It's terrible.

It's sort of awful and sort of, like me. Tams and Greg and I did some, yeah, some fairy tales, grim's fairy tales. And, yeah, he used to get Rapunzel a lot. Why are you crying? Do you read these books? He doesn't want my stories read to him. I have the same problem. My daughter won't read my books.

He doesn't want my stories read to him. He doesn't want me to do voices. Yes, yes. Same problem. Just read it, Dad. Yeah. Same problem. And then the witch came and he's like, Dad.

Stop it. I did a full, from my kids book, my middle grade book, Lydia Marmalade and the Christmas Wish, available an audiobook. By Carreed Lloyd. By Carreed. I even said to it. So she loves audiobooks. She didn't want me to read it to.

And I was like, we could just put it on. She was like, no. But do you not remember finding parents embarrassing? Yeah, I do, but it's like... After a while, when they're 15 maybe. Yeah, yeah. Mine's nine. Like, you know, you think you might want...

Oh, no. There's still this element of like, oh. I think also they're very good at picking up, like, neediness. Yeah, you need this. They pick up, like, oh, you want this. Like, you want me to... You want me to, rather than any other book you pick up. You're like, I'll read it to you.

And they're like, oh, this is relaxed, where they can smell that you're like, I hope you like it. Yeah. We can read any book you like except mine. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm going to do next. Try that. It's too sophisticated for you.

You wouldn't understand it. It's for really intelligent children. Yeah, exactly. No, we're reading the Philip Pullman version of the Grimm fairy tales. Oh, is that good? They're all quite weird. But the originals. Yeah, they're all really weird.

Oh, really weird. My dad used to read me the originals. Yeah. So has Philip Pullman dealt with? Yeah, no, he's just picked the weirdest version. Oh, he's just made it weirder. Yeah. There's no soft peddling at all.

Okay. So we're constantly going. So Grims, the original Little Mermaid, is that Grims? No, that's Hans-Krinston Anderson, but it also is grim. Yeah. But the Brothers Grim fairy tales. To be fair, they actually collected. Hattel and Gretel?

Yes. And they collected a lot of German folklore. But it is a lot of children in danger. Children being, yeah. Eat. There's murder eating. There's like. Rich King's beautiful princesses.

There's a lot of that. There's a lot of. people being killed. Yeah, a lot of death. A lot of death. And my dad used to read these to me. Yeah. I told that someone the other day

and they were like, no, when you tell someone, I said, oh, my dad's what my dad used to mainly read me was Grimm's fairy tales. And they were like, oh, makes sense. I was like, oh. But that stuff is great. I mean, David Sederis has a bit in his diaries about meeting someone in Australia who said to him, her mom used to say to her, I'm going to pull your arm off and beat you with the wet end. Which has really stuck with me.

That's a kind of great parent threat, isn't it? Yeah, it's really good. But you either come from a background, which I think the three of us do, where that's seen as love. Right. Or you come from background where that's shocking. Yeah. I think either your parents who are like, yeah, that's just how they spoke to me. Well, because you know everything's okay.

Yeah. You know, they're actually not going to. Once they've threatened it 150 times. Exactly. You know, it's not actually happening. So if you hear it once and go, oh, my God, I'd have been terrified. Only of your brother was walking around with no arm and you're like, oh, yeah, that's. Dad lost it.

Dad finally lost it. hit you with the wet end. It's just great. So this is your eight and a half, ninth book. Welcome to Weird Street. Do you want to, what, inspired this one? Was anything in particular? Do you know what? It was my publishers. It said, do you fancy writing some short stories? I was wondering if you were going to give us a fake story about it. No, that was it. They just went, you know, because I've really stupidly never written a book that I've then, I've never set up a whole series, you know, 72.

Yeah, yeah. All of your books are like standalone, don't they? I have to think of an entire new world and entire new characters and situations. But they all kind of live in the mangan world. They are all of the sensibility, yeah, definitely. But I just, they said short stories. I thought, actually, that's a quite a good idea because, you know, reading to my 10-year-old a lot, it is fun to pick up a story. And I don't read those Philip Pullman stories at the moment.

It is nice to read, pick up a story and read them where you complete the whole story in a sort of 20-minute thing. So some of them are, yeah, four pages, some of them are a bit longer. And I wanted to link them as well. So it's about a girl, Sarah, who finds a cat on street. she doesn't know who belongs to. So she knocks on every door to try and find where the cat lives. So sometimes you see her interacting with the people inside the house.

Sometimes you just hear the knock or the ring on the doorbell and you never actually get to her, but you know it's her. Even as I'm thinking about, it's really weird writing for children because every time you write something, you think, am I encouraging to do something? They shouldn't do. Yes, constantly. And a 10-year-old girl going around up and knocking on strangers' doors

Going into some of those houses It's probably not on But it's a book, isn't it? It's okay Nothing happens in books Also, what was normal when we grew up? It isn't normal anymore No

So that's the thing So when you think of a 10-year-old I do think of things like that My sister and I This is shameful Used to pretend to be running Races for charity We would go around Dagnum

Knocking on doors Get loads of cash, spend it on sweets Right That's, yeah Fraud, yeah We've spent the money now Yeah But no one said to us

Please do. Don't go and knock on strangers. No, that wasn't the thing. They would sometimes say don't go further than that amount of streets away. Right. I know. Yeah, we did, I did scout a bobber job. I had to go as a club scound or were you actually giving it to people.

I mean, I don't know. I can't remember what I did with the money whether I spent it on hair products or what. Please do email in if either Sarah or Stephen affected you as a adult many years ago. Anyway, it's a book. So it's not real life. I'm not telling people to do knock on doors. And also, I think lots of children's books, the fun of it is imagination and possibility. wouldn't it be crap to have a caveat at the beginning?

Just so you know, you're allowed to stay in bed and read this, not have a life doing stuff. But this is the thing with stories, you need a character to do something that you wouldn't do. Yeah. To have a story for you to be like, oh, I wouldn't do that. And also, you want children to have autonomy in stories.

That's why so many parents have died, so many orphans because they need to be able to tackle the world on their own. Otherwise, it's just doing what your parents tell you to do. We're about to have them alone again. No one wants that. You need to get the parents out. So, yeah. So yeah, so she's on her own.

And she knocks on these doors and she's fine. Can I just say that? She's fine. And at the end she is brutally, no, you haven't written that. She's fine. Because it's really clear from the beginning the parameters of this weird world. It's not dangerous, but spooky stuff can happen, creepy stuff and some disgusting stuff. There is a description of a bogey that made me so upset Steve.

I read this to my daughter and normally, he's nine and normally I, I mean, yucky things, I'm like, and she's like, oh, it doesn't care. Even she went, oh, mom, like, oh no. Yeah, because it is so disgusting what that child does in that description. It's great. We were laughing our heads off. That's what you want as a kid. Yeah, she did thoroughly enjoy it. And she was absolutely in hysterics.

One of the earlier stories when you write a slapstick, basically. You write a slapstick story about that. It's the estate agent, isn't it? Nigel, who has this horrific series of accidents. She was crying, laughing so much. And your books are always, we also read together, Barry saves Christmas. Right. And your first one as well, we read together.

And they're always so funny, which is really hard for kids' books. It's really hard. That's nice of you. Also, especially because people sometimes write what they find funny as an adult. Yes, which is not. Or it's patronising. There's a real place for child humour, which you're obviously able to go, because you're so mature. I'm really mature.

I mean, the thing is, I, well, what I do is I do write to. make myself Anneta laugh. That's what I'm thinking of the whole time. And occasionally, and I leave, I leave it up to my editor to police it. And sometimes she will go, that's just too weird or too dark. And I'll go, okay, fine. I'm not precious about it. But I think, what else can you do?

You can only write for your own sensibility. Well, kids books, did you, when you were growing up, what was the things that got you into reading? Oh, God. I mean, I just read non-stop. And we had, because I had two sisters. So at the dinner, at the dinn, so we had two benches and we were separated by gender for some reason. So mum and my sister sat on one side and dad and me.

And there was a gap between me and dad. And there was always a book there. I just read all the time. I read everything. I mean, from Peanuts, cartoons to I read quite a lot of Inablighton growing up. I read, God, I read Alan Garner, Leon Garfields. Just, you know, starting off Winnie the Pooh. I think Alice in Wonderland was a big.

thing because that was just so weird and so vivid. And that's funny, isn't it? It's funny. It's also weird. I reread that reasoning to my daughter and I was like, God, this is so weird. It's out there, isn't it? Yeah. Carrie Ad and I mounted a production of this at university.

With our friend. As students. Who did you play? Myself, Sarah and our friend Vanessa Hammock directed a three-hour version of Alice and We lost so much money that still the Sussex University Drum Society isn't allowed to use the gardeners. centre the proper thing. Or the Richard Atterbury Centre as it is now. Yeah, we bankrupted the society.

Yeah. No one came to see it. It's the other problem. So we... I did the mock turtle. Oh, yeah. Just the mock turtle. I played the mock turtle, yeah.

It's all the best character to play. Door mouse. Yeah, why used to take it down? We actually got three girls. It was an all-boys school and got three girls in to play Alice, the Queen and... The Duchess. Oh, great. He sneezes.

And I must have been eight or nine. And this is a really... I don't know why I'm. telling you this. But there was one of the girls playing Alice, she just set something off on me. I didn't, I couldn't understand it.

I didn't know what was going on. But I just, and I, before the show, I would just run up to her and sort of headbutter in the breasts. But you were so, so young.

I would sort of, not hard, but just run up with the top of my head and sort of, I just didn't know, and I didn't know why I was doing it. No, it's sort of like,

how would a goat deal with this? situation. Literally. But now when you've got kids, you do see them do some really odd things and it's like their language pre-frontal language cortex just can't I believe I told you that but yeah it's true. So weird. I mean I'm looking back and if she's listening to this.

Yes. If Stephen affected you by headbuttoning in the rest, please write in. I was going to say you're welcome. But yeah, so you were into but that sounds like you were into reading. You were, because I'm just thinking about funny books. Like it wasn't, you weren't like seeking out humor particularly. No, I don't think so. I think we

had a laugh. My sisters are really Anita's a year younger and Lisa's two years younger than Anita. So we were really close in age and we just had a laugh the whole time. We were constantly making up just nonsense and just laughing, trying to make each other laugh, pulling stupid faces and just endlessly. It felt like

my entire childhood. So there was just that was always around. But books, no, I yeah. And then we do school, I do a lot of school plays. We, you know, did Treasure Island, so he got read that. That's quite a tough one to read I haven't we read that. I bet it is quite too. Yeah, the language is quite out there on that.

And we did Oliver. So, you know, I'd get, I started my first time I got in Red Dickens. I loved Dickens. Who were you in Oliver? Were you in Oliver? Were you? You were vegan, of course. Of course.

I was pagan as well. Were you? Cheryl and I did a two woman production of Fagan with a lot of songs from other musicals. Two women. Two women. Yeah, Oliver wasn't in it. It was Fagan in the Artful Dodger. I mean.

That was it. Yeah. What were they doing like life of crime stuff? Well, sort of seeing. They're knocking on people's doors. Were they? Pretending they were doing a fun bun. I'd only just started bleaching my hair, so I know that my hair was orange.

And Cheryl hadn't wanted to be doing it. And what I remember is Fagan singing the song, I feel pretty. From West Side Story, because all I wanted to yell in front of everyone assembled in my school was I feel pretty and witty and gay. Because I knew that would be really funny. Right. Oh, yeah. You knew there's little fris on there by say this. I couldn't wait to get to that line.

Oh, I bet the teachers were like, yeah. Well, they didn't have to do it. assembly. They're just thrilled, I think. Yeah, because Pasco took over the same. Cheryl's a teacher now and she goes, it was great. That's why they let us do it. Yeah. Yeah. Go on. Get yourself bullied. I was in a production of Oliver as well. Yeah.

Yeah. It's going on. Fagan? No, this is very... Who will buy? I was Mrs. Corny who marries Mr. Bumble. Oh, right. She's not important, but what you need to know is they hired an adult costume and I was

obviously too small and so they wrapped me in like cotton so that it would fit me, which meant my body was big and my head was tiny because it didn't have any proportion. Really freaky. And when I came out, my mum said, yeah, she was like, you looked really odd. Why were they hiring adult costumes? They just hired, I guess also I was, I am a short, tiny person and I think. But this was a school production.

Yeah, but I think they just hired the costume. And then they were like, oh no, Carread's playing that part. It's like, well, we're just water up and she'll fit. It was really bad. Yeah, we had a, one of the parents was a professional makeup artist. And he made up me up as Fagan, only for the show. I looked like, I looked like someone had covered me with glue. And I'd gone into a wind tunnel and they'd release lots of foam.

I mean, it was just, I was just like a cotton bud. There was so much grey on my eyebrows everywhere. He went to town. And there was like, like, really. Like it was, you know, the old Vic in 1920. He needed to be seen from the back. It's like, there's only 100 people watching, but I sort of lines like a badger. It was ridiculous.

Oh, my God. We did the non-musical version. Did you? We did the play. Is there a play? There's a play. And so every adult turned, all the parents turned up. And then as it started, you could hear them, where's the snow?

There's not one with songs. Are the lines, do you have, you got to pick a pocket or two? And then move on. Is that it? No song. Kind of, yeah. He says, please, sir, can I have some more? And then he's like, oh, it's like, yeah, it's just straight.

It's really, I would recommend it not. No, without the songs. But isn't it a much, much, much darker? Yeah, it's quite dark. Yeah. Because it's just about some really desperate children and a woman being married. Everyone wanted to be Nancy. That was the thing.

Yeah, domestic violence. Yeah, it's basically domestic violence. But then, you know, a lot of children's stuff is, I mean, I'm not you're aware of this, but I was the voice of Postman Pat and Postman Pat the movie. No. I didn't know. They've made a movie. Well, they haven't made a movie.

They'll love it. They won't watch any. But it's for three to five-year-olds. It's really good. Oh, yeah, it's good. Check-out. Hostile corporate takeovers. I just.

And I forgot. It was you. They're four-year-olds. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like one of those TV sort of dramas of true events? No. It was a move.

Yeah. Animation. But there is a sort of hit. The story is that like... But it was the thing that happened in the post office. That's what I mean. I guess they couldn't do the other post of a scandal. Yeah.

I told my son he came to the press, the premiere and I said, I'm Postman Pat. He went to him, I'm Postman Pat. We got there and there was a guy dressed up as Postman Pat. He went, see? He's Postman Pat. How embarrassing for you. I know. Do you know what I'm like, I was like, caught.

core in a lie. That poor man just be postman Pat. That's trying to steal his job. But this is a very funny book, because my point is a very fine book. And all of the books are really, really funny. It's fun writing different stories. I mean, it's a sort of stressy thing because I think, right, finish one story.

Like, what's she going to come across me out? I mean, you churned them out. Like, nine is incredible. Nine is a lot. I've been doing two a year for the last few years. I know. Yeah. Can I ask a question about being funny?

Yeah. Because one of the things, you know, Roll Dahl, who wrote weird, pushed the, and weird and dark and brilliant and funny, but some of those things are now perceived as bullying, a bit nasty, a bit, that could be used at someone at school if they have this or, you know, A, Blast. There are all these ways where you think you're writing an odd character and then you send it to your editor. Have you had much of that? Or have you had to change the way that you write at all where you think, oh, no, it could look like? I mean, I think I'm six months away from being cancelled because they're all, you know, I like writing about eccentric people. And you could say, well, you're just mocking people who are different because they're eccentric. What is eccentricity but people who are not, you know, such a thing in normal, but you know what I mean?

But I don't know. I thought you chose that line really carefully. There was a moment with one of the stories and it's because it's a little girl by herself that I thought, oh God, is she deeply traumatized? And I thought, no, you're so clever, always keeping it on the line of this is someone doing makebook. leave not someone having a psychotic break. Yeah. Is this when she's basically doing her homework? Yeah.

I really love that one. But that I think we all do, don't we? Of course. We've all done stuff like that. Of course. You have it. I was reading it. It's a girl who's basically doing her homework and she's just talking to herself.

She's so bored. She's so bored. And I was reading it and I was thinking, this is really, really funny. And then I was like, this is what Stephen has done this. It's too real. I was like, this is what happens to you when you're bored. You run around and talk to yourself and you start doing weird stuff. You think if anyone saw me now, then it would be over.

But not everyone does that. Maybe. But I like people who do. And I really appreciate it. And then the mum comes back in and she's like, I'm doing my homework, okay? Leave me in line. That one is interesting because it was, you know,

sometimes you write stuff and you think it's clear to me what's going on. But my editor was like, why is she saying all that stuff? Yeah. I was like, well, because she's so bored. You make that clearer. Yeah. So, you know. Yeah, because that's what I mean.

She wasn't like, don't have a be so weird. It's just like, make it clear that she's bored. And then her mom comes in. Because I know and love and have lived with people who behave like that when they're bored. And I was like, that must be Stephen really's board but I was like, not everybody does that and so initially there was so like, is she right? What's she doing?

The method in my family, because you know, because what this little girl does is she sort of stops at the top of the stairs and she then addresses, she's royalty and she's addressing the masses at the bottom. We just imagined we were doing a cooking show. Oh yeah, always doing a cooking show, always. I'm just going to make some water now. All you have to do is turn the tap. And that was that same thing, but there has to be a viewer.

I think not to be alone. We grew up with the absolute peak of cooking shows. So I think we used to, as kids, used to watch a lot of like that Saturday morning telly. So I used to always pretend to be a cook. We're making cereal. Also, I think it's because it seemed like it was normal people. Just get the crunchy nuts. And they were just telling you how to like cut your celery.

So it's like, I could do this too. That's why they now. I'm making a peanut butter sandwich. Here's the ingredients. That's where they now pretend to be like TikTokers and YouTubers because they're aware of people talking to the camera and saying. But often it is like just pretending to be stuff. Sorry, what's that children pretend to be TikTok as thing?

Yeah. In the same way that we would pretend to a kids show, they'd be like, hey, welcome to my channel. Oh, yes, yes. And so today we're going to, but it's always like presenting something, really. Or I've got boys, so they'll score a goal and they'll run over to the crowd. I'll be like that. I'll be like, to the wall.

Nice, because what you're capturing and you do so well in your writing of kids is like, that is what a lot of people do when they're kids and then give it up as adults. Yeah, but I mean, hopefully it's still in there. It's a sad. Or keep it secret. I mean, I've had a job. That's basically been my job for the last 30 years. It is your job to not keep a secret.

Yeah. And to be just to let it go, to let all that stuff come, you know, just to be daft sometimes. And then to try and hone it before it's shown to the public. People just go, no, you're actually really weird. That's really odd. So if you're doing two a year, are you managing to do writing while you're filming and working? Yeah. I mean, it depends what my schedule is.

But if I'm doing a play, then I'll often do two or three hours writing in the morning. Or if I'm filming, it'll be in my trailer. You know, it just depends. Or I will just go nuts for three, four weeks and just write for 12 hours a day. And then look at what we've written and gone, okay, 50% of that is just unusable. But, you know, you know this. The only way to get going is to just get going and to just write something. And then once you start writing something, you start going, okay, well, this is interesting.

I mean, it's, you know, I've tried everything, different styles with books. from plotting it all out really carefully beforehand to just going every day, I'm just going to surprise myself and take it somewhere I don't know where. And they both kind of are valid, aren't they, I think? But this was fun. You just had to sort of sit there and I could write a story a day, really, if I spend an hour or two just staring out of the winter

trying to think of a scenario in a house. You know, because there's two corsets in the fridge talking to each other at one point. I like the course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And a twist at the end. Yeah, yeah. A little twist.

And then listening, listening from the fridge. I did have to write, actually, that's one of the ones that I did, you shouldn't write on books, but I did write vegan guilt after the Quargets. Because the Caudettes, yeah, trying to work out what's worse, being chopped and fried. Because for you, you never feel the guilt. But then if Coulchettes have feelings, you're becoming. You can't, it wouldn't feel guilt at letting vegetables watch. Yeah.

Just that, God, you should feel terrible about it. I remember watching something years ago that was trying to test, like, if carrots could feel pain. Yeah. And I remember stopping watching it because I was like, I can't. You can't add carrots to the list of things I feel bad about. Like, we just can't. But they do sort of know that now, trees talk to each other. Yeah, they know trees talk to each other.

They've heard them. I know, but they're like, fuck's sake. I know. They're like, fuck sake. I mean, you're doing that with a carrot, aren't you, really. Sorry, but you just use the phrase ear microscopes and we all just glided over it. Okay. But I like to it.

Let's carry on. I like to go. Have you thought about writing adults? Are you tempted? Yeah, I am tempted. and I don't have an idea. But you don't have it like you just said. You said at the window to all these came out.

I know. I think. Everyone, everyone, and this is, is this, well, everyone does cozy crime now. Yeah, that's the thing that people buy. You bet you'd be good at cozy crime. Well, crazy crime and sort of fantasy sex stories, don't they? If I'm going to give a genre for you, Stephen, it's cozy crime, not romanticism.

I mean, people are well known already. Imagine yourself on the one show. If we're back here in six months and we're talking to you about not was fucking a fairy. I don't, it's not going to sell as well. It's not really me though. We said, no, I know. People do a version of their career, but if a crime happens, so it would be an actor for you like on TV in the West End,

something happens. That is what people are doing, aren't they? You could do a good one about, yeah, an actor filming. Yeah. And then a murder happens and the actor's playing a detective, and he has to solve it. Yeah. But not if your heart's not in it.

It doesn't feel like it, does it? Look at me going, yeah. I know. I don't know. I don't know. I enjoy writing for, kids because they will go with you. Yeah.

I like the fact that they're quite tough audiences that they've got so many other things they could be doing. I mean, I suppose adults are the same, but kids aren't polite. No, they're not. A theatre full of adults will sit there if they're slightly bored and just, you know, listening in silence, but kids won't. So I like that. And I like writing for that age group, especially because that sort of 9 to 12 group,

they're old enough to get some quite sophisticated ideas, but they're still young enough to be silly and go with you. But then I suppose adults would be silly. I mean, there's all sorts of silly books out there. Yeah, but there is, I know, when I write for 9 to 12, it's a particular delight that audience because they are discovering jokes for the first time, but you can also be very stupid and weird,

and you also don't have to justify anything. Like, you have to explain why, like, you're the Christmas one, that, you know, these elves are doing this, and they're all living in post, but you don't have to be like, well, let me explain the, the, what, kids just go with a lot of stuff. Like, it's a nice audience to just tell a story to you. And I think they're used to having stories told to them as well.

We're school and reading. So they're like, okay, so sure, she's got a cat. I think that's really admirable to just go, I love this kind of audience. And maybe that's one of the problems with being a creative person is that if we always think that adults, you know, art is superior. It's like you're going to use this as a branch while and they're going, no, this is what I love doing. Yeah. I think if you have an adult or like an idea, like, oh, that's got something in it. That's hard to do for kids.

Yeah, I can't put that to a nine to do for kids. Yeah, I can't put that to a 9 to 12. You're getting divorced. But like, if not, then what, yeah, I think middle grade's such a nice genre to write. The last time we saw each other was at the bookers and they're doing their children's booker. So it actually feels like it's brilliant to talk about. Did you see the judges? Who were the judges?

No. Hot gosh. Guys. Break it to us. So Frank Cottrell Boyce is the lead. Very good. And then this, there is a bookshop in Muswell Hill called the Children's Bookshop. And it's one of the best children's bookshops.

I've ever been to and the woman who runs it San Chita is amazing and she is one of the judges she is incredible like you go to San Chita just say my kid likes this she's like hmm

they try it like her knowledge and Lolli Adaphope oh that's great and then they're getting three kids so there's a competition you have to write in I think and they're going to get three kids from obviously all sorts of places

so that would be really exciting to give children's authors lots of audits and to respect it as not less than adult What also I think if you do school event, you go and do public. You, like you said, they're not polite. No.

Like your writing cannot be subpar and be like, oh, I'll just, and if you do do a kid's book like that, they're not going to buy it or read it. Yeah. They are quite brutal. They'll tell you in signings, I didn't like that bit. Yeah, and that must be so much, like, so refreshing after speaking to adults. It's quite refreshing because, well, I don't know how you feel about it, but I feel like you genuinely know they do like it. Yeah. Like they came up.

up and they were like, oh, I really like this bit, but I thought that bit was very silly. Yeah. And I didn't enjoy it. And I thought this should have happened. Well, Anita and Anita does a little drawing thing with them. Oh, yeah, yeah. So she draws some stuff and they all come up at the signings. We say, we really want to see what you've drawn.

And they're just so excited to show you. Because I think that's kind of, they want to express their talent and creativity, don't they? They're much more than just being told that someone else is. Yeah. But yeah, adult books, I don't know. Ruth Jones said to me, we did a book tour. and she said, oh, it'd be great to hear about relationships

from a male point of view, like what's going on in your heads. Oh, yeah. I was like, I don't think I want to be the snitch from my entire agenda. Also, read this book, we know what's going on in your head.

Or just to disappoint people with like, that's what you're thinking about. Oh, my God. You must have had children dressing up as your characters for World Book Day. That must be an amazing thing. It's amazing. I mean, it is cool and it's great.

But, you know, the best thing is, And it's the best review you can get in anything, anything I do across all the sort of different things I do is a parent saying, you know, I've got a 10-year-old who didn't like reading. Yeah. That's just, oh, that's huge. It's massive. Because they're the ones you want to reach.

Because the ones who read all the time, they're fine. And they're going to be. And this, my daughter, I talk about her a lot, has dyslexia, loves graphic novels. And every time I've been sent your book and I'll be like, should you read this? She's like, no. And then I'm like, well, we're just going to read it. Barry saves Christmas. I was like, I need to send to it.

I was like, we're going to read it. I'm going to read it to you. Oh, fine. Do you want another chapter? Yeah, all right, I have another chapter. She loved it, but she won't admit it. No. But she absolutely loved it.

And it's stuff like, that's the thing. If you have a reluctant reader, books that are funny become gold dust. Because I can say to her. And when she saw this, I was like, I don't want to read it. Because she always thinks I'm trying to push reading. And I said, it's the man who did Barry. Okay. All right, yeah, that was funny.

That's good. Yeah, but having that funniness. Because books can fit about homework for them sometimes. Yeah, yeah. It's just such a shame. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's such a shame. And it's just, but if it's funny, like you said, your childhood is just making each other laugh.

Kids that like laughing, then it doesn't feel like work. Yeah. They're relaxed about it. Yeah. And they probably don't get enough of that school. Well, yeah. Like, okay, this is pleasure rather than proper learning. They are allowed to choose what they read.

They're allowed like reading time. But there is still like quite a stigma of like, oh, you're picking up the graphic novel again. Like you should be picking up a chapter book. Which is also right so nice that there's so much illicit. illustration in this book because it doesn't feel like, because yeah, if you just see loads of text, so many kids are just like, ugh. Yeah, I know. I'm like that.

You get a book and it's just like page off the page, big thick book. You're like, oh, God, really? Catherine May said on her podcast the other day, brilliant author, Catherine May, why are adult books not illustrated? She was like, I'd like some pictures. Wouldn't it be nice for an illustrated to, like, show you what they think the person looks like. And I was like, oh, yeah, that would be nice sometimes to be like, oh, that's what you're at a look. Why am I having to do so much work? I know.

Don't make me do it all. Yeah, I just thought that would be, it would be great if all autobiographies did have pictures of absolutely everyone. They didn't have to do it in you. But don't even have to describe me. Just show me what your uncle looks like. Yes, yeah. I've been reading Carrie Fisher's books.

Oh, yeah. It's very, very funny. So funny. And talk about honest and kind of, you know, out there and eccentric. But yeah, so many characters you just think. I mean, we know all of them are because it's Lisa Taylor and Debbie Reynolds and stuff, so it's fine. Yeah, that's an easy memoir in a way, isn't it?

Because, like, you know who, Bob and someone be like, oh, no, you don't really know my uncle, Patrick. But let me explain to you, it's like, I'm already on board with Elizabeth Taylor. I love a memoir. I could read them. I mean, I read them as a teenager. I used to read, like, even Ellen Terry, you know, an actress from Victoria and era. I just read her books.

I just loved it. A star's afternoon belongs to its public. Yeah, it does, yeah. It does, actually. They need to rest because they're going to go out in the evening. That was me at 15 when I wasn't headbutting the Queen of Hearts. Have you read Capron Hepburns? Yes.

That's really interesting. I loved that one. I read that when I was really young as well. She's got, because her parents were like, let him do everything. Her parents were like sexual health educators. Yeah. They were like, didn't her brother, like, have a terrible accident falling off a roof or something? I think so.

Climbing a tree and he, I think he ended up in a wheelchair or something. It's some terrible. But they were like, that's just what happens. Get out there. Don't, don't live a sort of frightened life. They were quite progressive. Yeah. I've been reading about James Joyce.

Sorry to jump into James Joyce. So his daughter was very sick and kept being hospitalized. And he kept just going and guessing her out again. Well. Did he? Yeah. Just, I don't know if it's because he was just being like, yes. We're all like that, really?

We've all sort of got syphilis brain. Oh, God. Whipping the drip out. Yeah. Should pick up her meds later? Oh, my God. You don't know anything about him at all. I don't know.

Well, I'm sort of starting to learn. Right. Yeah. So he's really disgusting. Really? Yeah. You love him. I don't know I went to smelly.

Yeah. He's obsessed with farts. Oh, was he? Obsessed with farts. Like I can talk. Yeah. So he writes his really, really dirty love letters to Nora Barnacle who became his wife. And when I say disgusting, I honestly cannot stress more enough.

Wow. But enough. To anyone listening, they're the worst things I've ever read. And they're love letters. They're love letters. Wow. Because he wanted to hurt a fart on his dick. Really?

Yes. And he wanted dirty pants. Really? And all of her letters have been lost. He sounds as bad as Henry Miller. I'd say, and that's it. And then when you're reading, Mucky Pop.

When you're reading Ulysses, one of the reasons it's high and low art at the same time. Oh, that's the thing. It's intelligent and it's puzzles and you have to read it and read it and read it. But there's also a character just doing a shit, reading a newspaper, which had never happened before in literature. So it was also like disgusting and offensive and he puts it all together in one thing. And then you go, this is what happens.

You get obsessed with them. Yeah. Also, Nora Barnacle's got to be the best name of anyone ever. Ever. Why would you ever get married and take his name? I would be so proud to come up with the name of Nora Barnacle. Yeah, yeah, you'd be pleased with that. That's a great kid's book name.

Nora Barnacle woke up one day to find. So I was farting on him. Yeah, your editor comes back. I'm not sure this kid's version of Ulysses is, not sure it's working for me. Is it surprised to you that you're now a very successful children's book author? Yeah. Because, like, you are so known for being such a, you know, brilliantly talented actor, but I don't, you are now a very successful author.

It's not like I've dabbed you've done one, got the cash and walked away. Yeah, well, I mean, partly you feel it's, I felt it was important to stick at it. And I'd love it. But there is a bit of a stigma around that, you know, which is understandable. Yeah. And I rest. Like, celebs doing kids books. Yeah.

Especially children's books. Yeah. Just doing one and then. Because it's seen as, uh, you know, cheating or taking attention away from other writers. Yeah, yeah. Because you've, we've talked about that before. Yeah, because you're taking away from people who it's their real job.

Yeah. And if a children's book author turned up and was like, I'm going to be in a play. Or they're ghost written and you're just really just putting your name to another story. Oh, yeah. But I think, yeah, I suppose I came to the conclusion. Firstly, I love doing it. And I think, you know, I would have, God, it's a very difficult question.

I don't know why I brought this up. and I've back myself into a corner. I think it's not my job to sort of police the world of who writes books. It's the publishers to do that. The publishers have a duty to not only sell books and get books out that children want to read, but also to develop new talent that's unheard. So that's their job to juggle those two things. And also, so something does happen in the West End,

so where you have actors and then you have people with profile, an American movie star, people that come in who have different skillsets that isn't about, that isn't sort of trained at drama school, vocally, those kind of things. And what you hope is that occasionally those things boy in audience that then go on. Yeah, to discover other stuff. Comedians do loads of things that we're not qualified to do.

But also, like you said, you've written nine. It's not like you've dabbled your toe and done the one show, talked about it and then fucked off. It's like it's quite clear you're committed and you care about middle grade writing. And I think that's all children's authors want to feel like you care. People who do it do, so like when Kira Knightley wrote her children's book, I'm sure that was a passion project that meant lots to her. She doesn't need any money. And I find having written children's books that when people talk to you, people who haven't written them have an assumption that one, it's easy and two, it's really well paid. And the thing I would say about children's books is it's really hard. It's not well paid.

And so I think anyone, like, if you scratch the surface, you're like, oh, I see these people aren't making like shit loads of money. and then, you know, chucking a story out in two hours. Absolutely not. It's really hard. It's like months of work. Yeah, yeah. And everyone we've ever spoken to who does it loved reading so much as a child that they've never ever forgotten how much those books meant to them.

I think that's probably why I like writing for this group as well because that was the age that I just discovered books and loved them. And you want to go back to that feeling. Yeah. And you want to write the kind of books you think you would have loved as a child as well, you know. Because there are a age of. There are so many books out there. Yes.

And I think the other thing is that children don't necessarily understand intuitively is that you don't have to like all books. Yeah. You know, I think books are like people. Some you just instantly get on with you want to be their best mate. Others you just find, they're just not for you. Yeah. And that's okay.

Yeah. And that's what I know. That's what I always say to my daughter when she will reject everything on principle as soon as we show a cover. But then I always try and like, let's just read it and see. And then we can critically go, yeah. that is rubbish. We're not going to carry out.

Or it's not even rubbish. I didn't like the Hardy books. They should have been so perfect. I like Maddie books. No, the adventurers. Oh, there's Hardy Boy. Yeah, I didn't like them. Whereas I love Nancy Drew so much.

I kept trying the Hardy Boys. Didn't like them. We read Peter Pan together, me and Jack recently. I hated it. Both of us. It's really not good. I mean, obviously the characters are amazing. And they've endured.

And the setup is incredible. It's just a work of genius to set up. But the actual style. the writing, oh, I didn't like it at all, but that's okay. Yeah, yeah. And you go, you know, you don't have to like all books. And you're also trying to find your authors that you enjoy. Just ask, you know, get them to ask teachers, ask each other.

I like this, you know, recommend stuff to each other. Yeah, that's what I do love so much. It's in the same way that as adults, if you find a book friend, like, you know, you'll be like, oh, have you read that it's good. Kids do that all the time. It's so lovely that they'll be like, Oh, the new dog man. They get so excited about books. And we are, you know, it's a national year of reading.

Everyone's so terrified that children aren't reading as much. But like they do want to read. It's not like they don't, like, there's no kids that don't want to read. So it's like, I think it's, I think it may be adults need the year of reading more. I mean, it's not that can't put a bloody phone stuff. No, it's true. Well, yeah, this is it. It's like, oh, children, where do they get that from?

I know. It is national year reading for everyone, I think, but they have been obviously focusing on children because they, the numbers have gone down. There are less children reading. But then I agree with you. If adults did it more, yeah,

suddenly kids' numbers would pick up again. My daughter's favourite thing is to turn to me on the tube and go, 19, and I go, what? She goes, that's how many people are on their phones? And I go, oh, God. And then she, once she stopped that day, she was like, mommy, that person is, they're not on their phone.

And I was like, what are they doing? Why? Run out of battery. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I miss when there was no signal on the tube. I really liked that.

I really liked it. It was like, wait, I can't do it down here. And then when they put it down there, I was like, oh, God. No, we're safe. Audio books. Audio books? You must do a lot of audio books. I don't actually.

I just don't like doing them. I do my own. Oh, I see. I did my own for weird welcome to Reese Street last week. But I've stopped doing them for other people because they're just too, I find them too difficult. They are so long, aren't they? We interviewed Judith Stevenson about it. She does low.

She's like amazing. And she does different voices for every character. She maps them out. Like she's doing like six Western shows by herself. Yeah. Forget it. Yeah. Forget it.

The first one I did was called Harry and the Rinklies. And it was about a young boy, 10 year old boy and nine old age pensioners. And, you know, in page 82, it said, he said in his Portuguese slash Swedish accent. And I hadn't really done my work properly. And it was like, I was just like, why have you asked me for a start to read this? I'm neither a 10 year old boy nor of an old age pensioner. But they're just really, really difficult. and hats off to anyone who can do them well

because after a while the words just start swimming in front of your eyes, don't they? Yeah, it is a real... Julia is amazing at them. Like, it is a skill. It's interesting because when you do a preview in audio, but you know within 20 seconds if you're going to get on because some voices you just can't listen to,

you can't concentrate on it. And others are great. I've been listening to Stephen Fry's Odyssey because Ulysses is based on the Odyssey. Oh, is he reading the actual Odyssey. Oh, his own version of it. That's the third one in his Greek trilogy. And Stephen Frye is.

it so spookily feels like Stephen Fry has sat down next to you to explain something to you. He makes you understand things you've never understood. Yes, he is very good. It's speaking, isn't he? Yeah. But I like that you're only saving it for your books. I know.

I couldn't stand it if someone else did it. Yeah, yeah, I was going to say. That would really hurt me. But your kids might listen to that one. Read by Stephen Mangoo. Written and read by Stephen. Yeah, written and read by Stephen. Thank you so much.

It's such a brilliant book. I'd say, like, if anyone is looking for funny books, all of your books are really funny. And I sort of didn't know they weren't a series in a way because they feel like they're all in the same town. Yeah. Like, they really feel like, yeah, Escape the Rooms is the other one I read to my daughter. They're all kind of, yeah, I just like to write sort of funny adventure stories with really large, large than life characters. I think that's the thing. And also, to not know what's going to happen.

You know, it's like you see a film or read a book and on the first five minutes, the first ten pages. she's thinking, I know where this is going on. And it goes there. You never know that with your books. I agree. I've been in the point where she's like, what's going to happen? I go, I don't know. Let me have to find out. I've literally no idea how they're going to get down this post box and solve Christmas. They're going to have to. Yeah, Welcome to Weird Street is out now and it's really, really lovely.

It's so funny. And brilliant illustrations from Anita as well. So thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to The Weirdo's Book Club. Welcome to Weird Street is available to Buy Now. You can go and see Stephen. in lots of plays in the western.

He's in a play called The Truth. He's got another one coming up as well. And all of his kids' books are available to buy. They're amazing. All very brilliant. We also have some live gigs coming up. We are doing the Crosswires Festival in Sheffield in July. You can also find out all about the upcoming books we're going to be discussing on our Instagram.

At Sarah and Carriads Weirdo's Book Club. And please join us on Patreon. It's a wonderful way to support the show. Yes, it's brilliant. And we've put loads of more stuff in there than we used to. Thank you for reading with us. We like reading. We like reading.

We like reading. Thank you.