The Life Of Bryony - The Life of You – Harriet Tyce on Caffeine, Crime Novels and Korean Cook-Offs

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Harriet Tyce is back and this time we’re getting seriously nosy about the three things she absolutely cannot live without. We talk about the rituals that keep her grounded when life feels as intense as a round table, the unlikely TV habit that helps her switch off, and the one very ordinary daily pleasure that she will never give up. Harriet also shares how she protects her reading time, even when doom‑scrolling is calling, and why reconnecting with simple joys has mattered more than any grand life overhaul. If you’re feeling frazzled, this episode might just inspire you to rediscover your own non‑negotiables.BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODEHarriet’s new gripping thriller, Witch Trial, is available to buy from 26th February 2026.WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOUGot something to share? Message us on @lifeofbryonypod on Instagram.If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might need it – it really helps! Bryony xxCREDITS:Host: Bryony GordonGuest: Harriet TyceProducer: Laura Elwood-CraigAssistant Producer: Sam RhodesStudio Manager: Sam ChisholmEditor: Luke ShelleyExec Producer: Jamie East  A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, lovely ones, and welcome to the bonus edition of The Life of Brienney. Today, Harriet Tice is lifting the lid on the three things that keep her grounded when life feels as high stakes and paranoid as a knight in the traitor's castle. Television gives you a sort of fixed idea of how things look, whereas a book gives you the opportunity to inhabit it and populate it's entirely with your own imagination. And every reader brings a different interpretation. the same page, which is why the book is always better than the film, even if the film is bloody amazing. My chat with Harriet, coming up right after this.

Harriet's Heist. I want to know the three things that are essential to you being the absolute legend that you are. What are your non-negotiables? What's number one, Harriet's Black coffee? So it has to be black. I like black coffee. I don't like things which are too sweet. So yes, black coffee, black americans, double espressoes. I drink a lot of coffee in the morning. Have you found that since you got sober, your coffee intake has gone up? Or was it always high? It was always high. It was always high. But it is my one last intake vice. Really, I mean, there are a bit. Yeah, we don't talk about nicotine. I think we're trying to sort of pretend that that's not a... Yeah, it would be better if it weren't.

But no, caffeine is the one thing that I have absolutely no interest or desire ever to give up. And I'm never going to. And you would have to prize it out of my cold dead fingers. I did once get down... I got down to no coffee. But I was having decaf coffee. So I was still having coffee in a way. And a doctor said to me, Brian, I think you'll find.

that if you cut out caffeine, it'll have a remarkable effect on your anxiety. And I was like, oh, fuck off. I've given up fags. I've given up alcohol. I've given up cocaine. What more do you want from me? And it was, it did have a remarkable effect on my anxiety. But life was just lacking in any joy.

I don't care. I don't care. I mean, I think you need some edge. I can't bear the idea of not having coffee. I love coffee. and that whole sort of the smell of it in the morning. Anyway, coffee is definitely a non-negotiable. The ritual of it.

It's such a nice. I just love it. Okay, so coffee and then what else is non-negotiable? I would say that cooking competitions on TV help me unwind in a way that pretty much no other TV can. Sort of watching Master Chef, watching Bake Off, there's a particularly great one on Netflix called Culinary Class Wars, which is Korean. Oh, it's splendid South Korean. It's brilliant. It's so like all the top chefs in South Korea.

So there's like 100 people. You know, you sort of think, where the restaurants all shut. It's just tremendous. It's like a good game. I mean, no one dies, but not quite. Are you quite a reality TV addict? Well, yes, actually. I'm going to try and pretend not, but that's just not true.

Cooking shows. And if I start watching Love Island, If I start watching Married at First Sight, then I'm in. I get hooked almost immediately. I mean, they are incredibly skilled storytellers in terms of cliffhangers and causing you, you know, if there's a question unanswered, I want to know the answer. So if I start, oh God, it's like one, there's no entry level that is possible for me. So if I watch the first episode of Love Island, then I'm going to be hooked for the season.

I mean, I can try and make it sound better by saying it's cooking competitions. It's just good competition. It's just reality TV, isn't it? Reality TV is my non-negotiable. But I don't care because I think it shows a great deal about character and human psychology. And actually, but I also like watching the food. So, you know, both. Okay.

Do you love cooking? I, yes, this is the thing. I did use to huge amounts. Yeah, I did, you know, I did call on blur training. I mean, I am actually, yeah, I'm a really, I'm good cook. And so for years, it was like that was, I think my creative expression was I have these really elaborate dinner parties and do all these multi-cours. You know, I can cook really well. When you were doing full-time mothering.

Yeah, it's all of that. You know, I did these bento boxes that was, I did a tootero bento box and goldfish and they were lovely. And I do like doing sort of a Sunday roast. But I think what's slightly killed it is just having to think what's for dinner. And, you know, that sort of the mental load of trying to plan meals. And then when you have an audience that says, oh, God, not chicken again. And you think, well, I like chicken. And also I can't be asked.

I mean, I've now sort of laid down an instruction that if people text me and say, could we have X for supper, I will go and do it. because it's just make the decision for me and then I'll cook it. But I have got, I just don't want to meal plan anymore. It's so boring. Deliveroo and Just Eat and all of these apps have really also taken away the need to cook, unfortunately. I think if you live in central London, I mean, we have every cuisine under the sun available to us. and it's not as it used to be just a really bad pizza.

Yeah, or a bad Chinese takeaway. It's actually now you have really, really, really good food. And it's easier and we all like it. And I can eat it in bed while watching cooking competitions. But no, no, I mean, I do, and I think the thing is now that it becomes more of a, it's nice to cook a meal at the weekend where we will all, if I've got time and if I can be bothered, it's been quite busy recently. I go through phases of it. And I do volunteer cooking for a charity when I have time, yes, where it's a vegan, you do a vegan lunch for 50 with a budget of about

50 pounds. And what, so is this like a soup kitchen, a food? Actually, it's for refugees and migrants. So I'm, yeah, it's rather a nice one in Islington. And so I, yeah, I go along when I can and sometimes I lead or sometimes I just help chop. But it's been an interesting creative challenge, you know, sort of coming up with the food that you can make for that budget. But that number of people. But that has, that, that did, sort of, I'd gone really off cooking and then doing that got me enthusiastic again. But, I mean, that, unfortunately is having to take a bit of a backseat. right now, but I will be back to it again when, you know, when the book's out and my schedule's

calm down. But no, I think it's a, for me, it's a very worthy cause and one that I enjoy contributing to greatly. I love that. Could you name the charity? It's the Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants and I think that they do splendid work. Oh, thank you for mentioning them and go and look up their work, everyone listening. The last thing that is essential to your legendaryness, Harriet. So the third thing that is a non-negotiable for me is reading. Really reading has kept me going forever. It's something that I do less of now, which I find shaming and distressing.

I do get hooked into scrolling on my phone and even not being on X anymore. And I don't really, but, you know, if I start looking at TikTok, I don't stop because it's just, it catches you. And there are so many different, you know, so I scroll between newspapers. So I sort of do Guardian Times,

Daily Mail, Financial Times, let's look at the New York Times. By the time that you sort of looked at all of them on a loop and then a bit of Netta Porter, it's it's time for bed. You have to just put your phone down. But if I actually put my phone down and pick up a book, that will, as long as I give myself five minutes to get drawn in,

then I will be set. And I can tell I'm in a bad state if I haven't managed to read. I mean, I might go for sort of five, six days without reading just because, you know, life's busy and there are newspapers and, you know, videos of kittens or drains being unblocked or whatever it is. But... This is an insight into your algorithm there. We're not talking about my algorithm anymore.

The earwax was a low point. I've got a bit of that. But I have found that, you know, that there was a sort of madness in January of quite... I couldn't really settle. And I could tell that I was feeling much better because I've started reading again properly. And it has consistently and reliably been my friend just because of the way that, and it makes your brain work in a way that television simply, you know, television gives you a sort of fixed idea of how things look, whereas a book gives you the opportunity to inhabit it and populate it entirely with your own imagination. And every reader brings a different interpretation to the same page, which, you know, as a writer is something I love, but all. also as a reader is something I love, which is why the book is always better than the film, even if the film is bloody amazing.

It's not going to be the same. What are you reading at the moment? I have just read an amazingly weird and fucked up called I'll be the monster by Sean Gilbert that is a debut and it's got shades of Ripley. It's sort of High Smith-esque. terrible characters behaving terribly under the Mediterranean sun in a way that it went dark and it was really well written. He's the graduate from UEA and I thought that that was really good and I've just finished Louise Candlish's I think it's the neighbour's guide to murder. You read a lot of crime.

I do. No, I do read crime but the, no, the Alby the Monster I picked up just because it had an octopus tentacle on the cover and then it had some really good blurbs. And then it turned out that it was crimey. I mean, I think I'm drawn to dark. I mean, I do read, you know, I like Emily Henry. I like, you know, I love a meet cute and a sort of, you know, Jilly always. It's, it's, I do love romances as well. But, I mean, if I tried writing one, everyone would die.

I'd, well, that is just romance, isn't it? We all die at the end. I mean, it is an inevitability to be fair. Harriet, I love listening to you talk. If anyone loves reading like Harriet does, can I recommend to them? Which Trial by Harriet Tice out on the 26th of February, available in all good bookstores and bad ones too? And there you have it. Harriet's three essentials for staying sane whilst creating worlds that are most definitely not.

If any of her ideas chimed with you or sparked thoughts about your own non-negotiables, message me on Instagram at at Life of Briny Pod. Or if you're more of a silent assassin type, you could just leave us a review and give us a follow. It really does make a massive difference. Most importantly, look after yourself and I'll see you on Monday.