In a busy maternity ward, first-time father Dan meets Jada, a dad welcoming his fifth – no, sixth? – child into the world. Dan and Jada come from very different places: both called Glasgow. Dan is a successful TV writer with a townhouse in the West End and a shiny Tesla ready to drive his wife and baby home. Jada is a hustling, small-time criminal who is already planning how to separate Dan from some of the luxuries Jada has never been able to enjoy in his tiny flat in a Brutalist sixties council block.Both men find that the birth of their sons has fired their ambitions. Dan plans to walk away from his saccharine TV success and finally knuckle down to writing that novel he always felt he had in him. While, for Jada, it’s the opportunity for one last get-rich-quick scheme – ripping off a local airport. When a tragedy occurs, their worlds are brought closer than either could ever have imagined – close enough that it could mean destruction for both of them … (Canongate Books)Born in 1966, John Niven is a Scottish author and screenwriter. His books include Kill Your Friends, The Amateurs, The F**k-It List and The Second Coming.John meets Jack at Scott's in MayfairFollow and subscribe to The Booking Club:YouTube: @bookingclubpodTwitter/X: @bookingclubpodBlue Sky: @bookingclubpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @bookingclubpodTikTok: @bookingclubpod TRANSCRIPT: Jack Aldane [00:00:00]:I've never been to Scott's Seafood Restaurant in Mayfair, but I'm very pleased that my next guest has chosen it since I've had it on my radar for many years. And it's a beautiful evening to be here, actually sat outside on the terrace. My next guest is the screenwriter and novelist John Niven, with whom I'll be talking about his 11th novel, the Fathers. John, it's great to have you here.John Niven [00:00:41]:It's good to be here, Jack. Thank you. Always nice to be at Scores.Jack Aldane [00:00:44]:And you're a regular here?John Niven [00:00:45]:I wouldn't go that far. Not the cheapest place to be chained down every night, but probably more than I should, to be fair.Jack Aldane [00:00:52]:Well, to be fair, I was inside earlier and I was saying to somebody, oh, I think the author's quite familiar with this place. And they said something, they mumbled something like, yeah, he was here, which made it sound like he had been here just the night before.John Niven [00:01:03]:I know, last time, you. Couple of weeks ago. I like. Lovely. Sean's on tonight. Who works. Who works the door there?Jack Aldane [00:01:10]:Yeah, Sean, the doorman.John Niven [00:01:11]:Sean's great also.Jack Aldane [00:01:12]:Is he also a Scot? I thought so, yeah.John Niven [00:01:15]:Yeah, I've been here forever.Jack Aldane [00:01:16]:It's an institution, isn't it, Scott?John Niven [00:01:18]:Yeah, well, it's, it's, you know, it does a few things very well, you.Jack Aldane [00:01:21]:Know, in particular, seafood, which I admitted to you slightly cautiously over email, I'm not a huge fan of. And you responded with an email in all cabs, you don't eat seafood.John Niven [00:01:32]:I just always find it staggering when people over the age of 13 claim they don't eat certain things.Jack Aldane [00:01:37]:Yeah, I'm really not fussy, as you know. I wouldn't have launched a podcast in which I go to restaurants if I was fussy with food. But as I think I described to you something about the insectile appearance of a lot of seafood, crabs, lobsters, et cetera. For me, that doesn't make me think, yeah, I want to take a bite out of you. I'm obviously in a minority, though. Let's talk about your latest book, John, your 11th novel, the Fathers, which I just finished reading over the weekend, thoroughly enjoyed it. It really fucked up my Monday, actually, that novel, reading the chapter, which, without giving away any spoilers, is the saddest turning point in the plot for the main character, one of the main characters, Dan Chambers and his wife Grace. And I couldn't really stop thinking about it for the entire day.Jack Aldane [00:02:20]:So that was Monday Squared. Just took all the blues and made them much, much worse. So thanks for that.John Niven [00:02:26]:Sorry for that. Sorry about that, Jack.Jack Aldane [00:02:28]:But it is both a sa. Incredibly funny, as many of your novels are incredibly funny, with flecks of anger everywhere. I've learned a lot of Glaswegian slang in the course of reading this book. Is this book, would you say in part a love letter to Glasgow?John Niven [00:02:44]:In part, definitely, yeah. Well, the Welsh of an expression called the Hirath, which means as you get older, certainly as you get into your 50s, a sort of nostalgia, a longing for the place you come from. And so some years back I bought a house in Ayrshire, so we're up there a lot in the coast. I play a lot of golf, but I do miss Glasgow specifically too. I had been trying to convince my wife to move back to Glasgow in the last. Oh really, three or four years. I'd sort of convinced her to go and...
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