37. Paul Waters talks to and hears about the winner and runners-up of the 2025 India Global Forum Archer Amish Award for Storytellers - including Jeffrey Archer, Amish Tripathi, Shalini Mullick, Nitya Neelakantan, Yogesh Pandey, & Amit Roy - the editor of the Eastern Eye newspaper.
Dr Shalini Mullick is the author of The Way Home. Nitya Neelakantan is the author of Navapashanam - The Quest for the Nine Magical Poisons. And Yogesh Pandey is the author of The Kill Switch.
The winner tells us about his/her writing process - the miracle of how it is fitted in to the rest of a very busy life.
Jeffrey Archer talks about what makes a page turner & his new book, the latest & likely final instalment in his William Warwick series, End Game, set at the London Olympics.He also gives an insight - courtesy of Commander Robert Broadhurst who was the Met Police Gold Commander for the 2012 Olympics - into what could have gone catastrophically wrong at the real Olympics - & why Sebastian Coe was never told. Jeffrey also explains why Stoner by John Williams is the book that has been gripping him recently. He also has another story up his sleeve which he says is better than Kane and Abel.
Amish Tripathi talks about his new book, The Chola Tigers, about a historical assassination squad, & the challenges of researching a setting so long ago. He's been reading something very up to date though - two books by Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, &, The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI.
They both also explain why they've chosen who they've chosen as the winner of the inaugural IGF Archer Amish Award for Storytellers - which is incidentally sponsored by the House of Abhinandan Lodha. The IGF itself has Manoj Ladwa as Founder & Chairman.
Plus, Amit Roy of the Eastern Eye gives his insight into the divergence of south Asian and British south Asian culture & writing - & why Indian writers & filmmakers come to London, 'the capital of Greater India', for validation. AA Dhand & Satyajit Ray get a mention.
We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is wedlikeaword@gmail.com Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books.
Paul is the author of a new Irish-Indian cosy crime series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which published by No Exit Press / Bedford Square Publishers & Penguin India in October 2025. Paul previously wrote the 1950s Irish border thriller Blackwatertown.
We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan, and his hugely popular YouTube channel @Colganology
