Whitcoulls Recommends: This is the F#$%ing News and Madwoman

This is the F#$%ing News by Paddy Gower - Funny, brutally honest and packed with amazing yarns and incredible stories from a huge and varied career, this is Paddy Gower, unleashed.

Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker - A gripping story of motherhood and motherloss and the brutal, mighty things women do to keep themselves and each other alive.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joe McKenzie is with me. Now we're going to talk books,
and Paddy Gower's got a book out, Yes he does.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
The title comes from a comment that he made once
which was filmed and went viral, and he says that
even to this day he's still being stopped by strangers
on the street who recognize him and comment on what
he had to say. So the title of the book
is this is the Effing News. A lot of listeners
will know Patty, not necessarily know his story, but we've

(00:39):
seen him in the press gallery. He was for some
time and then become a journalist and broadcaster. He talks
about his professional life, about the pressures of the way
that he responded to those pressures, which was often with
depression and alcohol and anger, and really didn't manage his
life very well for a very long time. But he

(01:00):
was so immersed in the job that he simply couldn't stop.
There's nothing in here, particularly about anything else to do
with his personal life, but it's a really interesting insight
into the way that being on the press gallery works,
the way that politics works the way that journalism works,
particularly at the moment of course, when so many journalists,
including Paddy, are facing such an uncertain future.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Does he cover off news hup and the devias of
news hup?

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yes, towards the end act he does, and there's some
terrific anecdotes in there. He doesn't flinch from showing what
a goof he can be. But he comes across as
a really charming, honest, interesting individual who's made a difference
for a lot of people because of the advocacy that
he's done for things like Pike River and I think
it was cystic fibrosis and all sorts of other things

(01:45):
he's got involved with.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
It's a good read, and I think that's why we
enjoy him on the TV, you know, and are interested
in his documentaries, because there's something genuine about us.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
So it's very real.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Tell me about Mad Women by Chelsea Baker.
I believe Chelsea id k R.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
This is a novel. It's the story of Clove who
has it appears to be the perfect marriage and the
perfect life. She's got a lovely, reasonably wealthy husband, she's
got two kids. Things are going along swimmingly, but you
realize that this is a life that she's manufactured, and
she works very very hard to keep it like that,
and then one day it all threatens to come falling

(02:23):
down around her when a letter arrives from her mother,
who's incarcerated and has managed to track Clove down, find
out her address and send her a letter. And at
that point she knows that everything that she's so carefully
constructed she might lose. And around that time, she's involved
in a minor vehicle accident and strangely ends up befriending

(02:43):
the driver of the other car that she hit, and
the two of them have this increasingly intense friendship as
the woman the other woman starts to insinuate her way
into clothes life in the life of her entire family,
and the two things, the mother who's in prison and
this new friend are not unrelated. There's a great deal

(03:04):
in clothes background which becomes revealed, and it is quite
chilling in places. But it's a very very good, tense,
clever thriller.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Okay, that was Mad Woman by Chelsea Beaker, and also
This is The Effing News by Patti gar With the
two books that Joan spoke about today. Thank you so much.
We'll talk next week.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
To see you then.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks A B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio