Welcome to ”Desert Island Books”. In this new format Eastbourne Literary Festival podcast episode, people are asked to share with us the 5 books that mean the most to them and why. This episode explores 5 books that mean the world to author and technologist, Charles Humble

For our 10th episode we are joined by the wonderful M.J. Buckman, local author of the award winning book “Bent is not Broken” and recently her second book, “Women of Note”.

For our ninth episode we are joined by a local Eastbourne writer whose debut work, it’s not exaggeration to say, defies convention and reshapes genres. Ed Bingham is the author of Broadlake — an extraordinary novel written entirely in verse, where poetry and storytelling converge to unravel a haunting mystery from beyond the veil of death. Ed has also just published a picturebook especially for a younger audience called “The Kind Wasp” and is working on a new novel “The Five O’Clock Club” to be published in 2026.

For our eighth episode we are joined by a writer who has been a supporter and fan of our festival since our very early days. Louise Morrish is a historical fiction author and librarian from Hampshire. She writes stories inspired by the lives of women in the past, who achieved extraordinary things, but whom history has forgotten.

In our seventh episode we are joined by Charles Humble. Charles is an author, editor, podcaster, and technology consultant. He’s also a former software engineer, architect and CTO. He was editor-in-chief at online publication InfoQ from 2014-2020, and was chief editor for Container Solutions technology consultancy from 2020-2023. Charles writes regularly for many publications, is a highly experienced content strategist, and has spoken at many international conferences. Most recently Charles has published “The Developer’s Guide to Cloud Infrastructure , Efficiency and Sustainability” at TheNewStack and he’s a valued member of the Software Inklings, an online community that look to provide a friendly environment for writers in technology to flourish.

In our sixth episode of the Eastbourne Literary Festival podcast we had the pleasure to talk with Julia Raeside, debut author of brilliant novel, ”Don’t Make Me Laugh”. As well as now being a best-selling novelist, Julia Raeside is a journalist and broadcaster who has written for the Guardian, Times, Observer and The Big Issue among others. She makes regular contributions to BBC Radio, including review spots on Radio 4s Front Row and Lauren Laverne’s 6 Music show. These podcasts are such a joy and we had such a wonderful time chatting with Julia about how she writes, reads and embraces having her brilliant debut novel, ”Don’t Make Me Laugh” now out on the shelves.

In our fifth episode of the Eastbourne Literary Festival podcast we had the pleasure to talk with L. M. Chilton, bestselling author of“Don’t Swipe Right” and, as of the 13th March 2025, “Everyone in the group chat dies!”. Luke has been a journalist for 15 years, working for TV shows like This Morning, The One Show and Loose Women, as well as magazines and newspapers such as The Times, The Mirror, Metro, New!, Cosmopolitan and Glamour. As well as exploring his unhealthy-but-wonderful thematic obsession with serial killers, we enjoyed a wonderful chat around how Luke writes, how he approaches writing deep and rich female characters and the trepidation and wonders of television and film book adaption.

In the fourth episode of the Eastbourne Literary Festival podcast we had the pleasure to talk with author Molly Anderson. Molly is the author of the incredible memoir, “Dad’s New Dress”.

In our third episode of the Eastbourne Literary Festival podcast we had the pleasure to talk with local author, Jake Wilson. Jake is the author of “Cursed Tales: The Pharaoh of Asco Express” and “Sar Wylda and the Legendary Goldbreaker”.

In our second episode of the Eastbourne Literary Festival podcast we had the pleasure to talk with Holly Seddon. Holly is the international, best-selling author of ”Try Not to Breathe”, ”Don’t Close Your Eyes”, ”Love Will Tear Us Apart”, ”The Hit List”, ”The Woman on the Bridge” and ”The Short Straw”. And if that wasn’t enough to be tremendously exciting Holly also has a new novel, ”59 Minutes”, which will be published in September.

In this our first episode of the Eastbourne Literary Festival podcast we had the pleasure to talk with David Hendy, a local writer and broadcaster specialising in modern cultural history and Emeritus Professor of the University of Sussex on his career in writing, his process and what advice he’d give to new, and experienced, writers.