The Goldster Magazine Show

For our final Book Club of 2024, falling appropriately on the last day of the year, we’ll be reading The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh. She is one of Britain’s leading emerging crime writers, whose books have sold more than 2 million copies around the world. We’ll be reading the first in Mackintosh’s latest series, featuring the Welsh detective Ffion Morgan. The Last Party was published in 2022 and went immediately into the bestseller lists. The series is currently being developed for TV.

On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of party guests. On New Year’s Day, DC Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects to his murder. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbours, friends and family – and Ffion has her own secrets to protect. With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn’t who wanted Rhys dead ... but who finally killed him. In a village with this many secrets, a murder is just the beginning.

This is a fun book to read over the festive season, and then come together to chat about. Goldster Magazine Book Club events are open to all, whether you’ve had the chance to read the book or not. These events are not recorded, everyone is unmuted and everyone gets the chance to meet other Goldster members. Join Lucinda and fellow Goldster members at 1pm on Tuesday 31 December. 

With great panache, Kim Lengling explains hope, kindness, fear and that slate of emotions that weave their way through all our lives.  Her podcast is called Let Fear Bounce. Among her many books are Nuggets of Hope: Cultivate Kindness and Paw Prints on the Couch: How Pets Enrich Lives. Her office manager is called Dexter, a loyal hound who barks at squirrels and birds and remind the boss when to take a break. Very often that will be to appear as a guest on the Voices for Vets show of her local radio. One of Kim’s missions is to explain how kindness can be a beacon of hope and connection in a world overshadowed by stress and uncertainty. She speaks compellingly about the transformative power of kindness with the maxim: It costs nothing to be kind, and its rewards are immeasurable. She swears by the positive impact that animals have on our sense of wellbeing and fulfilment. With Kim, discover how to turn everyday moments into opportunities for spreading joy. Learn how small gestures, like a smile or a helping hand, can create ripples of positivity that extend far beyond their initial impact, touching lives you may never know. Kim’s mission is clear: to inspire you to make your slice of the world a better place, one act of kindness at a time. Join Kim Lengling with Humphrey Hawksley on the evening of January 7th 2025 at 7pm on the Goldster Magazine Show.

Craig Brown’ latest book A Voyage Around the Queen not only became an immediate best-seller, but also gathered praise for being a unique, deep and thought-provoking portrayal of the late Queen Elizabeth and the monarchy. Craig is best known as a humourist for Private Eye and the Mail whose tools of the trade are usually sharp lines and throwaway wisecracks. Craig has written eighteen books including Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time where he wraps his satirist’s eyes around the iconic treasures of our age. In A Voyage Around the Queen, we learn how Dirk Bogarde watched Death in Venice with her; Andy Warhol envied her fame; Donald Trump offended her, and E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy. “Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation,” Craig writes. On Princess Margaret, he says, “Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. John Fowles hoped to keep her as his sex-slave. Dudley Moore propositioned her. Francis Bacon heckled her. Peter Sellers was in love with her.” As for The Beatles, find out by asking the fabulously funny Craig Brown yourself in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley at 1pm Tuesday January 14th on the Goldster Magazine Show.

Join me seeing hidden corners of the world through the eyes and lens of Reza Pakravan, a distinguished filmmaker and unruffable explorer. Harnessing his thirst for adventure, Reza produces for prime time networks (BBC, Channel 4, Discovery), filming remote places and today’s threats to their indigenous people, whilst often risking his life to record eye-opening footage. Less far from home, his early inspiration was TinTin. Join me in making the journey that took Reza from the pages of Herge’s Adventures of TinTin to where he is today. The Goldster Magazine Show, Tuesday 21st January at 1pm.

George Mehok is an exciting mix between thriller author, software designer and angel investor for new companies working on the edge of our technological revolution. His debut novel, Going Dark, skillfully keeps us on the edge of our seats. He weaves today’s most challenging issues with threads back to 1791 and a secret military unit tasked with delivering a secret message to Thomas Jefferson that altered the trajectory of the War of Independence against Britain.

In Going Dark, that same secret unit, generations later, is tasked with an equally pivotal mission. George feeds into his story-telling real-life experiences working with banks, phone companies, the aerospace industry and more, injecting them with innovations that win George and his team awards.  The constant theme is how technology whether in the 2020s or 1790s has been pivotal in shaping out history, such that George will also be talking about powerful figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump. How did they get to be where they are today. 

To find out more about  what makes the world tick in the way it does,  if you have business idea seeking investment, or simply want to meet the author who could become the next great thriller writer of his generation, join George with Humphrey Hawksley and 1pm on Tuesday February 4^th on the Goldster Magazine Show.