Hazel Barkworth is creative consultant, who graduated from Oxford with an English Degree, and when she decided she'd try and write fiction... she went back to school.

She enrolled in the Curtis Brown Creative Novel Writing Course, and published her debut, 'Heatstroke', to rave reviews in The Guardian and the Evening Standard.

Hazel's newest novel is 'The Drownings'. It tells the story of Serena, who grew up dreaming of being an olympic swimmer. When a brutal training injury wrecks those chances, she heads to University. One dark night, she saves a students life, and the process leads her to learn about a dark, twisted history unseen through the campus. We discuss why Hazel was desperate to write a Campus novel, and how she managed to pull together so many ideas and themes into one book, with one ending.

You can hear about the break Hazel took between novels, and what she learned in those 4 years, also about the balance of writing and working freelance, and why her plotting technique is based on vibes.

This week's episode is supported by the 'Quick Book Reviews' podcast, and by Fleur MacDonald's brand new novel, 'The Missing'.

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