Arts

Character Study

by Freya Bromley

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United Kingdom · Arts

#158

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About the show

Everyone plays a character, right? Welcome to Character Study the podcast that explores how creativity shapes our lives. Each episode, author Freya Bromley talks to artists of every discipline about how turning their life into material changed how they see themselves. Whether we’re writing autofiction, standup or lyrics, what can we say in our work that we could never say as ourselves? And what does it cost the people closest to you to make art that mirrors your experience? These conversations explore how seeing yourself as a ‘character’ in your own story can unearth unexpected courage, compassion and curiosity. And maybe even a bit more self-reflection. This podcast isn’t just for writers, it’s for anyone trying to make sense of who they are. Follow Character Study to explore how the art of storytelling shapes our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Latest episodes

Jem Calder: Passage Reading – I Want You To Be Happy

August 6, 2026 · 20 min

Novelist Jem Calder reads from I Want You to Be Happy in this passage episode of Character Study, a scene about a hundred pages in, as his two characters go on early dates and feel each other out across a pub table by the river. Jem and…
Jem Calder: The Novel as a Gift

August 4, 2026 · 46 min

Novelist Jem Calder joins Freya to talk about I Want You to Be Happy, his debut novel about two people trying to fall in love while everything around them is engineered to distract them. Jem’s writing career started with Sally Rooney…
Will Harris: Passage Reading – Speakee

July 27, 2026 · 9 min

Poet Will Harris reads Speakee Stonehenge, an exclusive sneak peek into the collection of poems he is currently working on, Speakee. It's a piece that keeps circling back on itself, returning to the same small moment in a room full of…
Will Harris: A Brother, and One Big Lie

July 23, 2026 · 45 min

Poet Will Harris joins Freya to talk about writing a whole collection around a brother he never had. Will, who won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, tells Freya where that idea came from: a hunch that people with siblings…
Sufiyaan Salam: Passage Reading – Wimmy Road Boyz

July 20, 2026 · 22 min

Screenwriter, artist and Murky Book Prize-winning novelist Sufiyaan Salam reads the opening chapters of Wimmy Road Boyz: three young men in a BMW, cruising towards Manchester's Curry Mile at the start of a night that none of them yet know…
Sufiyaan Salam: "Someone's Got to Take Shakespeare Out"

July 17, 2026 · 44 min

Screenwriter and novelist Sufiyaan Salam won the #Merky Books New Writers' Prize for his debut Wimmy Road Boyz. He joins Freya to talk about his novel that follows three young British-Pakistani men across one chaotic night on Manchester's…
BONUS EPISODE: Prologue to A Real Piece of Work

July 9, 2026 · 14 min

This week, a special bonus episode: the prologue of Freya's debut novel, A Real Piece of Work, read by actor Ellie Kendrick. OUT NOW A Real Piece of Work follows Nola, whose memoir about her late sister Darina has become a hit — critics…
Sarvat Hasin: Passage Reading – Strange Girls

July 4, 2026 · 14 min

Novelist Sarvat Hasin reads from the second chapter of her novel Strange Girls — the beginning of Alia's story. Sarvat and Freya talk about how the two narrators of Strange Girls arrived in different voices and tenses: Ava, bold and…