135: Matt Coyne: The Trouble With Sister Francis | From Man vs Baby to Novelist

Matt Coyne, better known to millions of parents as Man vs Baby, joins me to talk about his new novel, The Trouble With Sister Francis a funny and nostalgic story about friendship, community and growing up.Matt takes us back to the 1980s and the working-class Sheffield estate that helped inspire the novel, introducing us to Sister Francis, a swearing, smoking, unconventional nun, and the four boys who find refuge in the boys’ club she is trying to revive.We chat about how much of the book was inspired by Matt’s own childhood and his big Irish Catholic family, why nostalgia can be such rich territory for fiction, and the challenge of turning personal memories into a story that connects with readers who weren’t there.And, as always, we finish with some book recommendations:Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers — Mary RoachThe List of Suspicious Things — Jennie GodfreyOn the Edge, Stepping Up & Well, That Escalated Quickly — Sarah TurnerSkulduggery Pleasant — Derek Landy