The Frustrated Authors

And you can see our ugly mugs on YouTube… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

‘Please mum, don’t be sad when I die,’ are words no parent should ever have to hear.Thinking back over 2025 this must be one of the most inspiring interviews I did, talking to a woman whose courage and resiliance appear boundless.How do you cope watching your teenage son’s life tick away after he is diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer? I really don’t know how I’d deal with that. For Claire Duffield though the final two years of her son Oli’s life were spent making memories, researching his condition to find out if there was anything more she could or should be doing for him. As a family there was laughing and crying then crying some more and laughing some more and making some more memories in the time they had left together.It was an honour to meet Claire and talk to her about Oli, about all he did and the people whose lives he touched in his all too short life. Scary too to reflect on how quickly a family afternoon watching football turned in to a full scale medical emergency.Stuart Baillie This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

The first edition of The Frustrated Authors went live in October 2024, it was a bit of fun as uncle and nephew Stuart and Richard Baillie discussed their favourite novels while moaning about the failure of their own literary endeavours. In a world where having 450 downloads of your podcast puts you in the top ten per cent of all podcasts The Frustrated Authors was, by episode two, already scaling those dizzying heights. Now with an audience standing at around 600 the target is 1,000 plus listeners in 2026.In this podcast Richard and Stuart chat about the experience of creating The Frustrated Authors and review their highlights from the first six episodes and talk about the man who inspired them - Stuart's dad and Richard's grandfather - Peter Baillie, who had ten novels published in the 1950s and wrote many short stories for the plethora of science fiction magazines that were about in the immediate post war period.Listen right to the end and you'll hear some of the plans for 2026... you've not heard the last from The Frustrated Authors. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

In the most recent edition of The Frustrated Authors podcast we highly recommended a debut novel by Simon J Houlton, The Night Swimmer that is set in Hastings. Stuart Baillie had the chance to speak to Simon, who lived in Hastings for most of his life before moving to Turkey, about his inspiration for the story and about his unconventional way of getting the novel finished.Have a listen and tell us what you think.Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

In this latest edition of The Frustrated Authors we talk about writing, whisky, the return of The Inbetweeners and most importantly about the debut novel from Simon J Houlton, The Night Swimmer which we both loved.Once you listen to the podcast if you want to buy a copy of The Night Swimmer then you can buy it through Amazon and other major online bookstores, or if you live in Hastings then from Bookbuster or Hastings Museum. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

In this episode The Frustrated Authors dissect Irving Welsh’s Trainspotting and Ron Butlin’s The Sound of My Voice. They are both set in Edinburgh and they both deal with addiction but is that where the similarities stop?Have a listen then tell us what you think.Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

I produce a series of podcasts for our local community theatre The Stables, in Hastings.In the main they are previews and marketing pieces for upcoming shows where I chat to the director and the cast but this one is a little different. Each year we run a competition for new plays and the winner of the 2024 competition was US playwright Joe Bravaco with his One Good Thing or Are Ya Patrick Swayze, a touching piece based on real and imaginary conversations between two brothers.I’m publishing the podcast on here though because Joe says some interesting things that I think will resonate with the followers of The Frustrated Authors. There is the way, when he gets started, he can get lost in his writing and find he has gone through a day without eating. Then there’s the time he was driving home from work - he was a teacher - looking forward to spending time with the people at home; those people were of course his characters but for Joe, who had been working on them for a while, they had become real people - I think we all know how that feels.Have a listen, I hope you enjoy and if you’re in Hastings next week get yourself a ticket.Stuart Baillie This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

Stuart and Richard Baillie talk writing and review Matt Haig’s novel The Midnight Library. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

The Frustrated Authors are uncle and nephew Stuart and Richard Baillie.Stuart’s dad, Richard’s grandfather, Peter Baillie, had ten war novels published in the 1950s alongside countless short stories in the science fiction genre - Stuart has been told throughout his life that it was his arrival in 1961 the put an end to his father’s literary ambitions - although the arrival of the family’s first TV might have been equally to blame!Thanks for reading The Frustrated Authors’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Thanks for reading The Frustrated Authors’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.So more than 30 years after Peter’s death and with neither his sons nor any of his grandchildren having managed to create a work that found its way onto the nation’s book shelves Stuart and Richard decided to launch a podcast to talk about why neither is (yet) a published author - what is holding them back? You’ll just have to listen to find out!Welcome to the fourth episode. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

The Frustrated Authors are uncle and nephew Stuart and Richard Baillie.Stuart’s dad, Richard’s grandfather, Peter Baillie, had ten war novels published in the 1950s alongside countless short stories in the science fiction genre - Stuart has been told throughout his life that it was his arrival in 1961 the put an end to his father’s literary ambitions - although the arrival of the family’s first TV might have been equally to blame!Thanks for reading The Frustrated Authors’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Thanks for reading The Frustrated Authors’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.So more than 30 years after Peter’s death and with neither his sons nor any of his grandchildren having managed to create a work that found its way onto the nation’s book shelves Stuart and Richard decided to launch a podcast to talk about why neither is (yet) a published author - what is holding them back? You’ll just have to listen to find out!Welcome to the third episode. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

The Frustrated Authors are uncle and nephew Stuart and Richard Baillie.Stuart’s dad, Richard’s grandfather, Peter Baillie, had ten war novels published in the 1950s alongside countless short stories in the science fiction genre - Stuart has been told throughout his life that it was his arrival in 1961 the put an end to his father’s literary ambitions - although the arrival of the family’s first TV might have been equally to blame!Thanks for reading The Frustrated Authors’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Thanks for reading The Frustrated Authors’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.So more than 30 years after Peter’s death and with neither his sons nor any of his grandchildren having managed to create a work that found its way onto the nation’s book shelves Stuart and Richard decided to launch a podcast to talk about why neither is (yet) a published author - what is holding them back? You’ll just have to listen to find out!Welcome to the second episode. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com

The Frustrated Authors are uncle and nephew Stuart and Richard Baillie.Stuart’s dad, Richard’s grandfather, Peter Baillie, had ten war novels published in the 1950s alongside countless short stories in the science fiction genre - Stuart has been told throughout his life that it was his arrival in 1961 the put an end to his father’s literary ambitions - although the arrival of the family’s first TV might have been equally to blame!Thanks for reading The Frustrated Authors’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.So more than 30 years after Peter’s death and with neither his sons nor any of his grandchildren having managed to create a work that found its way onto the nation’s book shelves Stuart and Richard decided to launch a podcast to talk about why neither is (yet) a published author - what is holding them back? You’ll just have to listen to find out!Welcome to the first episode. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrustratedauthors.substack.com