Character Study
Character Study explores how creativity shapes our lives. Host Freya Bromley talks to artists about turning their life into material and how that changes self-perception. The podcast discusses the courage and compassion found in seeing oneself as a character. It's for anyone interested in self-reflection through storytelling.
Episodes
Jem Calder: Passage Reading – I Want You To Be Happy
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 Freya talk about writing romance that feels real without being neat, the transactional and inexplicable pulls that draw two mismatched people together, and why a "s
Jem Calder: The Novel as a Gift
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 emailing him about the first story he’d ever finished and now his debut is on the tote bag of every literary it girl this summer. He tells Freya why he’d rather write
Will Harris: Passage Reading – Speakee
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 people, and each time it comes back it has picked something up: a piece of research, an overheard shout, a memory of a stranger's grief. Nothing is explained, and by
Will Harris: A Brother, and One Big Lie
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 remember their childhoods better. They chat about why the most exciting phase of a writer's life is the one before you’ve published anything, how the copious notes he
Sufiyaan Salam: Passage Reading – Wimmy Road Boyz
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 might be their last together.Sufiyaan and Freya talk about writing as a kind of method acting, how he inhabits his characters so completely that when they're in
Sufiyaan Salam: "Someone's Got to Take Shakespeare Out"
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 Curry Mile. Sufiyaan, who’s also a BAFTA-nominated screenwriter and animator, tells Freya where the book came from: a real night out where he wanted to tell his
BONUS EPISODE: Prologue to A Real Piece of Work
This week, a special bonus episode: the prologue of Freya's debut novel, A Real Piece of Work, read by actor Ellie Kendrick. OUT NOWA Real Piece of Work follows Nola, whose memoir about her late sister Darina has become a hit — critics love it, producers want the film rights, and everyone in her family hates it. When an anonymous complaint about the book lands with her publisher, Nola is certain t
Sarvat Hasin: Passage Reading – Strange Girls
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 certain, who could only ever be written in first person, and Alia, quieter, rendered in a storybook third-person past. They discuss the novels woven through the book —
Sarvat Hasin: When a Friendship Falls Apart
Novelist Sarvat Hasin, author of This Wide Night, You Can't Go Home Again and The Giant Dark , joins Freya to talk about her latest novel Strange Girls a novel that explores the relationship of two former friends forced to reunite at a hen party after a decade apart. She’s written many other award-winning books and is also in a workshop group with Freya, sharing early drafts with one another, whic
Lucas Oakeley – Listener Q+A
Author and Boys Book Club co-founder Lucas Oakeley answers listener questions in this Q&A episode of Character Study.Listeners ask Lucas where his creative spark comes from, whether he has a way of dealing with people who interrupt his energy (he doesn't, he thinks friction is good for you), and how he gets back into his novel each time he sits down to write. His tip: never stop writing when y
Lucas Oakeley: Passage Reading – Nearly Departed
Author and Boys Book Club co-founder Lucas Oakeley reads from his debut novel Nearly Departed in this passage episode of Character Study.Lucas reads the chapter What Dreams May Come, in which grief-stricken Joel describes a recurring dream to his therapist: a woman on the opposite platform at a train station, both reading the same edition of Wuthering Heights, their eyes meeting across the tracks
Lucas Oakeley: Why I Wrote a Rom Com About Grief
Lucas Oakeley is the author of Nearly Departed, a debut novel about a man navigating grief and love three years after losing someone close — a rom com that somehow manages to be genuinely funny. He's also the co-founder of Boys Book Club, a community built around the radical idea that men can just read books for pleasure, and a journalist whose bylines span Vogue, GQ, and Esquire. In this episode,
Hope Tala: Listener Q + A
Singer-songwriter Hope Tala answers listener questions in this Q&A episode of the podcast.Listeners ask Hope what she wouldn't change about the music industry, who her dream collaborator is — her answer is Kendrick Lamar, whose album To Pimp a Butterfly she wrote her university dissertation on — and how she navigates the pressure to post constantly on TikTok when she'd rather be writing. She a
Hope Tala: Passage Reading – A Story To Tell
Singer-songwriter Hope Tala reads from her debut album Hope Handwritten in this passage episode of Character Study.Hope reads the lyrics to A Story to Tell — a song she wrote on a sunny day in Los Angeles when the music wasn't coming and she felt completely stuck — and reflects on why writing has been a solace since she was a teenager, the quiet resistance of making things purely for yourself, and
Hope Tala: The Art of Feeling Everything
Singer-songwriter Hope Tala, one of the most exciting voices in British R&B, whose debut album Hope Handwritten charts three and a half years of heartbreak, new love and coming of age. As if writing an acclaimed album wasn't enough, Hope is also in the process of writing a debut novel, Maelstrom which sold in a heated seven-way auction.She joins Freya for this week's episode of Character Study
Ben Pope: Listener Q+A
Stand-up comedian, writer and Peckham bookseller Ben Pope answers listener questions in this Q&A episode of the podListeners ask Ben whether inspiration comes in sparks or from hard work, how you know if your joke is original or just unconsciously borrowed from someone you admire, and what the best knock knock joke he's ever heard is. Ben reflects on the years he spent writing material that ca
Ben Pope: Passage Reading — Tomato and Mozzarella Salad
Comedian Ben Pope reads his mischievous short story, Tomato Mozzarella Salad. A recipe that is also, somehow, an entire relationship contained in a single dinner.The story begins as a set of instructions and ends as a meditation on love, choice and the specific friction of spending a life with someone. Ben and Freya discuss what it means to make the choice right rather than the right choice, why t
Ben Pope: There's Less of Me Now. But In Some Ways There's More.
Ben Pope is a comedian, bookseller and writer based in south London. He manages Review bookshop in Peckham, has been doing stand-up for over a decade, and has taken a string of critically acclaimed shows to the Edinburgh Fringe — most recently The Cut, a narrative show that begins with a very personal medical decision and opens out into something much bigger about grief, fathers, and what it actua
Hannah Murray: Listener Q+A
Freya puts listener questions to actor and author Hannah Murray, whose memoir The Make-Believe is out now from Penguin.Hannah answers questions from listeners about her time on Skins — including the behind-the-scenes moment she'd most want to relive — and reflects on whether the qualities that made her a good actor, empathy and emotional availability chief among them, also made her more vulnerable
Hannah Murray: Passage Reading — The Make-Believe
In this passage episode, Hannah reads from the opening chapter of her memoir The Make Believe. A scene from the set of the film Detroit, where she played a victim of sexual assault in one of the most physically and emotionally gruelling shoots of her career. Hannah describes having her dress ripped from her body, take after take, night after night, and the moment she realised that however much her
Hannah Murray: When the Character Takes Over
In this episode of Character Study, Freya sits down with Hannah Murray: actor, author and now writer, best known for playing Cassie in Skins and Gilly in Game of Thrones.Hannah's debut memoir The Make Believe explores fame, mental illness and the blurring of the line between magic and reality. They talk about what it means to build an identity around being chosen — as an actor, as a romantic partn
Emma Gannon: Listener Q&A
In this listener Q&A, Emma Gannon answers questions sent in by Character Study followers from around the world. On everything from how to get noticed as a new author, to beating writer's block, to whether nature really does help your creativity.WATCH the full episode HEREBuy Emma Gannon’s Creative Compass, A Year of Nothing and more. And remember you can now pre-order Freya’s no
Emma Gannon: Passage Reading — Creative Compass
In this passage episode from our guest, Emma reads from her latest book Creative Compass — a story about watching a Bill Cunningham documentary in her early 20s and the creative philosophy it unlocked.Bill Cunningham, the beloved New York Times street photographer, lived in a rent-controlled room at Carnegie Hall, slept surrounded by filing cabinets, and ripped up a large cheque rather than compro
Emma Gannon: Permission to Be a Writer
In the first ever episode of Character Study, Freya sits down with Emma Gannon: author of nine books, Substack writer to 80,000 readers and one of the most distinctive voices on the internet about creative life. They talk about what it really means to build a career from creativity, the difference between performing as a creative person and actually being one, why Emma's burnout happened when she
Introducing Character Study with Freya Bromley
Everyone plays a character. But what does it really mean to turn your life into art? In this new podcast series, Freya explores how writers, artists and performers shape their character. Each episode, she’ll be talking to creatives of every discipline about the delicate art of finding inspiration in the everyday. From memoir to standup via autofiction and Instagram, what happens when we blur the l
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