Rachel and Simon speak with the author and journalist Maggie Fergusson. After studying history at university, Maggie briefly worked in finance before joining Harper's & Queen magazine (now known as Harper's Bazaar.) As a freelance writer, she was sent by the Times to interview the Scottish poet George Mackay Brown in 1992, and it proved the beginning of a friendship that would culminate with a prizewinning biography published in 2006. Maggie became Secretary of the Royal Society in Literature in 1989; she continues to work at the RSL as the Literary Adviser and edits their annual magazine. We spoke to Maggie about her work past and present at the RSL, her biographies of Mackay Brown and Michael Morpurgo and her journalism for the Tablet, 1843 Magazine and the Spectator.

You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.