When it comes to addictions, books and coffee may not be among the more serious, but they’re definitely cravings which abound in the Mr B’s team. Inspired by the publication of Smoking Kills by Antoine Laurain – one of our favourite contemporary French authors – we gathered a little stack of moving, surprising and off-kilter writing on addiction. Listen to Jess and Lucinda as they take you from sleazy Los Angeles dives to Hemingway’s letters, then hear Antoine Laurain chat to us about his own writing routines. With bonus material in French!

Hosted by Jessica Johannesson. Music: ‘Just a Case of Falling’ by The Bookshop Band.

Now take a look at our Writing and Addictions reading list

Check out previous episodes of the podcast

Image credit: ‘Black Coffee’ – Professor Bop  under creative commons license