Like This, Love This

Pearl Lowe is a creative to her core: she started her career in music as singer and songwriter fronting the bands Powder and Lodger before switching to fashion, textile & homewares design. 

She has set trends for decades from her tea dresses that exploded in popularity from the Nineties all the way through her signature interiors style which she has dubbed ‘faded glamour’ and now written three books under the title - even down to where she lives. Back in the early Nineties, as a young single mother, Pearl moved to Primrose Hill with her best friend years before it became synonymous with the likes of Sadie Frost and Kate Moss. Later she moved to Somerset, only to find her local town named as the best place to live and one of the UK’s coolest locales. 

Now back in London for the first time in two decades, Pearl joined us to talk about some of her favourite stories: we started off with a classic sitcom that embodies the hedonism and acerbic humour of the Nineties, a podcast hosted by one of Britain’s best-loved presenters, a visually sumptuous but macabre film that tells a story of a woman’s journey to enlightenment and a book that taught helped Pearl to understand herself better than ever before. 

Enjoy!

🔗 LINKS

Check out Pearl’s new book here: https://www.pearllowe.co.uk/products/faded-glamour-in-the-city

Alex Lawther is an actor who began his career in a David Hare play which saw the London Critics Circle name him Young British Performer of the Year as well as being selected by BAFTA as one of 2015’s Breakthrough Brits. He has appeared in films such as The Imitation Game, Goodbye Christopher Robin and The French Dispatch. He’s no stranger to the small screen having starred in The End of the F*cking World, Black Mirror, AndOr and Alien:Earth.

Alex has also written and directed his own films - the most recent of which, Rhoda starring Emma Darcy and Juliet Stevenson, was selected for the BFI London Film Festival in 2024. 

Alex’s title choices take us from a film that inspires his own filmmaking ambitions, a podcast that shared an insight into other artists, a TV show about a Spanish tour-de-force and a book that tells a life story in an entirely new and innovative way.

Enjoy!

Beth Rigby was the first woman to be appointed as Political Editor of Sky News back in 2019. She has interviewed everyone from the current prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and many of his predecessors to the former England footballer Gary Neville, Hillary Clinton and Dame Kelly Holmes. But this time, she’s on the other side of the microphone as she sits down with Lucie McInerney to discuss her favourite stories. 

Beth’s story choices start off in Naples with a dark, addictive TV show that won’t allow for double-screening - unless you speak fluent Neapolitan. We are back in London for her book choice which again tells a dark tale of psychological manipulation set in the Victorian era. Her preferred podcast was a global sensation when released almost ten years ago and dives into the real life story of a clockmaker from Alabama whilst her movie choice is a previously-discussed British classic which again tells a story about men. Over the course of our conversation, Beth did reassure us that she is a feminist but that perhaps her choices reflect her ongoing pursuit of understanding of the opposite sex. 

As well as her regular appearances in person on TV and through the medium of the written word on the Sky News website, Beth also hosts the political podcast Electoral Dysfunction with former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, and Labour grandee Harriet Harman. It’s a wonder she gets a chance to sit down - never mind get through the amount of box sets she seems to!

Enjoy! 

On this week’s episode of Like This, Love This, Lucie McInerney is joined by actor, comedian and Amy Poehler devotee, Hayley Morris. After a childhood spent writing and filming sketches with comedy heroes: her dad & her brother, Hayley started her own YouTube channel in 2009. At first it didn’t exactly attract big numbers…and by at first, we mean for about a decade. But she stuck at it and finally she cracked it. 

Starting with her first sketch about intrusive thoughts, Morris started to build her online audience and hasn’t looked back since. Now she has more than 9 million subscribers across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram and she is going from strength to strength, writing and starring in her own short films and she even wrote a book: Me vs Brain: An Overthinker’s Guide to Life. 

Hayley’s choices took us right across the United States, from Los Angeles and Las Vegas to Upstate New York with a stop off in Texas as we talked about a pair of funny women in an unusual working partnership, a podcast from her hero, a film about impact the arts can have in the most unexpected of places and a book about women making it in man’s world. Her dedication and perseverance is echoed in the stories that appeal to her and we had a great time learning about just how similar to her hero, Amy Poehler, Hayley actually is in real life.

Enjoy!

Jack Edwards, the Internet’s Resident Librarian, is one of Britain’s biggest book influencers. He started posting online regularly when he first went to Durham University to read English Literature. As the first of his family to attend third level, he had no idea what to expect and thought that sharing his experience might help others.

From there, he published a guide to life at university and - through his love of books & reading - has grown his online following to almost 4 million subscribers across platforms. He recently launched Inklings, his online book club which sees him interview authors, actors and directors about their required reading. He has recently interviewed Guillermo del Toro, Cillian Murphy and Gillian Anderson, to name but a few. 

Jack is a passionate advocate for those who do not have access to the rooms into which he is now regularly invited through posting on his various social media accounts or by asking event organizers to stream talks and interviews online. 

Jack’s story choices are as diverse as his own reading interests, but empathy lies at the heart of everything for him as well as championing stories from new voices and voices of those less heard. His book choice is a debut novel from a poet which examines addiction, loss and grief, his movie choice is a modern classic focussed on the human need for connection and love, his podcast retells some of the world’s oldest stories and his TV show is an Irish gem that shows how the best of storytelling is born of conflict.

Enjoy the episode!