The Weird Childhood Dream That Built Gareth Russell's Writing Career

Famous author and great guy, Gareth Russell Dreamt about being the Czar of Russia when he was little. WHAT?!?  I wasn’t expecting this conversation to go where it did, and honestly, that’s my favorite kind.

In this episode of Liftoff Journeys, I sit down with author and historian Gareth Russell to talk about how he became the writer he is today… and it turns out that journey started much earlier than most people realize. Long before the books, the acclaim, or The Palace, there was a child in Belfast surrounded by Bible stories, family history, old films, and an imagination big enough to dream of becoming the Czar of Russia.

Gareth is incredibly authentic about the fact that writing wasn’t just a dream, it was a refuge. A place where things made sense. A necessity before it was ever a career. And in that honesty, there’s something deeply inspiring about realizing that the path doesn’t have to be linear or obvious to be meaningful. This is one of the first conversations we have had where the person knew what they wanted to be when they grew up from such a young age!

Because this is Liftoff Journeys, the conversation doesn’t stay in one lane. We move from childhood dreams to modern leadership, from royal history to artificial intelligence, and from the past to the very real questions we’re all asking about the future. Gareth shares why history isn’t something we leave behind, it’s something we repeat, reinterpret, and often fail to listen to.

This episode is for anyone who’s ever felt called to something before they had the language for it. For anyone who’s taken a winding path and for anyone who believes that understanding how people become who they are can change how you think about your own journey.

P.S. It is SUCH a good conversation that we've already asked Gareth to come back on the show in a month (we heard he is working on a new project) and we want to share the scoop!

Transcript

Jeanniey Walden (00:00)
You know that moment when you realize the people you admire just didn't wake up successful to figure it out as they want? That's the part no one really talks about. So I am talking about it. I'm Jeannie Walden and this is Lift Off Journeys. This is where I sit down with leaders, founders, and executives to talk about how they actually became the people they are today. We skip the titles, we skip the bios, we focus on the choices, the detours, and the instincts.

that shape their journey. Because when you understand how someone else navigated their career, it changes how you think about your own. Let's see where today's journey takes us.

speaker-1 (00:52)
You're going to love my interview. It is with author and historian, Gareth Russell. He wrote a book most recently called The Palace. He was on lift up with Jeannie Weldon on my TV show. And I was so blown away with my conversation with him on the show. I invited him to the podcast. So without further ado, let's get started. Gareth.

I cannot believe that you agreed to come on my podcast after being on the TV show. I'm so honored. Thank you, thank you, thank thank thank you.

speaker-0 (01:48)
No, you don't need to thank me. This is so... I'm so pleased to do this, I'm really excited.

speaker-1 (01:52)
We had such a fun conversation for the TV show that I really wanted to have you on this podcast, but I have to warn you, this podcast is different because we're not going to have interview questions. We are going to talk about your amazing book that I keep with me at all times. But more importantly, I think everyone who listens to the podcast wants to know how did you get to where you were today and why, why do you do what you do today? So let's start at the very, very beginning of your

your life. No, I'm just kidding. Let's talk about when you were little, did you always want to grow up and were you obsessed with history? Did you always want to be an author? Tell us like what did you think you wanted to be when you were little?

speaker-0 (02:35)
Yeah, I I, I think I told my mum when I was seven that I wanted to be the Tsar of Russia, and she was like, that is unfeasible. ⁓ We are going to need a backup. ⁓ And she was correct. But yeah, I did love history. So I went to, I was born in Belfast in Northern Ireland. We lived in a village outside Belfast, and I went to Sunday school, and I loved the Bible stories. Loved it.

And particularly the Old Testament, love anything with Babylon or Egypt, the more historical, the better. And I also, because I grew up in Belfast, I was very lucky that my great grandparents were still alive when I was a child. And two of them had seen the Titanic when it was being built there. So you grew up with a huge amount of stories of Edwardian Belfast. And what was interesting about them was

Thomas came, my great grandfather came from a background where it was very working class. So he was illiterate until the day he died because he went to a Presbyterian school. All the schools were religiously run then, but the family were so poor that he would just go in to sign his name and then skip out to find work with the coal workers in Belfast to bring some homesome work money. And his father worked in the shipyard where they built the Titanic.

And so he really grew up in the shadow of these great ships, whereas his future wife, Elizabeth, came from a much wealthier background. And her versions of what she saw of the Titanic were this pristine ship sailing up Belfast Lock, and people had lovely parties to go and watch it. And looking back on it, it was the first time I realized that you can see the same thing, but you experience something very different, depending on what your point of view is.

So I suppose I grew up just obsessed with history and the third part, the Bible, Belfast and the third part was Burton. So my father was a huge Richard Burton fan and we were on holiday in the south of Ireland and it just did not stop running for about three days and they were doing reruns of old movies including Out of the Thousand Days about Anne Boleyn and my dad watched it because he loved Richard Burton and apparently I just gazed in rapt wonder at this Tudor costume and show and so that was the, that was it coming together.

And I used to write as a child these truly dreadful plays that I would subject my family to watching. So it was always a compulsion. And yeah, I think on some level I knew I wanted to. And then as I got a bit older, I suppose part of it was the less glamorous, more evolutionary aspect, which is that all writing was where I felt completely calm.

and productive and useful and actually everyday life that seemed to be a little bit easier for other people I always thought was a bit tricky. So writing was a refuge, a plan and a necessity. It sort of in three strands.

speaker-1 (05:41)
⁓ I love that I really have that many people that come on the podcast that grew up and Had this whole stream that went through that kind of inspired them to be who they are today, and I think that's so Interesting. I know you know when I was younger I also wanted to move to Russia But I wanted to move to the old czar-led Russian times so that I could do magic like Merlin because you know I wanted to be an alchemist like that. That's what I Didn't want to kill the czar

speaker-0 (06:08)
You want to go to like

Yeah, yeah, you want to be like mosque of it got it. Yeah, I wanted to go do a ball up. Yes

speaker-1 (06:17)
Yeah,

yeah. I will tell you my my oldest daughter when she was little and you would ask her what she wanted to be she would tell you she wanted to be a bubble bath there and you wonder what is a bubble bath there and when you'd ask her she'd say I'm just gonna bathe people whoever pays me the most money it doesn't matter so that was a little scary as a parent. No wonder what she was gonna grow up

speaker-0 (06:41)
There

are some things to nip in there, sure, but it is important to keep in hand. And she looks, she's an economic model there and that is what matters.

speaker-1 (06:51)
There you go. Yes. Yes. She was, she was very business focused. So, you know, that's that, that comes with working, but living with a workaholic mom. so, so you've got, you, you, you have this history has just surrounded you. And then you get to the point where you've, you've just become this historian and, you've created this incredible book, which we talked about on the show and it's got just so many stories about.

hauntings and challenges and opportunities and everything that's happening with the royal family. Do you feel like your focus today is still steeped in historical recaps and aspects of life? Or do you feel that you're trying to now, you know, move towards more modern day and potentially even we'll start looking at how history can predict the future.

speaker-0 (07:44)
⁓ great question. I'm incredibly, yeah, great question. I'm incredibly greedy. So I like to move between different things. So sometimes it'll be a 16th century book and then the next time it'll be a more modern one. And actually the palace really was the first time that they all came together. I'm a great believer that history can predict with a small P, the future.

There's a fantastic play, it's just finished this week in London, called Backstairs Billy and it's about the late Queen Mother. She's played by Penelope Wilton, who many people recognise from Downton Abbey. And Luke Evans plays her gay butler Billy. And in it, it's set in 1979 and the Queen Mother character says, you know, every generation thinks they're seeing something new in history and all it is is that they're seeing it for the first time.

And that a lot of the stuff I think that people really panic about, they think this is the worst it's ever been, you think it's not. Trust me, this cycle, this too shall pass. Yeah, mean, history, there's a, I'm going to butcher this quote, but it's something like history, I love history, like I love a warm bed or a cup of tea. There's something, it's horrifying, but it also is, it is a comfort to go into these documents and into these stories of the past. So I can't ever really imagine.

my life without it. Although I say that my first two books were not historical, they were young adult novels set in Belfast and they were sort of based kind of like on schools that my sisters and I had gone to. But that was almost tactical. I thought like, you've got to get this done now when you're young and you can still remember, you know, what it's like to be in these schools.

But even then I was still reading history and doing little articles on the side. So yeah, history is sort of the companion through my life.

speaker-1 (09:49)
I love it. I think we have so much that we can reflect on. I love that quote that it's not new. It's the first time that people have seen it because you think about it and it's amazing. But it also makes me think about my grandmother who lived to be 103 years old. And I still remember when we bought her a microwave and I was little and it was Christmas and we wanted to buy her a microwave. back then when microwaves first came out,

they did demos in the store with eggs and potatoes. And with the egg, would show you how you could mix up an egg and put it in a microwave and it become a scrambled egg in 35 seconds, or how the potato cooks from the inside out instead of the outside in so you never have to leave it in the oven for hours. And it was like magical, magical. But my grandmother wouldn't allow the microwave in the house. So we're all excited to get her this microwave to save her time, but she is not, she hadn't.

been used to it and she starts telling me these stories from when she was younger in Czechoslovakia. And just when I realized what she the world she grew up in where she had absolutely no technology and no automation, how strange it must be for her to bring a box into her house that's going to cook her food for her. And it really gets you thinking about how how historical times can really

Set your mindset for appreciation for what's happening today. And there's this crazy new, well, it's not new, it's in season three. There's this TV show, it's called, or this TV series called See, S-E-E with Jason Momoa in it. I don't know if you've heard of it, but the premise is something like COVID goes across the world and it makes everybody blind. And it's years later, but the entire world can't They took out everybody's eyesight.

speaker-0 (11:39)
wow.

speaker-1 (11:42)
And so now everyone has to live and they're living without being able to see, but these witches are born, few people that have sight. And it talks about their ⁓ struggles being able to see versus growing up without that sense and being able to hear and smell and feel and just be so much more adept. And it's a weird dark show with a lot of blood and gore, but it's also fascinating because it just makes you.

think about the world in different ways. It's very, very cool. And I feel like what you do inspires us to think about the world in different ways. And I don't know, like my question for you was, did you realize that you would be inspiring many people to think about things so deeply when you write?

speaker-0 (12:24)
No, not at all. think sometimes, I mean, for sure, think there were some, no, I think that there had been, as you write the book, you sort of go on a journey with the past and the documents yourself. And I can remember, I think four years ago, I did a book on the Titanic and I remember thinking like, actually, there's really not much that has changed.

And that book's probably more relevant now with AI and this rapidly developing technology that we're just not listening to the warnings about, we're still going full steam ahead. And I go, we've learned nothing. Yeah, but no, I mean, that's really kind of you to say, think, I've been really, I'm always touched. And I think part of the reason why I'm really touched that people respond to the books in the way they have is that it wasn't the easiest path to get to where I am today. And so

you know, not that I would want to go back to the more difficult years, but they were good to have because you remember to take every reader seriously and to be really grateful for people's time and money, both of which, you know, people work hard for and should protect. And so when they invest it in something you've done, take that as very flattering regardless. So, yeah, that's very kind of you to say.

Jeanniey Walden (13:44)
my gosh, I hate to even pause this conversation, but we just need to take a really quick break. We'll be right back.

speaker-1 (14:01)
Yeah, well, I think, you know, when you're in a position like you're in, where you're such a well-known and acclaimed author, people are looking to you. They're looking to you for advice about how to become like you and, you know, what can they learn from your books and what can you teach them and how can you inspire them? How does that make you feel? I mean, you must...

Do you feel like you now have a responsibility to do something even better as your next project? Do you not care and you're just following your passion? Where are you in that whole scheme of things?

speaker-0 (14:35)
that's interesting. Yes, I think so. When people ask me for career advice, I do sometimes get a slight tightness in the chest, not because I'm not flattered, but I'm almost slightly overwhelmed because I think, and you can speak to this. It's not, it is a career that is, that requires a huge amount of sweat before you see the result. And sometimes there's a quote from the actress, Amelia Clark, she played Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones.

And someone apparently asked her, you know, what's your advice and getting into acting and she says, if there's anything else you can do, do it. If there's anything else that you can do that will bring you joy, do it. If this is the thing that will bring you joy, do it. Because it's tough, it is tough and it's very inconsistent and insecure at the start. But I try and I say, look, it'll feel like you're throwing darts in the dark for a while. That is what it is. You just have to keep throwing. At the start of your career,

In terms of the books, that's a fabulous question, because I think it's both following your passions, because that is what made you you as a writer, but also I've been encouraged by other authors that I've spoken with to, and just as I evolve as a person, we all get a bit wiser in our business as we go through it, to remember that this is a business as well. And what I mean by that is I sit with about five or six ideas for

a new book. And the criteria for those six are I have to love them. I would read any of these six books and I'm okay spending the next two years living in Stockholm syndrome with this topic. That's what I'm okay with. Then whittling it down to the one that gets picked, I have to think what other people will love. So I'm going to love all six of these, but some of them are not going to be ones that appeal to a lot of readers. And so you have to be conscious, I think, that

The gift is your career to yourself. It is such a privilege to do what I dreamed of being able to do full time when I was younger. But your priority is your reader and your obligation is your reader. So write a book that you want to write, but pick one that you know people will want to read or hope people will want to read. And that's kind of the trade off. So six I would love and then whittle it down to one that think other people

speaker-1 (16:57)
That's fascinating. Now you must get a lot of suggestions and recommendations from fans and readers and critics, right?

speaker-0 (17:04)
Yeah.

Well, when I was doing the young adult book set in Belfast, that was when it was probably at its peak, where when people, particularly in Belfast, people would say, I've got a story for you. I'm like, the books are 250 pages long. But then some of stories were so funny. And okay, they couldn't work on the book, but it was, it was really nice that people wanted to tell you their stories. Yeah, there are times where people will give you ideas for a book and it's very flattering, but it's sometimes

book that's been done, or other times it's a great idea. And that's actually how The Palace, the Hampton Court book came about, was my agent that suggested it. We were kind of going around and I had five ideas for the next one, and I'd shown her Hampton Court and she said, what about it? And that's when I sat and thought, actually, this could be something brilliant. So you do, yeah, you listen to the, you listen to the suggestions. Sometimes they are insane. Sometimes you will get things, you're like, no.

No one would read this book. Not even maybe you suggested it. But yeah, it's fascinating. And sometimes you get absolute nuggets out of it. And even if you don't, you've got to have a good conversation with someone.

speaker-1 (18:23)
Yeah. Now, now you mentioned AI. So I have to ask you about AI. Everyone's talking about AI. Everyone's talking about AI in every single different way possible. The conversation I'm having with the TV show is the fact that there's this realization that broadcast media was never built for the internet because it was built before the internet. And the internet when it was designed did not consider contained broadcast media.

And there's this challenge across all the broadcasting networks on how do we marry the two together and still come out with something that's equitable. there's this interesting advancements in AI that can kind of build the bridge there. So there's good parts of AI. There's all the bad parts that we're seeing. I just watched a scary YouTube video yesterday about all the regulation. And think it said that Google has 2000 people working on

AI analysis and security right now to just evaluate the content and identify what disclaimers are they're going to have to be and how does that work? How do you think AI is going to impact the publishing industry?

speaker-0 (19:29)
It's hard to say. ⁓ There will be good that comes from it, unquestionably. I have to say I'm quite soothed that Google have 2,000 people on that. ⁓ I'm probably one of the only people in the world who says we should raise politicians' salaries. I think they should go up like five, six, seven times if we can. And the reason being, I don't see politicians really in Britain or America who I consider to be technologically savvy. I don't see it.

And I think if you are someone with a technological brain, you go to the private sector because they can pay you. And they can pay you so much more than the public sector will. And I know people will laugh and go forward that, but sometimes you have to hold your nose and be realistic. And I am genuinely, extremely concerned that there are not enough people in government who seem to understand what this stuff is. And not just, mean, like to suggest, I mean, you saw the Zuckerberg questioning.

the politicians, know what Facebook was. you know, how would I, and it was questions that no one under 30 would, like, or even, to be honest, under 45 would have thought those were reasonable questions. So if you have a governmental core that struggles to understand how a Facebook profile works, how on earth can they introduce the legislation that is really needed? And I go back

sort of to circle back to your question, Ginny, about the inspiration of history. One of the really big problems with the Titanic in that generation was there was no one in government who fully understood how big these ships were getting and how there were standard protocol being done in the ocean liner industry that when it was announced at the inquiries, people couldn't believe that the only thing that the ships had gotten so big and there was such confidence in these super ships that they were only told to slow down for fog.

anything else just speed up and you'll be fine. Which is mind blowing when you hear it. But there was no one in government at the time who understood that you needed laws that did not just deal in tonnage but passenger capacity and all these things. The internet was the same. There were not enough laws. It was the Wild West for a time. And it lacerated many, many lives. And it still does. is, you know, it is a hinterland of speculation.

And I think AI has the potential to be that times a hundred really, because they're just to me.

To me, the historical example of this is not great. And if you look back to what happened to societies when massive amounts of industrial change came in that took away jobs, the impact fell on the poorest first. it felt, you you look at the birth of the Industrial Revolution and the hundreds of thousands of people who were put out of work. And I don't see any slowing down of this.

You bear in mind also, this is an interesting one, you talk about publishing, I don't know how it will impact it, but when the AI debate was happening in its infancy, what we were told was this is going to remove the need for menial labor, and it's going to free people up to pursue their artistic passions. The first thing it has done is go after the arts. mean, the AI generated art is essentially the world's greatest plagiarist software. And so

you have, it already isn't doing what we were told it was. And I, this is not as a historian, this is just as a human. When you have Elon Musk and the Pope both coming out to say, there are concerns about this. Listen, like take a breath, take a breath. So I think there could be, you know, certainly, you know, we lost our father last year and he had dealt with dementia and Parkinson's and

If there was something that AI could contribute, as I think it probably could, to the battle against, you know, lacerating, devastating illnesses like dementia, wonderful. And you can't stop the march of technology. when you have, like I've talked to people who I know who are not alarmist, who will say, we have no idea what this is going to do. How is there not, you know, it's great to hear Google are taking sort of control of this with those 2000.

employees but it does feel like this is a train that's speeding up and leaving the station and a lot of people don't want to be on board you know that's my that's like for sure

speaker-1 (24:11)
⁓ Yeah, for sure. mean, it is it is like Terminator movie and it does seem to be like Skynet. It's taking on a life of its own. And even to what Google and YouTube are doing, you know, they're they're making you identify that your content was AI generated. That's a small step. And that's not anything.

speaker-0 (24:35)
And also, by the way, that is to their credit, Jeannie, because it's in their interest actually not to do that. Right. But what I would say just from having... I'm fascinated by the history of religion. You will see in about 20 years, this is going to sound like a wingnut, you're going to see within about 20 years, I would say, a massive spike in the number of people who are affiliating with religious groups that are Luddite, i.e. anti-technology.

And you will see a surge in denominations that interpret AI to be anti-Christ-like. A lot of this stuff, I think, will feed into... will make a lot of people consider it to be what was foretold. But I think you will see a spike in religious groups that really push back against this. And I do think there will be lot of anti-technology groups, both religious and secular, that spring up, because this is going to be society-shakingly huge. That's my imp...

But my answer.

speaker-1 (25:36)
You have to go watch this series C and you have to make it to the beginning of season two. And then I think you're going to be just like, it's going to just make you so introspective about everything that you're saying because of the way they deal with sight and how sight impacts the world and the powers that it has. It's just, the whole thing's fascinating. So I think you've touched, but this was amazing. Look, you took the initial conversation about,

you growing up to be fascinated with history and we took that full 360 around all the way to AI and back to history again, just like that. And just like always, we could stay on the phone forever and talk.

speaker-0 (26:17)
Well, look, do you know what, that, to quote the fictional Queen Mother in the play, this is, is unusual, but we've seen it before. We just think it's something new. Society has changed before. So hopefully, in my darker moments, I always try to remind myself, you know, this is, the human race is the only one we have, and let's hope we look after ourselves.

speaker-1 (26:39)
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, it's not something that that needs to go away. Well, thank you so much for being on lift on journeys This is an incredible discussion and I hope you have a wonderful day I know all of our listeners are just gonna be that I can see people's heads spinning already and then just Going to learn more and find more so you've inspired a whole group of people today. Thank

speaker-0 (27:01)
Listen, thank you so so much for having me and thank you to everyone who's listening.

speaker-1 (27:06)
Alright everybody, if you didn't read the palace yet, I'm gonna give a plug. Go get the palace. Alright, thank you.

speaker-0 (27:13)
you

Jeanniey Walden (27:21)
That was awesome, right? I thought so. And I totally wasn't expecting half that conversation. And like always, I learned something new. One of the things I hope you can take away from today's conversation is this. There is no single path to growth, but there are great ideas that you can integrate into your own style. You know me, I'm a big fan of the AIR method, authenticity, inspiration, and relatability. And those are the patterns that will lead you to success.

When you start noticing how people make decisions, how they pivot, lead, and handle those very real bumps along the way, the ones we all call life, you get much clearer about your own next move. And that's what we explore here on Liftoff Journeys and across everything we do at Liftoff Enterprises. We look at conversations, we do it through media and experiences designed to help leaders grow with more trust and confidence every day.

If this episode resonated with you, there's more waiting for you. Whether it's another journey, a liftoff with Jeannie Wilden TV interview, or one of our Liftoff Spotlight episodes, find what speaks to you and use it to cross that trust threshold and go from stuck to unstoppable. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time.