On a stormy late-summer afternoon, a legendary singer-songwriter makes the seismic journey from South Yorkshire to West Yorkshire to drop in on Simon and make sure he's properly kitted out for the wild winds and lashing rain. Richard Hawley is perhaps our greatest living balladeer. As well as having played alongside some of the biggest names in music, he's also made a major name for himself with his own band, playing countless live shows and producing albums like 'Coles Corner', 'Hollow Meadows' and 'In This City They Call You Love'. More recently the award-winning musical 'Standing At The Sky's Edge' which is built on his songs has left audiences around the country moved to tears. Over a couple of brews, courtesy of our friends at Yorkshire Tea, Richard tells Simon about his own shed, the importance of love in his life and work, and finally about the cleft palate that would, had he not been through numerous operations, have left him unable to sing. All that and a beautiful rendition of a Buddly Holly classic is more than enough to keep the storm at bay.

Simon welcomes journalist, newsreader and now novelist Reeta Chakrabarti to the shed for a conversation that arcs from her childhood in Birmingham to reporting from conflict zones around the world. Reeta discusses her debut novel, Finding Belle, a moving coming-of-age tale of family, identity, mental illness and cross-cultural roots that moves from the beaches of Mombasa to England in the 1970s - a place she describes as a more difficult and sometimes more brutal place than in it is today. Over a proper brew from our friends at Yorkshire Tea, Simon and Reeta share their love of Keats and their passion for dancing (if your arms don't rise above your shoulders have you even had a dance?) - and Reeta talks about some of the stories that have stayed with her over the years, including the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Being the gormful chap he is, Simon is deeply happified to welcome Britain's best-known and best loved lexicographer and etymologist Susie Dent to the shed. Susie has not only served in Countdown's Dictionary Corner for more than three decades (and graced the slightly less seemly environs of '8 Out of Ten Cats' in the process), she has also written the novel 'Guilty by Definition' and numerous non-fiction books delighting in the English language. It's German, though, that really captured her heart early and remains her favourite language. She describes her circuitous and sometimes reluctant route to fame, and as next door's cows gather to eavesdrop, Simon and Susie explore how poets and lexicographers approach, use and celebrate language in their different but complementary ways.