Inklings Book Club

Jodie Harsh is a music producer, DJ, and legendary drag artist. In her new memoir, You Had To Be There, she takes us on a journey through London nightlife, explores the venues that hosted iconic parties, and pays homage to those who left early. You Had To Be There is out now in paperback! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to a very special mini series here on the Inklings Book Club podcast where we’ll be meeting each of the six shortlisted authors for the Women’s Prize for Fiction!  The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the most successful, influential and popular literary prizes in the world, championing and amplifying women’s voices and nurturing a global community of readers. The Prize was es...

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Welcome back to our Women's Prize 2026 spotlight series. Today we’re joined by Marcia Hutchinson, whose debut novel The Mercy Step is shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize and just won the Discovery Prize at the British Book Awards! Following the life of a child from the womb to age eleven, Marcia Hutchinson crafts a sharply-witted and tender portrait of a young girl’s quiet rebellion in 1960s...

Welcome to our special Inklings Book Club series spotlighting each of the Women's Prize for Fiction shortlisted authors. First up, we’re meeting Rozie Kelly, author of Kingfisher. This is her debut novel, about an academic married to a man who becomes infatuated with a female poet. Kelly finds beauty in the messiness of being human in this meditation on grief, power, desire, our search for identit...

Today we’re joined by Anders Lustgarten whose new book Kill Billionaire follows a wise beyond her years 14 year old girl from rural Australia called Kayla, who starts taking down billionaires. I was so intrigued to ask Anders about crafting this character, and his outlook on the world. He is a talented playwright – with 12 original plays under his belt. Now he’s turning his pen to novel writing –...

Greg James has been a presenter for BBC Radio 1 since 2007 where he now host the coveted breakfast show. He is also a children’s author, known for the Kid Normal series he writes with Chris Smith, and now his memoir is here. It’s called All The Best For The Future, and it’s a meditation on life and all its trimmings. My first ever job was at a plastic factory, and when I worked there I used to alw...

This month we have been reading Nova Scotia House by Charlie Porter. I totally fell in love with this book which follows a gay couple called Johnny and Jerry in the 90s, as Jerry lives his final days. He is a victim of the AIDS crisis, and this book is both a celebration of his life. We continue to follow Johnny in the present day after Jerry has passed, with a few appearances from Gareth, Jerry’s...

Today we’re joined by poet, lecturer, and literary critic Seán Hewitt. Seán is the author of three original poetry collections, a memoir, and several curations of other poets’ work, from wood engravings to tales of love from the ancient world. His debut novel, Open, Heaven, was published last year and I utterly adored it. A man returns to the small village in which he first fell in love, which sum...

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Benjamin Wood is the author of five novels, the first of which – called The Bellwether Revivals, was shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Book Awards and Commonwealth Book Prize. His fifth novel, Seascraper, won the Nero Book Award for fiction and was longlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Walter Scott Prize. Seascraper is a portal to the seaside where we follow a young man called Thomas who works...

Hello and welcome back to the Inklings Book Club podcast and our March book of the month!!! This month we read Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar, and I’ve loved reading all of your insights on the Fable app. You sent in thoughtful, astute, and perceptive questions, and today I had the privilege of posing them to Kaveh Akbar, the author of Martyr! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Khong started out as the executive editor of Lucky Peach Magazine, before turning her eye to novel writing. Her debut, Goodbye, Vitamin, was released in 2017 and won the California Book Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, Real Americans, became an instant New York Times bestseller, following three generations of a family, spanning 80 years. It explores themes of Chinese-American iden...

Today we’re joined by the incredibly talented novelist Julia Armfield. Julia wrote one of my favourite books ever, called Our Wives Under The Sea. It’s about a woman who returns from a disastrous deep-sea dive, and her wife who is now looking after someone she barely recognises. It’s so lyrical and beautiful, she is such a talent. We met to discuss her debut, as well as her newest release Private...

Today we have a very special episode where we’ll be talking about Enid Blyton’s classic series of children’s books The Faraway Tree, co-hosted by Ruby Granger! Ruby will be chatting with Claire Foy, Nicola Coughlan, Phoenix Laroche, Billie Gadsdon, Delilah Bennett Cardy, Simon Farnaby, and Ben Gregor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andy Weir is the king of sci-fi. His first novel The Martian follows Mark Watney, an astronaut mistakenly presumed dead and abandoned on Mars by his crew during a dust storm. Stranded with limited supplies, he uses his botany and engineering skills to survive while NASA figures out how to rescue him. His next novel was Artemis, following a woman living in the first city on the Moon. Then came Proj...

If you know me you will know how much I adore the novel Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. We follow science teacher Ryland Grace as he wakes up on a spaceship with no recollection of who he is or how we got there. As his memory slowly returns, he discovers he is the last surviving person on a mission into space to understand a substance called astrophage. Astrophage is causing the sun to die out, an...

Today we’re talking to one of the greatest living writers, George Saunders. He is the author of 12 books, including Tenth of December, Pastoralia, Swimming in a Pond in the Rain, and Lincoln in the Bardo which won the the Booker Prize. Three of his books were included in the New York Times’ top 100 books of the 21st century so far, and his work is noted for its humanity and unique, often experimen...

Today we’re talking to poet and novelist Aria Aber. Aria is an Afghan-German poet, novelist and educator. Her poetry collection Hard Damage won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize and Whiting Award. Her debut novel, Good Girl, was shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Yale Review, and Granta. Good Girl is my favourite book I’ve read so far in 2026, I a...

Well, it’s safe to say the whole world is talking about Wuthering Heights. Hello and welcome back to the Inklings Book Club where this month we are reading Emily Brontë’s gothic classic, just in time for the release of Emerald Fennell’s adaptation. And so… who better to speak to than Emerald herself? I caught up with Emerald to chat all things Wuthering Heights, as well as her favourite books and...

When I asked Inklings members what book we should read for February, you guys voted overwhelmingly for Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontè’s gothic masterpiece. Set amongst the backdrop of the sprawling Yorkshire Moors, in the first part of the novel Bronte details the all consuming, toxic, passionate, obsessive, and destructive relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Heathcliff is a r...

I always say the best celebrity memoir I’ve ever read is I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy -- it’s so open and vulnerable and honest and raw, but it’s also beautifully written. She details what it was like to grow up as a child star, especially when a parent is putting an immense amount of pressure on you. Not just to be a breadwinner, but to look a certain way, behave in a certain way, and...

One of the most enduring, perennial and important plays ever written, and Shakespeare’s longest, Hamlet tells the story of a man torn by internal conflict after his uncle murders his father, the king of Denmark, and marries his mother, the queen. Many actors have dreamed of taking on this role, and Riz Ahmed is the latest to do so in his new adaptation of Hamlet in cinemas now. Riz Ahmed is an Osc...