San Clemente

Claire Adam is a novelist born and raised in Trinidad, who studied Physics at Brown University before settling in London. Her debut novel  Golden Child  won the Desmond Elliott Prize, the McKitterick Prize, and the Authors Club Best First Novel Award, and was named one of the BBC's 100 Novels that Changed the World. In this episode, Grace talks to Claire about finding the voice of a reluctant...

Alex Kadis is a writer, music journalist and industry consultant. Half-British, half-Greek, she grew up in Leyton and Walthamstow and studied English Literature at Goldsmiths. She was Features Editor at Smash Hits in its heyday and has written for Sunday Times Style and Q Magazine, before moving into artist management and consultancy. Her debut novel  Big Nobody  is out now with Penguin Random Hou...

Ashley Hickson-Lovence is a novelist, poet and lecturer in Creative Writing. He grew up in Hoxton and Holloway and is the author of The 392, Your Show, and Wild East, which won the East Anglian Book Awards 2024 overall and the Diverse Book Awards 2025 YA prize. His poetry collection Why I Am Not a Bus Driver came out in 2025, with the poem "Munster Road" highly commended for Best Single...

Val Ravaglia is a curator born in Rome who has been based at Tate Modern since 2012, where she is now Curator of Displays and International Art. She holds a PhD in Humanities and Cultural Studies from the London Consortium at Birkbeck and has curated or co-curated works by artists including Hito Steyerl, Rebecca Horn, Nam June Paik, Phyllida Barlow and Monster Chetwynd, as well as leading the reha...

After moving from Australia to follow her dreams, Liz is now one of The Observer's 2026 Best Debut Novelists for her book In Bloom . She's been praised by The Guardian, Alice Slater, Saraid de Silva and Louise Hegarty for her complex depiction of girlhood in an isolated Australian town in the 90's. She's also been interviews for The Times about her book and her work as a teacher in...

Open, Heaven has been praised by Anne Enright, Kaveh Akbar, Ferdia Lennon, Michael Magee, The Guardian, The FT and became an Instant Irish Times Bestseller.  Seán Hewitt FRSL is a poet, memoirist, novelist and literary critic.    His debut collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire, won The Laurel Prize in 2021, and was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the John Pollard F...

What does it mean to make art? Can a robot do it? How did a sentient AI piece of art take over one of London's biggest galleries? Can art change the world? So many big questions, and, fortunately, an expert is here to talk us through it. Farah Nayeri is a world-renowned authority on art. She’s the host of the podcast CultureBlast where she interviews creative stars like Emma Thompson, Ai WeiWe...

You are a voice in your community. AI is already impacting you life and your environment. Madhumita tells us why it matters that we get involved and where to go for guidance. Madhumita Murgia is the author of Code Dependent which was nominated for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction last year. She’s the first AI Editor for The Financial Times. She was previously Tech Editor for The Telegraph and Ass...

Folakunle Oshun is an artist and curator currently based in Paris. He is the Founder of the Lagos Biennial, a non-profit contemporary art platform that privileges adventurous approaches to artmaking, presentation, and critical discourse–aspiring to broach complex social and political problems, cultivate new publics, and establish fresh modes of engagement within the city, as well as throughout the...

Actress  Rochelle Harrington  is one of the new stars of  Netflix 's hit series,  Geek Girl .  Inspired by  Holly Smale 's series of novels,  Geek Girl  follows the geeky and socially awkward Harriet Manners who's recruited by a top modeling agent and unexpectedly embarks on a modeling career.  Playing  Harriet 's best friend and fellow model, is acting newcomer, Rochelle Harringto...

Intervals has been praised by The Guardian, the Observer, Publisher’s Weekly, Elinor Cleghorn (author of Unwell Women ) and Prospect Magazine. It was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.  Marianne Brooker is based in Bristol, where she works for a charity campaigning on climate and social justice. She has a PhD from Birkbeck and a background in arts research and teaching. She won the...

Santanu Bhattacharya grew up in India, and studied at the University of Oxford and the National University of Singapore. He won the Desmond Elliott Prize Residency in 2023, and the Mo Siewcharran and Life Writing Prizes in 2021. His first novel, One Small Voic e, was an Observer best debut novel of 2023, and was shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award and the Society of Author...

The Artist has been praised by The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, Yael van der Wouden (The Safekeep), Sarah Perry (Essex Serpent) and is a Best Book of 2025 for Good Housekeeping and Stylist. It’s longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.  Lucy Steeds is a novelist and a graduate of the Faber Academy and the London Library Emerging Writers Programme. She has a BA in English Litera...

Jennifer Daiches, daughter of the Scottish critic and biographer David Daiches, was born in Chicago, educated in the US and in England, before moving to Scotland in 1971. From 1978 to 2001 she worked at the National Museums of Scotland in various capacities, including Head of Publications and script co-ordinator for exhibitions. She is a freelance writer and lecturer, writing on literary and histo...

Hansal Mehta  Winner of the National Award for Best Direction in 2014, Hansal Mehta talks about his Netflix drama starring Bollywood’s beloved Kareena Kapoor, Buckingham Murders .  He’s best known for Shahid (2013), Citylights (2014), Aligarh (2016), Omertà (2018), Scoop (2023), Modern Love Mumbai (2022) and Scam 1992 (2020). He is known for films that depict social and political realities in deep...

Luna Carmoon talks about her film, Hoard , starring Joseph Quinn ( Gladiator II, Stranger Things ). Now Hoard is out, premiering at the 80th Venice Film Festival, Luna’s nominated for the 2025 BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. This makes her a member of BAFTA Breakthrough and she’s already Sundance Ignite Fellow. Luna is also a regular director of music videos...

Benjamin Markovits grew up mostly in Texas. He left an unpromising career as a professional basketball player to study the Romantics – an experience he wrote about in Playing Days, a novel. Since then he has taught high school English, worked at a left-wing cultural magazine, and written essays, stories and reviews for, among other publications, The New York Times, Granta, The Guardian, The London...

Rosanna Pike became an instant Sunday Times Bestseller with her debut novel, A Little Trickerie . It’s been longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction and has been praised by the Guardian, the Telegraph, Bonnie Garmus ( Lessons in Chemistry ) and Ferdia Lennon ( Glorious Exploits ). Rosanna studied English literature at Exeter University. She is a graduate of Curtis Brown Creative and th...

Rowe is one of the Observer's Best Debut Novelists of 2025. She's an artist and writer who has been praised for Lifecycle of a Moth by Lucy Rose, Molly Aitken and Gabrielle Griffiths. Get the book here or at your local bookshop. An itchy feeling. A wrinkle in the forest. A cracking twig. A coming sound. Myma, do you hear it? Myma, do you hear? Myma? Maya and Daughter live in complete isola...

Dr Karen Jennings is longlisted for this year's Women's Prize with her novel Crooked Seeds. Her book An Island was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize in 2022. Crooked Seeds was described by the Guardian as "a perfectly realised fictional creation." It's a book of the year for the Guardian, Irish Times and CrimeReads. It's al...

Katie's biography, Not Your China Doll, re-examines the life of Hollywood pioneer, Anna May Wong. It's been praised by Marvel star and New York Times Bestseller Simu Liu as well as the Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian. It was nominated for the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards in History & Biography and selected as one of Entertainment Weekly's 'Books we're excited to read...

Saraid de Silva  (she/her) is a Sri Lankan/Pakeha writer living in Tamaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand. Saraid has worked as an actor, theatre-maker, voiceover artist. In 2022, she graduated from Auckland University's Creative Writing Masters and became the inaugural winner of the Crystal Arts Trust Prize. She has also released three seasons of the documentary series Conversations With My Im...

Foluso Agbaje has been writing stories since she first learned to write. She loves London but calls Lagos home, and her stories are shaped by these two cities that have captured her heart. When not curled up with her Kindle, you’ll find her in a bookshop, museum, or restaurant. She is a big fan of period dramas and has watched every episode of Downton Abbey more times than she’s willing to admit....

Chloe Abrahams is a Sri Lankan British artist and filmmaker. Using methods drawn from both documentary and fiction practices, she investigates the therapeutic potential of the confessional, culminating in visceral work spanning moving image, sound, writing and performance. Chloe’s debut non-fiction film,  The Taste of Mango,  premiered at True/False 2023 where it was named the #1 film by Sight &am...

Michael’s debut novel, The Boyhood of Cain , has been praised by the Times, the Guardian, the New Yorker and Call Me By Your Name author André Aciman. In this episode we talk about the benefits of not knowing yourself, relentless productivity and the forms of knowledge contained in literature that can't be communicated by AI. Michael is also a non-fiction writer with work published in the Guardian...