‘For me, beauty and disgust don’t really exist in binary.’ AK Blakemore’s discovery of tales of The Great Tarare, a French showman with an insatiable appetite, was the perfect setting for her to explore her love of the grotesque and abject. Shortlisted for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize, her novel ‘The Glutton’ explores the almost folkloric life of the soldier-turned-street performer, as he tours around France eating everything from nails and stones to snakes and puppies. Blakemore also talks about her childhood living on the 24th floor of a tower block in southeast London, experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations, and the symbolic power of food in literature.

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