My other conviction here, is that when you're writing difficult things, you should make them as rich and pleasurable as possible for the reader, that there need to be compensations...

Author Francis Spufford talks about what it's been like to launch his new novel, Light Perpetual, during a pandemic, the many talents and accents required of audiobook narrator Imogen Church, the fondness he holds for his 'unlikable' characters, and why the narrator was especially important for his historical novel Golden Hill. To top it off, he delivers a beautiful reflection on the extraordinariness of our ordinary lives.

Books Francis Recommends for the Audiobook Listening Challenge

Historical Fiction:

• Antonia Hodgson's Tom Hawkins series, specifically The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins and The Silver Collar
• Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower, The Beginning of Spring, Innocence, and The Gate of Angels

Nonfiction: Oliver Morton's The Moon: A History for the Future

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