Inklings Book Club

Caroline O'Donoghue is a New York Times bestselling author and podcaster. Her podcast Sentimental Garbage has been streamed 12 million times. Her book The Rachel Incident has sold over 250,000 copies and is currently being adapted for the screen. Meanwhile, her young adult debut was All Our Hidden Gifts which became a much loved trilogy. Today we’re also going to be discussing her new book, the first in a duology, titled Skipshock! We discussed Irish literature, being described as Sally Rooney-esque, and the difference between YA and adult fiction.

Thanks to Hay Festival for hosting us :)

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

Tom Blyth (The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) and Emily Bader (My Lady Jane) star in the first of Emily Henry's book-to-screen adaptations, People We Meet On Vacation. Here, they talk about their characters, Alex and Poppy, as well as their taste in books!!

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

Emily Henry is the queen of romance, author of novels like Beach Read, Happy Place, Book Lovers, and Funny Story. I sat down with her to discuss People We Meet On Vacation, her first book to be adapted for the screen, alongside director Bret Haley.

With tremendous thanks to Marc Uddo for helping me clean up the audio!

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

Harlan Coben is the number-one bestsellling author of 35 novels, translated into 46 different languages. Specifically, he's sold over 90 MILLION copies, and 12 of his stories have been adapted for the screen by Netflix. The newest adaptation is Run Away, starring James Norton and Ruth Jones, which follows a family trying to find their daughter Paige. I wanted to ask Harlan about finding that perfect formula that has made him the king of the thriller.

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

It's the day after Christmas, and you might be wondering How To Kill Your Family...

Author of How to Kill Your Family, Bella Mackie, has done it again. She's back with her sophomore novel What A Way To Go and discusses it here, on launch day, with Jack.

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

I'm so thrilled to introduce a hero of mine to the Inklings Book Club: Rick Riordan. Author of over 40 books, including the iconic Percy Jackson series, Rick is infatuated with mythology. From Norse to Egyptian myths, he's brought characters of legends to life and introduced them to a whole new audience. Firstly, I had to just say: thank you.

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

In 2016, David Szalay's novel All That Man Is was nominated for the biggest prize in books, The Booker Prize. Then, in 2025, he was shortlisted for his newest offering, Flesh, and won the whole thing!! It's well-documented that Flesh was my personal winner this year, and I was elated to see it propser.

Flesh tells the story of István, a Hungarian immigrant working for a wealthy English family as a chauffeur. In a way, István is the chauffeur of the novel too, silently driving us forward -- however, all we see is his side profile, his outline. He's evasive and stoic as a result of his unprocessed trauma.

I was thrilled that David was able to find time in his jampacked schedule as a newly crowned Booker winner to come and chat to the Inklings Book Club.

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

Sorry for the lisp this mic seemed to give my audio guys.

This is Saba Sams’ debut novel, all about the sticky stuff, the scum and the scuzz. It’s about the things we’d usually scrub away – instead of glossing over it, we linger there and embrace the mess.

Set in Brighton, we follow an unconventional family dynamic – two young divorcees, Jules and Leon, and the girl, Nim, who gives them her baby,

I interviewed Saba at The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Book Festival, as part of their Voicebox programming, which provides inclusivity at the book festival by providing free events which are accessible for everyone. It’s such a great initiative and I’m so pleased to have been involved. Especially when it means getting to interview an author I adore, about a novel that was definitely one of my favourites I read this year — at one point the characters sit on Brighton Pier and eat a warm doughnut in the pouring rain, and that’s exactly what this reading experience was for me too.  In amongst the chaos, there is warmth.

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

Our December book of the month is... HAMNET!

Maggie O'Farrell's novel Hamnet won the Women’s Prize in 2020 – an apt year to be awarded, given that it is, in part about a plague. While our own plague, COVID-19 locked us all in our houses, many of us found solace in this beautiful novel. O'Farrell took us back a few centuries to Stratford Upon Avon where Shakespeare's family resided. But this book isn't about Shakespeare -- in fact he's never mentioned by name -- instead, t’s about the playwright's wife Agnes and children Hamnet and Judith. I sat down with Maggie to hear about it, and pose some of your questions to her.

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

As soon as I started a book club, I knew we’d have to read Hamnet at some point. Hamnet is a fictional imagination of the life of Anne Hathaway -- here called Agnes because that’s what her family called her -- as well as her children. It’s about the family of William Shakespeare, but in the book he is never called by name. Instead, the spotlight is shifted to his family who are so often a mere footnote in his biography. Here, they are the focal point. Unfortunately his son Hamnet tragically died aged just eleven and, while not much is known about his cause of death, here Maggie O’Farrell speculates what may have happened.

Today we are joined by two special guests who know a thing or two about Hamnet. Paul Mescal is an Academy Award nominated actor, having starred in Aftersun, Gladiator II, All of Us Strangers and of course Normal People. Now he stars as William Shakespeare in the Hamnet film adaptation which is in cinemas in the US today, and in the UK from the 9th of January. He stars alongside Jessie Buckley who plays Agnes. Jessie is also an Academy Award nominated actress, known for her roles in The Lost Daughter, Fargo, Women Talking, and for her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the West End revival of the musical Cabaret. 

When I tell you, their portrayals of the characters in this film are just spellbinding. You are totally captivated from the moment they step onto the screen, right to the final frame. I genuinely don’t think this could have been done better and I hope they’re both ready to be nominated for Academy Awards once again because I can’t tell you how much they deserve it. This film is emotionally intense, exploring themes of grief, illness, and heartache. Both deliver career-defining performances – all I’m saying is prepare to sob. Not at this interview though – I mean I hope not at this interview – but certainly at the film.

I sat down with Paul and Jessie to discuss this project, as well as their favourite books. Please welcome to the Inklings book club, Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley…

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