In this episode novelist Natasha Brown joins Adam Biles to discuss her daring second book, Universality. The conversation explores the novel’s structural audacity—opening with a fictional long-read article—and its thematic interrogation of class, race, media narratives, and the modern British middle class. Brown dives into her creation of Leni, a polarising columnist whose charisma masks deeper questions about power and identity. She explains the exhaustive research behind mimicking journalistic language and crafting complex, contradictory characters, all while reflecting on the fractured state of truth in the digital age. The conversation touches on the erosion of trust in traditional media, class performance, and the shifting role of fiction in helping us understand our sociopolitical moment.

Buy Universality: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/universality

Natasha Brown is a British novelist.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

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