2020 Women’s Prize winner Maggie O’Farrell joins Vick Hope and reveals what it was like to win the prize over a zoom call and what level of research is really required to write a masterpiece like Hamnet.

Maggie O’Farrell won the Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel Hamnet - a moving exploration of death and grief in Elizabethan England told through the story of William Shakespeare’s real life son Hamnet. Maggie is the author of nine novels, the memoir I Am I Am I Am, and two children’s books, including The Boy Who Lost His Spark, out this October. Her latest novel The Marriage Portrait, set in Renaissance Italy is out now.

Maggie’s book choices are: 

** Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom

** Flesh and Blood by Michele Roberts

** The Green Road by Anne Enright

** The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

** Gawain and the Green Knight by Anonymous

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season five of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

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This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.