San Clemente

Claire Adam is a novelist born and raised in Trinidad, who studied Physics at Brown University before settling in London. Her debut novel Golden Child won the Desmond Elliott Prize, the McKitterick Prize, and the Authors Club Best First Novel Award, and was named one of the BBC's 100 Novels that Changed the World.

In this episode, Grace talks to Claire about finding the voice of a reluctant narrator, what fiction can do that facts cannot, and why once you feel something in a book, it stays with you permanently. Love Forms was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025. The Booker judges called it "a rare and low-pitched achievement" that "reads like a hushed conversation overheard in the next room." The Times described it as "every bit as good as her debut" and likened it to "a Claire Keegan story expanded by Elizabeth Strout." The FT said it "achieves a sort of alchemy."

Find the book here or get it your local seller.

Alex Kadis is a writer, music journalist and industry consultant. Half-British, half-Greek, she grew up in Leyton and Walthamstow and studied English Literature at Goldsmiths. She was Features Editor at Smash Hits in its heyday and has written for Sunday Times Style and Q Magazine, before moving into artist management and consultancy.

Her debut novel Big Nobody is out now with Penguin Random House. Grace and Alex talk about the book's 1970s East London setting, the push and pull of immigrant identity, what it means to finally feel like a somebody, and what AI can and can't do with art. Xochitl Gonzalez called it a novel that "broke my heart one minute and had me really laughing the next." Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review, and the Guardian wrote that Kadis has produced "a debut that sparkles like Marc Bolan's eye makeup." Pandora Sykes called it "riotously funny, nostalgic, and immensely touching."

Get the book here or at your local seller.

Ashley Hickson-Lovence is a novelist, poet and lecturer in Creative Writing. He grew up in Hoxton and Holloway and is the author of The 392, Your Show, and Wild East, which won the East Anglian Book Awards 2024 overall and the Diverse Book Awards 2025 YA prize. His poetry collection Why I Am Not a Bus Driver came out in 2025, with the poem "Munster Road" highly commended for Best Single Poem at the Forward Prize and featured in the Forward Prize Book of Poetry 2026.

His new novel About to Fall Apart is out now with Faber. It's been praised by Ferdia Lennon, Christine Anne Foley and Margaret McDonald. As we talk about, it's a real example of how literature can bring us closer to the overlooked figures in our lives. Candice Carty-Williams called The 392 "completely, overwhelmingly in a league of its own." Your Show was praised by The Observer for its "freestyle poetry" and "stirring" storytelling. Wild East earned him a Black Excellence Award nomination for Outstanding Contribution to Literature.

You can get the book here or at your local seller.

Val Ravaglia is a curator born in Rome who has been based at Tate Modern since 2012, where she is now Curator of Displays and International Art. She holds a PhD in Humanities and Cultural Studies from the London Consortium at Birkbeck and has curated or co-curated works by artists including Hito Steyerl, Rebecca Horn, Nam June Paik, Phyllida Barlow and Monster Chetwynd, as well as leading the rehang of the entire Tate Modern collection ahead of the opening of the New Tate Modern in 2016.

Val most recently curated Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet at Tate Modern, which gives us a lot to think about as AI becomes a greater part of our conversations. The Daily Telegraph called it "a nerd's nirvana" with a premise that was "simple, smart, and electrifying." The Upcoming described it as "an engrossing exhibition" that revealed how artists "forged new creative frontiers." Studio International called it "an impressive amalgamation of research" with "scope and ambition" that ranked it among the most significant shows of 2024.

After moving from Australia to follow her dreams, Liz is now one of The Observer's 2026 Best Debut Novelists for her book In Bloom. She's been praised by The Guardian, Alice Slater, Saraid de Silva and Louise Hegarty for her complex depiction of girlhood in an isolated Australian town in the 90's. She's also been interviews for The Times about her book and her work as a teacher in the UK. She's even been noted in the BBC's wider list of 12 Books to Read in 2026.

We get to talk about how grunge music became an empowering escape for girls like The Bastards of In Bloom and how female friendships have always been a strong support for Liz.

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Open, Heaven has been praised by Anne Enright, Kaveh Akbar, Ferdia Lennon, Michael Magee, The Guardian, The FT and became an Instant Irish Times Bestseller. 

Seán Hewitt FRSL is a poet, memoirist, novelist and literary critic. 

His debut collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire, won The Laurel Prize in 2021, and was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, and a Dalkey Literary Award. In 2020, he was chosen by The Sunday Times as one of their "30 under 30"  artists in Ireland.

His book J.M. Synge: Nature, Politics, Modernism was published with Oxford University Press (2021). 

His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, was published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Penguin Press in the USA (2022). It was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, for the Foyles Book of the Year in non-fiction, for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Polari Prize, the Michel Déon Prize, and for a LAMBDA award. He won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2022. 

300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World, illustrated by Luke Edward Hall, was published in 2023. A second collection of poetry, Rapture's Road, was published in 2024, and shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. His work has been translated into more than 10 languages.

He is Assistant Professor in Literary Practice at Trinity College Dublin, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Get the book here or at your local bookshop. 

Set in the English countryside, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year as two teenage boys meet and transform each other’s lives.

THE LITERARY DEBUT NOVEL OF THE YEAR: a gloriously alive coming- of-age story about male friendship and diving into love for the first time.

On the cusp of adulthood, James dreams of another life far away from his small village. Beholden to the expectations of home and family, his burgeoning desire – an ache for autonomy, tenderness and sex – threatens to unravel his shy exterior.

Then he meets Luke. Unkempt and handsome, charismatic and impulsive, he has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on a nearby farm. Luke comes with a reputation for danger, yet underneath his bravado lie anxieties and hopes of his own.

As the seasons pass, and the pair form an ever-changing bond, James falls into a terrifying first love that will transform his life forever. Enthralling and richly immersive, Open, Heaven is a debut novel about the freedom of youth, the sacrifices of friendship, and the possibilities of love in all its forms.

What does it mean to make art? Can a robot do it? How did a sentient AI piece of art take over one of London's biggest galleries? Can art change the world? So many big questions, and, fortunately, an expert is here to talk us through it.

Farah Nayeri is a world-renowned authority on art. She’s the host of the podcast CultureBlast where she interviews creative stars like Emma Thompson, Ai WeiWei and Marina Abramović. She’s the author of Takedown: Art and Power in the Digital Age. She’s a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Frieze and the Art Newspaper. 

Follow Farah on Instagram for frankly incredible updates on the art world.

You are a voice in your community. AI is already impacting you life and your environment. Madhumita tells us why it matters that we get involved and where to go for guidance.

Madhumita Murgia is the author of Code Dependent which was nominated for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction last year. She’s the first AI Editor for The Financial Times. She was previously Tech Editor for The Telegraph and Associate Editor for WIRED. She’s the host of the podcast Tech Tonic. 

Code Dependent has been praised by The Guardian, The Times, Martha Lane Fox, New Scientist, The Telegraph and Shoshana Zuboff. 

Get the book here or at your local bookshop. 

Through the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from Silicon Valley, Code Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Madhumita Murgia, AI Editor at the FT, exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency – and shatter our illusion of free will.
AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small. In this compelling work, Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity.

Folakunle Oshun is an artist and curator currently based in Paris. He is the Founder of the Lagos Biennial, a non-profit contemporary art platform that privileges adventurous approaches to artmaking, presentation, and critical discourse–aspiring to broach complex social and political problems, cultivate new publics, and establish fresh modes of engagement within the city, as well as throughout the country and internationally. Its next exhibition is in 2026. 

You might know Folakunle from his work curating the incredibly popular Lagos, Peckham, Repeat Exhibition for the South London Gallery. He was also invited to Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne as a guest curator for the group exhibition LOOK AT THIS in 2021. He also served as an advisor for the Africa Season (2020). His solo exhibition “Museum of Hope” opened in the same year at the Berliner Dom.

Oshun earned a B.A. in Visual Art from the University of Lagos, majoring in Sculpture, and an M.A. in Art History. He was the first recipient of the Curator-in-Residence grant by the Potsdam City Council, Brandenburg, Germany, in (2017).  

In 2021, Folakunle Oshun was invited as Guest Professor to the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe to lead the seminar “Spatial Politics and Story Telling.” He is currently a Doctoral candidate at the Heritage Laboratory, of Cergy University, École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy, France. He also lectures at the university. 

Actress Rochelle Harrington is one of the new stars of Netflix's hit series, Geek Girl. 
Inspired by Holly Smale's series of novels, Geek Girl follows the geeky and socially awkward Harriet Manners who's recruited by a top modeling agent and unexpectedly embarks on a modeling career. 
Playing Harriet's best friend and fellow model, is acting newcomer, Rochelle Harrington as Natalie "Nat" Grey.

Watch the show on Netflix here.