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In recent history, apocalyptic science fiction was fun. It was hard for most of us to imagine, while reading things like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, that the bleak deadzone the novel is set in could become a reality but for many people round the world, it now is.

Erica Wagner talks to Arvind Ethan David, an author and screenwriter, about the purpose of science fiction now. In times of plenty, it is strangely gratifying to imagine times of disaster — and in times of disaster, it pays, Arvind thinks, to imagine more positive possibilities. The role of the artist, he feels, is to consider how a better future might work.

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When Sarah Dunant was writing her most recent historical novel, she had a character who was tough to crack. Isabella D’Este, a 16th century Italian noblewoman, had no obvious softness or humanity, and then Sarah – a bestselling novelist and cultural commentator – discovered her fondness for little dogs.

Erica talks to Sarah about the ways in which understanding relationships that people had with dogs historically gives an incredibly rich window into the past. From horse culture to pig rearing, the history of humankind is almost all there.

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It’s all just storytelling, right? Whether you’re a dramatist, a writer for telly, or a novelist. Well, no. It turns out that writing for the screen and writing for the bookshelf are markedly different.

Mario Theodorou, a Londoner of Greek heritage who ordinarily writes screen plays, has just written Felix Grey and the Descendant, a pacey thriller set in Edwardian society. He tells Patrick Galbraith about how the novel form set him free. Characters, he explains, are usually far more developed in books than they are on the screen and their interior world can be revealed to a far greater extent. They can also afford to be more experimental.

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Why is it that young Irish writers are everywhere, while the Welsh dragon of literary fiction is sitting quietly in a corner? Francesca Reece thinks that the Scottish and Irish simply have better PR — but she also says that the profile of Welsh writing is in ascendancy.

Francesca’s latest book, Glass Houses, is a plot-driven tale about sex, magic mushrooms, and nationalism. She talks to Patrick Galbraith about forestry, second homes, and the Gavin and Stacey effect. 

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Last summer, outside a pub in Soho, Patrick Galbraith met Hannah Hayden, a librettist who also writes erotic novels about men who fall into fantasy worlds and end up having a wild time with dinosaurs and elves. Hannah has never met the people she works for and she has no idea really who the readership is.

What is clear, though, is that the novels sell remarkably well; Hannah often writes a novel a month. Can she tell Patrick exactly what it is that male readers really want?

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In 1974, the artist Philippe Petit embarked on an illegal high-wire walk across the Twin Towers, which resulted in a great degree of notoriety that has followed him ever since.

Philippe talks to Erica Wagner about his struggle to break free of that fame and his desire to be recognised for his many creative endeavours, rather than just being the ‘man on wire’.

Erica also talks to bestselling novelist Nathan Hill about living in face of extreme weather, and the uncanny commodification of relaxation.

Philippe's To Reach the Clouds was published by Orion in 2022

Nathan Hill’s Wellness, was published by Picador in September 2024

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While researching her bestselling novel The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley became obsessed with the life of Robert McClure. She has spent the past few years trying to piece together the details of his existence from fragments in the archives — though he died well over a century before Kaliane began to write, she tells Erica Wagner that she knows him well.

She also discusses her novel and the enduring appeal of great failures.

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In 2019, having almost no experience of journalism whatsoever, Charlie Baker decided to launch a print magazine. In a world where print readership is in dire decline, people thought he was completely nuts — but over five years on, The Fence is flying.

Marina Hyde and Richard Osman recently toasted the magazine on their podcast The Rest is Entertainment, and Patrick Radden Keefe says it is the only place he gets his news. Keefe probably wasn’t being entirely serious when he said that but he has written for The Fence, along with people like John Banville, Roísín Lanigan, Fergus Butler-Gallie, and our own Patrick Galbraith. Charlie talks to Patrick about why he thinks that reading print is preferable to reading digitally, what makes a great story, and the future of magazines in a rapidly-changing media landscape.

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When she was in her 20s, Katrina Porteous moved to a cottage on the Northumberland Coast. It was immensely beautiful but it was a place that was changing fast – every year the number of fishing boats in the harbour declined and many of the fishermen themselves were getting on. Katrina has spent the past few decades, as a poet, documenting the loss of their way of life and the inshore sea fishing culture. Katrina talks to Erica Wagner about capturing a sense of place in her writing and about the importance of spending a time simply listening and watching.

Erica also talks to the young London-based Turkish Cypriot writer, Tice Cin, about her piece for Boundless on the challenge of writing a second novel, in the wake of the first, and the importance of finding other artists to run with as a pack.

Tice Cin's Keeping the House

Katrina Porteous' Rhizodont

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