On this episode, we’re joined by the novelist Maggie O’Farrell to discuss the new film adaptation of her 2020 novel Hamnet, which she co-wrote with the film’s Oscar-winning director, Chloé Zhao.

Maggie speaks with us about what it means to see a book reimagined for the screen without losing any of its tactility or emotional power, and how the collaborative process expanded rather than narrowed her understanding of the original work. For her, this was not a matter of surrendering her novel to the big screen, but of discovering new ways to open out a story she thought she was finished with.

We also discuss the film’s extraordinary ensemble cast, including Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, and Jacobi Jupe; how the film’s director created a visual language to frame the historical experience as something rooted in the present tense; and Maggie’s reflections on the strange prescience of this plague story being originally released in March 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hosted by Ryan Edgington.

On this episode, we were joined by the writer, art historian, and host of The Great Women Artists podcast, Katy Hessel.
Katy’s new book How to Live an Artful Life is a collection of 366 inspirations from her favourite artists and writers, designed to motivate readers to find creativity, beauty, and meaning in everyday life. Many of the ideas in the book stem from her acclaimed podcast, where Katy speaks to artists, curators, and thinkers whose work continues to expand our understanding of art history.
Needless to say, there’s a certain meta quality to this conversation, as we compared notes on the art of conversation itself — as well as London, museums, childhood inspirations, and the influence of other books about creativity by figures such as Julia Cameron.
Katy first appeared on this podcast back in August 2022, just before the release of her groundbreaking debut The Story of Art Without Men, a book that redefined the canon and changed the course of her career. It began a conversation that has led to collaborations with museums, galleries, and artists around the world. Her new collection distills these experiences into a vibrant companion for anyone seeking a more artful way of living.
Hosted by Ryan Edgington.

On this episode, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Olivia Laing to discuss their extraordinary new novel, The Silver Book, which has been selected as a Hatchards Book of the Month for November.
Set amid the turbulence of Italy’s Years of Lead, the novel is full of rich and deliberate contradictions: it’s a love story coloured by political extremism; a journey through Rome’s legendary film studio, Cinecittà, that sidesteps glamour in favour of the artisans and craftspeople who brought cinematic illusions to life. At its heart is a character who recalls Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, though driven more by naïveté than malice.
Olivia spoke with us about the deep immersion in Italian history and culture that informed their writing, and about the figures of Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini — both major characters in the novel — whose contrasting creative visions shaped modern Italian art and cinema. They also reflected on how Italy’s fraught political history continues to resonate today, offering unexpected parallels with contemporary Britain.
Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Matt Hennessey.

On this episode, we were joined by Benjamin Myers, the prize-winning writer and journalist, to discuss his new novel Jesus Christ Kinski.
It’s November 1971 in Berlin, and actor Klaus Kinski performs a one-man show that quickly descends into chaos and recrimination. Fifty years later, a writer snowed in during the pandemic winter of 2021 becomes obsessed with the performance and compelled to write something like a biography of the tortured figure.
Recalling Geoff Dyer’s Out of Sheer Rage—a book about trying and failing to write about D.H. Lawrence—Myers ventures into similar territory, offering a mercilessly funny look at one of the twentieth century’s most volatile public figures.
We talk with Benjamin about Kinski’s modern relevance as both artist and self-mythologising provocateur; the line between genius and narcissism, madness and evil; and how today’s culture might have treated a man like him. As a music journalist, Benjamin also reflects on the decline of the “rock star” persona in an age that expects entertainers to model good behaviour.

Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Matt Hennessey.

On this episode, we had the privilege of sitting down with Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, to discuss her powerful new book The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan.
Now nominated for the Baillie Gifford Prize, this deeply personal work reflects Lyse’s decades of reporting on Afghanistan from the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, during which she forged lasting connections with both the hotel’s staff and its guests. These relationships have shaped her unique perspective on the country’s turbulent history.
Lyse spoke with us about her remarkable career reporting from the frontlines, as well as her reflections on writing, the changing media landscape, and the responsibilities and challenges that come with international journalism. She also offered her perspective on how Afghanistan is too often seen only through the lens of conflict, and why it is important to recognise the country’s rich cultural heritage alongside its history of war.
Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Olivia Robinson.

On this episode, we welcome back Roger Lewis, whose deeply researched and gleefully idiosyncratic biographies of British performing artists have come to constitute a genre all their own.
Our subject is the book that began it all: his classic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, newly reissued in a hardback edition with a foreword by Steve Coogan. In its pages, Lewis makes the case that Sellers was, alongside Olivier, perhaps the finest British actor of the twentieth century — even as he remained one of the most impossible.
In our conversation, he conjures Sellers as a man without a core, a figure of astonishing mimicry in whom there was no enduring sense of self. From The Goon Show to The Ladykillers, from The Pink Panther to Dr. Strangelove and Being There, the magnificence of the performances remains undeniable. But so, too, is the destruction he left in his wake. 

Hosted by Ryan Edgington. 

On this episode, we were joined by Francesca Wade to discuss her groundbreaking new biography, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife.

This book paints a dual portrait of Gertrude Stein by dividing her story into two parts: her life and her afterlife. Doing this not only brings her partner, Alice B. Toklas, into clearer view, but also separates Stein’s work and its lasting impact from her larger-than-life personality. 

Francesca takes us behind the scenes of her exhaustive research—from exploring the Yale archives, which hold over 75 years of manuscripts, personal letters, and photographs, to visiting the French countryside where Stein and Toklas lived during the German occupation. 

We also discuss how Toklas, left behind after Stein’s death, devoted herself to preserving Stein’s legacy, even as she struggled with legal battles and near-poverty while living surrounded by Picassos she couldn’t bring herself to sell.

Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Olivia Robinson.

On this episode, we're joined by legendary magazine editor Graydon Carter to discuss his memoir, When the Going Was Good, an intoxicating portrait of his 25-year reign as editor of Vanity Fair, and an extraordinary life shaped by curiosity, conflict and impeccable taste.

We begin at Spy, the satirical magazine he co-founded, which targeted New York’s cultural establishment with reckless abandon, coining the infamous "small hands" insult for Donald Trump.

Later, he reflects on his turbulent start at Vanity Fair, where he was initially hated by staff, the close working relationship he developed with photographer Annie Leibovitz, and the founding of the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, now a more coveted invitation in Hollywood than the ceremony itself.

Throughout our conversation, Carter shares countless juicy anecdotes — from receiving a Scientology plaque from Tom Cruise to helping Fran Lebowitz find the perfect suit — and explores how magazine journalism has lost its lustre in the digital age.

On this episode, we're joined by author and international human rights barrister Philippe Sands to talk about his latest book, 38 Londres Street, a gripping exploration of justice, memory, and impunity through the intertwining stories of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Nazi fugitive Walter Rauff who spent decades in Chile avoiding extradition.

We consider the groundbreaking legal concept of universal jurisdiction through the lens of Pinochet's dramatic 1998 arrest in London—a defining moment that transformed international justice—and what it means for the complex geopolitics of today. 

Drawing inspiration from literary figures like Roberto Bolaño, Bruce Chatwin, and Ariel Dorfman, Sands blends detective-style nonfiction with profound moral complexity, tracing the ominous echoes among Nazi Germany, fascism, and the Cold War. He also tells us about the book's sensational reception in Chile, where the effects of his reporting have reignited long-suppressed debates about accountability and national memory. 

In typical fashion, we also cover everything from Pinochet's visit to Hatchards a few days before his arrest—where he reportedly bought every book he could find on Napoleon—to his compulsive viewing of Star Wars films while awaiting trial.

On this episode, we’re joined by writer and fashion critic Charlie Porter to discuss our Fiction Book of the Month, Nova Scotia House—a powerful love story that summons a lost generation, set against the backdrop of the UK AIDS crisis and its aftermath throughout the 1980s and ’90s.

Our discussion of the novel’s vivid characters and cultural history offers a fascinating window into queer life in London at the close of the 20th century—and into Charlie’s own personal journey toward living without fear.

In true form, we also cover everything from Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group to the feud over “punk” between British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman and fashion icon Vivienne Westwood. Charlie also shares his love of Proust and 19th-century literature, despite his improbable hatred of Madame Bovary.

Finally, we discuss the resurrection of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt—consisting of 42 twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot panels—which Porter has helped present at Tate Modern in London this summer.

Signed copies of the book are available in-store and on our website. Listeners of The Hatchards Podcast can receive 15% off at checkout with the code “NOVA15.”

Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Olivia Robinson.