The final part of my conversation with Tom Drury at one of London's finest independent bookstores, Bookseller Crow. We start with the Q&A is included, alongside many and erroneous references to Tolstoy. 

Bookseller Crow's website is: here.

Part two of my live conversation with Tom Drury at Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace.

A special episode in which I talk to Tom Drury, my favourite author of 2015, and possibly 2016 too, live in front of a lovely audience at the lovely Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace, one of the finest bookstores I know. ----more----

The first of three instalments, including a Q&A, we talk about: Drury's extraordinary 2015 in which almost all his books have been released in the UK; about his debut The End of Vandalism; the latest novel to be re-published, The Driftless Area; about movies, inspiration, mis-reading and even Mariella Frostrup.

Part 2 to follow.

The Bookseller Crow website is: here.

Part two of our interview with Kate Hamer begins with a discussion of Carmel, the 'Girl' in The Girl in the Red Coat. ----more----Having avoided the subject of her special power - spoilers alert etc - we move onto:

As a trailer for the second part of our interview with Kate Hamer, she reads a second excerpt from her Costa-nominated debut The Girl in the Red Coat.

If Kate Hamer's debut novel The Girl in the Red Coat sounds familiar, in part because it joins a horde of books with the word 'Girl' in the title,----more---- then readers might be pleasantly surprised by the strange story that awaits. By turns Gothic and emotional, funny and heard-breaking, supernatural and realistic, it tells the story of a kidnapped girl and a grieving mother that takes a number of strange turns.

When I met Kate at her London publisher, Faber and Faber, we began by talking about the (for her) strange, new prospect of discussing her first work of fiction. We then moved onto:

Kate Hamer's profile at Faber & Faber is: here.

As a trailer for my two part interview with Kate Hamer, author of the Costa-nominated debut The Girl in the Red Coat, she reads from the opening chapter.

The second part of my conversation with Sloane Crosley about her debut novel The Clasp began with us discussing how books give bookish young people a map for their lives. ----more---- Crosley read a passage from the novel - in which poor Victor prepares for being beaten up by meditating on just this sort of idea. We then moved onto:

Read my review of The Clasp in The Independent: here.

Sloane Crosley is a journalist, essayist and now, thanks to her bright and funny debut The Clasp, a novelist. ----more----Sloane took a break from her home city New York to visit London and talk about the challenge of shifting gears from non-fiction to fiction. We began however with her own career as an interviewer, when she recalled a nightmare encounter with The Strokes' Julian Casablancas.

From there, we moved to:

Part Two to Follow.

Sloane Crosley's website is: here.

In the final part of my discussion with Hanya Yanagihara on her (now) Man Booker shortlisted novel A Little Life, we continue our discussion of male repression. ----more----From there we take in: