Tom and Miriam discuss what might have happened if, at the age of 17, he’d come out to his parents when an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself at a school picnic, instead of waiting until the age of 23 to tell them his truth. Along the way they talk about full moon parties in Thailand, the impact of hiding your identity at a formative age and how often others can see you more clearly than you see yourself.

Tom Rob Smith's bestselling novels in the Child 44 trilogy were international publishing sensations. Among its many honours, Child 44 won the International Thriller Writer Award for Best First Novel, the Galaxy Book Award for Best New Writer, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the inaugural Desmond Elliot Prize, and is now a major motion picture. Tom’s new novel, Cold People, about a colony of global apocalypse survivors trying to reinvent civilisation under the most extreme conditions imaginable, is to my mind an intimate and hopeful look at how people can and do come together against all odds. Crucially, it’s out now and available in your local bookshop.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

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