Celebrated novelist Zadie Smith broke on to the scene when her debut novel White Teeth immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards.

Since then she’s been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, and won the Orange Prize for Fiction.

She has published several acclaimed novels and essay collections but now she has faced her biggest challenge yet - Co-authoring a children’s book with her husband Nick Laird about an adorable Guinea Pig in a Judo suit!

'Weirdo' is a picture book for children. It depicts a guinea pig coming to live with a girl called Kit. But Kit’s other pets, a cat, a parrot and a pug, are unsure about this eccentric new member of the household. It has been described as – a warm, endearing story that celebrates the quiet power of being different.

Zadie told Alison Curtis on Weekend Breakfast all about the new book, her work life in lockdown, making her first children's book alongside her writer husband Nick (celebrated Irish poet) her admiration and joy for Irish writer Sally Rooney's success citing her own parallels as a young writer with huge first success White Teeth, and much more:

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Weirdo is a brand new book by Zadie Smith and Nick Laird and it’s incredibly joyful @TodayFM Zadie joins me now on Weekend Breakfast pic.twitter.com/XfV3nAQXAS

— alison curtis (@AlisonTodayFM) April 18, 2021