The Shakespeare and Company Interview

In this episode recorded live at Shakespeare and Company, historian and cultural critic Andrew Hussey joins Adam Biles to discuss his powerful new book, Fractured France: A Journey Through a Divided Nation. With wit, erudition, and decades of on-the-ground insight, Hussey examines how France—once the model of revolutionary ideals and republican universalism—has splintered along social, cultural, and political lines. From the banlieues to the boulevards, from secularism to identity politics, Hussey traces the fractures that now define the French experience and asks whether the nation can still live up to its promise of liberté, égalité, fraternité. Their conversation moves between history, journalism, and personal reflection, exploring nationalism, colonial legacies, and the uneasy relationship between Paris and the rest of the country. Fractured France is both an elegy and a challenge: can a republic built on unity survive in an age of division?Buy Fractured France: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/fractured-france*Andrew Hussey was Director of the Centre for Post-Colonial Studies in the School of Advanced Study, University of London. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian and the New Statesman, and the writer/presenter of several BBC documentaries on French food and art. He is the author of The Game of War: The Life and Death of Guy Debord (2001), and Paris: The Secret History (2006). He was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Years Honours list for services to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and France. His latest book, The French Intifada, was published by Granta Books in 2014. He lives in Paris.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Adam Biles speaks with international lawyer and acclaimed author Philippe Sands about his latest book, 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia. Building on East West Street and The Ratline, Sands traces the remarkable and disturbing links between Nazi officer Walter Rauff—architect of the mobile gas vans—and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Their conversation explores how Rauff escaped Europe, settled in South America, and later became entangled with Pinochet’s regime, raising profound questions about memory, complicity, and justice. Sands also shares his personal and professional connection to this history: as a barrister involved in Pinochet’s extradition case, and as the descendant of a family decimated by the Holocaust. Blending archival detective work, courtroom drama, and encounters with extraordinary witnesses, Sands reveals the human stories behind the law. This is a gripping, moving, and sometimes unsettling dialogue about the echoes of history and the pursuit of accountability.Buy 38 Londres Street: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/38-londres-street-2*Philippe Sands was born in London in 1960 and studied Law at the University of Cambridge. His book East West Street was the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non Fiction 2016, the British Book Awards Non-fiction Book of the Year 2017 and 2018 Prix Montaigne He is also the author of Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules, which inspired a stage play (Called to Account, Tricycle Theatre) and a television film (The Trial of Tony Blair, Channel 4). He writes regularly for the press and serves as a commentator for the BBC, CNN and other radio and television producers. His BBC Storyville film My Nazi Legacy: What Our Fathers Did premiered in April 2015 at the Tribecca Film Festival. Sands co-wrote a podcast of the same name for the BBC. Sands lectures around the world and has taught at New York University and been a visiting professor at the University of Toronto, the University of Melbourne, and the Université de Paris I (Sorbonne). He was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2003. The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive, was published in 2020 and The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain's Colonial Legacy in 2022. His most recent book, 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia was published in 2025. He is currently Professor of Law at University College London and a barrister and arbitrator at 11 King's Bench Walk. He served as president of English PEN and is on the board of the Hay Festival of Arts and Literature.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this conversation recorded live at Shakespeare and Company, travel writer Monisha Rajesh talks about her new book Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train. From Paris to Istanbul, Scotland to India, the United States to Lapland, Rajesh explores the romance and realities of sleeper trains—where the carriages, the landscapes, and above all, the people become the story. She shares how her love of rail travel began in India, why night trains are enjoying a resurgence amid the climate crisis, and what it means to travel as a woman, a mother, and a writer in a turbulent world. Alongside the practicalities of packing eye masks and hot water bottles, Rajesh reflects on the communities that form in dining cars, the unexpected intimacy of train travel, and the way technology, politics, and global events shape the journeys we take.Buy Moonlight Express: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/moonlight-expressMonisha Rajesh is a British journalist whose writing has appeared in Time magazine, the New York Times, and Vanity Fair. Her first book, Around India in 80 Trains, was named one of the Independent’s best books on India. Her second book, Around the World in 80 Trains, won the National Geographic Traveller Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year. In 2024 she was named in Condé Nast Traveller’s Women Who Travel Power List. She lives in London.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special episode of the Shakespeare and Company Interview Podcast, we celebrate the paperback release of The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews (Canongate), a compelling collection of literary conversations recorded live at our bookshop in Paris. Capturing a decade of rich, revealing discussions, the episode revisits unforgettable moments with some of the world’s most acclaimed writers, exploring the craft of writing, the power of stories, and the electric atmosphere of bookshops. Expect insights into the creative process, unexpected moments of vulnerability, and reflections on how literature intersects with politics, identity, and the human condition. Featuring live clips and commentary, this episode is both a celebration and an invitation—to listen, to read, and to be part of the ongoing conversation.Buy The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-shakespeare-and-company-book-of-interviews-2Featuring…Percival EverettOlivia LaingMarlon JamesGeorge SaundersKarl Ove KnausgaardColson WhiteheadHari KunzruLeïla SlimaniJesmyn WardReni Eddo-LodgeCarlo RovelliJenny ZhangAnnie ErnauxRachel CuskMeena KandasamyMadeline MillerMiriam ToewsKatie KitamuraClaire-Louise BennettGeoff DyerAdam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Adam speaks with translator Frank Wynne and Argentinian writer Samanta Schweblin about the first-ever English edition of Mafalda, the beloved Argentine comic strip by Quino (Archipelago Books). Together, they explore how this precocious, principled six-year-old girl—who challenged everything from soup to capitalism—shaped generations of readers in Argentina and beyond. Frank discusses the joys and puzzles of translating Mafalda’s quick wit and political edge, while Samanta recalls how the strip introduced her to feminism, philosophy, and satire as a child. The conversation touches on cartooning as subversion, and why Mafalda’s questions still matter today. Whether you're meeting Mafalda for the first time or grew up with her, this episode is a moving celebration of one of the 20th century's most enduring comic heroines.Buy Mafalda: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/mafalda-3*Samanta Schweblin won the 2022 National Book Award for Translated Literature for her story collection, Seven Empty Houses. Her debut novel, Fever Dream, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, and her novel Little Eyes and story collection Mouthful of Birds have been longlisted for the same prize. Her books have been translated into more than forty languages, and her stories have appeared in English in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta, Harper’s Magazine and elsewhere. Originally from Buenos Aires, Schweblin lives in Berlin. Good and Evil and Other Stories is her third collection.Frank Wynne is a writer and award-winning literary translator. Born in Ireland he has lived and worked in Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Buenos Aires and currently lives in San José, Costa Rica. He has translated more than a dozen major novels, among them the works of Michel Houellebecq, Frédéric Beigbeder, Pierre Mérot and the Ivorian novelist Ahmadou Kourouma. A journalist and broadcaster, he has written for the Sunday Times, the Independent, the Irish Times, Melody Maker, and Time Out.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katharina Volckmer joins Adam Biles to discuss her biting, bleakly funny second novel, Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes. Set in a London call centre, the book follows Jimmie, a disillusioned former actor trapped in a soul-crushing job, a suffocating home life with his immigrant mother, and an alienating body. Volckmer discusses the novel’s inspirations—from her own time in call centres to reflections on work, class, intimacy, and the dehumanising effects of late capitalism. They explore Jimmie’s idiosyncratic voice, his desire for connection, and his fumbling pursuit of freedom through subversion, humour, and misfit tenderness. The conversation touches on linguistic displacement, the emotional poverty of modern holidays, and the strange intimacy of customer service. It's a wry, bold, and compassionate dive into modern alienation—with lipstick, sharks, and sex in the supply closet.Buy Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/calls-may-be-recorded-for-training-and-monitoring-purposesKatharina Volckmer was born in Germany in 1987. She now lives in London where she works for a literary agency. Her first novel The Appointment has been translated into over 15 languages and has been adapted for the stage and radio in several countries.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this textured conversation, author Eimear McBride joins Adam Biles at Shakespeare and Company to discuss her latest novel The City Changes Its Face. Set in Camden Town in the 1990s, the book revisits characters from The Lesser Bohemians as they navigate the complexities of love, art, aging, trauma, and parenthood. McBride explores the enduring impact of childhood abuse, the fraught territory of families, and the search for creative meaning as her protagonists transition from actors to writers and filmmakers. She also reflects on the changing face of London, her writing process, and how voice, rhythm, and instinct drive her work. With warmth, candour, and a touch of wry humour, McBride shares insights into the emotional and formal risks of fiction, the influence of modernism, and why survival—not just suffering—deserves narrative space.Buy The City Changes Its Face: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-city-changes-its-faceEimear McBride is the author of four novels: A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, The Lesser Bohemians, Strange Hotel and The City Changes Its Face. She held the inaugural Creative Fellowship at the Beckett Research Centre, University of Reading and is the recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Goldsmiths Prize, Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katie Kitamura joins Adam Biles to discuss her remarkable novel Audition. Centred on a middle-aged actress whose settled life is upended by a young man claiming to be her son, Audition blurs the lines between performance, identity, and narrative certainty. Kitamura reflects on the novel’s dual structure—a “rabbit-duck” ambiguity—and her fascination with roles we perform in relationships, particularly within marriage and family. The conversation explores the mutability of identity, the ethical power of embracing contradiction, and the unique capacity of the novel to hold multiple truths simultaneously. Kitamura also discusses craft, genre, and the challenges of maintaining ambiguity without sacrificing narrative tension. An essential listen for readers drawn to fiction that resists easy answers and revels in complexity.Buy Audition: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/audition-3Katie Kitamura is the author of five novels, including Intimacies, named one of the 10 Best Books of 2021 by the New York Times. It was also one of Barack Obama's favourite books of the year, and was longlisted for a National Book Award and a PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Kitamura's novel A Separation was a New York Times Notable Book. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and is being adapted for film and television. A recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature and other honours, she teaches in the creative writing programme at New York University.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this electric conversation, Irvine Welsh joins Adam Biles at Shakespeare and Company to discuss Men in Love, the long-awaited sequel to Trainspotting. Picking up moments after Renton's betrayal, Welsh dives deep into the aftermath—friendship, love, addiction, class, and the cultural hangover of 1980s Thatcherism. The pair explore writing authentic historical fiction, how ecstasy (both drug and emotion) shaped a generation, and why mobile phones are killing drama. Welsh also shares insights into masculinity, social mobility, and why Sick Boy might just be the tragic heart of this novel. Expect laughs, gallows humor, biting commentary—and a live reading that’s pure, unfiltered Welsh.Buy Men In Love: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/men-in-love-2Irvine Welsh was born and raised in Edinburgh. His first novel, Trainspotting, has sold over one million copies in the UK and was adapted into an era-defining film. He has written fourteen further novels, including the number one Sunday Times bestseller Dead Men’s Trousers, four books of shorter fiction and numerous plays and screenplays. Irvine Welsh currently lives between London, Edinburgh and Miami.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode novelist Natasha Brown joins Adam Biles to discuss her daring second book, Universality. The conversation explores the novel’s structural audacity—opening with a fictional long-read article—and its thematic interrogation of class, race, media narratives, and the modern British middle class. Brown dives into her creation of Leni, a polarising columnist whose charisma masks deeper questions about power and identity. She explains the exhaustive research behind mimicking journalistic language and crafting complex, contradictory characters, all while reflecting on the fractured state of truth in the digital age. The conversation touches on the erosion of trust in traditional media, class performance, and the shifting role of fiction in helping us understand our sociopolitical moment.Buy Universality: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/universalityNatasha Brown is a British novelist.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this rich conversation, Francesca Wade joins Adam Biles to discuss her biography Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife. Wade explores the complexities of Stein’s life, legacy, and literary innovations, foregrounding Stein’s long-overlooked partner, Alice B. Toklas, as a powerful and persistent force behind the myth. They dive into questions of biography, erasure, performance, and gender, as well as Stein’s fraught political affiliations during WWII. Wade’s approach is both formally inventive and deeply human, highlighting unpublished interviews and fresh archival finds that illuminate the tension between public persona and private life. Whether you're a Stein devotee or merely curious about modernism’s most elusive icon, this episode offers a fascinating entry point into the world of radical art, language, and love.Buy Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/gertrude-steinFrancesca Wade’s first book, Square Haunting, was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. She has held fellowships at the New York Public Library's Cullman Center and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Her work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books and Granta, among other places.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Adam Biles speaks with acclaimed author Geoff Dyer live from Shakespeare and Company about his new memoir, Homework. Dyer reflects on growing up in 1960s Cheltenham, navigating family, class, and the formation of self. With characteristic wit and insight, he paints portraits of his quietly disappointed mother and parsimonious father, capturing an era that feels remote yet familiar. The conversation explores the power of memory, the weirdness of grammar schools, the ambient presence of war, and the subtle tyranny of the English class system. Dyer discusses how language, books, and music shaped him—and how the past persists in surprising phrases and daily habits. By turns hilarious and moving, this event reminds us why Dyer remains one of the UK’s most original and generous literary voices.Buy Homework: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/homework-3*Geoff Dyer is an award-winning author of four novels and numerous non-fiction books, including Out of Sheer Rage, Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It, Zona and, most recently, See/Saw. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, Dyer lives in Los Angeles, where he is Writer in Residence at the University of Southern California. His books have been translated into twenty-four languages.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this powerful in-store conversation, Rebecca Solnit joins Adam Biles to discuss her new book No Straight Road Takes You There — a rallying call for hope, justice, and the reimagining of our collective future. With wit, clarity, and courage, Solnit explores how stories shape our world — and how changing them can change everything. Drawing on decades of activism and deep historical insight, she challenges despair, celebrates solidarity, and reminds us that even in dark times, “we are always in the middle of the story.” From climate crisis to the power of protest, from Silicon Valley dystopia to unexpected beauty in community, this conversation is a galvanizing reminder: the future is unwritten — and it’s ours to shape.Buy No Straight Road Takes You There: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/no-straight-road-takes-you-there*REBECCA SOLNIT is the author of more than twenty books, including Orwell’s Roses, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, Recollections of My Non-Existence, which was longlisted for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Writing and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award, The Faraway Nearby, Wanderlust, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, River of Shadows and A Paradise Built in Hell. She is also the author of Men Explain Things to Me and many essays on feminism, activism, social change, hope, and the climate crisis. She lives in San Francisco and writes regularly for the Guardian. She lives in San Francisco.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the Shakespeare and Company Podcast, Adam Biles speaks with acclaimed author Catherine Lacey about her daring new work The Möbius Book. Structured as a "Tête-bêche"—two intertwined texts printed back-to-back—the book pairs a memoir chronicling the fallout of a painful breakup with a novella that spirals into the psychological suspense of a possible murder next door. As the narratives bend and mirror each other, Lacey explores the porous boundary between fiction and nonfiction, faith and doubt, intimacy and estrangement.The conversation dives deep into Lacey’s creative process, her early entanglement with religion, the disorienting legacy of male anger, and how the pandemic shaped her understanding of confinement and rupture. Candid and philosophical, Lacey reflects on memory’s distortions, the ethics of writing memoir, and the liberating act of leaving questions unanswered. Buy The Möbius Book: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-mobius-bookCatherine Lacey is the author of the novels Nobody Is Ever Missing, The Answers, Pew, and Biography of X, and the short story collection Certain American States. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award and twice been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and was named one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trigger Warning: This episode contains detailed discussions of child sexual abuse, rape, trauma, and the failures of the justice system.In this powerful and deeply affecting conversation, Neige Sinno speaks with Adam Biles about her landmark book Sad Tiger, recently published in English in a luminous translation by Natasha Lehrer. A searing literary interrogation of the years of abuse Sinno suffered at the hands of her stepfather, Sad Tiger explores the limits of testimony, the insufficiencies of language, and the deep societal denial that silences victims. Sinno reflects on the ethics and formal challenges of writing about trauma, the intellectual and emotional paradoxes of bearing witness, and how literary form can both expose and protect. The conversation touches on Nabokov’s Lolita, the myth of the “monster,” and how society colludes in refusing to see evil when it wears a familiar face. Courageous, lucid, and unflinching, Sinno’s presence and insights make this an unforgettable episode.Buy Sad Tiger: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/sad-tigerNeige Sinno is a French writer who has studied American literature in the United States and Mexico, and worked as a translator and literature professor. She is the author of two previous books, Le Camion and La Vie des rats. Born in France, she has lived in Mexico for the past 20 years. Her 2023 book, Triste tigre, won several of France’s top literary prizes and became the publishing sensation of the year. It will be published in English as Sad Tiger by Seven Stories, in a translation by Natasha Lehrer.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this rich conversation, Guadalupe Nettel joins Adam Biles at Shakespeare and Company to explore the themes of her short story collection The Accidentals. They delve into the complexities of perception and the uncanny, the deep strangeness embedded in familial relationships, and the porous boundary between nature and human nature. Nettel discusses how her stories often begin with a striking image and unfold through a character’s voice, frequently taking shape in the liminal space between realism and the fantastic. The conversation touches on the lasting psychological and social effects of the pandemic, the emotional and moral ambiguities of parenthood, and the hidden influence of family histories. Nature—particularly animal behaviour—serves both as metaphor and mirror, challenging the illusion of human superiority. The episode also examines the short story form, translation as reincarnation, and literature’s power to illuminate the cracks in our perceived reality.Buy The Accidentals here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-accidentals-2Guadalupe Nettel is a Mexican author of award-winning novels and short story collections. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and adapted for theatre and film. Still Born, her most recent novel, was shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize. In 2008 she received a PhD in Literature from the EHESS in Paris. She has edited cultural and literary magazines such as Número Cero and Revista de la Universidad de México. She lives in Paris as a writer in residence at the Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the Shakespeare and Company Interview Podcast, Adam Biles welcomes Philip Hoare to the bookstore for a mesmerizing conversation about Hoare’s latest book, William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love. With characteristic lyricism, Hoare explores the mystic intersections between Blake’s visionary art and poetry and the siren call of the ocean. The discussion flows through queer longing, mythic imagery, and the enduring pull of nature and art. A haunting, moving, and often playful exchange—as unruly and evocative as the sea itself.Buy William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-moon-is-a-watery-star*Philip Hoare is the author of ten works of non-fiction. His Leviathan won the Baillie Gifford Prize, and the New York Times praised his last book, Albert &; the Whale, as the result of ‘the forceful weather system that is Hoare’s imagination’. Writing in the Observer, Laura Cumming called his writing ‘the animating magic that brings people of the past directly into our present and unleashes spectacular visions along the way’. He lives in Southampton, on the south coast of England, and swims every day in the sea.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Adam Biles is joined by writer Dan Richards to talk about his new book Overnight, a deep dive into the world of the night and the people who live and work while the rest of us sleep. From ferry captains and bakers to ICU nurses, researchers, and racing drivers, Richards explores the unseen rhythms and quiet heroism of nocturnal life. The conversation touches on the origins of the book—an unexpected night stranded on a mountain with his father—and how a life-threatening experience during the pandemic reshaped his understanding of vulnerability, care, and community. With warmth, wit, and poetic insight, Richards discusses circadian myths, the industrialisation of sleep, bats, and the benevolence of those who keep the world turning in the dark. Overnight is a tribute to those who inhabit the night, and this conversation shines a light on their often-unseen contributions.Buy Overnight: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/overnight*Dan Richards is the co-author of Holloway (with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood), and the author of The Beechwood Airship Interviews, Climbing Days, Outpost and Overnight. Only After Dark, a BBC Radio 4 series about the nocturnal world, was broadcast to acclaim in 2022. Dan has written for the Guardian, Economist, Esquire and Monocle.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Adam Biles is joined in the bookshop’s writing studio by Anna Whitwham, author of Soft Tissue Damage, a raw and electrifying memoir of grief, boxing, and womanhood. Following her mother’s death, Whitwham trained and fought competitively as a boxer—an act of both healing and reckoning. She discusses how physical pain can become a language for emotional anguish, how class and family history shaped her connection to the sport, and how boxing offered a surprising community of tenderness and care. A conversation about loss, rage, strength, and the power of being witnessed.Buy Soft Tissue Damage: https://roughtradebooks.com/collections/books/products/soft-tissue-damage-anna-whitwham*Anna Whitwham was born in 1981 in London, where she still lives. She studied Drama and English at the University of California, Los Angeles, Queens University Belfast and at Royal Holloway, London where she teaches a course called ‘Writing Men: The Burden of Masculinity’.She is the author of Boxer Handsome (Chatto&Windus). Her latest book, Soft Tissue Damage is published by Rough Trade Books.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode recorded live at Shakespeare and Company, celebrated Danish author Solvej Balle returns to the bookshop she once called home to discuss her monumental literary project On the Calculation of Volume. The novel’s protagonist, Tara Selter, finds herself reliving November 18th—again and again—opening up a profound meditation on time, memory, isolation, and human existence. Balle reflects on the decades-long journey of crafting this work, the philosophical underpinnings of time loops, and the quiet radicalism of writing it from a female perspective. Touching on everything from Ulysses to Groundhog Day, to quantum physics, she shares how her character emerged through a process of deep listening and experimentation. Tara's attempts to replicate seasons and find meaning through repetition prompt larger questions about how we process time, our relationships, and the rituals that structure our lives. Balle reveals how a “stupid idea” turned into a seven-volume epic currently shortlisted for the International Booker Prize—and how writing it has transformed her own understanding of life, aging, and narrative possibility.Buy On the Calculation of Volume: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/on-the-calculation-of-volume-i*Solvej Balle was born in 1962, made her debut in 1986 with Lyrefugl, andwent on to write the highly-acclaimed According to the Law: Four Accounts of Mankind (praised by Publishers Weekly for its blend of “sly humor, bleak vision, and terrified sense of the absurd with a tacit intuition that the world has a meaning not yet fathomed”). She’s also published a book on art theory, a political memoir, and two books of short prose. On the Calculation of Volume expands the possibilities of the novel and heralds the arrival of a major literary artist.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.