Inklings Book Club Archiv

Rachel Khong started out as the executive editor of Lucky Peach Magazine, before turning her eye to novel writing. Her debut, Goodbye, Vitamin, was released in 2017 and won the California Book Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, Real Americans, became an instant New York Times bestseller, following three generations of a family, spanning 80 years. It explores themes of Chinese-American identity, genetic engineering, inheritance, and the way that our heritage shapes our lives.  Today we’ll mostly be discussing her new short story collection, My Dear You, which uses supernatural elements to explore human concerns around race, destiny, and mortality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re joined by the incredibly talented novelist Julia Armfield. Julia wrote one of my favourite books ever, called Our Wives Under The Sea. It’s about a woman who returns from a disastrous deep-sea dive, and her wife who is now looking after someone she barely recognises. It’s so lyrical and beautiful, she is such a talent. We met to discuss her debut, as well as her newest release Private Rites, a similarly wet novel. In Private Rites, the world is drowning after so much rain. Three sisters are navigating love and loss in this new reality, and the book is actually a reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Unfortunately we don’t have the video for this episode, the footage somehow got lost, so this episode is audio-only. Please welcome to the Inklings Book Club, Julia Armfield. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we have a very special episode where we’ll be talking about Enid Blyton’s classic series of children’s books The Faraway Tree, co-hosted by Ruby Granger! Ruby will be chatting with Claire Foy, Nicola Coughlan, Phoenix Laroche, Billie Gadsdon, Delilah Bennett Cardy, Simon Farnaby, and Ben Gregor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Andy Weir is the king of sci-fi. His first novel The Martian follows Mark Watney, an astronaut mistakenly presumed dead and abandoned on Mars by his crew during a dust storm. Stranded with limited supplies, he uses his botany and engineering skills to survive while NASA figures out how to rescue him. His next novel was Artemis, following a woman living in the first city on the Moon. Then came Project Hail Mary. We follow science teacher Ryland Grace as he wakes up on a spaceship with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory slowly returns, he discovers he is the last surviving person on a mission into space to understand a substance called astrophage. Astrophage is causing the sun to die out, and scientists have discovered a distant planet that might hold the key to destroying it. Ryland Grace has to use his scientific training to finish the mission alone, and meets an unlikely ally in space. It’s a story of friendship, communication, understanding, and resilience. It’s both laugh out loud funny and cry your eyes out heartbreaking, a modern sci-fi classic. Now it’s been turned into a film. In our last episode I met with star of the film Ryan Gosling and filmmakers Lord and Miller. And now, we’re chatting with the author himself Andy Weir. I really hope you enjoy this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you know me you will know how much I adore the novel Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. We follow science teacher Ryland Grace as he wakes up on a spaceship with no recollection of who he is or how we got there. As his memory slowly returns, he discovers he is the last surviving person on a mission into space to understand a substance called astrophage. Astrophage is causing the sun to die out, and scientists have discovered a distant planet that might hold the key to destroying it. Ryland Grace has to use his scientific training to finish the mission alone, and meets an unlikely ally in space. It’s a story of friendship, communication, understanding, and resilience. It’s both laugh out loud funny and cry your eyes out heartbreaking, a modern sci-fi classic. Now, Andy Weir’s novel has been adapted for the screen. Ryan Gosling takes on the role of Ryland Grace – he’s the Oscar-nominated star of Barbie, La La Land, Drive, The Nice Guys, and The Notebook. He is a force to be reckoned with, and a true movie star. We’ll also be joined by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the directors of Project Hail Mary. They’re a filmmaking and acting duo behind Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street, and the Spider-Verse franchises which won them an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re talking to one of the greatest living writers, George Saunders. He is the author of 12 books, including Tenth of December, Pastoralia, Swimming in a Pond in the Rain, and Lincoln in the Bardo which won the the Booker Prize. Three of his books were included in the New York Times’ top 100 books of the 21st century so far, and his work is noted for its humanity and unique, often experimental narrative style. He’s the king of short stories and has one of the best selling pages on Substack. His newest release, Vigil, is about a lady called Jill Blaine who has died in an explosion. She comes back to earth to help guide people who are dying to the afterlife and provide comfort in their final moments. But she meets her match in KJ Boone – an owner of an oil company who have caused immense damage to the climate, all while he denied climate change. He is a bad person, and yet Jill wants to empathise with him. The third major player in the novel is called The Frenchman – he is the man who invented the first engine. He feels a lot of guilt about how his inventions were used, unlike KJ Boone.  Here’s what happened when I chatted with George Saunders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re talking to poet and novelist Aria Aber. Aria is an Afghan-German poet, novelist and educator. Her poetry collection Hard Damage won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize and Whiting Award. Her debut novel, Good Girl, was shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Yale Review, and Granta. Good Girl is my favourite book I’ve read so far in 2026, I absolutely loved it. We follow a girl, Nila, who is immersed in the Berlin clubbing scene, grappling with her Aghan identity in the wake of increasing xenophobia towards Afghan people. She explores friendship, family, and also a tumultuous relationship with an older man – a writer called Marlowe. I am so thrilled to be introducing to the Inklings Book Club, Aria Aber. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, it’s safe to say the whole world is talking about Wuthering Heights. Hello and welcome back to the Inklings Book Club where this month we are reading Emily Brontë’s gothic classic, just in time for the release of Emerald Fennell’s adaptation. And so… who better to speak to than Emerald herself? I caught up with Emerald to chat all things Wuthering Heights, as well as her favourite books and poems. Emerald Fennell is an actress, filmmaker and writer. In 2021, Promising Young Woman won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay – one of three nominations the film received that year. The film also won a Critics Choice Award, two BAFTAs, and a Film Independent Spirit Award. She returned to directing with Saltburn in 2023 which set the world ablaze, and now of course Wuthering Heights is doing the same. She also starred as Camilla in The Crown and Midge in Barbie. She is completely unstoppable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When I asked Inklings members what book we should read for February, you guys voted overwhelmingly for Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontè’s gothic masterpiece. Set amongst the backdrop of the sprawling Yorkshire Moors, in the first part of the novel Bronte details the all consuming, toxic, passionate, obsessive, and destructive relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Heathcliff is a real enigma and a social outcast – he is adopted from Liverpool and brought up alongside Cathy. But, when Catherine chooses a wealthier man to marry – Edgar Linton – Heathcliff embarks on a bitter quest for vengeance. The second part of the novel details the way he inflicts pain and suffering on the next generation too. The novel explores this magnetism between Cathy and Heathcliff, two people who just cannot resist each other’s pull. There’s revenge, discussions of social class, and the dark – even defensive – side of human nature when the ego is bruised and feelings are hurt. Today we’re joined by Oscar-nominated actors Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, as well as Alison Oliver, who play Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Isabella Linton in the new retelling, “Wuthering Heights”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I always say the best celebrity memoir I’ve ever read is I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy -- it’s so open and vulnerable and honest and raw, but it’s also beautifully written. She details what it was like to grow up as a child star, especially when a parent is putting an immense amount of pressure on you. Not just to be a breadwinner, but to look a certain way, behave in a certain way, and nothing is enough for them. The memoir went on to be crowned winner of the 2023 American Library Association Alex Award and the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir & Autobiography.  Now, given that I love that book so much – of course my most anticipated release of 2026 has to be Half His Age, Jennette’s debut novel. Yes, she’s turned her hand to fiction and it is a wild ride. And, it’s already a Sunday Times number one bestseller. I was very lucky to be given the opportunity to interview Jennette for her London book tour, and here it is! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the most enduring, perennial and important plays ever written, and Shakespeare’s longest, Hamlet tells the story of a man torn by internal conflict after his uncle murders his father, the king of Denmark, and marries his mother, the queen. Many actors have dreamed of taking on this role, and Riz Ahmed is the latest to do so in his new adaptation of Hamlet in cinemas now. Riz Ahmed is an Oscar-nominated British-Pakistani actor, who you’ll know from Sound of Metal, Rogue One, Nightcrawler, and The Night Of. This adaptation is refracted through a South Asian lens in contemporary London. It proves how timeless Shakespeare’s lines are that they can be so deeply felt in this modern context, and Riz speaks with such passion about the revolutionary qualities of the play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I’m joined by Jente Posthuma whose novel What I’d Rather Not Think About was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2024. Ironically, is something I ALWAYS THINK ABOUT!!! The novel is fertile ground for rumination and thought-provoking conversation. It’s told in a series of vignettes, as a woman contemplates the suicide of her twin brother. It’s a deeply felt meditation on grief, translated into English from the original Dutch by Sarah Timmer Harvey I wanted to ask Jente about the process of crafting this gorgeous little book, and I hope you enjoy this conversation. Welcome to the Inklings Book Club, Jente Posthuma. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I’m excited to be sharing an interview with one of my favourite short story writers, Bora Chung. Bora is a South Korean writer, as well as a translator. She has a pHD in Slavic literature. I first encountered her work when her short story collection Cursed Bunny was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022, translated from the original Korean into English by Anton Hur – straight out of the gate, from the opening line, it’s unlike anything else I’ve ever read. The first line is “She was about to flush the toilet” – and you’ll hear Bora explain this story later in the interview. This was her debut collection in English, but this first story was actually first published in 1998. She has since published another short story collection titled Your Utopia, as well as novels Midnight Timetable and Red Sword. Bora joined me backstage at the Gothenburg Book Festival in Sweden to discuss her work. Please welcome to the Inklings Book Club, Bora Chung! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices