Inklings Book Club

It's the day after Christmas, and you might be wondering How To Kill Your Family... Author of How to Kill Your Family, Bella Mackie, has done it again. She's back with her sophomore novel What A Way To Go and discusses it here, on launch day, with Jack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm so thrilled to introduce a hero of mine to the Inklings Book Club: Rick Riordan. Author of over 40 books, including the iconic Percy Jackson series, Rick is infatuated with mythology. From Norse to Egyptian myths, he's brought characters of legends to life and introduced them to a whole new audience. Firstly, I had to just say: thank you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2016, David Szalay's novel All That Man Is was nominated for the biggest prize in books, The Booker Prize. Then, in 2025, he was shortlisted for his newest offering, Flesh, and won the whole thing!! It's well-documented that Flesh was my personal winner this year, and I was elated to see it propser. Flesh tells the story of István, a Hungarian immigrant working for a wealthy English family as a chauffeur. In a way, István is the chauffeur of the novel too, silently driving us forward -- however, all we see is his side profile, his outline. He's evasive and stoic as a result of his unprocessed trauma. I was thrilled that David was able to find time in his jampacked schedule as a newly crowned Booker winner to come and chat to the Inklings Book Club. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sorry for the lisp this mic seemed to give my audio guys. This is Saba Sams’ debut novel, all about the sticky stuff, the scum and the scuzz. It’s about the things we’d usually scrub away – instead of glossing over it, we linger there and embrace the mess. Set in Brighton, we follow an unconventional family dynamic – two young divorcees, Jules and Leon, and the girl, Nim, who gives them her baby, I interviewed Saba at The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Book Festival, as part of their Voicebox programming, which provides inclusivity at the book festival by providing free events which are accessible for everyone. It’s such a great initiative and I’m so pleased to have been involved. Especially when it means getting to interview an author I adore, about a novel that was definitely one of my favourites I read this year — at one point the characters sit on Brighton Pier and eat a warm doughnut in the pouring rain, and that’s exactly what this reading experience was for me too.  In amongst the chaos, there is warmth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our December book of the month is... HAMNET! Maggie O'Farrell's novel Hamnet won the Women’s Prize in 2020 – an apt year to be awarded, given that it is, in part about a plague. While our own plague, COVID-19 locked us all in our houses, many of us found solace in this beautiful novel. O'Farrell took us back a few centuries to Stratford Upon Avon where Shakespeare's family resided. But this book isn't about Shakespeare -- in fact he's never mentioned by name -- instead, t’s about the playwright's wife Agnes and children Hamnet and Judith. I sat down with Maggie to hear about it, and pose some of your questions to her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices