
Show Notes
In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith is joined by bestselling novelist Hannah Richell to discuss her new memoir, An Ocean and a Day.
When Hannah’s husband died in a surfing accident, her life in Australia was shattered. Suddenly, she was a single mother to two young children, navigating a grief she could never have imagined. Her memoir traces that journey from the moment of the accident, but, more uniquely, looks beyond those first years of loss – to what grief looks like with the benefit of time, distance and reflection.
Sam and Hannah discuss the shame and embarrassment that can accompany grief, the physical effects of loss, how her experience has shaped her fiction, and what makes memoirs so powerful - to both writer and reader.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Best of the Spectator
For this week’s Edition, Lara Prendergast is joined by the Spectator’s economics editor Michael Simmons, writer Louis Sarkozy and broadcaster Sir Loyd Grossman.
Andy Burnham’s first Budget as Prime Minister is approaching – but higher borrowing costs have already made the sums more difficult. Former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane joins Michael Simmons to warn that Britain has little room left to borrow more.
France is burning. Over the weekend, students protesting about school conditions were joined by rural voters angry at fuel prices and a violent hard-left fringe. Michael and Maddie ask whether Britain should be worried. Do the same fault lines run through our own society, and is the Burnham government doing anything about them? They also discuss what Emmanuel Macron will be remembered for, and whether anyone can stop Marine Le Pen. Also: Sally Rooney’s books are leaving British shelves over her support for Palestine Action. Is this censorship, or performance art? Produced by Henry Lloyd.
Freddy Gray speaks with Spectator columnist Christopher Caldwell about the ten-year legacy of Donald Trump since his 2016 election victory, assessing his second administration's high-water marks alongside the recent political and personal controversies that Caldwell argues have eroded voter trust, unraveled his populist appeal, and raised sharp questions about the future of the conservative movement.
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Jacob Rees-Mogg talks all things Tory Conference and Tucker Carlson; Lara Brown explores the growing rebellion against screens in schools; Matthew Parris reflects on what will survive us when we’re gone; and William Atkinson wonders if Altai the tiger be spared. Produced and presented by Abigail Brierley.