Sophie Ratcliffe Interviewed by Alan Rusbridger

Writer and literary critic Dr Sophie Ratcliffe asks how we might look at new ways of thinking about love and intimacy in the 21st century.

Ratcliffe uses her own experience of childhood bereavement, a past lover, motherhood and marriage and combines it with stories about Tolstoy and trains, handbags and honeymoons to muse on the messiness of everyday life. What if you could tell the truth about who you are without risking a relationship?

Ratcliffe teaches English at the University of Oxford. She is author of On Sympathy, editor of the authorised edition of P G Wodehouse’s letters, reviews for national papers and has been a judge on several literary prizes. Here she talks to former editor of the Guardian and principal of Lady Margaret Hall Alan Rusbridger.