Tom Crewe, Maddie Mortimer, Aidan Cottrell-Boyce and Santanu Bhattacharya Chaired by Matthew Stadlen

Debut novelists Tom Crewe, Maddie Mortimer, Aidan Cottrell-Boyce and Santanu Bhattacharya discuss their new books and the challenges of writing and publishing their first works of fiction.

Crewe has a PhD in 19th-century British history and is an editor at the London Review of Books. His novel, The New Life, is a story of forbidden love set in 1890s London. Crewe says his story is about the future but set in the past. His characters struggle with what it means to be ahead of their time.

Mortimer’s short films have screened at festivals and she is co-writing a television series. Her novel, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies, is the story of a family coming to terms with the death of a mother. It is a story of motherhood, anatomy, language and the darkness within us.

Cottrell-Boyce is a former parliamentary candidate for the Green Party whose short fiction has appeared in The White Review and Granta. His novel, The End of Nightwork, is a story of a fateful illness, a failing marriage, and a 17th-century apocalyptic prophet.

Bhattacharya is winner of the Mo Siewcharran Prize, the Life Writing Prize and a London Writers’ Award. His first novel, One Small Voice, is a story of violence and prejudice, friendship and loyalty, and coming of age, set in modern India.

Discussions are chaired by former LBC radio host and BBC presenter Matthew Stadlen.