Claire Fuller gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written five previous novels including: Unsettled Ground , which in 2021 won the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, Our Endless Numbered Days , which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons , which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award. On this episode of Little Atoms she tal...
May 07, 2026•34 min
Richard Byrne is a dramatist and journalist. He was the editor of The Wilson Quarterly from 2019 to 2021. His work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, The Guardian, Time, BookForum and Zona Motel. His music criticism includes liner notes for releases by R.E.M. and Uncle Tupelo. His work as a dramatist includes two musicals: Nero/Pseudo (written with Jon Langford and Jim Elkington) and Congressman Davy (with Dean Schlabowske). His play, Hotel Mayflower, was published in a bilingual edit...
Apr 30, 2026•28 min
Angela Tomaski was born in Oxford and raised in Somerset with her four brothers and sisters. She has had a variety of different jobs, including as a waitress, cleaner, English teacher and activity coordinator in a care home. She has a daughter and two grandsons, and now lives in rural Dorset. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her debut novel The Infamous Gilberts . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 23, 2026•26 min
Sian Hughes is a writer who grew up in a small village in Cheshire. Her first collection of poetry The Missing was a Poetry Society Recommendation, longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, shortlisted for the Felix Dennis and the Aldeburgh prizes, and won the Seamus Heaney Award. Sian's first novel Pearl was longlisted for The Booker Prize 2023 and shortlisted for The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2024. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her latest novel No...
Apr 17, 2026•27 min
Elizabeth Arnott is an award-winning writer and journalist and has written critically acclaimed historical fiction as Lizzie Pook. Her work has featured in publications including The Sunday Times , The Guardian , The Telegraph , and Stylist . On today’s episode of Little Atoms, she talks to Neil Denny about her new novel The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 09, 2026•30 min
Sophie Mackintosh is the author of four novels, including The Water Cure and Cursed Bread. She has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Women's Prize, has won a Betty Trask Award, and has been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. She has been published in Granta, The White Review and TANK magazine among others. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her latest novel, Permanence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information...
Apr 02, 2026•31 min
John Grindrod is the author of Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain , Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt (shortlisted for the 2018 Wainwright Prize for UK travel and nature writing), and Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain . He hosts the podcast Monstrosities Mon Amour. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains . Hosted on Ac...
Mar 27, 2026•29 min
Robert Plunket was born in Greenville, Texas, in 1945, but raised in Havana and Mexico City. After college he moved to New York and became a writer, publishing two novels, My Search for Warren Harding (1983) and Love Junkie (1992). He later became Mr Chatterbox, the gossip columnist for Sarasota Magazine . He is retired and lives in a trailer park in Englewood, Florida. On today’s episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his novel Love Junkie which was recently re-released by penguin...
Mar 13, 2026•28 min
Isabel Waidner is the author of five novels – including Sterling Karat Gold , which won the Goldsmiths Prize and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Republic of Consciousness Prize, and Corey Fah Does Social Mobility which was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. They teach in the School of the Arts at Queen Mary University of London. On this episode of Little Atoms they talk to Neil Denny about their latest novel As If . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...
Mar 06, 2026•27 min
Francis Spufford is the author of three novels and five works of non-fiction. His debut work of fiction was the historical novel Golden Hill, which won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was shortlisted for four others. His second novel, Light Perpetual , was awarded the Encore Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize. His third novel, the alternative history Cahokia Jazz, was recognised by the Science Fiction community when it was awarded the Si...
Feb 27, 2026•32 min
James Geary, an adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, is the author of Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It, Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists and I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about the reissue of his New York Times best-selling book The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...
Feb 20, 2026•33 min
Alex Preston is an award-winning author of five novels including This Bleeding City , The Revelations , In Love and War and Winchelsea , as well as a book of non-fiction As Kingfishers Catch Fire. He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Economist and Harper's Bazaar . He reviews books for the Observer's New Review, Financial Times and Spectator . Alex is co-founder of the Corfu Literary Festival and Patron of Oxford Literary Festival. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denn...
Feb 13, 2026•28 min
Originally from Leicester, Manish Chauhan works as a finance lawyer and currently lives in East London. His short story, "Pieces", was shortlisted for the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award. His work has been shortlisted for the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize and the Exeter Short Story Competition. Early excerpts of Belgrave Road were longlisted for the Curtis Brown First Novel Award and shortlisted for the Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil De...
Feb 06, 2026•28 min
George Saunders is the author of thirteen books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo , which won the Booker Prize in 2017, and five collections of stories including Tenth of December , which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the recent collection Liberation Day (selected by former President Obama has one of his ten favourite books of 2021 ) . Three of Saunders' books - Pastoralia , Tenth of December , and Lincoln in the Bardo - were chosen for the New York Times ' list of the ...
Jan 30, 2026•28 min
Grace Murray was born in 2003 and grew up in Norwich. She has recently graduated from Edinburgh University, where she read English Literature and found time to write between her studies and two part-time jobs. Her short fiction has been published in The London Magazine . On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil denny about her debut novel Blank Canvas, which was written over the course of a year as part of WriteNow, Penguin Random House’s flagship mentorship scheme for emerging talent. ...
Jan 23, 2026•29 min
Daniyal Mueenuddin graduated from Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. After winning a Fulbright scholarship to study in Norway, he practiced law in New York before returning to Khânpur, Pakistan to manage the family farm. He divides his time between Oslo and Pakistan. Stories in his collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta and Salman Rushdie's Best American Short Story collection. 'Our Lady of Paris' was nominated for a National Magazine Award. On this ...
Jan 16, 2026•28 min
Sebastian Faulks has written nineteen books, of which A Week in December and The Fatal Englishman were number one in the Sunday Times bestseller lists. He is best known for Birdsong , part of his French trilogy, and Human Traces , the first in an ongoing Austrian trilogy. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a journalist on national papers. He has also written screenplays and has appeared in small roles on stage. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest...
Jan 09, 2026•28 min
Jarett Kobek is an internationally bestselling Turkish-American writer living in California. His previous books have been translated into eleven languages and include ATTA , Do Every Thing Wrong!: XXXTentacion Against the World , and Motor Spirit. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book Invocation Of My Demon Brother, which is published by DieDieBooks and is available here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 19, 2025•47 min
Miriam Robinson is an author who has worked in the world of books and bookshops for over 15 years. Previously the host of podcast My Unlived Life , she holds an MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London and her short fiction has been shortlisted for a Pushcart Prize, the inaugural Pindrop/RA Short Story Prize and the Pat Kavanagh Prize. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her debut novel And Notre Dame is Burning . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...
Dec 12, 2025•28 min
Harry Sidebottom teaches classical history at Oxford University, and is the bestselling author of fifteen novels. His debut trade non-fiction book, The Mad Emperor: Heliogabalus and the Decadence of Rome , was published in 2022 and was a Book of the Year in the Spectator , the Financial Times and BBC History. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book Those Who Are About To Die: Gladiators and the Roman Mind . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...
Dec 05, 2025•29 min
Ziyad Marar is a publisher and author of The Happiness Paradox , Deception , Intimacy and Judged: The Value of Being Misunderstood . On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book, Noticing . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 28, 2025•27 min
Graham Robb was born in Manchester in 1958 and is a former fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has published widely on French literature and history. His book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes. For Parisians the City of Paris awarded him the Grande Médaille de la Ville de Paris. He lives on the English-Scottish border. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book The Discovery of Britain . Hosted on A...
Nov 21, 2025•28 min
Joanna Pocock is an Irish-Canadian writer living in London. Her writing has notably appeared in the Los Angeles Times , the Nation and Guardian US , and she is a contributing editor at the Dark Mountain project. She won the 2018 Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize for Surrender and in 2021 she was awarded the Arts Foundation’s Environmental Writing Fellowship. On this episode of Little Atoms, Joanna talks to Neil Denny about her latest book Greyhound . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...
Oct 31, 2025•28 min
James Rebanks is a farmer and writer based in the Lake District. His No. 1 bestselling debut, The Shepherd’s Life , was translated into sixteen languages. His second book, English Pastoral , was also a Top Ten bestseller and was named the Sunday Times Nature Book of the Year. On this episode of Little Atoms, James talks to Neil Denny about his latest book The Place of Tides . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 23, 2025•29 min
Mary Roach is the author of seven best-selling works of nonfiction, including Grunt , Stiff , and, most recently, Fuzz . Her writing has appeared in National Geographic and the New York Times Magazine , among other publications. On this episode of Little Atoms, Mary talks to Neil Denny about her latest book Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 16, 2025•29 min
Thomas McMullan lives and works in London. His debut novel, The Last Good Man , won the 2021 Betty Trask Prize. His short fiction has been published in Ploughshares, The Dublin Review, Granta, 3:AM Magazine, Lighthouse and Best British Short Stories, and his journalism has appeared in The Guardian , The Times Literary Supplement , frieze , ArtReview and BBC News. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest novel Groundwater . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...
Oct 09, 2025•29 min
Sarah Perry is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Enlightenment , Melmoth , The Essex Serpent and After Me Comes the Flood , and the non-fiction Essex Girls . She is a winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year Award and the British Book of the Year Award. Enlightenment was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024 and her other work has been nominated for major literary prizes including the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Folio Prize and the Costa Novel Award...
Oct 02, 2025•29 min
Kiran Desai is the bestselling author of two novels, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and The Inheritance of Loss , which won both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her new Booker Prize Shortlisted novel The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 25, 2025•28 min
Natalie Haynes is a writer and broadcaster. She is the author of The Amber Fury , The Children of Jocasta , A Thousand Ships , which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020 and Stone Blind . Her non-fiction book about women in Greek Myth, Pandora’s Jar , was a bestseller in both the UK and the US. She has written and performed eleven series of her BBC Radio 4 show, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics . In 2015 she was awarded the Classical Association Prize for her work i...
Sep 18, 2025•28 min
Patrick Ryan's short story collection The Dream Life of Astronauts was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the St. Louis Times-Dispatch, LitHub, Refinery 29 and Electric Literature , and was longlisted for The Story Prize. His debut collection of linked short stories, Send Me , was chosen for Barnes & Noble's Discover New Writers program. His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories , the anthology Tales of Two Cities , and elsewhere. The former associate editor of Granta ...
Sep 12, 2025•28 min
