Felt artist Jacopo Rosati created the fantastic artwork for our cover feature this issue. He lives in Venice and his work has featured in Wired and The Wall Street Journal
Terence Blacker is the author of five novels and numerous books for children. He’s currently reading Pete Townshend’s Who Am I, which he says is “a lot sadder and less riotous than I was expecting”. See his take on wildness in children’s fiction on p60. Lucy Caldwell is an award-winning novelist and playwright from Belfast. She looks at family secrets on p16. Chris Cleave is the author of three bestselling novels. He’s reading Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, which he says is “as cheerful as the title suggests”. Find his short story on p40. Deborah Cohen is Ritzma Professor of the Humanities at Northwestern University and author of the prize- winning Household Gods. She’s reading Edward St. Aubyn’s At Last, and looks at family secrets and shame since Victorian times on p16. Amber Dermont is the author of the New York Times-bestselling The Starboard Sea and cites its influences on p25. She is reading In Between Days by Andrew Porter, “a brilliantly dark novel about a family in crisis”. Poppy Gee is the Brisbane-based debut author of Bay of Fires. She is currently reading Whispering Death by Australian crime writer Garry Disher. Alexandra Heminsley is books critic for Elle and the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show. Her second book, Running Like a Girl, is out in April and she’s currently reading Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go. She interviews Tracy Chevalier on p30. Jake Kerridge is crime fiction critic at the Daily Telegraph. He is currently enjoying the “blissfully transgressive political incorrectness” of Killing the Emperors, an art world satire by Ruth
Dudley Edwards. He introduces the ‘cosy’ crime genre on p35. Louis Nowra is a writer, playwright and screenwriter, and talks about feral children in his latest book on p60. He’s reading Jayne Mansfield 1967 by Simon Liberti, which examines the final days in the life of the Hollywood star. Bobbie Pyron is the author of three novels for children and young adults. She is currently engrossed in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Find him on p60. Peggy Riley’s short stories have won a Mslexia award and The Bridport Prize. She is reading “far too many” books about the Second World War while rewriting her second novel. She discusses her first, Amity & Sorrow, on p16. Marco Roth is an editor and co- founder of n+1, a Brooklyn-based journal of literature, culture, and politics. He is currently reading Sherlock Holmes to his eight-year-old. He discusses his family memoir on p16. Nicholas Royle is the author of seven novels. A senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, he is an editor at Salt and runs Nightjar Press. Meanwhile he’s attempting to carve out time to read Keith Ridgway’s Hawthorn and Child. He looks at the world of the debut novel on p25. Axel Scheffler is an illustrator known for his partnership with author Julia Donaldson, with whom he has created many picture book classics. He reveals his childhood influences on p70. Jack Wolf wanted to be a singer until his interest in social history led to him writing his first novel. In between reading for his PhD he is enjoying King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.