Welcome to The Extras, our members-only backstage pass to the bits we couldn’t fit into our episodes - but really wanted to. After every episode you’ll find us here, with irresistible nuggets from our guests’ conversations that we just had to tell you. From the windfalls that made bestsellers happen to the plotlines that never made the press, our authors are full of insight, wit and writing advice.
It’s his voice that you’ll hear right at the start of our episodes: author and novelist Thomas Morris, out in the metaphorical garden, digging for feeling. If this was an episode that sounded cosy, it’s because it was: we recorded late at night under dozens of blankets (to muffle the sound, yes, but also for warmth) and there were vague worries about how much of Thomas’s biscuit-dunking might have been picked up by the mic.
Our chat with Thomas was probably one of the longest we’ve had while recording - and we could have kept talking for hours if Alice wasn’t prone to dissolving after a certain point in the evening. So it’s a really packed issue of The Extras we have for you this week, including his thoughts on being named as one of Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2023, what he learned editing the most formative literary magazine around and how to have confidence in your characters.
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