Born in London in 1974, the author Naomi Alderman studied PPE at Oxford and creative writing at the University of East Anglia. She published her award-winning first novel, Disobedience, in 2006, which was later adapted into a film starring Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz. Named one of Granta’s best young British novelists in 2013, Alderman has published five further books, including the Women’s prize-winning The Power (2016), which was adapted for television by Prime Video in 2023. Her new Radio 4 show, Human Intelligence, explores great thinkers, including Malcolm X and Mary Wollstonecraft, in 50 15-minute episodes.
1. Book
The Hawthorne and Horowitz books by Anthony Horowitz
I’ve just finished a novel that is a science fiction story and also narrated by me, as myself. My brilliant American editor, Asya, recommended these books, where Anthony Horowitz does the same thing but in a detective series, placing himself as the Watson to the irascible but brilliant Hawthorne. The books are opinionated, funny and delicious about the lives and humiliations of authors. Horowitz is a master of the serial format, and clearly has a long mystery to unfold about Hawthorne. I’m longing for the next one… I start to think that Hawthorne probably didn’t pick Horowitz as a partner by chance.
2. Movie
Anora, dir Sean Baker
This is about sex work; if you can’t stomach seeing nearly naked young women giving lap dances to middle-aged men, absolutely don’t put yourself through it. However. The movie could have been grim or sanitised and it’s neither. It picks up where Pretty Woman left off. A sex worker gets paid for a “girlfriend experience” week by the son of a Russian oligarch. And then he proposes. And his family aren’t happy. The whole thing is made glorious by the way Anora is written – she always has an intense belief in her own intrinsic value – and by Mikey Madison’s explosive, electric performance.
3. Game
The second in the series, but stand-alone, this game is just tremendous. A mystery game that actually works well and has a good story, where each puzzle is different and satisfying. You investigate each illustration of a crime scene to work out what’s happened. There’s a mysterious Golden Idol with magical powers, of course, and people who have killed to possess it. You can get it free on your phone if you have a Netflix account. Pure enjoyment.
4. Theatre
I saw this play about Roald Dahl and his antisemitism at the Royal Court – where new artistic director David Byrne is doing remarkable work – and it is making a West End transfer. It is, straightforwardly, what theatre can do that no other medium can. Four people – five including the housekeeper who has the best line of the play – shouting at one another about ideas. Dahl has just written an antisemitic newspaper piece – or is it “just” anti-Israel? Where is the line? When must a writer speak? Can one love someone’s work and hate their views? It provides no simplistic answers. John Lithgow is extraordinary. God it’s fantastic.
5. Learning
The OU is one of the treasures of this country. I’ve been studying various things with them for more than a decade now; it’s part of the rhythm of my life. I’m halfway through a masters in classics, sneaking away from my “proper work” to read Demosthenes or get to grips with Antigone. Fundamentally, this is the person I always wanted to be. That’s what the Open University is for – for everyone. If you think you may like it, this is your signal to go and register for a course. Just a module to start. Go on.
6. Substack
Story Club with George Saunders
I loved Saunders’s A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, his analysis of great Russian short stories, from a class he teaches. He does the same thing now in a Substack, where engaged people who love literature read a story together every month and then really get into it. Anything from James Joyce to Gertrude Stein to Dickens to Chekhov. It’s my best social media, and very much continuing professional development for a novelist.
