We Need to talk about Lionel Shriver

Join psychologist Tanya Byron as she delves into one of the most fascinating psyches of our time: author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver.

Orange Prize winning novelist Lionel Shriver is one of the most revered and little understood figures in our culture. Every new book fuels the cult of personality that has grown around her since global bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Journalists characterise her as an eccentric figure of astonishing will power and self-discipline, running nine miles a day and breaking her fast only at 11pm. Her speeches provoke seismic reactions in the mass media. Readers relish an imagination that delves deep into everyday life with an adamantine refusal to sentimentalise: a mind prepared to unflinchingly confront human nature as it is. But who is the ‘real’ Lionel Shriver? In this unique conversation, clinical psychologist Tanya Byron will cut through the layers surrounding the public image of this acclaimed writer and explore what sits at her core.

A global star whose fame followed decades of quiet struggle, what has she learned about the nature and meaning of success and failure? How does she create figures like Kevin and his mother Eva? Do you have to be a monster to think like a monster? Join us as we venture into the mind of a brilliant and outspoken purveyor of the human condition.