Front Row

Novelist Oana Aristide discusses her debut novel Under the Blue, about a reclusive artist forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. It has been described as eco-fiction and it explores themes of environmental destruction, the melting of the polar ice, eco-terrorism, all within a suspenseful story of three survivors on a terrifying road trip.The British poet Stevie Smith, best known for her work “Not Waving, But Drowning” died 50 years ago today. We speak with her biographer Frances Spalding, the editor of her collected poems and drawings Will May and we’re joined by the actor Juliet Stevenson to look at Smith’s life and works and consider her legacy.Kings of Leon have made their new album available as a form of cryptocurrency, and last week Grimes sold a digital collection of artworks in a similar way for almost $6m. Aleks Krotoski explains the growing craze for ‘non-fungible tokens’ or NFTs.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Oliver JonesM