Loves Labours Watched

This week we connect with author Brit Bennett, whose second novel The Vanishing Half has shot to the top of the New York Times bestsellers chart and is causing a buzz across the literary world. We talk to Brit about how she tackled themes of race, discrimination, gender, performance and identity. Later, we talk about Mrs Dalloway, which Helena's reading for the first time and is about the impact of the First World War on London society. We consider whether the Covid-19 pandemic might produce similar literary and pop culture ruminations and get excited about Zadie Smith's upcoming essay collection about lockdown life, Imitations, due to be published this summer. Follow us and get in touch on social media, we'd love to hear from you. We're @RealLLW on Twitter and @LovesLaboursWatched on Instagram. We hope everyone is staying safe and as well as possible in this strange time and we'll see you in a couple of weeks.