Ian McEwanEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan are widely celebrated as two of the finest writers of their generation. Along with Salman Rushdie and Kazuo Ishiguro, they were included on Granta’s prescient Best Young British Novelists list in 1993 and have gone on to write some of the most memorable novels of the past three decades. In January 2026 they came together to discuss the book that Barnes says will be his last, Departure(s). It follows a man named Stephen and a woman called Jean who fall in love when they are young and again when they are old. Barnes and McEwan will draw on the themes of the book to discuss topics including philosophy, art, the slipperiness of memory, the passage of time, mortality and grief.This was a rare opportunity to hear two of the most celebrated voices in contemporary British literature discussing their craft and reflections on life. This event was presented in partnership with Waterstones. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan are widely celebrated as two of the finest writers of their generation. Along with Salman Rushdie and Kazuo Ishiguro, they were included on Granta’s prescient Best Young British Novelists list in 1993 and have gone on to write some of the most memorable novels of the past three decades. In January 2026 they came together to discuss the book that Barnes says will be his last, Departure(s). It follows a man named Stephen and a woman called Jean who fall in love when they are young and again when they are old. Barnes and McEwan will draw on the themes of the book to discuss topics including philosophy, art, the slipperiness of memory, the passage of time, mortality and grief. This was a rare opportunity to hear two of the most celebrated voices in contemporary British literature discussing their craft and reflections on life. This event was presented in partnership with Waterstones. --- This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

🚨 An advance warning that this episode features spoilers for Atonement. September is here, which means it's the start of another academic year. So get out your brand new stationery and settle down as we head back to school... no polyester uniforms or exams though, don't worry. This week, we're taking a look at Booker-nominated books that feature on school syllabuses in the UK and, particularly, we're diving into Ian McEwan's Atonement. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001, the novel explores how a young girl’s imagination runs riot with far-reaching and devastating consequences. In this episode Jo and James discuss: Their favourite Booker-nominated books that feature on school syllabuses A brief history of Ian McEwan's writing career The plot of Atonement The characters and themes of the novel How Joe Wright's film adaptation of Atonement compares to the books The Booker Clinic: books to help quell homesickness Reading list: Atonement by Ian McEwan Amsterdam by Ian McEwan Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Saturday by Ian McEwan Spies by Michael Frayn Brick Lane by Monica Ali Waterland by Graham Swift Love and Summer by William Trevor Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey Oxygen by Andrew Miller number9dream by David Mitchell Hotel World by Ali Smith Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert Black Dogs by Ian McEwan On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan Enduring Love by Ian McEwan Further Resources: Ian McEwan on BBC Radio 4's This Cultural Life Ian McEwan on his novels as A-Level set texts via The Guardian A full transcript of the episode is available <a href="https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-li

Ian McEwan, newly appointed a Companion of Honour in the King's Birthday Honours List, is one of Britain's leading literary novelists. He won the Booker Prize for Amsterdam in 1998 and became internationally famous for Atonement. Black Dogs, On Chesil Beach, Saturday, The Children Act, Solar, Nutshell, Machines Like Me and his latest book, Lessons, punctuate the publishing landscape of the last 30 years. Here Ian talks intimately about his career as an author, his peripatetic childhood following his military father to Singapore, Libya and elsewhere, how he became an author, the point of the novel, the challenging themes in Lessons, growing older, and what it's like being asked to write or talk publicly about the major political events that unfold around us. This is a rare chance to hear one of the major novelists of recent decades offer insights into himself and his work.

This week on the Penguin Podcast, Nihal is joined by author, screenwriter, booker winner and one of Britain's best-loved writers, Ian McEwan. He joins us to talk about his brand new novel, Lessons. Ian also discusses the delight of discovery when writing, the experience of total emersion while creating, the challenge and bliss of writing a long novel like Lessons, why a larval rock is important to him, and the special relevance of a mountain goat. Don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode, and do leave us a review as it really does help. To find out more about the #PenguinPodcast, visit https://www.penguin.co.uk/podcasts.html. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When George Orwell travelled to Spain in the winter of 1936 to fight General Franco and the fascists, he stopped en route in Paris, where Henry Miller gave him his coat. The two men could not have been more different: the passionately political Englishman, and the American who disdained of all forms of activism. As Ian McEwan writes: “In a letter to Lawrence Durrell he wrote that he knew he could head off the rise of Nazism... if he could just get five minutes alone with Adolf Hitler and make him laugh.” The encounter inspired Orwell’s 1939 essay “Inside the Whale”, in which he defended Miller’s freedom to refuse political engagement. Should a novelist insulate themselves from bigger, harder realities (ie, write from “inside the whale”) or confront a bleak political landscape face-on (write “outside the whale”)? Orwell, McEwan argues, managed the unusual trick of doing both – a tension that informs books such as Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm . Adapted from his compelling 2021 Orwell Memorial Lecture, McEwan’s essay looks at the choices he and other novelists have made about writing – and about living – in a time of crisis. How removed from politics can a 21st-century writer be now that “even inside the whale there is ultra-fast broadband”? Endnote: This article was first published in the New Statesman on 9 December. It was adapted from the 2021 Orwell Memorial Lecture, delivered on 26 November 2021 and organised by the Orwell Foundation . You can read the text version here . Read by Adrian Bradley. Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Booker prize-winning author Ian McEwan visits the Penguin studio to talk about his new novel ‘Machines Like Me’ - set in an alternatives 1980’s in which synthetic humans are on sale. Ian and Katy talk about the ethics of AI, why drinking wine on the top of a mountain is good for your health and how being an A list Hollywood screenwriter can be ‘the ruin of many an English novelist’. Ian’s objects of inspiration include steel drinking cups and a drawing of a squirrel’s skull. #PenguinPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.