‘For me, beauty and disgust don’t really exist in binary.’ AK Blakemore’s discovery of tales of The Great Tarare, a French showman with an insatiable appetite, was the perfect setting for her to explore her love of the grotesque and abject. Shortlisted for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize, her novel ‘The Glutton’ explores the almost folkloric life of the soldier-turned-street performer, as he tours around France eating everything from nails and stones to snakes and puppies. Blakemore also talks about her childhood living on the 24th floor of a tower block in southeast London, experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations, and the symbolic power of food in literature.
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Ros Atkins
Alexandra Pringle
Henry Hoke
Polly Toynbee
Thomas Harding
Neil Blackmore
Naomi Klein
Lisa Jewell
Mark Vanhoenacker
Antoine Laurain
Amanda Craig
Calder Walton
Damian Lanigan
Andrew Boyd
Shashi Tharoor
Catherine Joy White
Paul Burston
Tom Rachman
Monocle Reads: 'The Great White Bard'
Guy Gunaratne
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