Susanna Clarke and Alan Moore in conversation

This event took place on 11 January 2024

Two of the great imaginative writers of our time.

An unprecedented meeting between two exceptional authors, as they share thoughts on the nature of the fantastic, and its intersection with place and time.

Susanna Clarke is the acclaimed author best known for two intricate masterpieces of speculative fiction, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Piranesi. The first, set in an alternative version of 19th-century England, came out in 2004 and took the world by storm, earning Clarke widespread critical and commercial success. The book was also filmed as a major BBC drama that aired in 2015. A short story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu, set in the same universe as Jonathan Strange, followed in 2006. Piranesi was published in 2020 and was crowned winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021.

Alan Moore is widely regarded as the best and most influential writer in the history of comics. His seminal works include From Hell, V for Vendetta and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He is also the author of the bestselling novel Jerusalem, and most recently his first-ever short story collection, Illuminations. In later 2024 the first in the Long London quintet of novels will appear: a series set in a mythical world of murder, magic and madness and “a sometimes-accessible shadow city that is beyond time.”

Hosted by Alison Flood, comment and culture editor for the New Scientist and The Observer’s thriller columnist.