Ask Penguin

British Art Historian and former Director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor chats to Nihal about the new audiobook of ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’.Neil has chosen 4 of those objects plus...

16 Feb 202134min

Author and playwright Ali Smith chats to Nihal about her 2014 multi award-winning novel ‘How to be Both’, which has just been released as an audiobook.In this episode, Ali reveals how she takes hersel...

3 Feb 202130min

Hafsa Zayyan, co-winner of Stormzy’s #Merky Books New Writer’s Prize, chats to Nihal about her debut novel ‘We Are All Birds Of Uganda’.She chats to Nihal about completing the book in six months and w...

20 Jan 202127min

Owen Jones, Guardian columnist and Labour party activist chats to Nihal about the tumultuous rise and fall of Corbynism via his new book ‘This Land’. Owen explains why he doesn’t like writing and brin...

6 Jan 202131min

In the second part of this special edition Nihal Arthanayake chooses some more clips from a selection of his favourite episodes. This includes why Nigella Lawson has to travel with tea bags, how Jonat...

30 Dec 202031min

Author Alex Wheatle MBE, aka the 'Brixton Bard', has just been the subject of one of Steve McQueen's 'Small Axe' films on BBC1. In this episode, he chats to Nihal about his latest YA book ‘Cane Warrio...

16 Dec 202045min

In this special edition, Nihal Arthanayake chooses some of his favourite bits from previous episodes which include the likes of Sir Paul McCartney on doubting his own talent, a surprising music choice...

2 Dec 202038min

Iconic 80’s pop band Bananarama join Nihal Arthanayake to chat about their memoir ‘Really Saying Something’.They chat about the pressures of the band, how they ended up living in the Sex Pistols' old ...

18 Nov 202033min