I’ve had a fun time chatting with lots of podcasters, journalists, and interviewers about Hunger and Thirst, all of them with a slightly different take and of course different questions. Some are audio only, there are several written interviews and one video. Take your pick!
Anna Rose Reads
If you’re looking for horror author interviews, you’ve come to the right place. Each week (or just about), I sit down with some of the most prominent voices in horror fiction to ask questions about their inspiration, their writing process, and much more. Episodes are released on Tuesdays on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Substack, and Youtube.
She says: “Chatting about one of my favorite reads this year, Hunger & Thirst, author Claire Fuller joins me to unpack the unreliable narrator, the modern Gothic, tapping into formative experiences, and so much more. Hunger & Thirst is a brilliant novel that sings with dread, another facet that Claire and I dig into, and I hope everyone gives this book a read. Seriously, this is the kind of novel I live for, and Claire was such a lovely conversation partner.”
Listen here.
Behind the Stack with Brett Benner
A book podcast with book lover Brett Benner of bretts.book.stack on instagram and youtube. Author interviews and bookish conversations to help add more to your TBR pile!
You can listen to this or watch on Youtube. Brett is one of my favourite interviewers. This is what he says: “Brett talks with Claire Fuller about her new novel, ‘Hunger & Thirst’. They discuss writing without a plot, being drawn to dark stories, horror movies, book lists, and find out who became a character in the book.”
The Irish Times with Niamh Donnelly
The interview starts: Claire Fuller never thought she would be a writer. Raised in a small Oxfordshire town, the award-winning novelist has “no real memory” of books in the house and recalls an outdoorsy childhood – living in cottages her father would do up, using outdoor loos, raising chickens, and “pigs that we killed and ate”. (“We named them as well,” she says over video call from her home in Winchester. “They were called Johannes, Sebastian, and then they disappeared one Christmas and we had pork for Christmas dinner.”)
Horror in the Margins with Tiffany and Nicole
They say: “Pod People, do we have a conversation for you! In this episode, we speak with Claire Fuller, the award-winning author of Hunger and Thirst, a novel that explores girlhood and belonging and desire and the things that haunt us. We discuss the intersection of sculpture and storytelling, cursed homesteads, the complexity of female friendships, and how disgusting and unsettling flies are, both in the book and in real life.”
Chicago Review of Books with Madeline Schultz
The interview starts: Hunger and Thirst, a literary horror and suspense novel set in 1980s Britain, felt like it was made for me to read…I had the opportunity to interview the wonderful Claire Fuller this month. Here, we discussed art, horror, true crime, and the ways in which the three can be immensely interwoven.
Little Atoms with Neil Denny
Little Atoms is a weekly show about books, with authors in conversation.
This is what he says: “Claire Fuller gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn’t start writing until she was forty. She has written five previous novels including: Unsettled Ground, which in 2021 won the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her latest novel Hunger and Thirst.”
The Bookseller, by Alice O’Keefe
The interview starts: Picture a haunted house. What do you see in your mind’s eye? Perhaps a Gothic pile, a ruined tower, some bats? Probably not a suburban bungalow in Hampshire, but that may change once you read Claire Fuller’s genuinely disturbing literary horror, Hunger & Thirst.
Marginalia on NPR with Beth Golay
From KMUW Studios and part of the NPR Network, Marginalia is a weekly 29-minute show hosted by Beth Golay. Episodes always features an author interview, and sometimes include editorial commentary, book reviews, indie bookstore reading recommendations and other marginalia to enhance the reading experience.
She says: “Claire Fuller’s new book, Hunger & Thirst, is a thriller and gothic horror novel, but don’t let that scare you too much. It’s creepy, but primarily in an atmospheric sense. This is my second interview with Claire Fuller. We spoke in 2017 about her novel Swimming Lessons. Although she might be best known for her fourth novel, Unsettled Ground, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction and won in the novel category of that year’s Costa Book Award. Hunger & Thirst is her sixth novel. Here’s our conversation.”
Listen here.
Reading Materials with Lucia and Corrie
Co-hosts Corrie and Lucia met at university. Fast forward half a lifetime, and they now talk just about everyday, recording their discussions about books every fortnight.
They say: “We had an amazing time hearing Claire compare the art of sculpting to the art of writing, why her novels end in ambiguity, how writing is really hard work, and how the only thing that ties Claire Fuller books together is that nothing ties them together.”
Listen here.
Hampshire Life by Katie Dancey-Downs
Claire Fuller’s latest novel is inspired by her teenage years living in a haunted bungalow in Winchester… and it’s not for the faint-hearted. When I sat down with award-winning author Claire Fuller in a cosy village pub just outside Winchester, the first thing I told her was that her new book Hunger and Thirst gave me nightmares. She seemed delighted. Given the themes of the novel, I can’t blame her.
Sunny’s Bookshop with Meghan McGuire
She says: “We discuss the real house that inspired the setting, her advice for writing scary scenes, and more.”
