On the first episode of The Critic Books podcast, Francesca Peacock speaks to J.R Thorp – a librettist and novelist whose debut novel Learwife was published on 4 November 2021. Learwife imagines the life of King Lear’s broadly unmentioned Queen. The novel is set just after the end of Shakespeare’s play; in the aftermath of war, what follows is a haunting tale of loss, power, and memory.

You can buy Learwife here.