Gwendoline Riley: The Palm House

Nobody writes the humour and pathos of ordinary lives quite like Gwendoline Riley, recently awarded the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize.

In The Palm House, she turns her unerring ear and razor-sharp wit to a long friendship weathering bereavement, bad bosses, and old hurts that still bite.

Talking with Sinéad Gleeson today, Riley (author of First Love and My Phantoms) brings her eviscerating powers of observation to discuss her portrait of enduring friendship and a meeting of minds.