Maggie O'Farrell, Moss and Freud

Award-winning author Maggie O’Farrell was Oscar-nominated earlier this year for the screenplay of her 2020 novel Hamnet, which she co-wrote with the film’s director, Chloe Zhou. It was one of eight Academy Award nominations for the film. Now, Maggie is back with her tenth novel, Land, published on Tuesday. Set in Ireland in 1865, it follows Tomás and his ten-year-old son, Liam, who are employed by the British to contribute to the effort of creating Ordnance Survey maps of the country. Tomás subtly uses the maps to record the trauma of the recent Great Famine and the effect upon the land and its people, an act that will impact his family for generations. Maggie tells Len more.

Oscar-winning director James Lucas talks about his new film, Moss and Freud, which is in cinemas from tomorrow. It stars Derek Jacobi as artist Lucian Freud, widely regarded as one of the greatest British painters of the 20th century, and Ellie Bamber as supermodel Kate Moss. It tells the story of their collaboration on the startling painting Naked Portrait 2002.