When we published Mainlander last year, we knew that we had something special in our hands, written by an author who had always made us laugh both off and onscreen in The Thick of It and VEEP (to name but two of the brilliant shows Will writes for). When we heard word that Jesse Armstrong, a fellow screenwriter (on The Thick of It and VEEP) we knew that we had to get them into a studio together.
To celebrate the publication of Mainlander, 4th Estate were lucky enough to sit down with its author Will Smith (screenwriter of the Thick of It, VEEP and more). We spoke about The Thick of It, VEEP, the politics of the UK versus the US, working directly under the Messiah of satire Armando Iannucci, and the novel writing process. Listen to and download what we thought might be a fairly typical author interview, but very quickly descended into a laugh-a-minute chat about creativity, the anomaly that is Jersey, and accidentally writing feminist characters. Read more…
