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On this week's podcast, Sarah Perry - author of the best-selling The Essex Serpent - talks to Malcolm Doney. She talks about her Strict Baptist upbringing, how she became a writer, and her new novel, Melmoth.

“Occasionally I try to sort of actively cultivate atheism, but it seems to me to be a barren and an unsatisfactory explanation for anything at all,” she says. “I remain a Christian, very much so.”

A write up of the interview is featured in our 16-page Christmas Books supplement, published in this Friday's edition.