Episode

The Book Club: Hannah Richell

Podcast
Best of the Spectator
Published
Sep 9, 2026
Duration seconds
2006
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://shows.acast.com/best-of-the-spectator/episodes/hannah-richell-an-ocean-and-a-day
Audio
https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68358fb5e1abc4be6b0308eb/e/6aa02d997275dabe9583f7a7/media.mp3?tk=eyJ0ayI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJhZHMiOnRydWUsInNwb25zIjp0cnVlLCJzdGF0dXMiOiJwdWJsaWMifQ==&sig=5vWRvqXjz1wImf9H6GiGuReSWmFJpA3koKPII4j3XXo
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/best-of-the-spectator-45373/episodes/the-book-club-hannah-richell
Markdown
/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373/the-book-club-hannah-richell.md

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Summary

In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith is joined by bestselling novelist Hannah Richell to discuss her new memoir, An Ocean and a Day. When Hannah’s husband died in a surfing accident, her life in Australia was shattered. Suddenly, she was a single mother to two young children, navigating a grief she could never have imagined. Her memoir traces that journey from the moment of the accident, but, more uniquely, looks beyond those first years of loss – to what grief looks like with the benefit of time, distance and reflection. Sam and Hannah discuss the shame and embarrassment that can accompany grief, the physical effects of loss, how her experience has shaped her fiction, and what makes memoirs so powerful - to both writer and reader. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.