# The Book Club: Hannah Richell

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373/the-book-club-hannah-richell
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373/the-book-club-hannah-richell.md
Podcast: [Best of the Spectator](https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373)
Published: 2026-09-09T23:01:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/best-of-the-spectator/episodes/hannah-richell-an-ocean-and-a-day
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68358fb5e1abc4be6b0308eb/e/6aa02d997275dabe9583f7a7/media.mp3?tk=eyJ0ayI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJhZHMiOnRydWUsInNwb25zIjp0cnVlLCJzdGF0dXMiOiJwdWJsaWMifQ==&sig=5vWRvqXjz1wImf9H6GiGuReSWmFJpA3koKPII4j3XXo
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/best-of-the-spectator-45373/episodes/the-book-club-hannah-richell
Duration seconds: 2006

## Resource

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.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/best-of-the-spectator-45373/episodes/the-book-club-hannah-richell/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373/the-book-club-hannah-richell.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.