David Szalay

Booker Prize-winning author David Szalay talks to John Wilson about his creative influences. His 2009 debut novel London and The South East, based on his experience of working in telesales, won the Betty Trask Award. The author of six books, his work often defies easy classification: his 2016 novel All That Man Is comprises nine standalone short stories which share the overarching theme of masculinity. His 2018 novel Turbulence follows 12 loosely-linked characters on a dozen flights around the world. In 2025 he won the Booker with Flesh, a rags to riches story told across several decades.

Producer: Edwina Pitman

Archive used: Extract from T S Eliot, Preludes 1, read by Jeremy Irons, BBC Radio 4, 25 December 2021 Extract from T S Eliot, The Waste Land, read by Jeremy Irons, BBC Radio 4, 2 January 2022 Clip from trailer of Downhill Racer, Michael Ritchie, 1969 Clip from trailer of Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, 1976 Extract from David Szalay, Flesh, read by David Szalay Clip from Barry Lyndon, Stanley Kubrick, 1975 Clip from 2025 Booker Prize ceremony