gillian slovo, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. ian, you have been writing for many decades, but your recent work, particularly your plays, have focused not so much on your own authorial voice, your imagination, they focused on real people's real stories. i just wonder if you're getting sick of making things up. i'm not, actually, because, you know, there's part of me that wants to go back to my desk to be on my own, to make stuff up, but i've really got a lot from working in the theatre and from the collaboration that comes, not only from the crew and the directors and the actors, but actually the collaboration that comes from the people i've interviewed. and finding a way to magnify their voice onstage has been actually really a wonderful piece of work for me. i've really learnt a lot about it, and it also teaches you about dialogue when you want to go back to drama, to writing fiction. i mean, your most recent play, which has been on in the uk and indeed on in new york as well, is all about the tragic fire at grenfell, that high

gillian slovo, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. ian, you have been writing for many decades, but your recent work, particularly your plays, have focused not so much on your own authorial voice, your imagination, they focused on real people's real stories. i just wonder if you're getting sick of making things up. i'm not, actually, because, you know, there's part of me that wants to go back to my desk to be on my own, to make stuff up, but i've really got a lot from working in the theatre and from the collaboration that comes, not only from the crew and the directors and the actors, but actually the collaboration that comes from the people i've interviewed. and finding a way to magnify their voice onstage has been actually really a wonderful piece of work for me. i've really learnt a lot about it, and it also teaches you about dialogue when you want to go back to drama, to writing fiction. i mean, your most recent play, which has been on in the uk and indeed on in new york as well, is all about the tragic fire at grenfell, that high

and no—one knows this better than my guest today, the writer gillian slovo, whose parents, joe slovo against apartheid. from teenage, gillian�*s home has been in the uk and her recent writing digs deep into british culture. but how much distance is there from her extraordinary

and no—one knows this better than my guest today, the writer gillian slovo, whose parents, joe slovo age, gillian�*s home has been in the uk and her recent writing digs deep into british culture. but how much distance is there from her extraordinary south african backstory?