#163 Naomi Alderman: How To Tell If You Have A Great Idea

Welcome to Ctrl Alt Delete! My guest today is one of my favourite authors, the incredibly inspiring force of nature that is Naomi Alderman! She is the multi-award-winning novelist of Disobedience and The Power. Disobedience has been adapted into a film directed by Sebastián Lelio, based on the novel of the same name by Naomi and stars both Rachael McAdams and Rachel Weiz. It is out in cinemas now. And The Power is one of Obama's favourite books! No big deal.


Speaking of cinemas: I'm excited that this episode is in partnership with Curzon Cinemas.


For nearly a century, Curzon has been pioneering ways to bring audiences exclusive access to a brilliant selection of award winning, classic and contemporary independent films from around the world. I'm excited to tell you about Curzon Home Cinema. By registering you get access to a selection of the latest cinema releases available now to watch from the comfort of your own home. I love going to the cinema but I also love staying in (especially during this dark winter months). So wherever you are in the UK and Ireland, you can watch new films at home! So the choice is yours: watch your films at the cinema, or instantly at home, Curzon offers you both choices. Why not try out watching Disobedience at home?


So, a bit more about the iconic Naomi Alderman. Her literary début came in 2006 called Disobedience, a well-received yet slightly controversial novel about a North London rabbi's lesbian daughter living in New York, which won her the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers, the 2007 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and a feature as one of the Waterstones 25 Writers for the Future.
Her other novel, The Power, won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction in 2017. The Power was THE book of the year last year, an incredible sci-fi/dystopian novel about gendered violence and the fetishisation of power. The premise of the book is that women are more powerful than men. God becomes a “she”; and men are frightened to walk alone at night.


We discuss life as a polymath, what it's like having Rachel Weisz ring you up and want to turn your book into a film and how to know whether something is a good or bad idea when it comes to creating stuff. Thank you, Naomi. Such an inspiring episode.