It often does. There’s a lot of waiting around between scenes or set ups and a lot of travelling that comes with my work which means reading has become a way of making the most of those in-between hours.

I think strange fiction like the works of Shirley Jackson and Helen Oyeyemi have influenced the way I see the world. They offer this “other” and abstract way of looking at society and people and the world around you that gets you challenging things as they’re presented. Also David Eagleman’s books on neuroscience are absolutely fascinating and have changed the way I lead my life in that I have a better understanding of how people really can change. You can absolutely change your ways and your wiring, and that’s a very empowering lesson.

"I think strange fiction like the works of Shirley Jackson and Helen Oyeyemi have influenced the way I see the world."

During the quarantine in 2020, I read The Night Circus which was so completely transportive and ethereal, at a time when those feelings were very much welcome and wanted.

A few years ago, I read A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea by Melissa Fleming which details the true story of a young woman’s escape from Syria and her experience of becoming a refugee. We’re so often fed a narrative that’s harmful in that I think it deliberately detaches us from empathy with people seeking asylum, so this was a deeply impactful insight.

I have an extroardinary memory of Gabrielle in Anne-Marie Garat’s Dans la main du Diable.

A hammock… or a train.

"During the quarantine in 2020, I read The Night Circus which was so completely transportive and ethereal, at a time when those feelings were very much welcome and wanted."

A combination of both is the ideal.

I prefer novels because I like to get lost in the world of a story.

I would love to see Helen Oyeyemi’s work adapted. Her writing can be really abstract and poetic so I imagine it could be a really other worldly piece of film.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, but more recently Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson. My friend recommended it to me and I inhaled it and have since been recommending it to absolutely everyone.