Salon Guest Hosts
Introducing Guest Hosts, helps us to stage more Salons and make the conversation around books
even bigger and even more inclusive.
Sam Baker
“Damian Barr’s Literary Salon has become a must for discovering writers old and new. Lockdown has seen them reimagine what it means to run books events to great success – the YouTube salon with Ruth Coker Burks and Russell T Davies was a real highlight. So, I couldn’t be more thrilled to join their team of Guest Hosts and look forward to bringing my own conversational interviewing style – once described as ‘dangerously friendly’.”
Sam was Editor of Red and Cosmopolitan before co-founding the women’s mobile platform, The Pool. She is the author of five novels and one work of non-fiction The Shift: How I (Lost And) Found Myself After 40 - and you can too - which is also a hit podcast. Sam has judged the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for fiction. She is a star interviewer at festivals including Cheltenham and Edinburgh, and her recent guests have included Nigella Lawson, Isabel Allende, Bret Easton Ellis, Marian Keyes, Celeste Ng and Philippa Perry.
Check out Sam’s interview with Extra Pair Of Hands author Kate Mosse. You can find the full video on our Insta grid.
www.sambaker.co.uk / Twitter @SamBaker / Instagram @theothersambaker / Photo Credit: Claire Pepper
Sara Collins
Sara Collins is the award-winning writer of the bestseller The Confessions of Frannie Langton, a gothic romance about the dramatic love affair between a Jamaican maid and her French mistress in 19th century London. That novel is so polished it’s hard to believe it’s her debut. It is now a major ITV drama which Sara adapted herself. She has also made a name as a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and Open Book, among others, hosting with great skill and empathy. And she’s a contributor to The Graham Norton Book Club on Audible. Doubtless her perception was honed by her successful previous career as a lawyer. We are delighted she’s one of our Guest Hosts.
www.saracollinsauthor.com / Photo Credit: Rebecca Davidson
Uli Lenart
Uli Lenart is the deputy manager of the legendary Gay's the Word bookshop in London. He is also a book reviewer, literary event coordinator and author interviewer for festivals and media. He's into great guys and great books. He is, as you can imagine, deliciously low-key. We’re delighted to welcome him as our newest Guest Host!
Check out his Insta live with Boyslut author Zachary Zane. You can find the full video on our Insta grid.
www.gaystheword.co.uk / Instagram @misteruli / Twitter @Uli_Lenart
Alexandra Heminsley
“After over a joyful decade as both guest and audience at the Literary Salon, I’m thrilled to be part of the roster of Guest Hosts and to discover that the team is as professional behind the scenes as they are on stage. There are very few spaces - online or off - where literature and genuine belly laughs meet with such glee, and such success.”
Alexandra Heminsley is a bestselling writer, journalist and broadcaster. Her books include the memoirs Some Body To Love, Running Like a Girl and Leap In. Her latest novel, The Queue, is published by Orion in August ‘23. She’s appeared on the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show and BBC 5live as well as the Today Programme and Woman’s Hour. She was the Books Editor for Grazia and Elle and her interviewees include Courtney Love, Judy Murray and Jack Monroe. Alexandra’s empathy and experience make for memorable and moving interviews.
Check out Alexandra’s interview with What It Feels Like For A Girl author Paris Lees. You can find the full video on our Insta grid.
www.alexandraheminsley.com / Instagram @alexandra.heminsley / Photo Credit: Emma Croman
Sarah Perry
Sarah Perry is the author of the bestsellers After Me Comes the Flood, The Essex Serpent and Melmoth. She has won Waterstone's Book of the Year and a British Book Award and been nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Folio Prize and the Costa Novel Award. Her writing appears in The Guardian, The New York Times and the London Review of Books. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has a PhD in Creative Writing. The Essex Serpent was recently adapted for Apple TV, starring Claire Danes. Sarah brings her luminous attention to every encounter.
Paul McVeigh
Paul McVeigh’s debut, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrea Literary Award. His stories have appeared in anthologies, journals and newspaper. Paul co-edited the Belfast Stories anthology and edited Queer Love and The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working-Class Writers. He co-founded the London Short Story Festival and is Associate Director of Word Factory, described by The Guardian as ‘the UK's national organisation for excellence in the short story’. Paul's play, Big Man, won an Irish Times Theatre Award in 2023 and his writing has been translated into seven languages. He has interviewed five Booker Prize-winners as well as hugely popular writers, such as, Armistead Maupin. Every interview tells a story and Paul is a natural storyteller.
paulmcveighwriter.com / Twitter @paul_mc_veigh / Insta @paulmcveighwriter / Photo Credit: Roelof Bakker
Natalie Haynes
Natalie Haynes is a writer, broadcaster and – according to the Washington Post – ‘rock star mythologist’. She wrote the now-classic The Ancient Guide to Modern Life and the critically acclaimed novels The Amber Fury, The Children of Jocasta and Stone Blind. Her dazzling retelling of the Trojan War, A Thousand Ships, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020 and her latest novel, Stone Blind, is shortlisted in 2023. Her most recent non-fiction book, Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myth was published in Oct 2020, and Margaret Atwood likes it - you can’t ask for more. Her quick wits make her one of the most in-demand interviewers at festivals worldwide.
nataliehaynes.com / Twitter @officialnhaynes / Insta @nataliehaynesauthor / Photo Credit: Daisy Honeybunn
Alex Clark
“Damian Barr’s Salons have become a brilliant and bold fixture of the literary world, and have done so much to connect books, writers and readers in a relaxed, inclusive and hugely entertaining setting. I love talking to authors about their work, and I am beyond thrilled to be joining Damian and his team for some very special events.”
Alex Clark is a journalist and broadcaster, often seen in the pages of The Guardian, The Observer and the Times Literary Supplement, and heard on BBC R4 programmes such as Front Row and Open Book. Alex has been Artistic Director of the Bath Festival and is a Patron of the Cambridge Literary Festival. She has been a judge for the (then) Man Booker Prize and the Orwell Prize. A wildly experienced interviewer and dexterous chair of live events, her recent guests include Kazuo Ishiguro, Tessa Hadley and Melissa Harrison. Alex lives in Kilkenny, Ireland. She was the natural choice to interview Marian Keyes for Salon!
Check out Alex’s Insta live with Jojo Moyes for the launch of Someone Else’s Shoes. You can find the full video on our Insta grid.
www.theguardian.com/profile/alexclark / Twitter @AlexClark3 / Photo Credit: Mark Vessey
Anthony Anaxagorou
“I’m thrilled to be joining Damian Barr’s Salon and very much look forward to immersing myself in the books for the show as well as interviewing some of the most interesting writers working today. Opportunities such as this are a genuine treat as is the chance to sit and shoot the breeze with names I’ve long admired.”
Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist and publisher. His second collection After the Formalities published with Penned in the Margins is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S Eliot Prize along with the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. It was also a Telegraph and Guardian poetry book of the year. His third collection, Heritage Aesthetics won the RSL Ondaatje Prize and was shortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award. In 2020, he published How To Write It with Merky Books. Anthony is artistic director of Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night held at London’s Southbank Centre, and publisher of Out-Spoken Press. He is the editor-in chief of Propel Magazine, an online literary journal featuring the work of poets yet to publish their first collection. In 2019 he was made an honorary fellow at the University of Roehampton. You can hear him reading on our podcast!
anthonyanaxagorou.com / Twitter @Anthony1983 / Insta @anthony_anaxagorou