Caledonian Road

Andrew O’Hagan was born in Glasgow. He has been nominated for the Booker Prize, was voted one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003, and won the E. M. Forster Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is Editor-at-Large of the London Review of Books and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

His novel Caledonian Road is on many 2024 Best Books lists. It’s a state-of-the-nation satire that has been compared to the social novels of both Dickens and Tom Wolfe. It tells the story of the fall from grace of Campbell Flynn, a Scottish celebrity writer and academic.

The book is a picaresque page turner that contrasts high literary society, high society and high culture with the lives of everyday Londoners. There’s a huge ensemble cast of characters ranging from Russian oligarchs, to human traffickers, to grime artists. Through his interactions with all of these and via the machinations of one of his students, Flynn discovers what his ‘privilege’ in life really involves.

Andrew O’Hagan is being interviewed by Harriett Gilbert, an author and presenter of BBC’s A Good Read.