Claire Nicholls

And our character Ursula has a romance with a guy who works for the salmon farms and that's a real conflict for her, right?

I mentioned the romance.

I think a lot of this book, Mantle, is also about what it's like to live in a 50-year-old woman's body and

Can you tell me about Ursula's relationship with her own physicality and her own sexuality?

I was thinking we need more stories about horny perimenopausal women.

And speaking of the body, you know, we've talked about this rash.

Yeah.

The way this story develops, it moves into this area, which is almost, I don't want to say body horror, Rami, because I don't want to turn people off reading the book.

But you are doing some really disturbing stuff with the body, some really unusual stuff with the body.

Can you talk to me a bit about how you approached that?

Look, you've said it.

It's intimate.

It's sexy.

It's weird.

It is called Mantle.

It's published by Ultimo Press.

Romy Ash, it's been great to meet you today.

Thanks so much for having me.

You've been listening to The Book Show.

Thank you to producer Sarah Lestrange.