Maggie O’Farrell is a novelist who has won multiple awards for her best selling books.  In 2007 she was named as one of Waterstones 25 authors of the future and her recent book Hamnet won The Women's Prize for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Her new novel out in August 2022 called The Marriage Portrait is much anticipated by her many fans.   But despite her success as a writer, Maggie’s life has been littered with misfortunes and sliding door moments. Rachel and Alice sit down with Maggie to talk about the life threatening illness she suffered with as a child, a near miss of drowning as a teenager and her encounter with a stranger on a dark night who she later found out was a murderer.    Marie Curie: www.mariecurie.org.uk Mind: www.mind.org.uk SAMM: www.samm.org.uk     This podcast has been produced in association with Speakers for Schools: www.speakersforschools.org   Producers: Anya Pearce and Lucy Dichmont   Series producer: Ben Mitchell Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.