Tackling Climate Change via Fiction

Part of Leeds Lit Fest 2026. See the full programme at https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/

Climate change is the biggest story of our time, yet few novelists are prepared to grapple with it. John Ironmonger is a best-selling author with a doctorate in zoology and a great speaker on the environment. In this talk we explore how we can tackle climate change via fiction. His books 'The Wager and the Bear' and 'Angel of St Piran' are real world stories that help us to imagine the kind of earth we are creating. If we are to navigate the climate crisis and climate-driven conflicts and these aren't yet part of our fictional landscape, then should they be?

John Ironmonger in conversation with Victoria Bonner of Hold Fast Bookshop. 

John Ironmonger was born and grew up in East Africa. He has a doctorate in zoology, and was once an expert on freshwater leeches. He is the author of 'The Good Zoo Guide' and the novels 'The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder' (shortlisted for the 2012 Costa First Novel Prize and the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize), 'The Coincidence Authority' and 'The Whale at the End of the World' (an international bestseller). He has also been part of a world record team for speed reading Shakespeare, has driven across the Sahara in a £100 banger, and once met Jared Diamond in a forest in the middle of Sumatra.