Stephanie Johnson

In a note at the back of Stephanie Johnson's new book - set firmly in the heart of Covid lockdown 2020 - she predicts there'll be a literary pandemic of books on the subject. But will there really? You get the feeling that people are trying to blank it out of their memories - certainly on TV and film. Let's pretend it never happened, they seem to say. Which makes Stephanie's novel Kind a bold pioneer perhaps rather than just one of the crowd! Kind is also often very funny, very dark, and very - weirdly - nostalgic. Bringing us back to the world of face masks, empty streets, the Jacinda and Ashley Bloomfield Show - and news entirely devoted to "Covid, Covid, Trump, Covid, Trump, Covid..." Stephanie Johnson talks to Simon Morris.