On Wednesday 16 July this year, The Booking Club in collaboration with Conduit Books launched Fiction First, an event dedicated to the experience and status of the modern novel and novelist.

At 21Soho, we heard from a panel of 2025's most exciting debut writers about what led them to produce their first works of fiction.

Guests discussed their journeys to publication, their literary influences, and what drew them to writing fiction in the first place, as well as how they got their first break. 

Central to the discussion was the subject of how class, race, sexuality and gender made an impact on their fiction and individual writer's journey, and what the future holds for the novel in a world saturated with seductive visual media.

The six authors were:

📚 Nicolas Padamsee, author of England is Mine

📚 Thomas Peermohamed Lambert, author of Shibboleth

📚 Lisa Smith, author of Jamaica Road

📚 Harriet Armstrong, author of To Rest Our Minds and Bodies

📚 William Rayfet Hunter, author of Sunstruck

📚 Rowe Irvin, author of Life Cycle of a Moth

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