You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.

I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.

I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,

relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.

So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,

and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.

So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.

Hello and welcome to London South Bank Centre.

Today, Johnny Pitts and I are here in the Queen Elizabeth Hall,

part of the London Literature Festival,

which this year celebrates friendship,

and we're very much amongst friends in front of this wonderful audience.

The joyous sound of clapping, I have missed that. A year ago, Johnny and I became friends through Open Book in the midst of a national lockdown. So initially we met online. You could say it was platonic love at first Zoom. Definitely. Our shared love of books helps us navigate a new job and our new friendship during these strange, strange times.

So what better than to connect the two?

Explore literary friendships on and beyond the page.

We'll be talking about some of the novels which have beautifully captured the complexities, joys and truths of some of our most enduring and rewarding friendships.

And to help us, we're joined by Andrew O'Hagan, whose novel Mayflies, evocatively explores the beauty of male friendship

and what love between men can mean. Emma Jane Unsworth, whose novels, Animals and Adults,

are glorious and messy, witty and truthful stories of female friendship.

And Isha Malik, her first novel, Sophia Khan is Not Obliged, was described as a Muslim

Bridget Jones, and in her latest, this green and pleasant land, she pens an unlikely alliance

...