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Hello and welcome to the Spectator's Book Club podcast. I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor for

The Spectator, and I'm joined now by the writer Marlon James.

It's 10 years since Marlon's book, A Brief History of Seven Killings, which told the story of the

political violence in 1970s, Jamaica, and the crack epidemic in Miami and New York in the 80s,

all centering around the singer Bob Marley came out,

and it won the 2015 Booker Prize.

And this is amazing to think it's 10 years.

And I have to say, Marlon, I'm sure you're probably aware by now,

that it won the Booker Prize by a bit of a mile.

It was kind of slightly embarrassing, speaking,

as one of the judges that year, in the room, the final meeting, we had a kind of, well,

wouldn't it be quicker if we just, someone stuck their hand up if they don't think this book should win the book prize? This should be hard of work, but we all knocked off and went to the pub.

At a distance of a decade, can I ask you to start by kind of work, but we all knocked off and went to the pub. Well, at a distance of a decade, can I ask you to start by kind of going from mental time

machines?

Say where you were, how you, where you were placed mentally, physically, geographically,

when you embarked on that book.

What were you thinking of?

What set it off? What was the inciting

...