Gurnaik Johal: ‘I had no idea Zadie Smith was such a big deal!’

The author on a brilliant biography of Buster Keaton, coming round to Joseph Conrad, and marathon training with Karl Ove Knausgård

My earliest reading memory

I used to regularly reread my bright green copy of the Guinness Book of Records. I can still clearly picture the woman with the longest fingernails in the world.

My favourite book growing up

I loved the world-building in Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother series. Its stone age setting was different to anything I knew, but so easy to imagine being a part of.