A nerdy literary parlour game that started in lockdown has turned into one of the most-hyped debuts of the year – soon to be a series on BBC1. Its author talks about how her obsession with a long-dead polar explorer helped her find a way to write about family trauma
Kaliane Bradley (pronounced Cull-yan, which means “darling” in Cambodian) is packing to move house when I visit her in Walthamstow, east London. The move has been made possible by the publication of her first novel, The Ministry of Time, which has a BBC TV adaptation in the pipeline and comes laden with quotes from writers such as Eleanor Catton and David Nicholls.
A time-travel romance cum sci-fi comedy set in near-future London, the novel fizzes with smart observations about the absurdity of modern life, while taking on the legacy of imperialism and the environmental emergency. In her “lucky” jumper and woolly socks, 35-year-old Bradley, an editor at Penguin, is unfazed by the fuss. “I think I might be the first British-Cambodian person to publish a novel. I can’t swear to it,” she says modestly (Google agrees: although Bradley is yet to have a Wikipedia page).
