The Monocle Weekly

French-Moroccan author Leïla Slimani on her book ‘Sex and Lies’ and Jason Blum on Blumhouse Productions’ latest film, ‘The Invisible Man’. Plus: Oakland-based musician Hannah Lew.

Artist Ian Cheng uses digital technology to create extraordinary, evolving worlds. We talk to him and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist about his new exhibition in Madrid. Plus: journalist turned author Alice Vincent on gardening and her memoir, ‘Rootbound’, and we talk to the curator of an exhibition exploring the way photographers explore masculinity.

We meet author Susannah Cahalan whose new book, ‘The Great Pretender’, unpacks the complicated history of the treatment of the mentally ill. Plus: photographer Martin Andersen on his photos that capture his love of Tottenham Hotspur football club and painter Ryan Mosley discusses his participation in a new group show at London’s Whitechapel Gallery.

We meet science-fiction author William Gibson to unpick his legendary prescience and discuss his new book, ‘Agency’. Plus: journalist and author Andrea Chalupa on the family ties that inspired her to write new drama, ‘Mr Jones’, and, as London’s Flowers Gallery turns 50, we discuss the art world with its MD, Matthew Flowers.

Broadcaster and writer Afua Hirsch tells us about her new podcast series exploring the impact and legacy of the British empire. Plus: US-based painter Darren Waterston discusses his homage to James Whistler and graphic novelist Rikke Villadsen unpacks her subversive new take on the western, ‘Cowboy’.

We meet Ben Brody, whose debut book of images draws on his tours of duty as a US military combat photographer. Plus: An-My Lê discusses her work, which probes the impact of conflict on the landscape, and Giles Price on embracing emerging technologies to find new ways of visual storytelling.

Robert Eggers’ 2015 film, ‘The Witch’, depicted terror in an early New England settlement; he joins us to discuss his latest period horror, ‘The Lighthouse’. Plus, Kaya Wilkins, aka Okay Kaya, on her forthcoming album, and we meet author Francesca Wade, whose new book explores a key address of London’s literary ladies in the interwar years.

We meet Oscar-winning director Sir Sam Mendes to learn more about his First World War epic, ‘1917’. Plus: Nicolas Godin – one half of French electro-rocking legends, Air -– talks us through his latest album, and Radie Peat, a lynchpin of the contemporary Irish Folk scene, on how she uses ancient instruments to explore new sonic palettes.

As the new decade dawns, Monocle's Rob Bound and Augustin Macellari look ahead to 2020 with Jacques Testard, founder of London's influential publishing house, Fitzcarraldo Editions. Plus, Clare Gough, director of Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery, unpacks the upcoming programme and Mode Exchange director Chris Vaughan explains the experimental music ties between the UK and Japan that his festival will be exploring in 2020.

Rob Bound and Augustin Macellari look back at 2019, revisiting the conversations and motifs that made the year. A conservateur and a mudlark explain how a tactile engagement with the past can facilitate time travel, while journalists, artists and documentarians reflect on surveillance capitalism. Plus: an author and a popstar on the psychic resonance of the US landscape.

Chris Maynard, author of cult Usborne children’s book, ‘All About Ghosts’, joins us to discuss his work on a publication that sent chills up the spines of a generation of kids. Plus, a Christmas cocktail-making workshop from one of Rosewood London’s Scarfes Bar’s crack bartenders, and a look at the psychedelic magic that underpins pre-Christian Christmas.

We meet musician Dan Bejar, better known as Destroyer, to find out about his forthcoming album, ‘Have We Met’. Plus: CEO-turned-filmmaker Philipp Humm and actor Martin Hancock discuss their adaptation of Goethe’s ‘Faust’, and priest Marie-Elsa Bragg on her intensely personal new book.

Musician and composer Yann Tiersen talks about collaboration, misinterpretation and going analogue as he releases his new album, ‘Portrait’. Plus: Humphrey Ocean, one of the UK’s great painters, discusses his 50-year career, and our culture editor, Chiara Rimella, reports from Art Basel in Miami Beach.

André Aciman, author of ‘Call Me By Your Name’ tells us why he wanted to revisit the characters in its recent sequel, ‘Find Me’. Plus: we speak to Francesca Cartier Brickell, a scion of the Cartier dynasty, about her family history and join Jockum Nordström’s on a tour of his latest exhibition at London’s David Zwirner gallery.

We meet Rana Foroohar, FT columnist and author of ‘Don’t be Evil,’ a new book that explores just how and when Big Tech lost its way. Plus: Greco-Australian duo Xylouris White talk turning the Myth of Sisyphus from a negative to a positive, and the curator of a major new Dora Maar exhibition at the Tate unpacks her legacy.