Laurel Stone

Laurel is an English and Creative Writing grad living in Norwich.

Your ultimate desert island disc track: that one song you would take with you to a desert island, if you could only choose one.

I’m awful at favourites, so I’m sure that by the time this is published something else will come to mind. However, I’ve listened to Fiona Apple’s ‘Extraordinary Machine’ a lot over the years and find it very uplifting, which would probably be helpful on a desert island.

Who would play you in the film of your life?

Steve Coogan.

If you could have written one play/novel/poem/song, what would it be and why?

Probably Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I’m really enthusiastic about fairy tales and folklore, and the way she weaves them into the meticulously researched and beautifully written alternative history of this story is so brilliant - while lots of fantasy fiction goes there I don’t think I’ve ever come across anything that feels even similar to her writing.

If you could live inside one painting or sculpture, what would it be?

I got to see ‘Undergrowth’ at the van Gogh museum earlier this year, and found the way the rich greens and sunlight on the forest floor were depicted really calming and warm, so I think that would be a pleasant place to be. I genuinely think that van Gogh had a superpower for knowing how colour makes us feel.

What was the last book you didn’t manage to finish?

Orlando by Virgina Woolf but I will come back to it one day! I’m just a disorganised reader - and keep getting distracted by my TBR pile.