In 2011, Laurence was named one of the first ten New Generation Thinkers by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC, chosen from over a thousand early-career academics to develop their research into radio programmes.
Since then, he has appeared regularly on BBC radio as a commentator, and has written and presented feature-length documentaries on Victorian Literature, the Merchant-Ivory films, and the history of Radio 3.
Laurence is an experienced interviewer, and is especially interested in talking to literary authors about their work. His interviewees for the BBC include: André Aciman, Esi Edugyan, Teju Cole, Anne Enright, Yaa Gyasi, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ben Lerner, Patricia Lockwood, Valeria Luiselli, and Jeet Thayil. He has also interviewed writers at The London Review Bookshop and for Penguin Books.
Contact Laurence for interview work here.
Laurence is a regular presenter of the BBC arts and ideas programme, Free Thinking. Listen to his latest episodes below, via the Arts and Ideas podcast.
BBC Free Thinking
Latest Episodes
Libraries
African Identities
Playhouses
Immigration to America, Canada, Australia
AI and Feminism
How to Create a Modernist Masterpiece
Paper
Being Human Festival 2021
Oceans, Art, and Pacific Poetry
Colour
Coastal Gothic
Building London
Samuel Johnson’s Circle
Writing About Faith
Horatio Clare, the poetry of Stevie Smith
Patricia Lockwood and André Aciman
Anne Enright on Actress, The Value of Gossip
Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence
The Changing Image of Masculinity
Modern Dutch Writing
Landmark: Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation
W.B Sebald, Anti-Semitism, Carolyn Forché
1819: The American Model
Simplify Your Life
Translation Tales: George Szirtes, Jhumpa Lahiri, Valeria Luiselli
Skeuomorphs, Design and Modern Craft
Slow Looking at Art
Born in 1819: Ruskin, Clough, Bazalgette
Slavery Stories
Canada 150
Narcissism
Running
Being Human Festival 2016
Other Appearances
BBC Radio 4, Front Row
BBC Radio 4, Saturday Review
BBC Radio 4, Saturday Review
BBC Radio 4, The Digital Human