A writer, critic and cultural historian teaching in the English department at King’s College London, Lara Feigel is the author of four books including The Love-Charm of Bombs, The Bitter Taste of Victory and, most recently, Free Woman, a book where Lara examines her own life alongside Doris Lessing’s to explore what freedom (sexual, psychological, political) might be and whether it’s attainable or desirable. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, writes regularly for the Guardian and lives in Kensal Rise, London, with her two children. The Group is her first novel.