An arctic chill is blowing through the studio this month as we welcome Gavin Francis, who spent fourteen months living alongside emperor penguins at Halley, an isolated British research station on the Caird Coast of Antarctica so remote is said to be easier to evacuate a casualty from the International Space Station than it is to bring someone out of Halley in winter. Gavin is joined by Sara Wheeler, the author of two modern classics of Arctic and Antarctic exploration, Terra Incognita and The Magnetic North. Sharon Olds took time out on her recent visit to London to read for us from her new poetry collection, Stag’s Leap, and we have an extract from a new novel out in January, The Last Quarter of the Moon by Chi Zijian.