Ian McEwan talks to Julia Gillard

How will our everyday lives be altered by climate change in 100 years? In his new novel, Ian McEwan imagines the radical changes we’ll all have had to accept. What We Can Know is the story of a great poem, read aloud in 2014 and never heard again. A century later, in 2119, scholar Tom Metcalfe is living in a UK ravaged by climate change when he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the lost poem.

Here, McEwan reflects on his career, the inspiration behind his book and what it means to write about climate change. He’s in conversation with Julia Gillard, whose work as Chair of the Wellcome Trust supports science to solve the planet’s urgent challenges. McEwan’s 18 novels include the Booker Prize-winning Amsterdam, and Atonement, which was adapted into a BAFTA-winning film.