Will Storr – Keynote Speaker

Will Storr is the writer’s writer and thinker’s thinker. His books on storytelling and the human condition are widely read by highly influential people on both sides of the Atlantic, from writers and public intellectuals including Ezra Klein, Philippa Perry, Nir Eyal and Hannah Fry, to academics such as Angela Duckworth, Greg Lukianoff and David Buss to cultural commentators like David Brooks, Helen Lewis and Daniel Finkelstein. He has a wide circle of fans in British comedy, not least Jimmy Carr, Fern Brady, Russell Kane and Jason Manford. He has been interviewed about his ideas by some of the world’s leading podcasters, including Sam Harris, Russell Brand, Scott Galloway and Steven Bartlett.

His books include Selfie (“Electrifying”, Financial Times), The Status Game (“Excellent… perhaps his best,” The Times) and the Sunday Times bestseller The Science of Storytelling (“Excellent”, New York Times). His novel The Hunger and the Howling of Killian Lone was described as “riveting” in a coveted starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.

Previously, Storr was an award-winning longform journalist who specialised in human rights reporting in Latin America, Africa and the remote Aboriginal communities of Australia. His work appeared in the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Observer, the New York Times and the New Yorker. His groundbreaking reporting on sexual violence against men earned the Amnesty International Award and the One World Press Award. He’s been presented with the AIB Award for Best Investigative Documentary for his two-part BBC radio series.

He has also worked as a ghostwriter for high profile public figures. First Man In, for Ant Middleton, spent months at the top of the Sunday Times bestseller chart and was shortlisted for non-fiction book of the year at the British Book Awards. Humanise, for Thomas Heatherwick, was described by Alain de Botton as “a masterwork”. His ghostwritten books have sold more than two million copies worldwide.