This event is part of Conversations at the Kiln, an event series at Kiln Theatre programmed by Intelligence Squared. To see the full line-up click here.

Mark Haddon is a bestselling author and artist. His celebrated novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, about a 15-year-old mathematical genius with Asperger’s syndrome who investigates the murder of a neighbor’s dog, won seventeen literary prizes, was translated into 36 languages, and went on to become an award-winning stage adaptation by Simon Stephens.

In recent years Haddon has spoken about how his creative life was put on hold  by a five-year battle with debilitating long COVID. The illness left him unable to work, forcing a profound reckoning with art, identity, and the forces that have shaped him.

Now returned to public life, Haddon speaks candidly about creativity under pressure – from overcoming personal crises to adapting to the rapid changes reshaping the arts today, including the rise of AI and new battles over copyright.

In May 2026 Haddon joined us to discuss a life spent making art through upheaval, a theme which is central to his hilarious and heartbreaking new memoir Leaving Home. 

Live at the Kiln Theatre, he explored how art, in all its varied forms, provides a way of understanding and coming to terms with the messiness of human life.