Neil Gaiman and Audrey Niffenegger, Union Chapel, London

The best view in the house: Stephen Fry called Gaiman’s latest book “magnificent”. He’s at the Union Chapel to discuss it.

Where do you start with Neil Gaiman? - he’s written for children and adults, television and film. He’s written comics and novels with credits for works as diverse as Dr Who, The Sandman, The Graveyard Book, American Gods, Good Omens, a collaboration with Terry Pratchett, and the haunting Coraline. And yet he proves to be an incredibly humble and funny man: “… I once misspelled ‘Caroline’ in a letter”.

The View from the Cheap Seats is his new collection of readable non-fiction essays. To get a taste, try watching his 2012 Commencement speech for Philadelphia University students: the transcription, ‘Make Good Art’ appears in the book. If anything, it shows what an incredibly likeable speaker Gaiman is, with gems such as “IRS on your trail? Make good art… Cat exploded? Make good art.”

For the many fans of the brilliance and poignancy of The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger should be a treat, hopefully drawing on her own work in the conversation. She, like Gaiman, experiments across literary forms and published her own self-illustrated adult fairy tale, Raven Girl, which appeared as a Royal Opera House ballet last year.

There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to Gaiman’s work, but hopefully he will touch on his close relationship with the late Terry Pratchett.

A signed copy of The View from the Cheap Seats is included in the ticket price. Expect to come away inspired to stretch your imagination: “If you don’t know it’s impossible, it’s easier to do”.