Claire Handscombe

Claire Handscombe works across fiction, journalism, podcasting, and editing, often drawing on transatlantic culture, fandom, and the arts. Unscripted, her first novel, follows Libby, a young woman who devises an elaborate plan to meet the actor she admires by writing a screenplay for him. Unbound published the book in 2019, and Handscombe discussed its characters and publication during interviews connected with her British launch tour. She later wrote the young-reader novel Girl, Unstrung, which shares character connections with the earlier story, and edited Walk With Us, a collection about the influence of The West Wing. Handscombe has also hosted the Brit Lit Podcast and contributed journalism and essays to publications in Britain and the United States. Unscripted brings these interests together through a story about creative ambition, celebrity distance, friendship, and the uncertain line between an imagined narrative and a life that refuses to follow a script.