Online Video from the British Library

Gillian Anderson has built a career on inventing, inhabiting and adapting some of the most memorable characters ever written. She won an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Crown, a global audience for her role as sex therapist Jean Milburn in Sex Education, and international fame as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in The X-Files.

But what is it that brings a character to life? And how does it feel to give physical form to words on a page? In this Literature Matters: RSL 200 event, Gillian Anderson and her friend, novelist and RSL Fellow Andrew O’Hagan, will study some of their favourite literary characters, and explore why literature matters so much to them.

This event took place on 15 February 2022