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The acclaimed writer Alison MacLeod's new and specially commissioned story sees the brilliant Ada Lovelace take a liberating flight of fancy where a vision of the future unfurls. Phoebe Campbell reads.

In Alison MacLeod's beautifully written and sharply observed story, we travel back to the Victorian era where we encounter a young woman and her formidable intellect. Ada Lovelace well known as the daughter of Byron and an early contributor the forerunner to the computer and AI, the 'Analytical Machine' was a mathematical genius. Less well known is that she once wanted to fly, and in her desire to be airborne her fierce imagination led her into the unseen worlds of science and discovery.

Alison MacLeod is a novelist, short story writer and senior academic. Her most recent novel, Tenderness, was a New York Times ‘Best Book’ of the year and a ‘Best Paperback’ of the year for The Sunday Times. Her novel Unexploded was nominated for the Man-Booker Prize and adapted for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4. Her collection All the Beloved Ghosts was shortlisted for Canada’s Governor General’s Award for Fiction and for the UK's Edge Hill Short Story Prize. She has also been shortlisted for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ National Short Story Award, and her stories have often been broadcast on Radio 3 and 4. She is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester, a Writers' Award recipient of the British Library, and currently lectures on a part-time basis at Anglia Ruskin University, where she contributes to the Cambridge Writing Centre.

Phoebe Campbell is best known for playing Rhaena Targaryen in the fantasy series House of the Dragon. Campbell's played Susanna in the RSC West End production of Hamnet, and Nikki in Alma Mater at the Almeida.

The producer is Elizabeth Allard.