It's Easter, everybody! Time for daffodils... daylight savings... and l ife-sized chocolate statues of Benedict Cumberbatch . So how about we put aside Ebola , Somalian jihad , narcotraficantes , the heart-wrenching demise of a literary titan -- not to mention the greatest extinction event in the history of planet earth . Let's leave those topics for past and future shows, shall we? (We've got a rip-roarin' summer planned for Litopia After Dark!) Instead let's chat with dyed-in-the-mohair mod Ia...
Apr 06, 2015•55 min
New Class Action Suit Filed Against Penguin Random House Author Solutions’ Deceptive Practices Florida gone wild: Columnist Daniel Tilson gets harassed by police for using Beatles lyric In Florida, officials ban term 'climate change' Marvin Gaye's heirs win $7.4 million for 'Blurred Lines' plagiarism “Blurred Lines”: Society’s Mixed Signals on Copying and Intellectual Property Rights 'Blurred Lines' verdict could alter music industry Oprah Winfrey Wins Tough Trademark Fight Over “Own Your Power”...
Apr 03, 2015•25 min
One of the world’s great authors goes back in time and space – from the Jerusalem of the 1940s to the Eastern Europe of the 19th Century, from a boy's heart to a mother’s face to a father’s brain – and brings back everything, but not enough. Cuts close and hurts so good. Wizardly? Masterful. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the s...
Apr 03, 2015•26 min
They're the latest Manchester sensations - swaggering rockers with more than a hint of Oasis about them. No wonder Alias Kid were snapped up by music maven Alan McGee , the svengali who gave Oasis to the world! As band manager and the boss of Creation Records, McGee has been associated with some of the biggest names in British independent rock, including Oasis , the Libertines , Primal Scream and The Jesus & Mary Chain . Now he joins Garry with his latest protégées who play live in our studi...
Mar 27, 2015•55 min
Meet Susan Blackmore , the world’s foremost expert on memes. The intro to her seminal work The Meme Machine was written by none other than genius biologist and fundamentalist atheist blowhard Richard Dawkins . Her lectures on TED receives millions of views— even despite TED's dishwater-dull format when compared to Litopia After Dark ( rowr! ) “Man becomes, as it were, the sex organs of the machine world,” said Marshal McLuhan . Never has this been more true. (Full quote: Man becomes, as it were,...
Mar 25, 2015•55 min
You might think that landing a coveted job presenting BBC TV’s Top Gear would be the peak of most people’s careers. Not for tonight’s guest, Beki Adam . For her, presenting the most widely-watched factual television programme in the world was just the start of a long, and very strange journey... that may yet take her to a seat in the British Parliament. Predecessor of the infamous, bigoted and fisticuffy Jeremy Clarkson , Beki is the opposite of a petrolhead: she runs an organic farm. She has an...
Mar 22, 2015•55 min
The name Michael Arlen will mean nothing to most readers but Arlen was once the cream of the jazz age novelists, the envy of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Maugham, the owner of speedboats and a villa on the Mediterranean. Then he fell completely into obscurity. By the time his son was born, the golden days were past tense, with the father coasting on his stardust. This is the story of that. Sage butter. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classic...
Mar 12, 2015•26 min
Daisy Waugh is literary royalty. Following in the footsteps of her legendary grandfather Evelyn and her journalist/author father Auberon , Daisy is a popular columnist and novelist in her own right. According to her regular column in the Sunday Times she promoted her last book, “ a feminist diatribe modern motherhood ” by “lying on a giant, polystyrene cut-out of my own name. In a tight red satin skirt which didn’t belong to me, and some magnificent shoes covered in velvet and jewels, on loan fr...
Mar 09, 2015•55 min
Seventy thousand dead. Twenty thousand disappeared. Severed heads with threatening messages dumped by the side of the highway . A terrorist insurgency on the verge of toppling governments. Iraq? Syria? The Congo? Ukraine? No. This is Northern Mexico— one of the most violent places on earth . Why? Because Western culture likes to take drugs . Tons of them. Drugs we brand illegal and on which we’re waging war. To walk us through the kill zone— from the peasants picking coca in the hills behind Bog...
Mar 05, 2015•55 min
They won our coveted track of the year award on our last show, and now the Bar Stool Preachers are playing live in the Hungry & Hunted studio. The hot young Brighton band are as bracing as a 6am plunge in the English Channel. Influenced by 2-Tone and streetpunk, the Preachers are in the vanguard of the new south coast sound that is as passionate as it is authentic and melodic. A proper alternative to mainstream pop pap. Other great bands this edition include Alan McGee’s new signing Alias Ki...
Mar 01, 2015•55 min
At the end of his days, sitting in his villa outside Rome, the Emperor Hadrian writes a long letter to his adopted son, and next great leader of Rome, Marcus Aurelius. In Hadrian’s world, thoughts duel with power, ideas with reality, books with life. Aurelius often gets praise as the first philosopher king, but in this telling it’s Hadrian who is as much thinker as conqueror. Marguerite Yourcenar’s towering intellect and faultless prose bring Second Century Rome to life. Yeah, it’s good. Photo: ...
Feb 20, 2015•26 min
At Last – The Litopia After Dark Xmas Family Murder Show is here! Yeah – it’s a tad late, folks (or early, for next Xmas). But hardcore Yule like this is worth waiting for. This is the show that puts Fifty Shades in the shade. That makes your office Xmas party look sophisticated. That cracks your Xmas nuts and then asks damn fool questions about Ants . There is no mercy; for Agent Cox is the quizmaster. And you are his prey. Don’t miss this unique chance to relive precious childhood Xmas trauma!...
Feb 13, 2015•55 min
Another terrific Debriefer, full of insider poop from the pub biz and informed speculation about everything else! Harper Lee to Publish Sophomore Novel Taylor Swift Owns 1989 'American Idol' Winner Files Bold Legal Claim to Escape 'Oppressive' Contracts South Florida Man Seeks Trademark on Slogan 'Je Suis Charlie' Sold-out Charlie Hebdo issue coming to Barnes and Noble My GRAVITY lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood - Tess Gerritsen Warner Bros. Knocks Down Best-Selling...
Feb 06, 2015•25 min
When US and UK forces invaded Iraq in 2003, millions of people took to the streets to protes – to little effect. The bombs of Shock and Awe kept falling. By some estimates the civilian death toll stands at over 150,000 . Like many people, tonight’s guest David Gross had a crisis of conscience. And yet unlike many people, he’s done something about it. He’s stopped paying taxes. Not by tax avoidance, but by lowering his income below the tax threshold - and by using as many loopholes as he can find...
Feb 05, 2015•55 min
Egmont USA to Close After Sale Attempt Falls Through Christian publisher pulls heaven book after boy retracts story Human rights lawyer in Tajikistan jailed for nine years Racial Discrimination Act would outlaw Charlie Hebdo cartoons, say critics City of Paris to sue Fox News over on-air comments West Virginia Delegates consider adding journalists to list of protected workers David Petraeus: From military rock star to possible prosecution regarding biography Follow ups: Court Filing Ends AG v. H...
Feb 05, 2015•25 min
What does it mean to be a conservative in 2015? Garry’s guest tonight is Professor Roger Scruton , one of England’s leading philosophers and the author of How To Be A Conservative , along with many other provocative and intelligent books which question the dominant left-liberalism of modern Western thought. The son of a working class Mancunian Labour Party supporter, Roger’s contrary views were shaped by the 1968 Paris uprising when he realised that he was on the other side: the side that wanted...
Feb 01, 2015
Gauss and Humboldt set off to the same destination in opposite directions and unfortunately this novel was written about it. Tedious. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as ...
Jan 30, 2015•26 min
Without doubt, Jimmy Jones is the biggest British comedy star never to have had his own television series. For five decades, Jimmy has been Britain’s most successful live comedian – performing around 275 sell-out live shows every year. Jimmy’s life in comedy is the subject of Garry’s show tonight – and what a life it has been. Summoned by Michael Jackson to his suite at the Dorchester... swapping gags with Prince Philip... pouring brandy for Princess Margaret out of a teapot... performing for so...
Jan 29, 2015
Rhoda Dakar is one of the UK Ska scene’s feistiest characters, making her mark originally with the Bodysnatchers and then with Jerry Dammers in the Special AKA. Rhoda’s talent, intelligence, and heartfelt socialist ideals made her stand out from the pack. Like Dammers, she wanted 2-Tone to mean more than a good time…cue songs like The Boiler and Free Nelson Mandela that added real politics to the movement's in-built message of racial tolerance. Rhoda was a teenage glam rocker caught up in the ru...
Jan 29, 2015
So here it is... our special, annual Song Of The Year Show... in which Garry and guests review the very best tracks submitted to us in the past year and - without fear or favour - pick the most excellent example of indie music in the history of the universe. Or something like that. Garry special guest panel comprises rock writer and musician Johnny Wah-Wah and London Mod icon Shona “Wattsie” Watts . And Mik Whitnall drops by to deliver a live set while the judges are out in the jury room. Altoge...
Jan 24, 2015•55 min
World leaders march arm-in-arm in Paris in support of free speech. Meanwhile, back at home, our freedoms are eroded almost daily. “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” predicted Ben Franklin , who knew a thing or two about the political mind’s unquenchable thirst for power and control. In Britain, the government is introducing a law compelling nursery staff and childminders to report toddlers they suspect of being t...
Jan 19, 2015•25 min
Fall forward into one of the stranger stories you’ll encounter this year – or any other. Maxi, a young man from the middle classes of Buenos Aires, collects used cardboard, lifts weights, busts a drug ring, but can’t seem to surprise a sleeping street kid. Makes sense, right? No? Who cares – no plot outline is going to tell you what’s actually in the book. Different. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoir...
Jan 09, 2015•26 min
She's the love child of Marilyn Monroe and Ziggy Stardust, and Kiria Le Pink is simply one of the most exciting artists on the UK's newly-revitalized rockabilly scene. Working with Camden's legendary producer Phil 'Doyley' Doyle the North London singer-songwriter is intent on making one of the earliest forms of rock'n'roll vital and sexy again. Kiria and two of her Missy Le Pink crew join Garry in the studio for a lively Xmas/New Year show. And as usual the playlist mixes and mashes new songs fr...
Jan 03, 2015•55 min
From Axl Rose to Sharon Osbourne, legendary rock journalist Mick Wall knows them all. A world-class raconteur, Mick joins Garry tonight for an evening of absolute rock nirvana. Mick’s story is a real-life Almost Famous with balls on. And goats. And many, many other substances. What a long, strange journey it’s been! Stopping-off points include The Police, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Dire Straits, Lou Reed, and many more. Currently, Mick has just concluded an investigation into the death of Jim Mo...
Dec 13, 2014
A novel that includes displaced persons, new countries, war, Cyprus, the OED, Venice, Blood Libel and Othello – this should be sweet. So why does it all taste so healthy? Caryl Phillips sucks all the sugar out of what should be a thrilling experience. Why? Granola. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy...
Dec 12, 2014•26 min
He’s a threat to democracy, as dangerous as ISIS, and keeps bees. He’s a freaky dancer, a maestro of the maracas and a brewer of fine old, traditional ale. Oh yes - and the icon that is Bez from the legendary Mancunian band Happy Mondays also wants to be your MP. Garry’s guest tonight is Mark Berry, known universally as Bez. By the late 1980s, the Happy Mondays were a central part of the Manchester music scene and personified rave culture. Musically, the band fused indie pop with house music, fu...
Dec 01, 2014
Ian’s guests tonight are Daisy Eris Campbell and Jon Higgs who are bringing Robert Anton Wilson ’s cult classic The Cosmic Trigger, The Final Secret of the Illuminati to the stage. Impossible? Well, when you consider that this nonfiction and partly autobiographical work covers, amongst many other topics... Freemasons, Discordianism, Sufism, the Illuminati, Futurology, Zen Buddhism, Dennis and Terence McKenna, Jack Parsons, the occult practices of Aleister Crowley and G.I. Gurdjieff, Yoga, and ma...
Nov 27, 2014•55 min
One man goes against the system he helped create and the results are not encouraging. Koestler fictionalises the Moscow Show Trials of the 1930s, where parts are fused onto the whole and the whole is broken into parts. A masterful novel. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (...
Nov 21, 2014•29 min
Mal Peet is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest British writers alive. His books have won many awards, and reviews range from the merely enthusiastic to the ecstatic. A deeply creative writer, Mal joins us tonight to chat about the writing process, tar-grouted macadam, nano-drones and Tolkienism. Oh, and also his newly publishing book, THE MURDSTONE TRILOGY … which isn’t a trilogy at all. Click to order from Amazon Is there a formula for writing the next George “Rolls Royce” Martin swo...
Nov 13, 2014•55 min
On this day in 1918 – the eleventh day of the eleventh month, at the 11th hour – the hostilities of the First World war formally ended. This is Remembrance Day, aka Poppy Day. But why poppies? Well, contrary to popular belief, poppies have been associated with war since at least Napoleonic times, when a writer first noted how poppies grew over the graves of soldiers. It is theorized that the damage done to the landscape in Flanders during WW1 greatly increased the lime content in the soil, leavi...
Nov 11, 2014•55 min
