A heavyweight tale in featherweight prose. A beautiful story about a boy who slips away into adulthood. A ghost story about a person who’s still alive. Burning Books is back with a brand new season! 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 ide...
Oct 25, 2017•21 min
The latest news, gossip and insight from the sharp end of the media world, brought to you by Donna in Florida and Peter in London. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Oct 13, 2017•25 min
The latest news, gossip and insight from the sharp end of the media world, brought to you by Donna in Florida and Peter in London. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Jul 07, 2017•25 min
The latest news, gossip and insight from the sharp end of the media world, brought to you by Donna in Florida and Peter in London. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Apr 28, 2017•25 min
Part One of the Doyle’s The Last Roundup charts the raising, rising and falling of Henry Smart, scamp of Dublin, caught up in the machine of so-called national so-called liberation. 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 th...
Apr 11, 2017•21 min
The latest news, gossip and insight from the sharp end of the media world, brought to you by Donna in Florida and Peter in London. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Apr 09, 2017•25 min
The latest news, gossip and insight from the sharp end of the media world, brought to you by Donna in Florida and Peter in London. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Mar 03, 2017•25 min
The latest news, gossip and insight from the sharp end of the media world, brought to you by Donna in Florida and Peter in London. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Feb 17, 2017•25 min
A sliver of a book unfolds as a triptych, brilliant and beautiful, the subtlest of writing making the greatest of waves. Featuring Walter Benjamin.. 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 a...
Feb 16, 2017•21 min
Somebody please hand me a glossary of terrible non-puns from the 1910s, although no post-rationalisation is going to save this dip into the addled mind of a bureaucratic toff. By the author of some very good novels as well as this one. Dot and carry one, WHATEVER THAT MEANS. 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, l...
Jan 20, 2017•21 min
The latest news, gossip and insight from the sharp end of the media world, brought to you by Donna in Florida and Peter in London. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Jan 20, 2017•25 min
The latest news, gossip and insight from the sharp end of the media world, brought to you by Donna in Florida and Peter in London. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Jan 06, 2017•25 min
Without a doubt, it was our worst-ever show. We never had a guest walk out on us before; the shitstorm that followed saw us branded all over the Internet as racially-insensitive bigots. The author’s publicist swore never to work within us again, and insinuated that he’d try to pull us off the air. All this happened because the Canadian novelist Joseph Boyden walked out of the studio when invited by host Ian Winn to discuss his First Nation origins. We thought at the time – and still do – that it...
Dec 27, 2016•25 min
Part one of Pat Barker’s justly renowned trilogy about WWI (re)introduces us to Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen, Dr William Rivers and Billy Prior – all men who have been changed beyond recognition by a new, modern mode of civilisation destruction – wash, rinse, repeat. With additional cameos by Erich Maria Remarque and Modris Eksteins. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, histo...
Dec 16, 2016•21 min
Elena is friends with Lila, whom hurts Elena in all kinds of ways that Elena finds fascinating, and painful. Slums, slums, slums, creepy older men, and not a single moment of levity. Prepare yourself. 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 i...
Dec 01, 2016•21 min
Jan and Dirk were inseparable as teenagers, right up till the moment they separated. That didn’t end the friendship, though, which lives on even as the two grow estranged from one another. 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 ar...
Nov 27, 2016•21 min
Part Two of Ghosh’s ‘ Ibis ’ Trilogy looks at the run-up to the Opium Wars. From Bombay to Canton, Mauritius to Malacca – set sail for adventure, knowledge, and a number of excellent descriptions of the twists and turns of the early 18th century, globalised drug trade. 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...
Nov 21, 2016•26 min
New Jersey stands in for Algeria, not that Frank Bascombe would have noticed, living the good life and everything’s okay and nothing bears too much looking into – like the giant chasm of nothingness opening up beneath his feet. With guest appearances from Steinbeck, Faulkner and AC himself. 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 th...
Nov 10, 2016•26 min
Important news from Eric! 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 novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/...
Aug 09, 2016•26 min
How To Make A Movie: Have a great idea. Write a screenplay. Offer it to Hollywood (this step may take sixteen years waiting tables) Sell your soul (i.e. tarnish your great idea with two nudes, an astronaut, graphic sex, two vampires and three fart jokes) Watch the whole thing get mothballed and die in pre-production . (Despite promises to the contrary, Johnny Depp will not be involved) But there is another way... Tonight we welcome into the studio three authors, three film buffs, two directors a...
Apr 06, 2016•1 hr 5 min
The latest news, gossip and comment from the sharp end of the publishing world, brought to you by Donna in Florida and Peter in London. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Apr 05, 2016•25 min
All the latest news and gossip from the legal end of the publishing world, brought to you by Donna and Peter. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Mar 06, 2016•25 min
All the latest news and gossip from the legal end of the publishing world, brought to you by Donna and Peter. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Feb 21, 2016•25 min
Shortly after the NME announced that punk was dead, The Ruts came along and proved that it wasn’t. Their driving, reggae-infused punk embodied the whole late 70s Rock Against Racism ideal. And their amazing anthems, such as Babylon’s Burning , Staring At the Rude Boys and Something That I Said carried them into the charts and into the hearts of a generation…before tragedy struck. The Ruts story is told at length in Love In Vain - a massive tome written by Roland Link with a foreword by Henry Rol...
Feb 14, 2016
What the hell is going on with publishing? Lots of empty opinion, hype, doom saying and general noise. Cutting through to the signal is difficult – but heck, that’s what LAD does best! So tonight, we bring you an author, a leading industry expert and a publishing rain-maker (oh yes) to cut through the cacophony and tell us exactly what’s going on. Hint: it’s not all bad news. While a quarter of all Americans didn’t read a single book last year (you know who you are) over in Iceland, a million bo...
Feb 14, 2016•1 hr 10 min
All the latest news and gossip from the legal end of the publishing world, brought to you by Donna and Peter. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Feb 09, 2016•25 min
In the quiet Jura region of France, a physician goes completely haywire in a series of crimes that are hard for his friends and acquaintances to grasp. But then their grasp loosens further. And disappears altogether. Because the man at the centre, the man they thought they knew, turns out to be a dangerous and violent stranger. And now I know what it feels like to write a Dateline teaser. Non-fiction. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction ...
Feb 08, 2016•26 min
All the latest news and gossip from the legal end of the publishing world, brought to you by Donna and Peter. Download the show as mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes
Feb 07, 2016•25 min
Tender Asher Lev has a gift – he can draw exceptionally well – and a drive to be an artist. Everyone around him has a drive to make him into a leader in the Ladover Hasidic community, spreading the word of Ladover Hasidism to the far corners of the world. Something has to give. It gives. A story that starts very well. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books s...
Jan 10, 2016•26 min
As the winter solstice passes, Litopia After Dark becomes Litopia After Darker . it's time for festive cheer, certainly. But it's also the moment when the fabric (sorry) between our nightmares and our waking world is at its thinnest. A time for cosy hibernation, yes-- but also fear, depression and real-life demons . Especially in the days of glowing rectangles when the lights never completely go out . Jessica’s extraordinary handiwork is on display at most Royal weddings To help navigate this da...
Dec 30, 2015•1 hr 10 min
