Our dearest podcast listeners - we have a special, important message for you from our founder Damian Barr, as we say a very fond but sad farewell to the Literary Salon... Some of you have come along in person or online or listened to our podcast for years. Thank you for being there—readers bring a book to life, and that’s what you’ve done for Salon. It’s been fifteen years since our first night at Shoreditch House and we’ve grown beyond any dream Damian dared have. So in this special final episo...
Sep 12, 2023•16 min
Before the summer is out we wanted to share a page-turning holiday read on the podcast. The Orchid Hour takes us back to New York City, 1923, when Zia De Luca’s life is about to be shattered. She lives with her in-laws in Little Italy and works at the public library, but when an unassuming patron is murdered, the police investigation focuses on Zia... After another tragedy strikes even closer to home, she learns the crimes are connected to a new speakeasy in Greenwich Village. When the police in...
Aug 30, 2023•16 min
Our Book of the Week is a spellbinding debut novel by writer and commissioning editor on The Observer newspaper, Kathryn Bromwich. In At the Edge of the Woods, Laura lives alone in a cabin deep in the Italian Alps. When she isn’t translating documents, she spends her days climbing the mountains exploring the woods. But while she reconnects with nature, Laura is hiding from the violence of her past. The village where she purchases supplies grows wary of the woman in the cabin and of her increasin...
Aug 23, 2023•14 min
Our Book of the Week will have you laughing and crying in equal measure! Stand-up comedian Jo Caulfield’s hilarious memoir, The Funny Thing About Death, is about two unconventional girls growing up in the 1970s. Six years ago, Jo was about to go on stage when she found out that her big sister Annie had cancer. Not the best way to start a nationwide comedy tour. But the tour turns out to be a welcome distraction for them both. As Jo reports back from various hotels and service stations, they revi...
Aug 16, 2023•15 min
This week we’re joined by Paul Dalgarno reading from his thoughtful, existential novel, A Country of Eternal Light. Margaret Bryce has been having a hard time since dying in 2014. In a liminal place, we join Margaret as she revisits her life, from her Aberdeen prefab childhood to the birth of her twin girls, through Thatcher’s Britain, the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, the death of Princess Diana and the COVID pandemic. But as Margaret struggles to remember he...
Aug 09, 2023•15 min
In this week's episode, Catherine Taylor reads from her new book The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time, a story about coming of age in the north of England during the 1970s and 80s. Historical events were happening all around her: from the pursuit and capture of the Yorkshire Ripper, to the anti-nuclear protests and Miners’ Strike. But there were also pressing concerns at home, including her parent’s divorce and a debilitating illness that would define her late adolescence... We're so excited...
Aug 02, 2023•13 min
In this week’s episode, Booker award-winning author Ben Okri combines fiction, essay and poetry in Tiger Work. This incredible collection, inspired by environmental activism, displays his classic blend of storytelling, fantasy and magic in tales that imagine messages sent to us from beyond the end, from those who saw it coming - exhorting us to change now. 'Both a work of lyrical imagination and a warning about the dangers we will face unless we take immediate action' - New Yorker This is an imp...
Jul 26, 2023•16 min
From the Booker longlisted author, and an Irish Times No.1 bestseller - Donal Ryan’s The Queen of Dirt Island is a searing, jubilant novel about four generations of women and the stories that bind them. On a council estate in County Tipperary, Ireland, the Aylward women stick with each other through thick and thin, and always with a wicked sense of humour. The head of the family, Nana, is a woman who has buried two sons. Her daughter-in-law, Eileen, is estranged from her own parents, having 'sha...
Jul 19, 2023•12 min
Our next guest on the podcast is Essie Fox, reading from her instant Sunday Times bestseller, The Fascination. It’s a Victorian story about the estranged grandson of a wealthy collector of human curiosities, who becomes fascinated with teenage twin sisters, leading them into a web of dark obsessions... And we love this dazzlingly gothic novel from the bestselling author of The Somnambulist. ‘A magical, macabre masterpiece’ - A.J. West, author of The Spirit Engineer This is a perfect pick for any...
Jul 12, 2023•17 min
We’ve got a literary thriller in store for you this week! In the seaside town of Kinlough, Ireland, three old friends are thrown together for the first time since the disappearance of their friend Kala... Fifteen years later Helen has reluctantly returned for her father's wedding; Joe is a world-famous musician back in town for a gig; and Mush has never left, too scared to venture beyond the counter of his mother's café. When two more girls go missing, the past and present collide as these estra...
Jul 05, 2023•14 min
Deep in Brazil's neglected Bahia hinterland, two sisters find an ancient knife beneath their grandmother's bed and, momentarily mystified by its power, decide to taste its metal. The tragedy that follows marks their lives and binds them together forever... Heralded as a new masterpiece and the most important Brazilian novel of this century, Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior merges folklore with the plight of Afro-Brazilian subsistence farmers, covering themes of family, spirituality, slavery ...
Jun 28, 2023•14 min
Award-winning actor and creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Gertrude Stein, Miriam truly is a national treasure - and possibly our very favourite lesbian. She made us wait a long time for her extraordinary life story, and it's far richer and stranger than any part she's played. From declaring her love to Vanessa Redgrave to being told to be quiet by the Queen, her memoir This Much Is True is packed with brilliant stories, several of which Miriam shared with us...
Jun 22, 2023•40 min
Smart, accessible, thoughtful, entertaining and frank: our Book of the Week is Black Girl, No Magic by Kimberly McIntosh. Informed by years of social policy research and campaign work, as well as her own personal experiences, this debut essay collection investigates the intersection of race and class in the UK. She discusses dismantling the myth of social mobility for those who conform to expectations, how systematic injustice impacts us all, and many other urgent questions. Don’t worry if you’r...
Jun 21, 2023•13 min
A grand hotel, a famous opera star and a psychoanalyst with a hidden agenda. Our Book of the Week offers a glamorous, thrilling ride through murder, madness and the darkest recesses of the mind, set at Birmingham’s Regent Hotel in 1929, where guests sip absinthe cocktails on velvet banquettes and nothing is as it appears... Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas is published by Apollo, an imprint of beloved publisher Head of Zeus, and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie book...
Jun 14, 2023•15 min
We’re thrilled to bring you a reading from And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu. This is the inaugural title from a new publisher on the scene: Roxane Gay Books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic. Roxane Gay is of course the bestselling author of Bad Feminist and her press will publish beautifully written, provocative, intelligent writing including underrepresented fiction, nonfiction and memoir. And Then He Sang a Lullaby is a passionate and heartbreaking debut from a Nigerian writer...
Jun 07, 2023•19 min
This week we’re bringing you a brilliant, poignant and darkly comic novel by Irish author Alice Ryan. Molly Black has been running away since her parents died. But this time, or so says her note, she's gone for good... There's Been a Little Incident is an award-winning debut novel about grief, family and the people who are there for you when you can't be there for yourself. 'Warm, wry and genuinely funny' - Marian Keyes Perfect for readers of Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan and Snowflake by Louis...
May 31, 2023•11 min
It’s time for some sex positivity! This week we’ve invited sex and relationship columnist Zachary Zane to read to you from his painfully funny memoir, Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto. The New York based author bares all in this memoir-manifesto, exploring how, even today, we live in a world that shames people for the sex they have and the sexualities they inhabit. Through the lens of his bisexuality and self-described sluttiness, Zachary breaks down how this sexual shame impacts our lives, and h...
May 24, 2023•21 min
We’ve got another page-turner on the podcast this week, this time by internationally bestselling author Joanne Harris! In Broken Light, Bernie Moon has given her life to other people: her husband, her son, her friends. At nineteen she was full of dreams and ambitions; now almost fifty, and going through the menopause, she's fading, fast. When a young woman is murdered in a local park, it sparks a series of childhood memories and a talent that has lain dormant most of her adult life. But what wil...
May 10, 2023•13 min
Prepare to be dazzled by our Book of the Week, Eyes Guts Throat Bones, an anthology of macabre tales at the end of civilisation. Moïra Fowley's spellbinding imagination will captivate your senses in an irresistible collection that explores our darkest impulses and deepest fears, interlaced with stories of queer love. ‘One of my favourite storytellers. These tales lingered, morphed, consumed me.’ Kiran Millwood Hargrave Eyes Guts Throat Bones by Moïra Fowley is published by Weidenfeld & Nicol...
May 03, 2023•13 min
We’re delighted to bring you a new instalment of The Darkland Tales! In this series, leading Scottish authors offer dramatic retellings of stories from their nation's history, myth and legend. Last season we brought you Hex by Jenni Fagan. This season we’re spotlighting Nothing Left to Fear From Hell by award-winning author Alan Warner. In this story, Bonnie Prince Charles flees from the disastrous Battle of Culloden with a small band of companions through the mountainous landscapes of the north...
Apr 26, 2023•18 min
Make room in your heart for our book of the week! Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out by Ryan Love is the feel-good book you need to read right now. When 79-year-old Arthur comes out to his family the announcement is met with mixed feelings and leads his grandson Teddy to reconsider sharing his own secret... Now the two must navigate a new world of love, heartbreak and finding their place in the queer community. ‘Uplifting and emotional’ Justin Myers If you enjoyed page-turning books like Alice Osem...
Apr 19, 2023•13 min
This week we’re bringing you a gripping literary thriller set in the world of dark academia, for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Katy Hays The Cloisters. In Joanna Margaret’s debut novel The Bequest, PhD student Isabel Henley arrives to study at St Andrew’s University but when her friend Rose disappears she must solve a 450 year-old mystery to save both their lives... 'Richly atmospheric and irresistibly readable' Joyce Carol Oates The Bequest by Joanna Margaret is published by Head...
Apr 12, 2023•12 min
We’re beyond thrilled to welcome Max Porter onto the podcast to read from his highly anticipated and acclaimed new novel, Shy! Max is the bestselling author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny. His latest story is about adolescent rage, struggles with mental health, imagination and coming-of-age in an alienating world, about being lost in the dark and the uncertainty of whether you’ll ever find yourself. ‘Shy is the strangest, most beguiling and affecting of all his books.’ Ian Rankin ...
Apr 05, 2023•10 min
This week’s episode is especially for fans of folklore and readers of marvellous myths. White Cat, Black Dog contains seven modern fairytales from Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, featuring illustrations by award-winning artist Shaun Tan. Each is inspired by a classic fable retold with a modern twist, breathing new life into old favourites with Kelly’s signature imagination and wit. If you enjoyed Salt Slow by Julia Armfield or The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter then this collection is for y...
Mar 29, 2023•15 min
If you could save the life of a loved one by trading in years of your own life, how many years would you give? How many lives could you save? Would you know when to stop? Francis Broad has negotiated the day of his death and now he must come to terms with the decisions he has made. Three Gifts by Mark A. Radcliffe is our thought provoking, page-turning book of the week. Published by Brighton-based independent publisher Epoque Press, this book is available now and will appeal to readers of The Lo...
Mar 22, 2023•16 min
We love platforming talented new voices on the podcast and this week we're thrilled to be joined by debut author Krystle Zara Appiah, as she reads from her new book, Rootless. When an unplanned pregnancy forces Efe and Sam to confront their differences, they’ll discover if what they really want is still each other… A poignant, heart-breaking story about a British-Ghanaian marriage in crisis, Rootless explores themes of friendship, family expectations, societal obligation and motherhood. But abov...
Mar 15, 2023•17 min
Welcome to this special episode sharing a conversation between Jojo Moyes and Alex Clark about Jojo's new novel, 'Someone Else’s Shoes'! Jojo's novels have sold over 51 million copies worldwide, hit the Number One spot in 12 countries, have been translated into 46 languages and one of her bestselling books was adapted into a film starring Sam Claflin and Emilia Clarke. Someone Else’s Shoes is her 16th novel, and we were incredibly excited to have her on a special Instagram Live last month, just ...
Mar 07, 2023•37 min
We’re delighted to welcome award-winning author Sebastian Barry to the podcast, reading from his new novel Old God’s Time. Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, but when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past... A beautiful novel in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God's Time is about that which ...
Mar 01, 2023•16 min
If you love literary memoir by newly discovered Irish authors then have we got the book for you! Carmel Mc Mahon’s In Ordinary Time is a revelation - a multi-layered exploration of memory, grief and addiction that mines the ways that trauma reverberates through time. From tragically lost siblings to the broader social scars of the Famine and the Magdalene Laundries, Carmel sketches the evolution of a consciousness – from her conservative 1970s upbringing to her emigrant’s tale in New York in the...
Feb 22, 2023•15 min
Publicist to the stars, Georgina Moore, is our beloved guest of the week. Her debut novel The Garnett Girls is the most talked about book of 2023, and trust us when we say: believe the hype! The charismatic Margo is matriarch of the Garnett girls: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha, her three daughters who live in the shadow of their larger than life mother. But in the family home on the Isle of Wight, behind the lavish parties and casual acquaintances with handsome men, Margo is keeping a secret that gna...
Feb 15, 2023•11 min
