This week, Lucy Dallas is joined by Kathryn Sutherland to tuck into the three o'clock dinners of Joseph Johnson, publisher and friend of Mary Wollstonecraft, Joseph Priestley, Henry Fuseli, Williams Blake and Wordsworth, and many more great minds of that era. And Boyd Tonkin explains that Napoleon's conqueror, the "Iron Duke" of Wellington, had a great and unexpected gift for friendship - with women. 'Dinner with Joseph Johnson' by Daisy Hay 'Wellington, women and friendship' at Apsley House, Lo...
May 11, 2022•50 min
This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Joe Moran to explore the strange world of precognition, and Elizabeth Lowry is bowled over by the iconoclastic work of South African multimedia artist William Kentridge. Plus great news for Terry Pratchett fans, as an all-star cast records his much-loved Discworld series. 'The Premonitions Bureau’ by Sam Knight ‘SYBIL’ by William Kentridge Produced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 05, 2022•1 hr 2 min
This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Carol Tavris to discuss two wide-ranging works of biology that cast fascinating light on our understanding of sexual behaviour and gender identity throughout the animal and human world. And James Waddell explores a “bibliobiography” by a Shakespeare scholar that digs deep into centuries of books and their readers - from “shelfies” to book burning to the historical precedent for Jilly Cooper’s Riders. 'Different: Gender through the eyes of a pri...
Apr 28, 2022•1 hr
This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Nat Segnit to discuss the long reach of the gambling industry and the music of chance, and Kevin Brazil brings to life a dystopian novel from 1977. ‘Jackpot: How Gambling Conquered Britain’ by Rob Davies ‘Might Bite: The Secret Life of a Gambling Addict’ by Patrick Foster, with Will Macpherson ‘Big Snake Little Snake: An Inquiry into Risk’ by DBC Pierre ’They’ by Kay Dick Produced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...
Apr 21, 2022•59 min
This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Dinah Birch to discuss Elizabeth Finch, the new novel by Julian Barnes, and find themselves in a world of charismatic teachers and forgotten Roman emperors. Also, the sports historian David Goldblatt explores a global survey of sport through the ages from the ancient Chinese game of cuju to the glories of Bristol Rovers. ‘Elizabeth Finch’ by Julian Barnes ‘Games People Played: A Global History of Sport’ by Wray Vamplew Produced by Sophia Frankl...
Apr 14, 2022•1 hr 1 min
This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Emma Clery, specialist in 18th and 19th-century literature and author of Jane Austen: The Banker’s Sister, to discuss what Austen’s juvenilia and unpublished works tell us about the writer - will we find, as some critics have suggested, a far less restrained and irreverent novelist than we might expect? And Catherine Taylor, who is writing a memoir of her Sheffield upbringing, explores two accounts of growing up in the north of England. ‘Jane A...
Apr 07, 2022•1 hr 7 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Cal Flyn, the author of 'Islands of Abandonment: Life in the post-human landscape’, to venture into the 'extreme north' – part place, part concept – where sparsely populated landscapes have long offered a blank canvas on which to project hopes, dreams and neuroses; the critic En Liang Khong considers Ai Weiwei’s artistic rebellion against the Chinese state, situating its roots in the artist's early years and relationship with his father 'E...
Mar 31, 2022•50 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Miranda France, the TLS’s Hispanic editor, to discuss the Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor and two new works that approach brutal and brutalized lives in innovative ways; Michael Caines, also of the TLS, considers a collection of essays that sets out to complicate stereotypes of East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain; and there’s focus on film, including Nosferatu at 100, unsung heroines of the big screen, and a fresh look at Marilyn ...
Mar 24, 2022•53 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the critic Nelly Kaprièlian and the TLS’s French editor Russell Williams to discuss ‘Anéantir’, the latest novel by France’s best-known and maybe most controversial writer, Michel Houellebecq; the TLS’s Toby Lichtig talks us through a new memoir by the ‘pre-eminent author of British Jewish novels’, Howard Jacobson, and we consider a masterclass in sympathy from Anne Tyler, a tale of revenge by Japan’s ‘Queen of mysteries’, and a wartime re...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 5 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the writer and critic Mary Norris to discuss the phenomenon that is Margaret Atwood – surely her kind of success requires a method? A new collection of essays and talks sheds some light; Sujit Sivasundaram, the author of ‘Waves Across the South: A new history of revolution and empire’, considers a work of non-fiction by the novelist Amitav Ghosh which paints a compelling picture of how the trade in nutmeg prefigured today’s environmental c...
Mar 10, 2022•53 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the critic Muriel Zagha to discuss a new play by Florian Zeller, ‘the most successful representative of contemporary French theatre’; Kathryn Hughes, the author of ‘Victorians Undone: Tales of the flesh in the age of decorum’ , explores the cultural significance of passing out, from ‘Troilus and Criseyde’ to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, via Shakespeare and Bram Stoker; plus, a poem by Ange Mlinko, ‘Storm Windows’ ‘The Forest’ by Florian Zeller,...
Mar 03, 2022•1 hr 4 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Jeremy Mynott, the author of ‘Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience’ and ‘Birds in the Ancient World’, to ponder 12,000 years of human–bird relations. ‘How is it that, despite a historically deep-rooted veneration, we could also have predated, exploited and depleted bird populations to the point where more than one in ten species is now threatened with extinction?’; and Janet Montefiore, Chair of the Sylvia Townsend Warner So...
Feb 24, 2022•49 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Alex Clark are joined by Ann Hallamore Caesar, Professor Emerita in Italian Literature at the University of Warwick, to discuss the birth and legacy of Pinocchio, the world’s most famous (and most insolent) puppet – is his story really only for children? And do we need another English translation?; George Berridge, a TLS editor and restaurant-kitchen survivor, considers two close-ups on the troubled life of the chef, restaurateur and TV presenter Anthony Bourdain ‘...
Feb 17, 2022•52 min
This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Sara Hudston to talk about how to write about our environment, who gets to write about it, why it is so crucial - and "horsey" books; and James McConnachie, himself a keen player, discusses the future of strategy games, given that the computers are increasingly beating the humans Women on Nature, edited by Katherine Norbury Wild Isles, edited by Patrick Barkham Gifts of Gravity and Light, edited by Anita Roy and Pippa Marland Out of Time: Poetr...
Feb 10, 2022•58 min
This week, to mark 100 years since the publication of ‘Ulysses’, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the novelist Audrey Magee to discuss how James Joyce wrestled with the demands, political and personal, of the Irish language; the anthropologist and science writer Barbara J. King reviews Andrea Arnold’s film ‘Cow’, which attempts to show life from an animal’s perspective; plus, Mary Beard shares a few thoughts on Roman kissing. 'Cow', directed by Andrea Arnold Produced by Sophia Frank...
Feb 03, 2022•59 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Benjamin Markovits, the novelist, critic and teacher of creative writing, to discuss 100 American essays spanning 300-odd years (‘have we got any better at it?’); the sinologist Rana Mitter discusses the supremely difficult, and controversial, job of adapting the Chinese script for the modern age; plus, ‘Edelweiss’, a poignant new poem by Fiona Benson ‘The Glorious American Essay: One hundred essays from colonial times to the present’, edi...
Jan 27, 2022•1 hr 3 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the writer and broadcaster Muriel Zagha to discuss 'Nightmare Alley', an unsettling vision of delight and deceit from the Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro; the historian Abigail Green explores the untold stories of the women behind Europe’s premier banking dynasty, the Rothschilds; plus, a dinosaur poem of note 'Nightmare Alley', various cinemas 'The Women of Rothschild: The untold story of the world’s most famous dynasty' by Natalie L...
Jan 20, 2022•54 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the poet A. E. Stallings to reconsider the ground-breaking work of Edna St Vincent Millay, a modern but not modernist poet, once judged 'the most glamorous, sexually-dangerous since Byron'; Thomas Morris, the author of medical and crime histories, delves into the often-troubling history of medical transplants; plus, a new poem by Ben Wilkinson, ‘What We Were’ 'Poems and Satires' by Edna St Vincent Millay, edited by Tristram Fane Saunders '...
Jan 13, 2022•55 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the writer and translator Chiara Marchelli to revisit the work of Antonio Tabucchi, a master of the uncanny, ten years after his death; and the multilingual critic Irina Dumitrescu discusses a poignant study of bilingualism that considers how mother tongues are lost and found and at what cost ‘Little Misunderstandings of No Importance: And other stories’, by Antonio Tabucchi, translated by Frances Frenaye ‘Requiem: A hallucination’, by Ant...
Jan 06, 2022•58 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas look back at this year’s podcasts. We hear from Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Drabble, Mary Beard and Paul Muldoon, among others, covering literature, film, art, poetry and much more. Produced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 30, 2021•37 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas look back at this year’s podcasts. We hear from Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Drabble, Mary Beard and Paul Muldoon, among others, covering literature, film, art, poetry and much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 30, 2021•37 min
A conversation between the novelists Sarah Hall and Sarah Moss, both of whose most recent novels confront life in the middle of a pandemic, chaired by the TLS’s fiction editor Toby Lichtig. (This event was recorded in November at Hay Festival’s Winter Weekend) 'Burntcoat' by Sarah Hall 'The Fell' by Sarah Moss Produced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 23, 2021•51 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Emer Nolan, Professor of English at Maynooth University, to discuss the letters of John McGahern, one of Ireland’s most accomplished writers of fiction; How did Napoleon get his hands on Veronese’s enormous masterpiece “The Wedding Feast at Cana”, once safely housed in a Venetian monastery? Does it matter and should we do anything to remedy the situation? Ruth Scurr, the author of ‘Napoleon: A Life told in gardens and shadows’, considers N...
Dec 16, 20210
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Francesca Wade, at work on a book about Gertrude Stein’s afterlife, to discuss Stein’s ‘lost’ notebooks – and the magnificent amount of research conducted by Leon Katz, who discovered them some seventy years ago – and shed new light on the writer’s process and personal life; and the musician and critic Wesley Stace takes us back to a stormy but productive time in the life of The Beatles, via a new film by Peter Jackson ‘No no no, nonsense,...
Dec 09, 2021•1 hr
This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark discuss roses, Orwell and rhizomatic thinking with Margaret Drabble; Kathryn Hughes is our guide through histories of self-improvement; plus, what log-rolling really means. 'Orwell's Roses' by Rebecca Solnit 'The Art of Self-Improvement' by Anna Katharina Schaffner The Log Driver's Waltz: https://www.nfb.ca/film/log_drivers_waltz Produced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 02, 2021•52 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by TLS editors to look through twelve months of intriguing books, as nominated by contributors including Mary Beard, the poet Paul Muldoon and the writer and critic Marina Warner, covering a range of genres and subjects, from ancient Greek swear words to fictional messiahs For the full round-up, go to the-tls.co.uk/ Produced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 25, 2021•59 min
This week, Lucy Dallas and Toby Lichtig are guided by Mark Ford through Concord, Massachusetts, the home of Emerson, Thoreau and the Transcendentalists; we talk to Susan Owens about the mystery and melancholy of lighted windows seen from outside; plus, new work from Dave Eggers and Zadie Smith 'The Transcendentalists and their world' by Robert A. Gross 'The Every' by Dave Eggers 'The Wife of Willesden' by Zadie Smith 'The Lighted Window: Evening walks remembered' by Peter Davidson Produced by So...
Nov 18, 2021•53 min
This week, the TLS's fiction editor Toby Lichtig speaks to 2021’s Booker Prize-winner Damon Galgut, whose recent novel ‘The Promise’ follows one family through three decades of life and death in South Africa; Douglas Smith, whose books include a biography of Rasputin, turns to Russia in the 1830s to try to understand the Russia we face today; plus, the lyrics of Paul McCartney, explained by the man himself 'The Promise' by Damon Galgut '1837: Russia’s quiet revolution' by Paul W. Werth 'The Lyri...
Nov 11, 2021•56 min
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Michael Sherborne to consider a master of science fiction, H. G. Wells, whose life was a runaway spaceship… until it ran out of steam; Niki Segnit, the author of ‘The Flavour Thesaurus’, explores some of the world’s rarest and most endangered foods; plus how sustainable – ecologically and economically – is book selling? ‘The Young H. G. Wells: Changing the world’ by Claire Tomalin ‘The City of Dr Moreau’ by J. S. Barnes ‘Eating To Extincti...
Nov 04, 2021•55 min
This week, ahead of COP26, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by David Wallace-Wells, the author of ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’, to discuss a flurry of new books on climate change and what to do about it, from quiet reflection to radical, explosive action; and the biographer of royals A. N. Wilson considers a lively new Life of King George V that suggests the monarch wasn’t that dull after all ‘Deep Adaptation: Navigating the realities of climate chaos’, edited by Jem Bendell and Rupert Re...
Oct 27, 2021•51 min
