Freedom, Books, Flowers & The Moon

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 humansWomen on Nature, edited by Katherine NorburyWild Isles, edited by Patrick Barkham Gifts of Gravity and Light, edited by Anita Roy and Pippa MarlandOut of Time: Poetry from the climate emergency, edited by Kate SimpsonSeven Games: A Human History by Oliver RoederProduced by Sophia Franklin See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 ArnoldProduced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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’, edited by Phillip Lopate‘Kingdom of Characters: A tale of language, obsession, and genius in modern China’ by Jing TsuProduced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 LivingstoneProduced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 'Spare Parts: A surprising history of transplants' by Paul CraddockProduced by Sophia Franklin.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 Antonio Tabucchi, translated by Margaret Jull Costa‘Pereira Maintains: A testimony’, by Antonio Tabucchi, translated by Patrick Creagh‘Memory Speaks: On losing and reclaiming language and self’ by Julie SedivyProduced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 MossProduced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 Napoleon’s thirst for art, and its legacy; plus, a quick look at some of 2021’s most favourably reviewed films and plays ‘The Letters of John McGahern’, edited by Frank Shovlin‘Napoleon’s Plunder: And the theft of Veronese’s Feast’ by Cynthia SaltzmanProduced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, never: Hidden notebooks reveal the tense relationships behind Gertrude Stein’s genius’ by Francesca Wade, in this week’s TLS.‘The Beatles: Get Back’, on Disney+Produced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 SchaffnerThe Log Driver's Waltz: https://www.nfb.ca/film/log_drivers_waltzProduced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 messiahsFor the full round-up, go to the-tls.co.uk/ Produced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 DavidsonProduced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 Lyrics: 1956 to the present' by Paul McCartney, edited by Paul Muldoon – discussed at an event at the Royal Festival Hall, London on November 5; available to stream until November 12 Stream link: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/literature-poetry/lyrics-paul-mccartney-conversation-live-streamProduced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 Extinction: The world’s rarest foods and why we need to save them’ by Dan SaladinoProduced by Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 Read‘How To Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to fight in a world on fire’ by Andreas Malm‘Saving Us: A climate scientist’s case for hope and healing in a divided world’ by Katharine Hayhoe‘Geopolitics For the End Time: From the pandemic to the climate crisis’ by Bruno Maçães'George V: Never a dull moment’ by Jane RidleyProducer: Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Michael Caines are joined by Jenni Quilter, the author of ‘New York School Painters and Poets: Neon in daylight’, to discuss the colourful and ceaselessly experimental work of the American artist Helen Frankenthaler; and Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford, reviews a radical (and watery) new production of ‘Macbeth’ that redeems the fallen world of this overfamiliar tragedy.‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’, Almeida Theatre, London; also streaming‘Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York’ by Alexander Nemerov‘Helen Frankenthaler: Radical beauty’, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London; until April 18, 2022A special subscription offer for TLS podcast listeners: www.the-tls.co.uk/buy/podProducer: Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Russell Williams, to talk through the uniquely French phenomenon of the rentrée littéraire - the politics, the scandals, the big beasts and the new voices; and Michele Pridmore-Brown considers a recent book that offers a cultural history of breast milk and the rise of the bottle.‘White Blood: A history of human milk’ by Lawrence Trevelyan Weaver  A special subscription offer for TLS podcast listeners: www.the-tls.co.uk/buy/podProducer: Sophia Franklin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Peter Parker, the biographer of J. R. Ackerley and Christopher Isherwood among others, to reconsider the gestation and legacy of E. M. Forster’s final novel, ‘Maurice’, a love story between men across the class divide, published fifty years ago; ‘Keep up, watch out: Or why the people next door have always mattered’ – the historian Arnold Hunt reviews two studies of neighbourly love, and hate, in early modern Britain.‘Faith, Hope and Charity: English neighbourhoods, 1500–1640’ by Andy Wood‘Caritas: Neighbourly love and the early modern self’ by Katie Barclay  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.