Freedom, Books, Flowers & The Moon

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Cal Revely-Calder, who finds that, in Samuel Beckett Studies, jargon and certainty too often crowd out impressions of the work and the importance of ‘knowing what you don’t know’; Alice Wadsworth brings snippets of interest from this week’s TLS, including ‘women who wouldn’t wait’ and Borges in Inverness; and Ruth Scurr on the history of the secretive, ritual-loving Freemasons.Beckett’s Political Imagination by Emilie MorinSamuel Beckett and the Visual Arts by Conor CarvilleThe Craft: How the Freemasons made the modern world, by John Dickie  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Avril Horner, author of a biography of Barbara Comyns whose quirky, menace-laced novels, long championed by Graham Greene, are finding their way back to us; a new poem by John Kinsella, 'Villanelle of Star-Picket-Hopping Red-Capped Robin'; and En Liang Khong describes the powerful pull – particularly difficult to resist during lockdown – of the fantasy urban landscapes portrayed in video games and animeSeveral novels by Barbara Comyns, including: 'Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead', 'Mr Fox', 'Sisters by a River', 'The House of Dolls' and 'The Vet's Daughter''The legend and the crazy novelist: Graham Greene’s role in Barbara Comyns’s writing career' by Avril HornerVirtual Cities: An atlas and exploration of video game cities, by Konstantinos DimopoulosAnime Architecture: Imagined worlds and endless megacities, by Stefan Riekeles  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The writer and comedian David Baddiel has written a book called 'Jews Don't Count', which explores the insidious, pervasive, exclusionary nature of ‘progressive’ antisemitism. Here, he talks to Toby Lichtig about how and why one of the most persecuted minorities in history continues to be overlooked'Jews Don't Count' by David Baddiel  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by David Gallagher to discuss two new books about Jorge Luis Borges – one a collection of essays and remembrances by the great Latin American writer Mario Vargas Llosa, the other a more curious offering by the American writer and critic Jay Parini; David Baddiel on the insidious, pervasive, exclusionary nature of ‘progressive’ antisemitism; Alice Wadsworth and Lucy Dallas on food podcasts and the French comedy-drama Call My Agent!Medio siglo con Borges, by Mario Vargas Llosa (published in Spain by Alfaguara)Borges and Me: An encounter, by Jay Parini Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel 'The Sporkful' and 'Off Menu' available on podcast platformsCall My Agent!, Netflix  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Clifford Thompson to discuss One Night in Miami, a film by Regina King, which sees Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Jim Brown and Cassius Clay gather for heated debate; from exclusivity and luxury in imperial China to cheap ubiquity in modern day Europe, Norma Clarke considers the rise and fall of porcelain; plus, a new poem by Anne Carson, “Sure, I Was Loved”One Night in Miami, dir. Regina KingThe City of Blue and White: Chinese porcelain and the early modern world by Anne GerritsenPorcelain: A history from the heart of Europe by Suzanne L . Marchand“Sure, I Was Loved” by Anne Carson, in this week’s TLS  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the TLS's Classics editor Mary Beard, who, via an old exam paper, emphasizes the importance of teaching Classics in context (Q1: "Dryads, Hyads, Naiads, Oreads, Pleiads … Does 'Classical influence' in modern poetry always come down to snobbery and elitism?”); Zachary Leader reports on the latest offerings from the Joyce Industry; and Jane O'Grady considers how the Enlightenment undid itself.James Joyce and the Matter Of Paris, by Catherine FlynnJames Joyce and the Jesuits, by Michael MayoPanepiphanal World: James Joyce’s epiphanies, by Sangam MacduffThe Enlightenment: The pursuit of happiness 1680–1790, by Ritchie Robertson  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the Karachi-based journalist Sanam Maher to discuss cliché and originality in foreign correspondents' writing on Pakistan; a whistle-stop tour through (some) of the books of 2021; Lucy Scholes reviews a clutch of novels in the British Library's Women Writers series, dedicated to once-popular writersThe Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a divided nation, by Declan WalshO, the Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn SmithThe Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair Chatterton Square by E. H. YoungFather by Elizabeth Von Arnim   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the critic Muriel Zagha to marvel at a five-volume, “definitive” study of the iconic French filmmaker Jacques Tati, every aspect of whose apparently chaotic cinematic universe was controlled to the nth degree; Calum Mechie considers some new approaches to the life and legacy of George Orwell; and – “Can we take it? Can Dickens take it?” – ’tis the season for adaptations of A Christmas Carol…The Definitive Jacques Tati, edited by Alison CastleOn Nineteen Eighty-Four: A biography by D. J. TaylorOrwell: A man of our time by Richard BradfordBecoming George Orwell: Life and letters, legend and legacy, by John RoddenEileen: The making of George Orwell, by Sylvia Topp Subscribe to The TLS at https://www.the-tls.co.uk/buy/   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Toby Lichtig are joined by Stephen Lovell, Professor of Modern History at King’s College London, to discuss two important biographies of Joseph Stalin, covering the opposite ends of the dictator’s life; the debate around the official Home Office history of Britain, a document full of omissions and riddled with errors, rolls on; and can a book make you a better person? Can even the high modernists be mined for lessons in life? Joanna Scutts considers the relationship between 'serious' literature and self-help.Stalin: Passage to revolution by Ronald Grigor SunyLate Stalinism: The aesthetics of politics by Evgeny Dobrenko, translated by Jesse M. SavageThe Self-Help Compulsion: Searching for advice in modern literature, by Beth BlumReading for Life by Philip DavisSubscribe to The TLS at https://www.the-tls.co.uk/buy/   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Paul Griffiths, the author most recently of the novel Mr Beethoven, to discuss the heroic oeuvre of the great composer, 250 years after his birth; Joseph Farrell takes us through the life and work of Gianni Rodari, a kind of Italian George Orwell transplanted to Neverland.Selected books:Beethoven's Conversation Books, translated and edited by Theodore AlbrechtBeethoven's Lives by Lewis LockwoodBeethoven: A Life by Jan CaeyersBeethoven: A life in nine pieces, by Laura Tunbridge– read the full piece here Telephone Tales, by Gianni Rodari, translated by Antony Shugaar  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this special bonus episode, the TLS's fiction editor Toby Lichtig talks to Douglas Stuart about his 2020 Booker Prize-winning novel Shuggie Bain  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Colin Grant, the author of Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush generation, to discuss Small Axe, a series of films by Steve McQueen that centres on Black British life between the 1960s and 80s; and the author and musician Wesley Stace tells the story of the “real” James Bond, a celebrated ornithologist whose "dull" name was poached by Ian Fleming. Plus, the TLS's Fiction editor Toby Lichtig talks to Douglas Stuart, the winner of this year’s Booker Prize for fictionSmall Axe, BBC One, BBC iPlayerShuggie Bain, by Douglas StuartThe Real James Bond: A true story of identity theft, avian intrigue and Ian Fleming, by Jim WrightSubscribe to The TLS at https://www.the-tls.co.uk/buy/   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Mark Glanville to mark the centenary of the birth of Paul Celan, probably the most important post-war German-language poet, by revisiting the early poems in light of his later transformation; and Margaret Drabble considers the literature of urban walking, via the fiction of G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells and other metropolitan ramblers.Memory Rose into Threshold Speech: The collected earlier poetry: A bilingual edition, translated by Pierre JorisMicroliths They Are, Little Stones: Posthumous prose, translated by Pierre JorisUnder the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan, by Jean Daive, translated by Rosmarie WaldropThe Walker: On finding and losing yourself in the modern city, by Matthew Beaumont  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by two TLS editors, David Horspool and Toby Lichtig, to discuss books that have sustained and stimulated over the past twelve months, as selected by sixty-five writers from around the world; and we discuss the controversy surrounding a long-awaited statue of – or "for" – Mary Wollstonecraft.Read the TLS's Books of the Year feature here [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/books-of-the-year-2020/]   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As Remembrance Day approaches, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Éadaoín Lynch to remember fully and truthfully the relationship between the poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon; and the TLS's sports editor David Horspool talks us through a couple of books on professional game playing, including a football memoir of obsession and crucial omissions by Arsène Wenger.My Life in Red and White by Arsène WengerThis Sporting Life: Sport and liberty in England, 1760–1960 by Robert Colls  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Lucy Scholes to revisit the work of the master of terror Shirley Jackson and review the new film Shirley (“about as far from a traditional biopic as you can get”); and Jane Darcy grapples with the neither quite Romantic nor quite Victorian Thomas De Quincey, whose life-writing paved the way for the autobiografiction to come Shirley, directed by Josephine Decker (various cinemas / Hulu)Thomas De Quincey: Selected writings, edited by Robert Morrison   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In a special bonus podcast we bring you an episode of Stories of our times that we think you might enjoy.The Times's chief music critic, Richard Morrison muses over whether a combination of the coronavirus, environmental concerns and the MeToo movement will be the end of the 'maestro' - the classical music conductor - as we know it. Guest: Richard Morrison, Times chief culture critic and music writer. Host: David Aaronovitch.Clips used: Metropolitan Opera, Aurora Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, The Hendon Band YouTube Channel, ABC News, Washington Post, NBC News.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The critic and novelist Elizabeth Lowry joins Thea Lenarduzzi and Toby Lichtig to discuss the Italian Baroque master Artemisia Gentileschi, the subject of a major exhibition at the National Gallery in London, a painter whose Life is as dramatic and moving as her art; and Toby reviews new fiction steeped in dread, paranoia and failure, including a short work by Don DeLillo and the debut novel from the Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman Artemisia – National Gallery, London, until January 24, 2021 The Silence by Don DeLilloAntkind by Charlie KaufmanReality: And other stories by John LanchesterWhy Visit America by Matthew Baker  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

From a ballet stream to Homer's wine-dark sea. Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the historian and critic Judith Flanders to review the return of dance with new offerings from the Akram Khan Company and the Royal Ballet, and the novelist and poet Will Eaves returns to the Odyssey to explore the nature of memory. Back on Stage – The Royal Ballet, available online until November 8thThe Silent Burn Project – Akram Khan CompanyMichael Clark: Cosmic Dancer – Barbican, until January 2021, then at the V&A Dundee  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

From a carvery lunch in Howards End to emotional Eurocrats. Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Norma Clarke to discuss the role in literary creation of food and its increasingly fraught means of production, and Russell Williams reports on the bookshops of Paris during lockdown and reviews the new novel by a totemic figure in French literature, Jean-Philippe Toussaint.The Literature of Food: An introduction from 1830 to present by Nicola HumbleFarm to Form: Modernist literature and ecologies of food in the British Empire by Jessica MartellRead My Plate: The literature of food by Deborah R. GeisThe Cambridge Companion to Literature and Food, edited by J. Michelle CoghlanLes Émotions by Jean-Philippe Toussaint  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.