Tea Or Books?

Ian McEwan helps us get dangerously modern in our latest ‘Tea or Books?’ episode, as we chat about Atonement and On Chesil Beach (along with a whole bunch of his other books) – while, in the first half, we discuss whether or

Happy new year! Rachel and I are back from a bit of a podcast break, and raring to go for the New Year.   In this episode, we look at two novels by R.C. Sherriff, both published by Persephone, and

Muriel Spark, artists, and musicians in our final episode of 2016 – it was a fun one to record.   We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year, and fingers crossed for a wonderful 2017

Two more Persephones in this episode – Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton and Princes in the Land by Joanna Cannan – along with a discussion of short stories: which writers we like and don’t like, and whether or not we’d race

Two Persephone titles will help solace us in these bizarre post-election days.   We’ve been away for a while because I lost my voice – sorry! – but Rachel (Book Snob) and I are back, talking about The Victorian Chaise-Longue by

Cats! Dogs! Noel Coward! A.A. Milne! I always start off these descriptions with exclamation marks, but seldom has it been more justified…   In this episode, we pit literary cats against literary dogs, and almost instantly regret it (while also

Roald Dahl, Michelle Magorian, and whether or not to give up on books – I’m back from holiday, and Rachel and I have a lovely new (…long) episode of Tea or Books?   In our first half, we discuss whether

Elizabeth Bowen and novels adapted into films – though not in conjunction…   In the first half of this podcast, we discuss novels adapted into films – and whether or not we would like our favourite novels to be adapted

  I have forced two topics on Rachel – firstly, are you careful with books, or do you manhandle them? (It will all make sense in context.) And then two books that were lynch pins of my doctoral thesis – The

  Two William Maxwell novels go up against each other in this episode – but not before we’ve got to the heart of the emotional issue of whether to keep books or cull books. (Obviously we don’t want to cull

  Historical fiction and books-about-books are the themes for episode 22 of Tea or Books? – and we have a LOT to say on these topics. And we hope you do too! Let us know your thoughts for each category. And

  Shakespeare! That’s right, we’re getting very classy and/or GCSE English in our discussion of his comedies and tragedies – following a fairly haphazard chat about child narrators vs adult narrators. This is what happens when Rachel only tells me

  Happy birthday us! We actually passed our birthday by a couple of weeks, but this is the first podcast after the big day. Can you believe it’s been a whole year? And it might be our longest episode yet.

  Sarah Waters and the seasons – how better to celebrate the sunny weather we’ve been having recently? In episode 19 we look at summer and winter in books (and get tangled in what that could mean) and then talk

  Agatha Christie and curious titles come together in perhaps my favourite episode of the podcast yet. And also the first one where we’re both in our 30s, guys. And also one of our most bizarre. In the first half, we look at

  Letters! Diaries! Oscar Wilde! We’ve got it all – well, those three things – in episode 17 of Tea or Books?, which has taken a bit of time to arrive, for which I apologise. But we are as rambling

  Winnie-the-Pooh vs Wind in the Willows is perhaps the most animal-strewn debate we’ve had so far, as well as being more or less inevitable that we’d get to this one eventually – especially given my tendencies to shoe-horn A.A.

  Plays or poetry? We go broad with the first half of our 15th episode, and (inevitably) barely scratch the surface. You wouldn’t have it any other way, right? In the second half, we pit two much-loved novels by Daphne

  Reprints or original editions? That’s the first question we ask ourselves, courtesy of Michelle of Book Musings, and have a lot of fun discussing it. In the second half of the episode we get uncharacteristically modern – pitting two

  Villains or virtuous folk? No, not describing your hosts Rachel (Book Snob) and me, but enquiring into our favourite types of characters. In the second half, we look at two books by Mollie Panter-Downes: One Fine Day and London War Notes,