40. Vladimir Nabakov - The Gift

image.png

Writer and critic Catherine Taylor joins John and Andy on the Backlisted podcast to discuss Vladimir Nabokov's parting love letter to Russia and it's literature, The Gift, first published in English in 1963. Also; singing with nightingales and reading Richard Mabey's book about the same bird, David Storey's Booker Prize winning Saville, and Bob Dylan's song and dance routine.

Books Mentioned:

Other Links:

39. Patrick Modiano - Honeymoon

image.png

Novelist Rupert Thomson joins John & Andy on the Backlisted podcast to talk about the work of French author Patrick Modiano, who's work explores the effect of the German occupation of his homeland during the Second World War. There's also a special edition of 'What I've Read This Week', where John talks about Identity of England by Robert Colls, while Andy sets a bit of a puzzle...

Books Mentioned:

Other Links:

38. ROSAMOND LEHMANN - The Weather in the Streets

image.png

Novelist and features writer Elizabeth Day joins John & Andy on the Backlisted podcast to discuss Rosamond Lehmann's 1936 novel of a young woman's affair with a married man. Also featured: Magnus Mills record store day novel The Forensic Record Society 
and Clover Stroud's memoir The Wild Other.

Books Mentioned:

Other Links:

37. Patrick Hamilton - Extra Episode

Following on from the Slaves Of Solitude episode, here is an extra half hour of conversation on the Backlisted podcast about Patrick Hamilton. Please listen the the main episode before this one.

Books Mentioned:

Other Links:

36. Patrick Hamilton - Slaves Of Solitude

image.png

Novelists Lissa Evans and Stuart Evers join Andy & John on the Backlisted podcast to discuss Patrick Hamilton's 1947 tale of boarding-house life in wartime. Also, this week Andy has been reading Keith Waterhouse, while John talks about Padgett Powell's The Interrogative Mood. If you like this episode, the 'Hamilton Extra' edition continues the discussion, with even more gin & it...

Books mentioned:

Other links:

35. Lincoln in the Bardo (minicast)

image.png

A little something extra for you, the lovely Backlisted listeners, and a departure from our usual subject matter - a new(ish) book! After recording the upcoming show on Patrick Hamilton's The Slaves Of Solitude with guests authors Lissa Evans and Stuart Evers, John & Andy took the opportunity to ask them what they thought of George Saunders' debut novel (which went on to win the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Fiction). Normal service will be resumed next week.

Books Mentioned:

34. James Salter - A Sport and a Pastime

image.png

Andy & John are joined on the Backlisted podcast by literary agent Claire Conville and writer and author Rowan Pelling to discuss James Salter's 1967 novel of lust and imagination. The book, a description of an affair between an American college drop out and a French shop girl, has been acclaimed by critics as 'nearly perfect' and 'extraordinary'.

Books Mentioned:

Other Links:

33. Brigid Brophy - The Snow Ball

32. Joyce Cary - The Horse's Mouth

image.png

Max Porter, author of Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, joins John and Andy on the Backlisted podcast to talk about The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Cary's story of the life of an itinerant artist. Also discussed are Dark Money, Jane Mayer's account of the nexus of politics & wealth in the US, and Doreen by Barbara Noble, reissued by Persephone.

Books Mentioned:

Other Links:

31. Alan Garner - Red Shift

image.png

Critic and author Erica Wagner and novelist S.F. Said join John and Andy on the Backlisted podcastto discuss 'Red Shift', the fifth novel by Alan Garner. Also discussed: 'Brave New Weed' by Joe Dolce (no, not that one) and 'Nomad' by Alan Partridge (yes, that one).

Books Mentioned:

Other Links:

30. Georgette Heyer - Venetia

image.png

This episode of the Backlisted podcast sees John and Andy joined by Una McCormack and Cathy Rentzenbrink to discuss Venetia, one of the Regency Romance novels by Georgette Heyer. Includes mild language and various Georgian terms for drunkenness.

Books Mentioned:

Other Links:

29. Memento Mori - Muriel Spark

John Grindrod, author of Concretopia, joins John Mitchinson and Andy Miller to discuss Memento Mori, the third novel by Muriel Spark. They also pay tribute to the author and agent David Miller, who passed away recently, and read a short story in his memory.

Books Mentioned:

Other Links: 

Memento-Mori.jpg

28. Derek Raymond - A State of Denmark

State of Denmark 2.jpg

In a bid to get our fear and creeping dread about the state of the world in early for 2017, author Travis Elborough (A Walk in The Park, The Bus We Loved, and The Long Player Goodbye) joins us to discuss A State of Denmark, the dystopian vision of England by Derek Raymond (aka Robin Cook). Worst. Happy New Year. Programme. Ever. Enjoy!

Books Mentioned:

Other Links:

27. Jane Gardam - A Long Way from Verona

image.png

John and Andy are joined by Laura Cumming, the art critic for the Observer and author of The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velázquez, and Hilary Murray Hill, CEO of Hachette Children's Books, to talk bout Jane Gardam's debut novel A Long Way From Verona.

Books Mentioned:

Douglas Adams and John Lloyd - The Meaning of Liff
Andy Miller - The Year of Reading Dangerously
Laura Cumming - The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velazquez
Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising
John Cheever - Christmas is a Sad Season For the Poor
Magnus Mills - Hark the Herald
Angus Wilson - Christmas Day at the Workhouse
Candia McWilliam - What to Look For in Winter
Shena Mackay - An Advent Calendar, Redhill Rococo
E. F. Benson - Between the Lights
A. E. Ellis - The Rack
Dan Rhodes - When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow
Betsy Byars - The Eighteenth Emergency
James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Other Links:

26. William Maxwell - So Long, See You Tomorrow

image.png

Costa First Book nominee for My Name Is Leon, Kit de Waal joins John & Andy to discuss So Long, See You Tomorrow, the final novel by author and New Yorker literary editor, William Maxwell.

Books Mentioned:

Andy Miller - The Year of Reading Dangerously
Kit de Waal - My Name is Leon
John Williams - Stoner
William Maxwell - So Long See You Tomorrow, All the Days and Nights, Time Will Darken It, They Came Like Swallows, Ancestors: A Family History, The Outermost Dream
Brian Bilston - You Took the Last Bus Home: The Poems of Brian Bilston
Colin MacInnes - Absolute Beginners

Other Links:

25. J.G. Ballard - Cocaine Nights

image.png

Monocle culture editor Robert Bound joins John and Andy to discuss J.G. Ballard's Spanish set thriller Cocaine Nights. Also, The Ballard-Bond connection, Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, and the phrase you never want to hear John Mitchinson say in person…

Books mentioned:

Other links:

24. Robert Aickman - Cold Hand In Mine

23. Stevie Smith - The Holiday

image.png

Recorded live at the Durham Book Festival 2016, John and Andy are joined by Sally Bayley (author of Girl with Dove and The Private Life of the Diary) to discuss Stevie Smith's third and final novel The Holiday.

Books Mentioned:

Andy Miller - The Year of Reading Dangerously
Sally Bayley - Private Life of the Diary
David Szalay - All That Man Is
Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad
Chris Wilson - The Glue Ponys
Gisela Elsner - Offside
Anita Brookner - Hotel Du Lac
J. G. Ballard - Empire of the Sun
Stevie Smith - The Holiday, Not Waving But Drowning, Novel On Yellow Paper, I Remember
Nigel Balchin - Darkness Falls from the Air
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest
Lewis Carroll - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Other Links:

22. Randall Jarrell - The Animal Family

image.png

Novelist, editor and critic Erica Wagner joins the Backlisted team to discuss one of her favourite books - The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell. Revolt Into Style, George Melly's groundbreaking discourse on pop culture, and Exmoor Village, a Mass Observation publication from 1947.

Books Mentioned:

Randall Jarrell - The Animal Family, Fly by Night, The Woman at the Washington Zoo, Randall Jarrell’s Book of Stories, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, Pictures From an Institution
Andy Miller - The Year of Reading Dangerously
W. J. Turner - Exmoor Village
George Melly - Revolt Into Style: The Pop Arts in Britain, Rum Bum and Concertina
Richard Hoggart - The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working-Class Life
Maurice Sendak - Where the Wild Things Are
Vladimir Nabokov - Pnin
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret, The Marvels, Wonderstruck
Selma Lanes - The Art of Maurice Sendak
Nikolai Gogol - The Nose

Other Links:

 

21. Summer Reading Special - What We Read On Our Holidays

In a special edition of the podcast Andy, John, Mathew and Matt discuss amongst other things which festivals work, why books win prizes, and why changing the name of a certain Swallows And Amazons character is a shame. HP Lovecraft, Greek philosophers and Calvin & Hobbes are also touched upon.

Books Mentioned:

Other Links: