63. Joseph Heller - Something Happened

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Authors Matt Thorne and Nikita Lalwani join John and Andy on the Backlisted podcast to discuss the ‘other’ masterpiece by Joseph Heller, Something Happened, first published in 1974. Also in this episode John talks about Brother, a new novel by David Chariandy, while Andy has been reading Ursula Bentley's 1983 debut The Natural Order.

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Unbound project of the week

  • Lucien Young - #Sonnets- get free postage by using the code HELLER at checkout

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Thanks to Bloom & Wild for sponsoring this episode - fresh, seasonal flowers sent through the letterbox. For 20% off your first order, use the code BACKLISTED at checkout. 

62. Norah Lofts - The Town House

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This episode's guest on the Backlisted podcast is the writer and columnist Lucy Mangan, author of a new memoir about her childhood reading, Bookworm (Penguin). She's chosen the now very under-read historical novel by Norah Lofts - The Town House and the discussion covers historical fiction (and how its marketed), the depth and quality of Lofts research and the brilliant idea of writing a trilogy that covers 600 years in one Suffolk house. Before that Andy is enchanted by Lee Stuart Evans novel Words Best Sung (Faber) and John allows the swagger of Emmanuel Carrère's The Kingdom (a histrico-philosophical memoir-cum-novel about the Gospels) carry him away (Penguin).

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Thanks to Bloom & Wild for sponsoring this episode. They are the UK's top rated flower delivery company  - they send fresh, seasonal flowers through the letterbox and they’re sent in bud which means they last 7 days or more. Plus they offer free next day delivery across the UK (and to Ireland, France and Germany). For 20% off your first purchase, use the code BACKLISTED at checkout (valid to early June 2018)

61. Ann Quin - Berg

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John and Andy are joined on the Backlisted podcast by writer and critic Jennifer Hodgson to discuss Berg the ground-breaking first novel by British experimental pioneer Ann Quin, first published in 1964. As well as Berg the trio discuss The Unmapped Country, a collection of lost stories and fragments, edited by Jennifer, and just published by the excellent indie publisher, And Other Stories. There's also Andy giving a spellbinding reading from Your Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat) by Andrew Hankinson (Scribe) and John battling past the title to find hidden treasure in Yorkshire: A Lyrical History by archaeologist and polymath, Richard Morris (Weidenfeld & Nicholson).

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60. Denis Johnson - Jesus' Son

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John and Andy welcome authors Chris Power and Erica Wagner to the Backlisted podcast to discuss the multiple interlocking stories in Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, including the phantasmagoric 'Car Crash While Hitchhiking'. In addition Andy has been reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke and John takes a look at Fen by Daisy Johnson.

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59. - HILARY MANTEL - Beyond Black

58. JAMES HILTON - Lost Horizon

57. HUYSMANS - A Rebours

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In a special edition of the Backlisted podcast recorded at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, John and Andy are joined by the bookstore's owner Sylvia Whitman and author Adam Biles to discuss Huysmans' novel of aesthetic isolation A Rebours.

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56. IAN FLEMING - On Her Majesty's Secret Service

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In a special Christmas edition of the Backlisted podcast (which of course can be listened to at any time of year) John & Andy welcome Jude and James Cook to discuss Ian Fleming's most festive Bond novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. There's discussion of the films, the music, and the sometimes questionable attitude to women, the French and drinking.

Also talked about in the 'What We've Been Reading' slot; Kindred by Octavia Butler and Alys Fowler's Hidden Nature.

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55. Diana Wynne Jones - Fire and Hemlock

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Author and illustrator Alice Stevenson and her childhood friend, playwright Elinor Cook join John and Andy on the Backlisted podcast to talk about Diana Wynne Jones's novel of memory, childhood and friendship.

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54. Gordon Burn - Alma Cogan

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In a special edition of the Backlisted podcast recorded earlier this year live at the Durham Book Festival, John and Andy are joined by writers Adelle Stripe and Ben Myers to discuss Gordon Burn's debut novel Alma Cogan. The 'WHWBR?' slots are occupied by Pevsner's guide to Durham and The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro.

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53. R. F. Delderfield - To Serve Them All My Days

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The novelist Jenny Colgan joins John and Andy on the Backlisted podcast to discuss R.F. Delderfield's epic of life in an English boarding school between the wars. Craig Brown's Ma'am Darling and Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood are the books we've been reading this week.

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52. Shirley Jackson - We Have always lived in the castle

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For our annual Halloween episode John and Andy are joined on the Backlisted podcast by Fiona Wilson and Andrew Male to discuss Shirley Jackson's final novel We Have Always Lived In The Castle, originally published in 1962. In this show's 'What We Have Been Reading' slot John discusses True Ghost Stories of Our Own Time by Vivienne Rae-Ellis, while Andy puts forward Going On The Turn, the third instalment of Danny Baker's memoirs.

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51. Virginia Woolf - Jacob's Room

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In a special live edition of the Backlisted podcast, recorded in front of an audience at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford, John and Andy are joined by Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time and Sally Bayley, author and tutor in English at Balliol and St. Hugh's Colleges, Oxford. The panel discuss Jacob's Room, the third novel by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1922.

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50. William Goldman - Adventures in the Screen Trade

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Simon Garfield, author of The Wrestling, The Nation's Favourite and A Notable Woman, amongst others joins John and Andy on the Backlisted podcast to discuss William Goldman's groundbreaking account of his life as a Hollywood screenwriter.

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49. Anita Brookner - Look At Me

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In a long awaited episode of the Backlisted podcast John and Andy are joined by Una McCormack and Lucy Scholes to discuss Anita Brookner's third novel Look At Me (1982), a tale of intergalactic piracy in a far off star syste... No, not really.

The Cake And The Rain, Jimmy Webb's memoir of life in the 60's music industry, and We That Are Young a reworking of King Lear set in India by Preti Taneja, are the books John & Andy have been reading.

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48. Malcolm Lowry - Under the Volcano

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John and Andy are joined on the Backlisted podcast by poet, radio presenter, playwright and genuine Tyke Ian McMillan to discuss Malcolm Lowry's 1947 masterwork, Under The Volcano. Also, The Factory of Light by Michael Jacobs, and more Rosemary Tonks. Do you have a problem with that?

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47. Some Bits to Listen to While We Go on Our Holidays

Even your favourite podcasts need to take a holiday... but hopefully this collection of Backlisted off cuts, tall tales, terrible name dropping and the occasional bit of literary chat will help tide you over until we return at the beginning of September.

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46. Paula Fox - Desperate Characters

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Author William Fiennes joins Andy and John on the Backlisted podcast to talk about Desperate Characters, Paula Fox's New York-set novel of relationships and feral cats. Also; William's First Story charity, Adam Scovell's Folk Horror and Sarah Hall's story collection Madame Zero, plus more on the mysterious Rosemary Tonks.

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45. Anita Loos - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

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The novelist Joanna Walsh and critic and academic Sarah Churchwell join John & Andy on the Backlisted podcast to talk about Anita Loos' Jazz Age novel. Also discussed: The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, and Bedouin of the London Evening, an anthology of poems by Rosemary Tonks.

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44. Charles Sprawson - Haunts of the Black Massuer

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Author and critic Alex Preston and Rachael Kerr, Unbound's Editor at large, join John and Andy on the Backlisted podcast to discuss Charles Sprawson's ground breaking 'Haunts Of The Black Masseur', together with all things aquatic. The subtitle of the book is 'The Swimmer As Hero' and Sprawson's book tells the tale of literary swimmers from Byron to Cheever. Also discussed; Outskirts by John Grindrod and Bleaker House by Nell Stevens.

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