A Complete List of Backlisted Episodes
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  1. A Month in the Country - J.L. Carr (with Lissa Evans)

  2. Good Morning, Midnight - Jean Rhys (with Linda Grant)

  3. It Had to Be You - David Nobbs (with Jonathan Coe)

  4. The Blessing - Nancy Mitford (with Laura Thompson)

  5. Christie Malry's Own Double Entry - B.S. Johnson (with David Quantick)

  6. Passing - Nella Larsen (with Sarah Churchwell)

  7. The Great Fire - Shirley Hazzard (with Alice Jolly)

  8. Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner (with Samantha Ellis)

  9. The Information - Martin Amis (with John Niven)

  10. The High Window - Raymond Chandler (with Andrew Male)

  11. All the Devils Are Here - David Seabrook (with Rachel Cooke)

  12. Darkness Falls from the Air - Nigel Balchin (with Rowan Pelling)

  13. Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls - Terry Jones and Michael Palin (with Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris)

  14. The Vet's Daughter - Barbara Comyns (with Lucy Scholes)

  15. The Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers (with Lloyd Shepherd)

  16. Letters from a Fainthearted Feminist - Jill Tweedy (with Alex Clark)

  17. Maiden Voyage - Denton Welch (with Richard King)

  18. Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr (with Salena Godden)

  19. The Crack Up - F. Scott Fitzgerald (with Jesse Armstrong)

  20. Absolute Beginners - Colin MacInnes (with Jonathon Green)

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

  22. The Animal Family - Randall Jarrell (with Erica Wagner)

  23. The Holiday - Stevie Smith (with Sally Bayley)

  24. Cold Hand in Mine - Robert Aickman (with Andrew Male)

  25. Cocaine Nights - J.G. Ballard (with Rob Bound)

  26. So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell (with Kit de Waal)

  27. A Long Way from Verona - Jane Gardam (with Laura Cumming & Hilary Murray Hill)

  28. A State of Denmark - Derek Raymond (with Travis Elborough)

  29. Memento Mori - Muriel Spark (with John Grindrod)

  30. Venetia - Georgette Heyer (with Cathy Rentzenbrink & Una McCormack)

  31. Red Shift - Alan Garner (with S.F. Said & Erica Wagner)

  32. The Horse's Mouth - Joyce Cary (with Max Porter)

  33. The Snow Ball - Brigid Brophy (with Jonathan Gibbs)

  34. A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter (with Clare Conville & Rowan Pelling)

  35. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders minicast (with Lissa Evans & Stuart Evers)

  36. The Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton (with Lissa Evans & Stuart Evers)

  37. Patrick Hamilton - Extra Episode (with Lissa Evans & Stuart Evers)

  38. The Weather in the Streets - Rosamond Lehmann (with Elizabeth Day)

  39. Honeymoon - Patrick Modiano (with Rupert Thompson)

  40. The Gift - Vladimir Nabokov (with Catherine Taylor)

  41. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone - James Baldwin (with Niven Govinden)

  42. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - Crystal Zevon (with Richard T. Kelly)

  43. Father and Son - Edmund Gosse (with Sarah Perry)

  44. Haunts of the Black Masseur - Charles Sprawson (with Alex Preston & Rachael Kerr)

  45. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Anita Loos (with Joanna Walsh & Sarah Churchwell)

  46. Desperate Characters - Paula Fox (with William Fiennes)

  47. Some Bits To Listen To While We Go On Our Holidays

  48. Under The Volcano - Malcolm Lowry (with Ian McMillan)

  49. Look at Me - Anita Brookner (with Una McCormack & Lucy Scholes)

  50. Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman (with Simon Garfield)

  51. Jacob's Room - Virginia Woolf (with Mark Haddon & Sally Bayley)

  52. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (with Fiona Wilson & Andrew Male)

  53. To Serve Them All My Days - R.F. Delderfield (with Jenny Colgan)

  54. Alma Cogan - Gordon Burn (with Benjamin Myers & Adelle Stripe)

  55. Fire and Hemlock - Diana Wynne Jones (with Alice Stevenson & Elinor Cook)

  56. On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Ian Fleming (with James Cook & Jude Cook)

  57. A Rebours - J-R. Huysmans (with Adam Biles & Sylvia Whitman)

  58. Lost Horizon - James Hilton (with Tot Taylor)

  59. Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel (with Arifa Akbar)

  60. Jesus' Son - Denis Johnson (with Chris Power & Erica Wagner)

  61. Berg - Ann Quin (with Jennifer Hodgson)

  62. The Town House - Norah Lofts (with Lucy Mangan)

  63. Something Happened - Joseph Heller (with Matt Thorne & Nikita Lalwani)

  64. The Lowlife - Alexander Baron (with Peter Watts & Gary Budden)

  65. Corregidora - Gayl Jones (with Sarah Churchwell)

  66. The Fatal Englishman - Sebastian Faulks (with Rishi Dastidar)

  67. My Antonia - Willa Cather (with Hermione Lee)

  68. The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (with Rachel Heath, Arifa Akbar & Alex Clark)

  69. Told by an Idiot - Rose Macaulay (with Nancy Pearl)

  70. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - ZZ Packer (with Nikesh Shukla)

  71. The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien (with Dan Kieran & Una McCormack)

  72. How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read - Pierre Bayard (with Ben Moor & Cathy Rentzenbrink)

  73. The Lion and the Unicorn - George Orwell (with Billy Bragg & Suzi Feay)

  74. A Girl in Winter - Phillip Larkin (with Nina Stibbe & Simon Garfield)

  75. Ulverton - Adam Thorpe (with Tom Cox)

  76. The Dud Avocado - Elaine Dundy (with Sarra Manning)

  77. Autumn Journal - Louis MacNeice (with Samuel West & Sophie Ratcliffe)

  78. Ghosts - Edith Wharton (with Lisa Evans & Andrew Male)

  79. Moominvalley in November - Tove Jansson (with Natania Jansz & Frank Cottrell Boyce)

  80. The Tortoise and the Hare - Elizabeth Jenkins (with Carmen Callil)

  81. Harpo Speaks! - Harpo Marx & Rowland Barber (with Dan Schreiber)

  82. Books Do Furnish a Room - Anthony Powell (with Hilary Spurling & Philip Hensher)

  83. The Rainbow - D.H. Lawrence (with Rachael Kerr & Catherine Taylor

  84. Imogen - Jilly Cooper (with Daisy Buchanan & Dr. Ian Patterson)

  85. Hemlock and After - Angus Wilson (with Dickon Edwards)

  86. The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West (with Alice Jolly & Amanda Craig)

  87. Utz - Bruce Chatwin (with Jonathan Wilson & Rachael Kerr)

  88. Human Voices - Penelope Fitzgerald (with Georgina Morley & Lucy Scholes)

  89. Last Train to Memphis / Careless Love - Peter Guralnick (David Keenan & Bethan Roberts)

  90. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (with William Atkins & Lissa Evans)

  91. A Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Defoe (with James Hannah & Jo Waugh)

  92. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page - G.B. Edwards (with Will Smith)

  93. Beloved - Toni Morrison (with Preti Taneja)

  94. The Prince of West End Avenue - Alan Isler (with William Sutcliffe & Samantha Ellis)

  95. The Baron in the Trees - Italo Calvino (with Caspar Henderson)

  96. Miss Buncle’s Book - D.E. Stevenson (with Shelley Harris)

  97. The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury (with Sam Leith & Jennifer Lucy Allan)

  98. Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban (with Max Porter & Una McCormack)

  99. Books about The Beatles (with David Hepworth & Mark Ellen)

  100. The Anatomy of Melancholy - Robert Burton (with Philip Pullman)

  101. On Walking In Ice - Werner Herzog (with Luke Turner)

  102. The Soul of Kindness - Elizabeth Taylor (with Carmen Callil & Rachel Cooke)

  103. Absalom, Absalom - William Faulkner (with Sarah Churchwell)

  104. The Breaking Point - Daphne du Maurier (with Laura Varnam)

  105. The Rings of Saturn - W.G. Sebald (with Philip Hoare & Jessie Greengrass)

  106. Edith’s Diary - Patricia Highsmith (with Karen McLeod & John Grindrod)

  107. Riceyman Steps - Arnold Bennett (with Kit de Waal & Charlotte Higgins)

  108. À la Recherche de Temps Perdu - Marcel Proust (with Lissa Evans, Sarah Churchwell & Sean Whiteside)

  109. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym (with Becky Brown & Norah Perkins)

  110. The Journal of a Disappointed Man - W.N.P. Barbellion (with Claire Fuller & William Atkins)

  111. The World According to Garp - John Irving (with Nikita Lalwani & Matt Thorne)

  112. Frost in May - Antonia White (with Laura Thompson & Erica Wagner)

  113. The Constant Nymph - Margaret Kennedy (with Alexandra Pringle)

  114. The Inheritors - William Golding (with Una McCormack & Andrew Male)

  115. The Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith (with E.O. Higgins & Laura Cumming)

  116. How to Cook a Wolf - M.F.K. Fisher (with Dan Richards & Felicity Cloake)

  117. The Varieties of Religious Experience - William James (with John Williams)

  118. Summer Reading 2020

  119. I, LallaThe Poems of Lal Děd  - Lal Děd (with Tishani Doshi)

  120. Thérèse Raquin - Émile Zola (with Andrew O’Hagan & Rachel Joyce)

  121. The Odd Women - George Gissing (with Janet Todd & Simon James)

  122. Silence - Shūsaku Endō (with Sarah Perry)

  123. Beowulf (with Laura Varnam & Andrew Male)

  124. Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius - Terrance Dicks (Matthew Sweet & Una McCormack)

  125. The Compleet Molesworth - Geoffrey Willans & Ronald Searle (with Martin Rowson & Lissa Evans)

  126. The Victorian Chaise-longue - Marghanita Laski (with Eley Williams)

  127. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper (with Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris)

  128. Locklisted Children’s Books Special

  129. The Bloater - Rosemary Tonks (with Jennifer Hodgson & Stewart Lee)

  130. Karoo - Steve Tesich (with Sali Hughes & John Niven)

  131. Locklisted Teenage Books Special

  132. Job - Joseph Roth

  133. Miss Pym Disposes - Josephine Tey (with Val MacDermid)

  134. Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting - Penelope Mortimer (with Lucy Scholes & John Williams)

  135. The Fish Can Sing - Halldór Laxness with (Derek Owusu)

  136. Água Viva - Clarice Lispector (with Wendy Erskine & David Keenan)

  137. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne (with Katherine Rundell & Frank Cottrell Boyce)

  138. The Plague and I - Betty MacDonald (with Natasha McEnroe & Lissa Evans)

  139. The Evenings - Gerard Reve (with Marie Philipps & Joe Dunthorne)

  140. A Goat’s Song - Dermot Healy (with Patrick McCabe & Rachael Kerr)

  141. Are You Somebody? - Nuala O’Faolain (with Caroline O’Donoghue)

  142. In a Lonely Place - Dorothy B. Hughes (with Nora Perkins & Becky Brown)

  143. Heart of the Original - Steve Aylett (with John Higgs)

  144. Fat City - Leonard Gardner (with Nicky Birch)

  145. Summer Reading 2021

  146. Elizabeth Costello - J.M. Coetzee (with Mary Costello)

  147. The Dream Songs - John Berryman (with Susie Boyt)

  148. Cassandra at the Wedding - Dorothy Baker (with Simon Thomas & Alexandra Pringle)

  149. Something in Disguise - Elizabeth Jane Howard (with Laura Varnam & Andrew Male)

    Backlisted Special: Treacle Walker - Alan Garner (with Erica Wager, Melanie Giles & Bob Cywinski)

  150. Notes from Under the Floorboards - Fyodor Dostoevsky (with Arifa Akbar & Alex Christofi)

  151. The Godwits Fly - Robin Hyde (with Paula Morris)

  152. Deadwood - Peter Dexter (with Shawn Levy & Erica Wagner)

  153. The Railway Children - E. Nesbit (with Katherine Rundell & Frank Cottrell-Boyce)

  154. Winter Reading Special 2022

  155. Finishing the Hat & Look, I Made a Hat - Stephen Sondheim (with David Benedict & Jason Hazeley)

  156. Gaudy Night - Dorothy L. Sayers (with Harriet Evans & Francesca Wade)

  157. Winter Reading Special Part II - Short Stories

  158. South Riding - Winifred Holtby (with Tamya Kirk & Una McCormack)

  159. Fungus the Bogeyman - Raymond Briggs (with Nadia Shireen & Andrew Male)

  160. The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon (with Sarah Churchwell & Sam Leith)

  161. Escape to an Autumn Pavement & Jamaica - Andrew Salkey (with Margaret Busby & Raymond Antrobus)

  162. Family Lexicon - Natalia Ginzburg (with Marigold Atkey & Emily Rhodes)

  163. De Profundis - Oscar Wilde (with Stephen Fry)

  164. The Death of the Heart - Elizabeth Bowen (with Tessa Hadley)

  165. Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake (with Joanne Harris)

  166. The Kingdom By the Sea - Paul Theroux (with Nicky Birch & Tess Davidson)

  167. The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham (with David Farr)

  168. Lightning Rods - Helen DeWitt (with Marie Phillips & Ben Moor)

  169. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard (with Jay Griffiths and Geoff Dyer)

  170. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskill (with Jennifer Egan and Nell Stevens)

  171. Roadside Picnic - Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (with Jennifer Lucy Allan and Ilona Chavasse)

  172. Full Tilt - Dervla Murphy (with Felicity Cloake and Caroline Eden)

  173. The Altar of the Dead and Other Stories - Henry James (with Andrew Male and Tessa Hadley)

  174. The Springs of Affection - Maeve Brennan (with Sinéad Gleeson and David Hayden)

  175. The Ice Palace - Tarjei Vesaas (with Karl Ove Knaussgård and Max Porter)

  176. The Awakening - Kate Chopin (with Timothy O’Grady and Rachael Kerr)

  177. Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild (with Una McCormack and Tanya Kirk)

  178. Rerun: Elizabeth Jenkins - The Tortoise and the Hare

  179. Backlisted Special: Children’s Books (with Frank Cottrell-Boyce)

  180. Rerun: Raymond Briggs - Fungus and the Bogeyman

  181. Science Fiction Special (with Una McCormack)

  182. Rerun: Jean Rhys - Good Morning Midnight

  183. Archive Books Special (with Becky Brown and Norah Perkins)

  184. Rerun: William Maxwell - So Long, See You Tomorrow

  185. American Books Special (with Erica Wagner and Sarah Churchwell)

  186. Rerun: David Seabrook - All The Devils Are Here

  187. Books and Short Stories: Graham Greene