London Review Bookshop Podcasts

In I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be (Cape) Colin Grant, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, director of WritersMosaic and author of Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, A Smell of Burning: A Memoir of Epilepsy and Bageye at the Wheel, evokes the experience of growing up in Britain as the child of Jamaican parents. In the words of Bernardine Evaristo ‘Colin Grant writes about the characters in his family with the mischievous, dramatic flair of a natural storyteller. This is a compelling and charming read.’ Grant was in conversation with author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster and activist Michael Rosen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Different Speeds, Same Furies, Perry Anderson measures the achievement of Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time against Proust’s more celebrated In Search of Lost Time – and finds Powell to be superior in certain key respects. Anderson discusses why a comparison between two writers at once so similar and dissimilar sheds new light on their greatest work, and literary construction more generally. He was joined by novelist and LRB contributing editor John Lanchester, for whom both writers have been lifelong touchstones.  Find more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/events Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ha-Joon Chang is one of the world’s leading thinkers on development economics. In Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World, Chang combines his passion for numbers with his passion for food (in particular, chocolate) to explain how the politics and economics of food production work with, for, and against us.Chang was joined by economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler, whose first book, Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like?, will be published in April 2023.Find more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/eventspodAttend our last Winter Lecture this Friday in person or online: lrb.me/winterlecturesSubscribe to Close Readings: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Colombian novelist Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s latest book a film director is attending a retrospective of his work in Barcelona. Plagued by personal tragedy, Sergio Cabrera begins to recall the events that have marked him and his family, from the Spanish Civil War to the Chinese Cultural Revolution to the guerrilla wars in Latin America.Vásquez is in conversation with writer and broadcaster Shahidha Bari.Buy tickets to our forthcoming events, including livestreams, here: https://lrb.me/events Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over a century after the Russian Revolution, the tumultuous history of the Soviet Union continues to fascinate us and influence global politics. In The Shortest History Of The Soviet Union (Old Street Publishing), acclaimed historian Sheila Fitzpatrick charts the development of the nation, from its accidental beginnings to its unexpected departure, and asks what lessons the global superpowers of today have learned from its story. Sheila Fitzpatrick was in conversation with writer, journalist and fellow LRB contributor James Meek. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katherine Rundell has been writing about endangered animals in the LRB since 2018. Her new book, The Golden Mole, gathers those essays and new pieces into a bestiary of unusual and underappreciated creatures. Katherine was joined by LRB editor Alice Spawls in a discussion touching on Elizabethan celebrity bears, Amelia Earhart’s bones, and the greatest lie we’ve ever told: that the world is ours for the taking.Find upcoming events on the Bookshop website: lrb.me/eventspodYou can read Katherine’s work in the LRB archives: lrb.me/rundell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Derek Owusu’s first novel That Reminds Me, a haunting, edgy Bildungsroman, won the Desmond Elliott prize in 2020. He was joined by Jason Okundaye to discuss and read from his second novel Losing the Plot, which continues his exploration of Black lives in Britain.Find more events on our website: lrb.me/eventspodGrab a copy of Losing the Plot from the Bookshop: lrb.me/owusupodSubscribe to Close Readings: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wallace Shawn talks to Gareth Evans about his new collection of essays. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Abolish The Family, leading feminist critic Sophie Lewis asks us to imagine a world without families. She traces the history of family abolitionism, before introducing us to the groundbreaking politics of radical feminists and gay liberationists that have called for a society organised without the family at its core.Lewis was joined by Lola Olufemi, author of Experiments In Imagining Otherwise.Find more events at the Bookshop website: https://lrb.me/eventspodSubscribe to Close Readings: https://lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vigdis Hjorth’s latest novel Is Mother Dead (translated by Charlotte Barslund; Verso) is a characteristic blend of thriller, metafiction, meditation on art, motherhood, belonging and surveillance. She cites as influences Brecht and Céline. Others have compared her to Kafka and Thomas Bernhard, but in truth, she is quite unique. Hjorth was in conversation with writer and broadcaster, Shahidha Bari.Find more events on the Bookshop website: https://lrb.me/eventspodSubscribe to Close Readings: https://lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chantal Mouffe is one of the world’s leading left thinkers on power and populism. In her latest book, she proposes the creation of a broad coalition of movements under the banner of a Green Democratic Revolution to confront the impending ecological crisis.Mouffe was joined in conversation with James Schneider, co-founder of Momentum and author of Our Bloc: How We Win.Find more events at the Bookshop website: https://lrb.me/eventspodSubscribe to Close Readings: https://lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A storyteller, mythologist and poet, Martin Shaw’s latest collection, s t a g c u l t (Hazel Press, 2022) lifts a lantern to a kind of haunting we can’t quite exorcise, or don’t wish to. Shaw was joined in conversation by Claire Armitstead, associate culture editor at the Guardian and presenter of their weekly books podcast.Buy a copy of s t a g c u l t from the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/stagcultFind more events at the website: https://lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the spring of 2020 Lara Feigel found herself locked down with her partner, her two children and the works of D.H. Lawrence. In Look! We Have Come Through! (Bloomsbury) she blends biography, autobiography and literary criticism in a way familiar to readers of Free Woman, her book about Doris Lessing.Feigel was joined in conversation about Lawrence and her own rediscovery of him with author Lauren Elkin.Buy a copy of Look! We Have Come Through!: https://lrb.me/lawrencefeigelFind upcoming events at the Bookshop website: https://lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Perdendosi: an instruction, typically at the end of a piece, for musicians to gradually diminish in volume, tempo and tone, to the point of disappearance. Photographer Norman McBeath uses the term to describe the way his images of fallen leaves portray how they lose colour and volume, turning from living things into something like parchment. During lockdown, McBeath’s images were a constant companion to artist and writer Edmund de Waal, who responds to them here with a series of texts evoking change, decay and transformation, a unique collaboration beautifully documented in a new book from Hazel Press.McBeath and de Waal are in conversation with Alexandra Harris, Professor of English at Birmingham University and author of Weatherland and Romantic Moderns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Claude McKay's Harlem Shadows was published in 1922 and is only now beginning to receive its due. The collection stands alongside the better-known masterpieces of that year in its distillation of the spirit of the age and its outsize influence.Writer, researcher, and LRB contributor Kevin Okoth joined poet Raymond Antrobus and author Paul Mendez to discuss McKay's extraordinary life and work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In his fifth novel The Last White Man (Hamish Hamilton) Mohsin Hamid continues his exploration of cultural and racial displacement, commenced so brilliantly with Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia and Exit West. In what has been described as a contemporary remoulding of Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ a man awakes one morning to find that his skin has turned dark. Hamid was in conversation with Jo Hamya, author of Three Rooms (Vintage). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dawn Foster, chronicler of austerity Britain and leading voice from the housing crisis, passed away last year aged 34. Foster, author of Lean Out (Repeater, 2016) and LRB contributor, was a working class feminist who rose to prominence as a newspaper columnist and broadcast commentator; she was a fearless champion for those at the sharp end. In the week of the Queen's funeral, friends and colleagues discussed her life and legacy: K Biswas, critic and director of Resonance FM and On Road Media; James Butler, LRB contributing editor and co-founder of Novara Media; Lynsey Hanley, broadcaster and author; and Gary Younge, author and sociology professor at the University of Manchester.Read Dawn Foster's work in the LRB: lrb.me/dawnfosterFind more Bookshop events via the website: lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chef proprietor at London’s Quo Vadis, Jeremy Lee’s commitment to locality, excellence and simplicity has made the restaurant a must-eat-at destination for every resident or visiting gourmet. He’s also, in stark contrast to the popular image of the celebrity chef, the jolliest and most affable host you might ever hope to be fed by. His new book Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many (4th Estate), ‘one of the most beautiful cookery books I have ever seen’ according to Rachel Roddy, encapsulates his approach to food and cooking: first and foremost, it is about giving and receiving pleasure.Lee is in conversation about food and pleasure with the writer and critic Olivia Laing, who has written of him: 'I worship Jeremy Lee … He has a true gift for living, and for writing about it too.Find out about upcoming events: https://lrb.me/upcomingevents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Knocking Myself Up (Dey St.), Michelle Tea brings all her characteristic passion, wit and occasionally alarming candour to bear on the trials, tribulations and joys of trying to become, and becoming, a queer parent. Witch-enhanced honey, intrusive medical procedures, impertinent questions and generous drag queens collide in a memoir that is both hugely entertaining and, in the end, profoundly moving.Tea was in conversation with Isabel Waidner, author of We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff and Sterling Karat Gold.Find more upcoming LRB Bookshop events via the website: https://lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now published for the very first time, Through the Billboard Promised Land Without Ever Stopping (House Sparrow Press) is Derek Jarman’s only piece of narrative fiction. Somewhere between a fairytale, acid trip and road movie, the work lays the foundations for many of the themes and styles that characterise Jarman’s work in film, painting and design.Joining host So Mayer, author of A Nazi Word for a Nazi Thing (Peninsula), to explore the book were writer Philip Hoare, Jarman scholar Declan Wiffen and artist Michael Ginsborg. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.