Literary

Podcasts

It's Halloween and John and Andy are joined by novelist Lissa Evans and Backlisted's resident revenant, critic Andrew Male, to discuss Ghosts, Edith Wharton's selection of her best supernatural tales, first published in 1937. John also talks about Alan Garner's new memoir Where Shall We Run To? while Andy has been reading Daphne du Maurier's prophetic final novel Rule Britannia.

6'57 - Rule Britannia by Daphne Du Maurier
13'27 - Where shall We Run To? by Alan Garner
17'40 - Ghosts by Edith Wharton
Timings may differ due to variable advert length

* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted

Ghosts by Edith Wharton

This tenth anniversary edition of W. G. Sebald&rsquo;s celebrated masterpiece includes a new Introduction by acclaimed critic James Wood. Austerlitz is the story of a man&rsquo;s search for the answer to his life&rsquo;s central riddle. A small child when he comes to England on a Kindertransport in the summer of 1939, Jacques Austerlitz is told nothing of his real family by the Welsh Methodist minister and his wife who raise him. When he is a much older man, fleeting memories return to him, and obeying an instinct he only dimly understands, Austerlitz follows their trail back to the world he left behind a half century before. There, faced with the void at the heart of twentieth-century Europe, he struggles to rescue his heritage from oblivion.

Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, read by Richard Matthews

In our first podcast of 2019 we tackle D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow, a novel that has divided opinion since it was first published (and banned) in 1915 - and sure enough opinion was divided between John and Andy on this one. To discuss the book they are joined by writer and critic Catherine Taylor and Unbound editor-at-large Rachael Kerr. Also on this episode Backlisted listeners' favourite 'old' books of 2018.

Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
19'23 The Rainbow by DH Lawrence

* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted

The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence

Ray Bradbury's uncanny tales are the subject of this episode of Backlisted. John and Andy are joined by author and literary editor of The Spectator Sam Leith and writer and radio presenter Jennifer Lucy Allan. Also under discussion are Jay Bernard's poetry collection Surge and On Chapel Sands, the new memoir by art critic Laura Cumming.

Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
5'44 - On Chapel Sands by Laura Cumming
11'48 Surge by Jay Bernard
18'12 - The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

Philip Pullman is our guest on the 100th episode of Backlisted. John, Andy and Nicky travelled to Oxford for this special episode devoted to Robert Burton's extraordinary 1400-page The Anatomy of Melancholy, first published in 1621 and described by Sir Philip as 'a glorious and intoxicating and endlessly refreshing reward for reading ... Nor would we wish the book to be a sentence shorter, or be without one of the thousands of anecdotes and quotations. This is one of the indispensable books; for my money, it is the best of all'.

Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
4'35 - The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted

The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

W.G. Sebald's book The Rings of Saturn, first published in Germany in 1995, is the subject of this episode. Joining John and Andy to walk around this enigmatic masterpiece are the writer and swimmer Philip Hoare and the novelist Jessie Greengrass. Other books under discussion are The Years by Annie Ernaux and Fiona Benson's award-winning poetry collection Vertigo & Ghost.

Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
4'36 - Les Années by Annie Ernaux
8'51 - Vertigo and Ghost by Fiona Benson
15'03 - The Rings of Saturn by W G Sebald

* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted

The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald

Susan Cooper's magical novel The Dark Is Rising (1973) is the subject of a bumper Christmas special episode of Backlisted. Joining John and Andy to discuss this classic winter solstice read, and the four other books that make up the Dark Is Rising sequence, are writer Robert Macfarlane and writer and illustrator Jackie Morris, co-authors of The Lost Words and The Lost Spells and fellow Susan Cooper devotees. And because it is Christmas, John also talks about a beautiful ice-and-snow bound story from the Chuckchi people of the Bering Sea, When the Whales Leave by Yuri Rytkheu, and Andy reads The Tree Room, a poem from Caroline Bird's new collection The Air Year that seems to sum up the spirit of Christmas 2020. Wherever this podcast finds you in the world, Merry Christmas from us all. When the dark comes rising, six shall turn it back...

Music in todays episode is:
The Dark is Rising album by Handspan https://handspan.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-is-rising
Hard Road by Johnny Flynn http://johnny-flynn.com/

* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted

The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

The literary podcast presented by John Mitchinson and Andy Miller. Brought to you by Unbound. Visit www.backlisted.fm

The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald

Backlisted Podcast