Platypus Novel

a collection of podcasts for advanced learners of English

Podcasts

The Great War - interviews and extracts from books on World War One

podcasts

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The Penguin Podcast: The Archive

Penguin Books UK - Podcast

pain

Jeremy Paxman - Great Britain's Great War - Audiobook extract

November 29, 2012: Darryl Pinckney talks about the history of the betrayals and successes that culminated in the Obama presidency, the price of Obama's victory in terms of black politics, and the results of the recent election.

The Robert B. Silvers Lecture is an annual series created by Max Palevsky. The series features writers and thinkers whose fields correspond to the broad range of Mr. Silvers’s interests in literature, the arts, politics, economics, history, and the sciences.

Darryl Pinckney: Blacks in American Democracy (2012)

This week we’re talking about writing a novel because guess what? Tom wrote a novel.

We also discuss some other guy who uses the pseudonym of Tom Reynolds, SAG name rules, the other Mark Wahlberg and maybe the most horrific episode of a game show ever thanks to Fox’s now canceled ‘Moment of Truth’.

After that’s out of the way attention is turned to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where thousands and thousands of people around the world try to crank out a full length novel in just one month’s time. We give advice from famous writers whose names we cannot remember, talk about Stephen King’s thirst for revenge, and take a look at Amazon’s Top Ten Bestselling Books of 2012 and look at how to take elements from all of them to guarantee yourself a spot on 2014’s list.


This week's episode is brought to you by Audible. Get a free audiobook download and 30-day trial by signing up at tcgte.com/audible.

Buy Meta

Writing A Novel

This May, Pelican’s back!
 
What was this iconically blue bird all about? What did it publish? And most importantly, why do we need it today? 
 
We have the imprint’s editor Laura Stickney to tell us why we’re bringing back Pelican. We speak to our in-house designer Matthew Young, who has been a part of bringing Pelicans alive on the page, in bookshops and online. And finally, we fly off to the Bristol Festival of Ideas, to hear the economist Ha-Joon Chang. Enjoy.
 
Pelicans are now in stores around the world. Visit pelicanbooks.com to read the first chapters of the first five titles for free.


The Penguin Podcast: Pelican Books

Debbie Millman reads from Dani Shapiro's "Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life" – more here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/06/02/dani-shapiro-design-matters-interview

Excerpted from https://soundcloud.com/designmatters

MORE / TRANSCRIPT

Debbie Millman reads Dani Shapiro's advice to writers

This episode of the Penguin Podcast focuses on one of literature’s favourite characters - the underdog.

The Penguin Podcast: Underdogs feat. Malcolm Gladwell, Matthew Frank & Elizabeth Fremantle

This summer we're hitting the road with #penguinjourneys, and the Penguin Podcast is coming along for the ride. The wonderful Clare Balding, author of My Animals and Other Family and new book Walking Home (out this autumn), introduces this jet-setting episode. 

We have also teamed up with our friends at Rough Guides to give you top travel tips for each continent along the way. Head over to http://www.roughguides.com/ for more summer travel inspiration and join us on Twitter for an #askapenguin #penguinjourneys special with the expert travel team at Rough Guides on the 8th August. 

Now settle down and listen to the amazing journeys and the audiobooks we've matched them to. Let us know where your #penguinjourneys are taking you this summer, and what books you're taking with you, over on Twitter and Facebook. 

You can pre-order Clare's new book, Walking Home here: http://www.clarebalding.co.uk/news/walking-home-my-family-and-other-rambles and you can buy all the books featured in the campaign over on iTunes (opens in iTunes): http://po.st/PenguinJourneysiTunes

Keep up with all our travels this summer and follow the #penguinjourneys board over on Pinterest: http://po.st/PJpins

Join the #penguinjourneys discussion on Penguin Facebook and Twitter:

https://www.facebook.com/penguinbooks

https://twitter.com/PenguinUKBooks

Happy travels listener!

The Penguin Podcast: Penguin Journeys feat. Clare Balding, Gruff Rhys and a Roald Dahl short story

Set before and during the Great War, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen, a young Englishman, who arrives in Amiens in 1910. His life goes through a series of traumatic experiences, from the clandestine love affair that tears apart the family with whom he lives, to the unprecedented experience of the war itself

Sebastian Faulks: Birdsong (Audiobook extract) read by Samuel West

Today marks the centenary of the outbreak of World War One and we wanted to share the stories we’ve come to know and love by our authors, about this momentous occasion in history.  From accounts by soldiers who lived in the trenches to fictional novels recreating the lives of people during that time, we’ll take you back a hundred years to give you a snapshot of those four long years at war.

The Penguin Podcast: Writing The First World War feat. Jeremy Paxman, Robert Graves and Pat Barker

Jeremy Paxman talks to his editor, Will Hammond, about his latest book Great Britain's Great War.

Jeremy Paxman interview on Great Britain's Great War

Craig Taylor talks to Pat Barker, author of The Regeneration Trilogy and Toby's Room, on her First World War novels.

Pat Barker interview on The Regeneration Trilogy

This episode we’re focusing on the topic of art.  After all, Penguin has always had an upstanding reputation for brilliant, cutting edge book cover design and it’s something we take very seriously.  We have some fantastic interviews and clips lined up with arty people from Art Directors to video animators to critics to popular British artists. 

The Penguin Podcast: Art and Design feat. Grayson Perry, Lauren Child and Petra Börner

Painful memories

Transcript and background: http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/25/william-faulkner-university-of-virginia-recording/

TRANSCRIPT / DETAILS

William Faulkner on writing

Surrendered

Elegy for a friend's loss

Robot's romantic dream

The Lion

Digital - http://smarturl.it/pelicans-we
CD/12" Vinyl: https://www.musicglue.com/cosmosheldrake/

Recorded by Cosmo Sheldrake. Mixed by alalal and mastered at The Exchange London.

Website - www.cosmosheldrake.com/
Facebook - www.facebook.com/cosmosheldrakemusic
Twitter - twitter.com/cosmosheldrake
YouTube - www.youtube.com/user/comsosheldrake

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Rich (Ft. Anndreyah Vargas)

Penguin Books publishes blockbusting, prize-winning, celebrated, controversial, heart-warming, thought-provoking and inspiring books by a range of authors from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, Jeremy Clarkson to Jeremy Paxman and Jamie Oliver to Oliver Goldsmith.