James Meek

speaker

486 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 15 Jun

James Meek’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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London Review Bookshop Podcast · James Meek & Lara Pawson: Your Life Without Me · 15 Jun 2026 podcast

In the midst of a project, you have certain ideas and you see something shining as you fly over.

Yes.

And you think, yes, that would fit into my nest very nicely.

It's so inspiring.

And I think that's the way it works.

It's the same with anything.

If you're thinking about something, then you will see that thing everywhere.

So I grabbed it.

And it is an extraordinary book.

Middlemarch.

It is... It is...

It is a masterpiece and the reason why I'm talking about it, because it's just a moment in the book, but I do find it interesting the way that there are these canonical masterpieces and there's this sort of general idea grows up about them, that they are about something.

But actually, and then you read them and you realise they're about so many other different things.

I mean, who remembers?

This is nothing to do with my book, but it's just my favourite example.

Who remembers in Madame Bovary that her husband chops off this guy's leg?

I mean, it's like this massive deal in the book.

And I do think that it possibly meant more to Flaubert than...

but i mean it's just not in the in the idea that we have of the of the book and when you read middlemarch now um i i defy you not to think you know this is about uh it's a social novel about conditions in a in a small very prejudiced and narrow-minded english town yeah and not just about the relations between people

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