London Review Bookshop Podcast
Episodes
Writers on Recordings: Rachel Cusk on Katherine Anne Porter
17 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
New York's 92nd Street Y has been a home to the voices of literature for 80 years, hosting in its famed Reading Series the greatest literary artists o...
Writers on Recordings: Colm Tóibín on Elizabeth Bishop
14 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
New York's 92nd Street Y has been a home to the voices of literature for 80 years, hosting in its famed Reading Series the greatest literary artists o...
Promise of a Dream: Sheila Rowbotham and Lynne Segal
06 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sheila Rowbotham’s many books, in history, politics, feminist theory and biography, have established her firmly at the forefront of both the women’...
Guestbook: Ghost Stories: Leanne Shapton and Adam Thirlwell
30 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In her latest work Guestbook: Ghost Stories (Particular Books) Leanne Shapton, through a series of stories and vignettes, encounters the uncanny. Are ...
For the Good Times: David Keenan and Bill Drummond
23 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
David Keenan’s For the Good Times (Faber), set in Belfast during The Troubles, pursues four friends battling for an identity in a neighbourhood hara...
Dressed: Shahidha Bari and Marina Warner
16 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In her first book Dressed (Jonathan Cape), Shahidha Bari explores the hidden memories, meanings and ideas which are wrapped up in our clothes; themes ...
Mary Jean Chan, Will Harris and Sarah Howe
09 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Listen back to an evening of readings and discussion from three outstanding poets, Mary Jean Chan, Will Harris and Sarah Howe. ------ Mary Jean Chan's...
Queer Cultures of Resistance: Niven Govinden, Amelia Abraham and Isabel Waidner
06 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
To mark the publication of Niven Govinden’s This Brutal House (Dialogue Books), we hosted a round table discussion about LGBTQI+ literature and cult...
Race and Poetry Reviewing: Kayo Chingonyi, Bhanu Kapil, Ilya Kaminsky and Parul Sehgalhttp://media.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/2019-06-21-race-and-poetry-event.mp3
02 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
An evening of discussion and poetry readings with poets Kayo Chingonyi, Bhanu Kapil, Ilya Kaminsky and New York Times book critic Parul Sehgal. This l...
Writers on Recordings: Nicola Barker on T.S. Eliot
26 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nicola Barker discusses T.S. Eliot, with reference to his appearances at New York’s 92nd Street Y, with the 92Y’s Reading Series producer Bernard ...
Full Surrogacy Now: Sophie Lewis and Joanna Biggs
26 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Full Surrogacy Now (Verso), Sophie Lewis takes on the surrogacy industry – worth over one billion dollars a year in the USA alone, and famously e...
Writers on Recordings: The A.L. Kennedy Mixtape
25 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A.L. Kennedy discusses a personal mixtape of early influences (Cummings, Burgess, Pinter, Feiffer), with reference to their appearances at New York’...
Writers on Recordings: Mark Ford on John Ashbery
25 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Ford discusses John Ashbery, with reference to his appearances at New York’s 92nd Street Y, with the 92Y’s Reading Series producer Bernard Sc...
Tracy K Smith and Jay Bernard
18 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tracy K. Smith is the 22nd Poet Laureate of the USA. Her last collection, Wade in the Water, was nominated for a Forward Prize; her last-but-one, Life...
Mother Ship: Francesca Segal and Olivia Laing
11 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
‘Every new baby is its own crisis.’ The ‘mother ship’ of Francesca Segal’s memoir is the neonatal intensive care unit where she was confined...
A Terrible Country: Keith Gessen and Vadim Nikitin
14 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Novelist, journalist and translator Keith Gessen will be at the shop to read from and talk about his latest novel A Terrible Country, published by Fit...
Sally Rooney and Kishani Widyaratna: Normal People
07 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sally Rooney breathes new life into fiction. Her novels deal with ordinary life in all its unexpected ways. The Guardian said of Rooney’s debut nove...
Algiers, Third World Capital: Elaine Mokhtefi and Adam Shatz
30 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After Algeria gained its independence from France in 1962 Algiers became the de facto capital of anti-imperialism, anti-racism and world revolution, a...
Karl Ove Knausgaard and Charlotte Higgins on Edvard Munch
23 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In So Much Longing in So Little Space, Karl Ove Knausgaard explores the life and work of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Setting out to understand the...
Jhumpa Lahiri and Chris Power on Italian Short Stories
16 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jhumpa Lahiri, author of several highly acclaimed novels, described in her memoir In Other Words her passionate romance with the Italian language. She...
One Lark, One Horse: Michael Hofmann and Declan Ryan
09 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One Lark, One Horse is Michael Hofmann’s first new collection of poetry for almost two decades, and more than justifies the wait; Stephen Romer writ...
Spring: Ali Smith and Erica Wagner
02 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Spring, the third instalment of her seasonal quartet, Ali Smith continues her unique investigation into our country’s past present and future, un...
Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019 Shortlist Readings
27 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We hosted the shortlisted authors for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019 in an evening of readings at the London Review Bookshop. Rewarding the ...
Late in the Day: Tessa Hadley and Alex Clark
20 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tessa Hadley's new novel Late in the Day (Jonathan Cape) addresses loss, friendship and lives unmoored. Hilary Mantel says, ‘The lives of two close-...
Dreams of Leaving and Remaining: James Meek and Chris Bickerton
13 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Dreams of Leaving and Remaining (Verso), novelist, journalist, essayist and contributing editor to the LRB James Meek anatomises the fractured body...
Sea Monsters: Chloe Aridjis and Juliet Jacques
06 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Chloe Aridjis’s third novel Sea Monsters (Chatto), set in Mexico in the late 1980s, describes the elopement of Mexico City schoolgirl with a boy she...
Who Killed My Father: Édouard Louis & Kerry Hudson
27 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Édouard Louis, one of France’s most acclaimed young writers, shot to international fame with his first novel, the semi-autobiographical End of Eddy...
Vertigo & Ghost: Fiona Benson and Daisy Johnson
20 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Fiona Benson’s Vertigo & Ghost (Jonathan Cape), the follow-up to her award-winning 2014 debut Bright Travellers, is one of the most hotly-anticipate...
Danny Dorling and Sally Tomlinson: Brexit and the End of Empire
13 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Things fall apart when empires crumble. Rediscovery of past glories is attempted again and again, until eventually those living in what was once the h...
Notes to Self: Emilie Pine and Katherine Angel
06 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
First published by Irish independent Tramp Press, Emilie Pine’s Notes to Self became a phenomenal word-of-mouth bestseller. Now picked up on this si...
John Lanchester and Daniel Soar: The Wall
30 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
John Lanchester’s new novel, The Wall, is a Kafkaesque nightmare whose richly-imagined world is very different from our own and yet all too familiar...
Out of the Woods: Luke Turner and Olivia Laing
23 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After the disintegration of the most significant relationship of his life, the demons Luke Turner has been battling since childhood are quick to retur...
Simon Garfield and Andy Miller: In Miniature
16 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Simon Garfield – 'The schoolteacher who made the time fly, a one-man Blue Peter team for intelligent adults, a great British explainer’, according...
Mathias Enard and Elif Shafak: Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants
09 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Man Booker International-shortlisted novelist Mathias Enard, 'the most brazenly lapel-grabbing French author since Michel Houellebecq', returns with T...
Lisa Appignanesi and Lara Feigel: Everyday Madness
02 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After the death of her partner of thirty-two years, Lisa Appignanesi was thrust into a state striated by rage and superstition in which sanity felt el...
Peak Inequality: Danny Dorling and Faiza Shaheen
19 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Peak Inequality: Britain’s Ticking Time Bomb Danny Dorling presents the evidence that in 2018 the growth in UK income inequality may have finally...
Tony Wood and James Meek: Russia Without Putin
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Does the West’s obsession with Vladimir Putin prevent it from genuinely understanding Russia? In Russia Without Putin (Verso), LRB contributor and R...
Jenny Hval and Laura Snapes: Paradise Rot
28 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
‘Like Björk and FKA Twigs, Norwegian artist Jenny Hval presents a version of female sexuality in which carnal impulses, anxieties and the female/ma...
TJ Clark and Jeremy Harding: Heaven on Earth
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What is it about the particularities of painting that has allowed artists to explore, in a variety of ways and with a sometimes surprising degree of f...
Iain Sinclair and Patrick Wright: Living with Buildings
14 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Living With Buildings (Profile), Iain Sinclair embarks on a series of expeditions – through London, Marseille, Mexico and the Outer Hebrides. He ...
Martin Moore and David Runciman: Democracy Hacked
06 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Democracy Hacked, Martin Moore examines how our own fragile political systems are being gamed by authoritarian states, shadowy hackers and unaccoun...
Ben Marcus and Eley Williams: Notes from the Fog
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Marcus is one of contemporary American fiction’s most masterful writers. His new book of short stories, Notes from the Fog (Granta), is an emoti...
Marina Warner and Eleanor Birne: Forms of Enchantment
16 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Marina Warner’s new collection of essays, Forms of Enchantment (Thames and Hudson), collects her writing on art from 1988 to the present, including ...
Richard Powers and Benjamin Markovits: The Overstory
09 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Powers, one of America’s greatest novelists, often compared to Pynchon and Roth, read from and talked about his twelfth novel ‘The Oversto...
Slavoj Žižek and William Davies: Like a Thief in Broad Daylight
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, techno-scientific progress has started to utterly transform our world - changing it almost beyond recognition. In his new book, Like ...
Carlo Rovelli and Pedro Ferreira: The Order of Time
25 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What is the meaning of time? Is there such a thing as the present? How can we reconcile our intuitions on the subject with the scientific overturnings...
Seven Types of Atheism: John Gray and Adam Phillips
17 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a narrow derision of religion in the name of an often very vaguely understood 'science'. In *...
Out of My Head: Tim Parks and Laurence Scott
05 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Out of My Head tells the highly personal and often surprisingly funny story of Tim Parks' quest to discover more about consciousness. It seems not a d...
White Girls: Hilton Als and Bridget Minamore
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hilton Als was at the shop to discuss his second book of essays White Girls (Penguin) with writer and journalist Bridget Minamore. In thirteen astonis...
Trans-Europe Express: Owen Hatherley and Lynsey Hanley
21 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In ‘Trans-Europe Express’, Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the European city across the entire continent, to see what exactly makes it so diffe...
Stories from Europe's Refugee Crisis: Ziad Ghandour, Marchu Girma, Teresa Thornhill, Daniel Trilling
13 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The refugee crisis that hit the headlines in 2015 and 2016 has largely gone out of the news. Yet refugees continue to risk their lives on a daily basi...
A.K. Blakemore, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Amy Key and Zaffar Kunial
07 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Four of poetry's liveliest new voices – A.K. Blakemore, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Amy Key and Zaffar Kunial – joined us for an evening of readings ...
The Cost of Living: Deborah Levy and Olivia Laing
30 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Novelist, essayist and playwright Deborah Levy was at the shop to read from and talk about her latest book The Cost of Living (Hamish Hamilton), the s...
An Evening with James Wood
23 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Over six winter days in upstate New York the Querry family, its members variously afflicted by painful divorce, bereavement and depression, wrestle wi...
Sophie Mackintosh and Katherine Angel: The Water Cure
17 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sophie Mackintosh’s powerful dystopian debut novel The Water Cure (Hamish Hamilton) comes with some dazzling endorsements. ‘Eerie, electric, beaut...
Crudo: Olivia Laing and Ali Smith
02 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From a Tuscan hotel for the super-rich to a Brexit-paralysed UK, Kathy spends the first summer of her 40s trying to adjust to making a lifelong commit...
Édouard Louis and Didier Eribon
26 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sociologist Didier Eribon and novelist Édouard Louis were both born into conservative working-class families in provincial France. Oppressed both int...
Life, Literature and Liberation: Lara Feigel and Joanna Walsh with Jennifer Hodgson
18 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Joanna Walsh’s latest book Break.up (Tuskar Rock), a feminist revisionist travelogue, and romance for the digital age, explores the spaces between l...
Motherhood: Sheila Heti and Sally Rooney
11 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sheila Heti’s latest novel Motherhood (Harvill Secker) confronts, in the characteristic fiction cum essay style which she pioneered in How Should a ...
Olga Tokarczuk and Deborah Levy
04 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most acclaimed Polish writers of her generation, Olga Tokarczuk has won multiple prizes, most recently the Man Booker International for her...
Hera Lindsay Bird and Jack Underwood
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hera Lindsay Bird’s debut poetry collection, the eponymous Hera Lindsay Bird (Penguin), became a cult bestseller in her native New Zealand, and led ...
Modern Nature: Olivia Laing, Sarah Wood and Philip Hoare on Derek Jarman
22 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1986, having just been diagnosed with HIV, the artist, film-maker and writer Derek Jarman decided to create a garden at his home on the bleak, beau...
A New Politics from the Left: Hilary Wainwright, Melissa Benn and Alex Nunns
14 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hilary Wainwright, co-editor of Red Pepper magazine and fellow of the Transnational Institute, has been a significant figure on the left of the Labour...
Ali Smith and Alan Taylor on Muriel Spark
11 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Alan Taylor first met Muriel Spark when he interviewed her at her Tuscan home in 1990. It marked the beginning of a long and close friendsh...
Mothers: Jacqueline Rose and Devorah Baum
07 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
‘I think to be a mother for five minutes is to know that the world is unjust, and that our hearts are impure.’ In her latest book Mothers: An Essa...
Radical Sacrifice: Terry Eagleton and Daniel Soar
24 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Terry Eagleton’s more than 40 books have explored, in consistently invigorating ways, the many and surprising intersections and confluence...
Kaveh Akbar and Richard Scott
02 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar’s debut collection Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Penguin) has been attracting ecstatic reviews and endorsements. The poet...
Timothy Morton: Being Ecological
27 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Timothy Morton was at the shop to discuss his latest work, Being Ecological (Pelican), which argues for a radically different approach to global warmi...
Transgressions: Ariana Harwicz, Tessa Hadley & Catherine Taylor
20 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Novelists Tessa Hadley and Ariana Harwicz discuss the dark art of fiction writing with critic Catherine Taylor. Ariana Harwicz is one of the leading l...
A Sentimental Journey: Martin Rowson and Iain Sinclair
13 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, his final work and published in the year of his death in 1768, has been somewhat n...
Eat Up! Ruby Tandoh and Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff
06 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Whether railing against the clean eating movement or reviewing fast food restaurants for Vice, journalist, writer and 2013 Bake Off runner up Ruby Tan...
Danez Smith and Kayo Chingonyi
03 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
American poet Danez Smith and Zambian-born British poet Kayo Chingonyi read from their latest collections Don’t Call Us Dead and Kumukanda (both Cha...
Distractions and Diversions: Adam Phillips, Anne Stillman & Matthew Bevis
20 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What is distraction? Do we need more or less of it? And how might it be sensed, indulged, or explored in the essay and other kinds of writing? This ev...
In Therapy: Susie Orbach and Lisa Appignanesi
13 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate the publication of In Therapy: The Unfolding Story (Profile/Wellcome Collection), Susie Orbach was in conversation with Lisa Appignanesi....
Radical Happiness: Lynne Segal and Melissa Benn
06 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In an age of increasing individualism, we have never been more alone and miserable. But what if the true nature of happiness can only be found in othe...
On Fairy Tales: Carol Mavor and Marina Warner
30 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Carol Mavor, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Manchester, reflects in her latest book Aurelia (Reaktion) on the very p...
Peter Carey on ‘A Long Way from Home’
19 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate the publication of the London Review Bookshop's beautiful limited edition of Peter Carey’s new novel 'A Long Way From Home', LRB publis...
So They Call You Pisher! Michael Rosen and Anne Karpf
04 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Acclaimed children's writer, poet, educationalist and broadcaster Michael Rosen was at the shop to present his latest book So They Call You Pisher! (V...
On Exile: Richard Sennett and Sewell Chan
26 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Richard Sennett has spent an intellectual lifetime exploring how humans live in cities. In this pair of essays Richard Sennett explores disp...
Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Reni Eddo-Lodge and Sarah Shin on Audre Lorde
19 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Audre Lorde (1934-92) described herself as ‘Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet’. Born in New York, she had her first poem published while still...
My House of Sky: Hetty Saunders, Robert Macfarlane and John Fanshawe on J.A. Baker
12 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
My House of Sky (Little Toller) tells the hitherto largely unknown story of J.A. Baker, author of nature writing classic The Peregrine. Working with a...
Mary Beard: Women & Power
05 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The two parts of Mary Beard’s latest book were originally given as lectures in the LRB’s prestigious Winter Lecture series, and subsequently appea...
David Harvey and Owen Hatherley
28 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Marx’s Das Kapital, published in three volumes between 1867 and 1883, exercised a profound influence on the history and politics of the 20th century...
Simon Critchley & Juliet Jacques: What We Think About When We Think About Football
22 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What do we think about when we think about football? Football is about so many things: memory, history, place, social class, gender, family identity, ...
Winter: Ali Smith and Olivia Laing
13 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Following her Man Booker shortlisted Autumn, Ali Smith was at the shop to present its sequel Winter, (Hamish Hamilton), the second in a quartet of nov...
The Last London: Iain Sinclair and Stewart Lee
07 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Iain Sinclair has been writing about London for most of his adult life, and if any of us can even begin to understand this peculiar sort of city that ...
After Kathy Acker: Chris Kraus and Juliet Jacques
31 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty years after Kathy Acker's untimely death, Chris Kraus has provided the first full biography of the avant-garde artist, writer and counter-cultu...
Lecture On The History Of Skywriting: a reading by Anne Carson
23 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A very special evening at the Bookshop poet, playwright and translator Anne Carson. With Robert Currie and Ben Whishaw, Anne performed Lecture On The ...
Cambridge Literary Review 10: Vahni Capildeo, Drew Milne, Luke Roberts and Eley Williams
10 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Four of the most interesting poets working today read at the bookshop, to mark the publication of Cambridge Literary Review 10: Vahni Capildeo, Drew M...
Siri Hustvedt and Lisa Appignanesi
25 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
'Americans don’t actually believe in death.' Siri Hustvedt and Lisa Appignanesi were in conversation in the bookshop. Hustvedt's latest collection o...
Horacio Castellanos Moya and Rory O'Bryen
19 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Horacio Castellanos Moya was in conversation at the Bookshop with Rory O'Bryen. Best known in the UK for novels such as Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in ...
Big Capital: Who is London for?: Anna Minton and Oliver Wainwright
12 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Anna Minton, Reader in Architecture at the University of East London and author of Ground Control, asks, in her latest book Big Capital (Penguin), a v...
RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR: Philip Hoare and Olivia Laing
29 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Philip Hoare, who won the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2009 for his magnificent Leviathan, continues his exploration of our watery world with RISINGTIDEFAL...
On Palestine: Jeremy Harding, Ahdaf Soueif, Rachel Holmes & Bashir Abu-Manneh
22 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
PalFest, The Palestinian Festival of Literature, which brings writers from around the world to Palestine to read to and meet their readers, celebrates...
The Secret Life: Andrew O'Hagan and Hans Ulrich Obrist
14 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew O’Hagan’s latest book The Secret Life brings together three of his finest long essays, each of them investigating the strange, vexed inters...
Ali Smith: Autumn
01 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ali Smith was at the shop to read from and talk about her (now Booker nominated!) novel Autumn, an unconventional love story that plays with boundarie...
In Writing: Adam Phillips and Devorah Baum
25 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his latest book In Writing (Hamish Hamilton) psychoanalyst and regular LRB contributor Adam Phillips celebrates the art of close reading and asks w...
Paul Beatty and Lola Okolosie
04 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Beatty, winner of 2016's Man Booker Prize, will be in conversation with Lola Okolosie, Guardian journalist and editor-at-large of Media Diversifi...
The Plagiarist in the Kitchen: Jonathan Meades and John Mitchinson
26 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Writer, filmmaker, architectural critic and essayist Jonathan Meades was in conversation with his publisher, John Mitchinson (Unbound Books) to discus...
Vanishing Points: Contemporary Writing From El Salvador
19 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate the publication of Vanishing Points, a new showcase of writing from El Salvador, Tania Pleitez Vela and Claudia Castro Luna were at the s...