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Published — 7 March 2023 The TLS - books and culture

Turning Leaves

In our first instalment, we talk to novelist Dame Margaret Drabble and her son, gardener and TV presenter Joe Swift. Their wide-ranging conversation includes a disagreement over pelargoniums, Joe’s childhood insistence on playing football in his mother’s cottage garden, the joys of irregular hedges and fashions in fiction and foliage alike. 

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Published — 5 March 2023 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 2 March 2023 The TLS - books and culture

Coming to Fruition

This week, Margaret Drabble and Joe Swift talk about the relationship between literature and gardening; and a new short-story collection from Margaret Atwood.


‘Turning Leaves’, a new podcast from the TLS team

‘Old Babes in the Wood’ by Margaret Atwood


Produced by Charlotte Pardy


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Published — 26 February 2023 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 23 February 2023 The TLS - books and culture

A Treasure on Your Shelf, Waiting

This week we hear about the pursuit of the perfect library, and celebrate the brilliance of crime writer Josephine Tey. 


Irina Dumitrescu on the bibliophile’s life

‘The Franchise Affair’, ‘To Love and Be Wise’ and ‘The Daughter of Time’ by Josephine Tey


Produced by Charlotte




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Published — 19 February 2023 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 16 February 2023 The TLS - books and culture

Dogs Days in the Writer’s Life

This week, we examine the highs and very many lows of the writing life. Tom Seymour Evans explores a disquieting biography of crime writer James Ellroy, and Stephen Marche shines a light into the abyss of literary failure in his new book.


‘Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy’ by Steven Powell

‘On Writing and Failure’ by Stephen Marche


Produced by Charlotte Pardy


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Published — 12 February 2023 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 9 February 2023 The TLS - books and culture

State Secrets and Private Passions

This week, Richard Norton-Taylor braves the terrifying world of cyberattacks and their brutal cost; and Lucasta Miller on an intriguing collection of 19th-century commonplace books.


'Pegasus: The Story of the World’s Most Dangerous Spyware’ by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud

‘Striking Back: The End of Peace in Cyberspace - and How to Restore It’ by Lucas Kello

The work of scholar and collector William St Clair


Produced by Charlotte Pardy


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Published — 5 February 2023 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 2 February 2023 The TLS - books and culture

All Those Old Familiar Places

This week, Elizabeth Dearnley hunts for the hags, fairies and wandering women of the pagan past; and Ruth Scurr on a thrilling final book from the celebrated journalist Janet Malcolm.


‘Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses In Christian Europe’ by Ronald Hutton

‘Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory’ by Janet Malcolm


Produced by Charlotte Pardy


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Published — 29 January 2023 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 26 January 2023 The TLS - books and culture

Telling It Like It Is

Richard Smyth remembers the equanimity and attentiveness of Ronald Blythe; and Mary Flannery on the enduring appeal of Alison, the Wife of Bath.


‘Next to Nature: A Lifetime in the English Countryside’ by Ronald Blythe

‘The Wife of Bath: A Biography’ by Marion Turner


Produced by Charlotte Pardy


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Published — 22 January 2023 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 19 January 2023 The TLS - books and culture

Rattling The Handle On Life

This week, Gabriel Roberts explores the past, present and - we very much hope - the future of bioabundance in animal species; and novelist Gwendoline Riley takes us into the affecting and brutally funny world of Michael Bracewell’s return to fiction after 21 years.


Species loss and bioabundance, by Gabriel Roberts

‘Unfinished Business’ by Michael Bracewell


Produced by Charlotte Pardy


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Published — 16 January 2023 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 9 January 2023 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 22 December 2022 The TLS - books and culture

Festive Shadows and Feasts of Panackelty

This week, Lucy Lethbridge explains what a curate's eye is, and how ideas of British cooking range from Aga fantasies to bacon butties; and J. S. Barnes takes us to the dark side of the festive season, via Dickens and M. R. James....


'The British Cookbook: Authentic home cooking recipes from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland' by Ben Mervis


'To Be Read At Dusk: Dickens, ghosts and the supernatural', Charles Dickens Museum, London, until March 5, 2023 


'The Witch Farm', BBC Radio 4 and Sounds 


'The Treasure of Abbot Thomas', Nunkie Theatre Company, December 24, live online  


Produced by Charlotte Pardy


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Published — 18 December 2022 The TLS - books and culture
Published — 15 December 2022 The TLS - books and culture

The Power of Connections

This week, we hear how the music-hall star Josephine Baker became a secret agent; and we talk to Simon McBurney of Complicité theatre company, about their haunting audio production of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising.


'The Flame of Resistance' by Damien Lewis


'The Dark Is Rising' by Susan Cooper, BBC World Service, December 20


Produced by Charlotte Pardy


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