In this bonus TLS long read, the former politician Rory Stewart discusses to power of modern politics, Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings and the corrosion of morals.
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the scholars Janet Todd and Derek Hughes to revisit the life and work of Restoration England’s first woman of letters, the playwright Aphra Behn, who “seems formed for our noisy, sex-obsessed times”; the translator, poet and critic Sasha Dugdale considers Russian protest poetry and the rise of Galina Rymbu; plus, literary festivals rebooted.
‘The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Aphra Behn: Volume IV: Plays, 1682–1696’, edited by Rachel Adcock, et al
‘F Letter: New Russian feminist poetry’, edited by Galina Rymbu, Eugene Ostashevsky and Ainsley Morse; translated by Eugene Ostashevsky, Ainsley Morse, Alex Karsavin, Helena Kernan, Kit Eginton, Valzhyna Mort and Kevin M. F. Platt
‘Life In Space’ by Galina Rymbu; translated by Joan Brooks
‘The Scar We Know’, a bi-lingual edition of Lida Yusupova's poetry with introductions by Oksana Vasyakina and Ainsley Morse, has just been published by Cicada Books
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Skye C. Cleary to discuss Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘lost’ novel, ‘The Inseparables’, published almost seventy years after it was written; Anna Picard reviews a very dark production of ‘Rigoletto’ at the Royal Opera House; plus, buying and selling (and maybe stealing) Emily Dickinson’s hair (maybe).
'The Inseparables' by Simone de Beauvoir
'Rigoletto' by Giuseppe Verdi, at the Royal Opera House, until September 29, then February–March, 2022
This week, Lucy Dallas and Toby Lichtig are joined by the critic and gym-sceptic Irina Dumitrescu to consider a clutch of books about fitness – how it came to be the industry it is, what it means to us, even what the smell of sweat does; Alex Clark, a regular contributor to the TLS’s fiction pages, runs through this year’s Booker Prize shortlist, just announced, before turning to a real-life story that reads like a mystery novel: the “Stonehouse affair”, the tale of the MP and former Cabinet minister John Stonehouse, who disappeared while swimming from a private beach in Miami
The Age of Fitness: How the body came to symbolize success and achievement by Jürgen Martschukat
Exercised: The science of physical activity, rest and health by Daniel Lieberman
The Joy of Sweat: The strange science of perspiration by Sarah Everts
The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
John Stonehouse, My Father: The true story of the runaway MP, by Julia Stonehouse
Stonehouse: Cabinet minister, fraudster, spy by Julian Hayes
Lucy Dallas and Michael Caines are joined by Dennis Duncan, the author of ‘Index, A History of the’, to discuss how we navigate the contents between books' covers, taking in alphabets, concordances, ancient search engines and much more; What is Substack: a publishing start-up or a reboot of a nineteenth-century literary idea?; and the writer and translator Miranda France discusses a new book by the famed psychogeographer Iain Sinclair, which takes us to Peru, in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, who made a fascinating and, to us, troubling expedition to the Upper Amazon region in 1891.
‘Index, A History of the’ by Dennis Duncan
‘The Gold Machine: In the tracks of the mule dancers’ by Iain Sinclair
Throughout the summer, we are revisiting the very best of the podcast during the last year.
In this episode - it's movie week; the author Colin Grant discusses Steve McQueen's Small Axe and the Academy Award-winning Nomadland starring Frances McDormand, Yoojin Grace Wuertz talks us through the Korean American Dream film Minari, and Clifford Thompson reviews Regina King's directorial debut One Night in Miami - which sees Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Jim Brown and Cassius Clay gather for a heated debate.
Throughout August, we are revisiting the very best of the podcast during the last year.
In this episode; the comedian David Baddiel joins Toby Lichtig to talk about his book 'Jews Don't Count' which explores the insidious, pervasive, exclusionary nature of ‘progressive’ antisemitism, Éadaoín Lynch remembers fully and truthfully the relationship between the poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, and Lucy Scholes reviews a clutch of novels in the British Library's Women Writers series, dedicated to once-popular writers.
Throughout August, we are revisiting the very best of the podcast during the last year.
In this episode; the TLS's Classics editor Mary Beard emphasizes the importance of teaching Classics in context, the medievalist Hetta Howes reviews a female take on 'Beowulf', and Ruth Scurr reveals the true history of the secretive Freemasons.
Throughout August, we are revisiting the very best of the podcast during the last year.
In this episode; the TLS's fiction editor Toby Lichtig talks to Douglas Stuart about his 2020 Booker Prize-winning novel Shuggie Bain, the writer Laura Thompson joins Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas to discuss the work of Agatha Christie and how she has managed to move with the times, and Edmund Gordon to reviews 'Klara and the Sun' - Kazuo Ishiguro’s new Booker Prize longlisted novel about an Artificial Friend.
In a special bonus podcast we bring you an episode of Secrets of the Side Hustle that we think you might enjoy.
Host Laura Jackson speaks with Alighieri Jewellery founder, Rosh Mahtani, about her business journey, the importance of connecting with your customers and why a 14th century epic poem makes the perfect inspiration for a 21st century business...
In this bonus TLS long read, Michele Pridmore-Brown, researcher at The University of California - Berkeley, discusses what science can tell us about manliness.
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Thomas Morris, the author of 'The Matter of the Heart: A history of the heart in eleven operations', to discuss the extraordinary life and influence of the Nobel prize-winning Jewish biochemist Otto Warburg, whose research into cancer, as well as his audacious character, helped him to survive Nazi Germany; the art critic and historian Frances Spalding celebrates the energetic and sophisticated paintings of Nina Hamnett, whose colourful social life has tended to eclipse her talents. Plus, Shakespeare in the open air.
Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the search for the cancer-diet connection, by Sam Apple
Nina Hamnett, Charleston, Sussex, until August 30th
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Nick Groom, Professor of Literature in English at the University of Macau, to discuss William Blake, who saw wonders everywhere (including a tree on Peckham Rye), and communicated them urgently in art and poetry – what does he have to tell us now?; the critic and writer Michael Kerrigan guides us through the ‘improbably enthralling mundanities’ of the Uruguayan novelist Mario Levrero; plus, a dazzling history of Sicily, the demise of local journalism, and ‘bald’ philosophy.
William Blake Vs the World by John Higgs
The Luminous Novel by Mario Levrero, translated by Annie McDermott
Panic as Man Burns Crumpets: The vanishing world of the local journalist by Roger Lytollis
Bald: 35 philosophical short cuts by Simon Critchley
The Invention of Sicily: A Mediterranean history by Jamie Mackay
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas as joined by Keith Hopper, a critic of film and literature, to revisit the film ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969), a 'dark, difficult masterpiece' starring Jon Voight as an aspirant sex worker and Dustin Hoffman as his friend, an ailing con man; before it’s available in English, the journalist Henri Astier delves into the 'secret' diary of Michel Barnier, the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, who the British tabloids named 'the most dangerous man in Europe'; plus, what does Brexit mean for books?
‘Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, sex, loneliness, liberation, and the making of a dark classic’ by Glenn Frankel
‘La Grande Illusion: Journal secret du Brexit (2016-2020)’ by Michel Barnier
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Noo Saro-Wiwa, the author of ‘Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria’, to discuss developments in travel writing; Alice Kelly, the author of ‘Commemorative Modernisms: Women writers, death and the First World War’, considers how conflict permeates American culture; plus, a new poem by André Naffis-Sahely, ‘At the Graves of Labour’s Fallen’
‘The Travel Writing Tribe: Journeys in search of a genre’ by Tim Hannigan
‘War and American Literature’, edited by Jennifer Haytock
‘A History of American Literature and Culture of the First World War’, edited by Tim Dayton and Mark W. Van Wienen
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Adam Watt, Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Exeter, to mark 150 years since the birth of Marcel Proust, whose legacy seems stronger than ever; Sarah Lonsdale, the author of 'Rebel Women Between the Wars', re-considers ‘Diary of a Provincial Lady’, a funny novel about interwar life in deepest Devon whose darker tones tend to be overlooked; plus, Mary Beard on new developments at the Colosseum.
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