This week, Alex and Lucy look back over some recent highlights, including Mary Beard’s survey of the Romans at play, and the best summer reads. Plus: we hear from a cat called Vincent Price.

Produced by Charlotte Pardy.

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This week, Roy Foster introduces us to a Devonshire debutante turned IRA terrorist, and Emile Chabal explains how Marine Le Pen created the phenomenon of ‘cat-washing'.

'Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber: The Extraordinary Life of Rose Dugdale' by Sean O’Driscoll

'Qu’est-ce que L’actualité Politique?: Événements et Opinions au XXIe Siècle' by Luc Boltanksi and Arnaud Esquerre

'Marginal Men and Micks on the Make' by Roy Foster

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, we go in search of the woman who created William Brown, beloved outlaw of the suburbs; and take a look at the sporting scene in the Middle East ahead of this winter’s men’s Fifa World Cup.

‘Richmal Crompton, author of Just William: A Literary Life’ by Jane McVeigh

'Routledge Handbook of Sport in the Middle East', edited by Danyel Reiche and Paul Michael Brannagan

'The Business of the Fifa World Cup', edited by Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop, Christos Anagnostopoulos and Daniel Parnell

This summer we’re celebrating the serendipity of second-hand books - let us know your finds by writing to letters@the-tls.co.uk or tweeting us @TheTLS

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Jonathan Bate leads us a merry dance in search of fresh woods and pastures new; and Philip Ball explains the importance of the mysterious Higgs Boson.

‘A History of Arcadia in Art and Literature: Volume 1: Earlier Renaissance; Volume 2: Later Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassicism’ by Paul Holberton

‘Elusive: How Peter Higgs solved the mystery of mass’ by Frank Close.

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Alex Clark and Toby Lichtig are joined by Devoney Looser, who scrutinises the naval career of Charles Austen, Jane’s youngest brother, in the dying days of the slave trade; and Jeremy Allen talks us through the art of waiting tables in Paris.

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Alex Clark and Michael Caines discuss the turbulent history of the Tour de France and wander through London’s richest enclaves 

‘Le Fric: Family, Power and Money: The Business of the Tour de France’ by Alex Duff

‘Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London’ by Caroline Knowles

‘A Class of Their Own: Adventures in Tutoring the Super-Rich’ by Matt Knott

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Lucy and Alex are joined by fiction and politics editor Toby Lichtig to reveal what’s hot in summer reading, with recommendations from TLS contributors; and Henry Hitchings takes a stroll through the complex world of cryptocurrency and one of its most charismatic characters.

‘The Missing Cryptoqueen’ by Jamie Bartlett.

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Alex Clark and Lucy Dallas are joined by Paul Muldoon to celebrate Bloomsday with a close reading of the very first few words of Ulysses; there’s news from the world of Ukrainian literature; and Toby Lichtig catches up with Tessa Hadley at the Hay Festival.

‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce 

‘The Orphanage’ by Sergiy Zhadan

‘Free Love’ by Tessa Hadley

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Join Alex Clark, Lucy Dallas and Toby Lichtig as they chat to the BBC correspondents Lyse Doucet and Sana Safi, and to the legendary documentarian Norma Percy, in a special conversation recorded live at the Hay Festival.

‘My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women’, compiled by Lucy Hannah, with an introduction by Lyse Doucet

‘Afghanistan and Me: A Female Perspective’, an audio documentary by Sana Safi

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Lucy Hughes-Hallett to discuss two books about Mussolini’s Italy, and train buff extraordinaire Andrew Martin gets on board with a history of British Rail.

‘Blood and Power: The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism’ by John Foot

’Mussolini Also Did a Lot of Good: The Spread of Historical Amnesia’ by Francesco Filippi

‘British Rail: A New History’ by Christian Wolmar

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Tom Seymour Evans to head for the beaches of Fire Island, and the TLS’s French editor Russell Williams surveys the country’s philosophical and political landscape, past and present.

‘Fire Island: Love, loss and liberation in an American paradise’ by Jack Parlett

’The French Mind: 400 years of romance, revolution and renewal’ by Peter Watson

‘France: An adventure history’ by Graham Robb

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by TLS classics editor Mary Beard to find out what the Romans brought back from their holidays, and novelist Edward Docx is roused to righteous fury over the parlous state of the House of Commons.

‘Destinations in Mind: Portraying Places on the Roman empire’s souvenirs’ by Kimberly Cassibry

’Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome’ by Maggie L. Popkin

‘Held in Contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?’ by Hannah White

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Lucy Dallas is joined by Kathryn Sutherland to tuck into the three o'clock dinners of Joseph Johnson, publisher and friend of Mary Wollstonecraft, Joseph Priestley, Henry Fuseli, Williams Blake and Wordsworth, and many more great minds of that era. And Boyd Tonkin explains that Napoleon's conqueror, the "Iron Duke" of Wellington, had a great and unexpected gift for friendship - with women.

'Dinner with Joseph Johnson' by Daisy Hay

'Wellington, women and friendship' at Apsley House, London, until October 30

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Joe Moran to explore the strange world of precognition, and Elizabeth Lowry is bowled over by the iconoclastic work of South African multimedia artist William Kentridge. Plus great news for Terry Pratchett fans, as an all-star cast records his much-loved Discworld series.

'The Premonitions Bureau’ by Sam Knight

‘SYBIL’ by William Kentridge

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Carol Tavris to discuss two wide-ranging works of biology that cast fascinating light on our understanding of sexual behaviour and gender identity throughout the animal and human world. And James Waddell explores a “bibliobiography” by a Shakespeare scholar that digs deep into centuries of books and their readers - from “shelfies” to book burning to the historical precedent for Jilly Cooper’s Riders.

'Different: Gender through the eyes of a primatologist’ by Frans de Waal

‘Bitch: A revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal’ by Lucy Cooke

‘Portable Magic: A history of books and their readers’ by Emma Smith

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Nat Segnit to discuss the long reach of the gambling industry and the music of chance, and Kevin Brazil brings to life a dystopian novel from 1977.

‘Jackpot: How Gambling Conquered Britain’ by Rob Davies

‘Might Bite: The Secret Life of a Gambling Addict’ by Patrick Foster, with Will Macpherson

‘Big Snake Little Snake: An Inquiry into Risk’ by DBC Pierre

’They’ by Kay Dick

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Dinah Birch to discuss Elizabeth Finch, the new novel by Julian Barnes, and find themselves in a world of charismatic teachers and forgotten Roman emperors. Also, the sports historian David Goldblatt explores a global survey of sport through the ages from the ancient Chinese game of cuju to the glories of Bristol Rovers.

‘Elizabeth Finch’ by Julian Barnes

‘Games People Played: A Global History of Sport’ by Wray Vamplew

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Emma Clery, specialist in 18th and 19th-century literature and author of Jane Austen: The Banker’s Sister, to discuss what Austen’s juvenilia and unpublished works tell us about the writer - will we find, as some critics have suggested, a far less restrained and irreverent novelist than we might expect? And Catherine Taylor, who is writing a memoir of her Sheffield upbringing, explores two accounts of growing up in the north of England.

‘Jane Austen, Early and Late’ by Freya Johnston

‘Lady Susan, Sanditon and The Watsons: Unfinished Fictions and Other Writings by Jane Austen' edited by Kathryn Sutherland

‘My Own Worst Enemy: Scenes of a Childhood’ by Robert Edric

‘No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs of a Working-Class Reader’ by Mark Hodkinson

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Cal Flyn, the author of 'Islands of Abandonment: Life in the post-human landscape’, to venture into the 'extreme north' – part place, part concept – where sparsely populated landscapes have long offered a blank canvas on which to project hopes, dreams and neuroses; the critic En Liang Khong considers Ai Weiwei’s artistic rebellion against the Chinese state, situating its roots in the artist's early years and relationship with his father

'Extreme North: A cultural history' by Bernd Brunner, translated by Jefferson Chase

‘1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: The story of two lives, one nation, and a century of art under tyranny’ by Ai WeiWei

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Miranda France, the TLS’s Hispanic editor, to discuss the Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor and two new works that approach brutal and brutalized lives in innovative ways; Michael Caines, also of the TLS, considers a collection of essays that sets out to complicate stereotypes of East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain; and there’s focus on film, including Nosferatu at 100, unsung heroines of the big screen, and a fresh look at Marilyn Monroe’s difficult stay in London.

‘Paradais’ by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes

‘Aquí no es Miami’ by Fernanda Melchor

‘East Side Voices: Essays celebrating East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain’, edited by Helena Lee

‘When Marilyn Met the Queen: Marilyn Monroe’s life in England’ by Michelle Morgan 

‘The Performer’s Tale: Nine lives of Patience Collier’ By Vanessa Morton

‘Forever Young: A memoir’ by Hayley Mills

‘The Great Peace: A memoir’ by Mena Suvari

‘Movie Workers: The women who made British cinema’ by Melanie Bell

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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