This week, we learn about the final years of the Napoleonic era, poke around the exclusive gentlemen’s watering holes of Pall Mall, and discover how Roy Orbison ended up meeting his wife in Batley Variety Club.
’Napoleon: The decline and fall of an Empire, 1811-1821’ by Michael Broers
’Napoleon at Peace: How to end a revolution’ by William Doyle
‘Behind Close Doors: The secret life of London’s private members’ clubs’ by Seth Alexander Thévoz
‘Clubland: How the working men's club shaped Britain’ by Pete Brown
This week, Toby Lichtig interviews the new Booker laureate, Shehan Karunatilaka, and discovers why he killed off his protagonist; and we explore the latest developments in a Chaucerian controversy.
‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ by Shehan Karunatilaka
Richard Dunn joins Alex and Lucy to discuss how humanity began to measure the world around it; and Lauren Elkin illuminates the immense artistic contribution of Annie Ernaux, this winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.
‘Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement’ by James Vincent
The work of Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize laureate 2022
Sofia Chelyak joins us to preview this weekend’s Lviv International Book Forum, in which guests including Margaret Atwood and Henry Marsh will join Ukrainian writers and thinkers in an online extravaganza; plus highlights of our live podcast on narrative arcs in fiction, history and politics and how to support a literary fundraiser for those affected by floods in Pakistan.
This week, Dennis Zhou joins us to illuminate the activism, anarchism and agility of the poet Gary Snyder; and Hannah Skoda reports from the Globe on a bold reinterpretation of the life of Joan of Arc.
'Collected Poems' by Gary Snyder, edited by Jack Shoemaker and Anthony Hunt
This week, we talk to Jonathan Spector about the European premiere of his play at the Old Vic; and Dimitra Fimi unpacks what's behind the new tv series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Eureka Day, The Old Vic, London, until October 31
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Amazon Prime
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi joins us to explain how she captured the stories of her Italian grandmother; and Edmund Gordon admires how Ian McEwan’s new novel juxtaposes an individual life with memorable social and political events.
Alex Clark and Lucy Dallas are joined by Rohan Maitzen to discuss the new novel by Maggie O’Farrell, an ingenious and daring Browning version; and Sarah Hill charts musician Vashti Bunyan’s epic walk from London to Scotland in search of freedom.
‘The Marriage Portrait’ by Maggie O’Farrell
‘Wayward: Just Another Life to Live’ by Vashti Bunyan
‘Stories I Might Regret Telling You: A Memoir’ by Martha Wainwright
‘This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music’ edited by Sinéad Gleeson and Kim Gordon
In the last of our August highlights programmes, Alex Clark and Lucy Dallas talk self-improvement with Kathryn Hughes and step into the mire of Westminster with Edward Docx. And we revisit a magical Hay Festival moment courtesy of correspondents Lyse Doucet and Sana Safi.
This week, Alex Clark and Lucy Dallas look back at a riveting and prescient conversation with climate writer David Wallace-Wells; plus Margaret Drabble on the allure of roses, and Jeremy Mynott on our affinity with birds.
In this week’s look at the highlights of the last year, Mary Norris explores Margaret Atwood’s dystopian fantasies, and we hear about James Joyce from Booker long-listed novelist Audrey Magee and poet Paul Muldoon.
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