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Reading view

O Tempora! O Mores!

This week, TLS contributors on what art and literature mean in a time of crisis; and we take a trip to the melancholy, beautiful, faded English seaside.


‘The Seaside: England’s Love Affair’, by Madeleine Bunting


Produced by Charlotte Pardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Life In The Slow Lane

This week, Kate Simpson introduces us to the precarious and vital world of the gastropods; and James McConnachie plunges into the teeming waters of the St George’s Channel.


‘A World in a Shell: Snail Stories for a Time of Extinctions’ by Thom van Dooren

’The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea’ by Jon Gower


Produced by Charlotte Pardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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All The News That’s Fit To Print

This week, Ben Hutchinson takes us to Paris to survey the invention of type; and Joe Moran on giving your creativity a workout.


‘Imprimer! L’Europe de Gutenberg’, Bibliothèque nationale de France, until July 16

'Imprimer! L’Europe de Gutenberg 1450-1520’, edited by Nathalie Coilly and Caroline Vrand

‘The Imagination Muscle: Where good ideas come from (and how to have more of them)’, by Albert Read


Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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To Thine Own Self Be True

This week, Lucy and Alex discover how James Shapiro created his landmark work on a formative year in Shakespeare’s life; and Miranda France on her spellbinding study of memoir and creative writing.


‘1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare’, by James Shapiro

‘The Writing School’, by Miranda France


Produced by Charlotte Pardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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How To Respect A Chihuahua’s Privacy

This week, Laurie Maguire is in the audience for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; and Lucy and Alex catch up with novelist Curtis Sittenfeld on her whistle-stop visit to the UK.



‘Hamnet’, an RSC production, from the novel by Maggie O’Farrell

‘Romantic Comedy’, by Curtis Sittenfeld


Produced by Charlotte Pardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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A Place of Greater Safety

Historian Emily Baughan on two books chronicling the immense impact of the NHS and the welfare state on the lives of Britons; and a new film explores Patricia Highsmith’s hinterland.



’The Welfare State generation: Women, agency and class in Britain since 1945’, by Eve Worth

‘Poster, protests and prescriptions: Cultural histories of the National Health Service in Britain’, edited by Jennifer Crane and Jane Hand

‘Loving Highsmith’, a film by Eva Vitija


Produced by Charlotte Pardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Connecting the Dots


Boyd Tonkin visits Complicité’s audacious adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead; and Barnaby Phillips on two Victorian explorers at daggers drawn



'Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’, staged by Complicité, based on the novel by Olga Tokarczuk

‘River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile’ by Candice Millard 


Producer: Lucy Dichmont

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Disrupting the Narrative

Lamorna Ash joins us to talk about Shy, Max Porter’s tale of teenage angst; and Jonathan Taylor on an illuminating survey of the uses and abuses of storytelling.



’Shy’ by Max Porter

’Seduced by Story: The Use and Abuse of Narrative’ by Peter Brooks


Producer :Lucy Dichmont

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Always Look On The Bright Side of Life

This week, we go in search of the meaning of life, death and the universe, in the capable hands of Nat Segnit and Skye Cleary.



‘The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery’ by Adam Gopnik

‘Life is Short: An Appropriately Brief Guide to Making It More Meaningful’ by Dean Rickles

‘Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way’ by Kieran Setiya


Produced by Lucy Dichmont

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Private Faces In Public Places

This week, Margarette Lincoln on the secret life of Daniel Defoe, government agent; and Claire Lowdon transports herself back to the teenage turmoil of Martin Amis’s debut novel, fifty years on. 


‘The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Daniel Defoe’ edited by Nicholas Seager

‘The Rachel Papers’ by Martin Amis


Produced by Charlotte Pardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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In A Green Shade

This week, Helen Bynum enjoins us to consider the secret lives of plants; and Jacqueline Banerjee on love and marriage in the world of George Eliot.


‘Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence’ by Paco Calvo with Natalie Lawrence

‘The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life’ by Clare Carlisle


Produced by Charlotte Pardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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