The FBC Paris Louise Binns

The first guest of Season 5 is Juliana Servent, who leads Strategic Partnerships at Fondation des Femmes, a French organisation that provides financial, legal and material support to feminist initiatives, throughout France, concerning violence against women.

Is Macron as progressive as everyone outside of France thinks he is? What’s the deal with Gabriel Attal, France’s new(-ish) PM? And why do the French love to protest so much?
Hannah and I spoke about French politics, both past and present, her relationship to feminism over the years, as well as her cultural recommendations. It was nice to sit down with a fellow Brit who is building a life in Paris.
Pen Friend, Hannah’s Substackhttps://hannahmeltzer.substack.com/
Newsletters referenced:https://hannahmeltzer.substack.com/p/no-problem-attal https://hannahmeltzer.substack.com/p/when-im-64 https://hannahmeltzer.substack.com/p/doing-well-is-its-own-reward-916
Table Manners podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/table-manners-with-jessie-and-lennie-ware/id1305228910
The News Agents podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-news-agents/id1640878689
Dinner for One podcasthttps://www.dinnerforonepodcast.com/podcast
In Writing podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/in-writing-with-hattie-crisell/id1490412801
Emile Zola L’assommoirhttps://www.livredepoche.com/livre/lassommoir-9782253002857
All of us Strangershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O97iSjvqBlY
Perfect Dayshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzZBbX5A1FA
Musée Zadkinehttps://www.zadkine.paris.fr/
Musée de la vie romantiquehttps://museevieromantique.paris.fr/fr

My first guest of Season 4 is Sylvia Whitman, owner of Shakespeare and Company Bookshop. In 2004, Sylvia took over the running of the bookshop from her father George Whitman, at 23 years old. She now runs it with her partner David, and together they have started a literary festival, a writing competition and opened a café next door to the bookshop.

James Baldwin called Shakespeare and Company the old curiosity shop while Anaïs Nin described it as a house of gentle warmth with walls of books and tea ceremonies. I certainly picked up on both of these qualities when I sat down with Sylvia in the bookshop a few months back.

We spoke about what Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier did for France and publishing, the many writers who’ve been associated with the shop, Sylvia's father George Whitman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sylvia the Tumbleweed, navigating the bookshop through a global pandemic, and lockdown reading trends. And of course, lots of book recommendations! 

Some of the books mentioned by Sylvia:
Daughter Of Earth (Agnes Smedley)
On Connection (Kae Tempest) 
Humankind A Hopeful History (Rutger Bregman)
A Life’s Work: On Becoming A Mother (Rachel Cusk)
Transcendent Kingdom (Yaa Gyasi)
Circe (Madeline Miller) 
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

If you’re a fan of Greek mythology and women's voices in particular, you will love These Great Athenians. The debut novel from non-binary writer Valentine Carter, gives voice to 16 of the oft-forgotten and misunderstood female characters of Homer’s epic The Odyssey.

Valentine and Lou talk about LGBTQ+ representation within the world of mythology and the limitations of heteronormative interpretations of its characters, as well as Valentine’s research for their book, their writing process, and why Scylla a.k.a. the “rockstar sea monster” is their favourite.

Order your copy of These Great Athenians via the Nobrow website.

Books mentioned by Valentine during the episode:
Autobiography of Red (Anne Carson)
The Seep (Chana Porter)

Lou speaks to Fiona, owner of the international bookshop Damn Fine Bookstore, based in Lyon France.

Today on the podcast, I’m talking to Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters, which was our October book club pick (and gave some of us nightmares!) Daisy was born in 1990 and her debut short-story collection, Fen, was published in 2016. In 2018 she became the youngest author ever to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize with her debut novel Everything Under. 

We spoke about the trio of women featured in Sisters, about love, about bodies, about where the horror genre fits into intersectional feminism, as well as Daisy’s writing process and current reading habits.