Backlisted

Backlisted

The literary podcast that has been giving new life to old books since 2015. For show notes visit backlisted.fm and get an extra two shows a month by supporting the pod at patreon.com/backlisted

  1. HACE 1 DÍA

    The Eye Of the Beholder by Marc Behm

    Emmy Award-winning writer David Quantick (Veep, The Thick of It) joins Andy and Una for a discussion of Marc Behm's surreal thriller The Eye of the Beholder (1980). David last appeared on Backlisted almost ten years ago, waaay back on episode 5. On that occasion he brought with him Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry by B.S. Johnson. It is no exaggeration to say The Eye of the Beholder gives that novel a run for its money in terms of sheer audacity, originality and mystery. Marc Behm himself was hardly less enigmatic. He won an Oscar for his screenplay for Stanley Donen's film Charade, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn; in 1965 he co-wrote the Beatles' second feature film Help! As a novelist, he was hugely popular in France, while remaining virtually unknown in America and the UK. We take a close look at The Eye of the Beholder and the long view of his remarkable and unique career.  On Mon 27th Oct 2025, Backlisted is recording a show at 92NY in New York, on William Maxwell at the New Yorker. Tickets are available now from ⁠⁠https://www.92ny.org⁠⁠. On Wed 29th Oct 2025, we will be at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village, NYC, recording a special episode on books by Bob Dylan, including Tarantula and Chronicles Vol. 1. Tickets are available now from ⁠⁠https://bitterend.com⁠⁠. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at ⁠⁠uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted⁠⁠ where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit ⁠⁠www.backlisted.fm⁠⁠ *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/backlisted⁠⁠ *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1 h y 10 min
  2. 1 SEP

    The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

    Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan (1971), the second Earthsea novel, is the subject of this episode. Joining Una and Andy is writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce, current Children’s Laureate. We look at how Le Guin shifts her story from the adventures of Ged in A Wizard of Earthsea to the inner life of Tenar, a girl taken to serve as High Priestess in the labyrinthine tombs. We also consider why, despite her achievements, Le Guin is not more widely known today, and yet her work has clearly shaped generations of readers. On Mon 27th Oct 2025, Backlisted is recording a show at 92NY in New York, on William Maxwell at the New Yorker. Tickets are available now from https://www.92ny.org. On Wed 29th Oct 2025, we will be at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village, NYC, recording a special episode on books by Bob Dylan, including Tarantula and Chronicles Vol. 1. Tickets are available now from https://bitterend.com. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1 h y 12 min
  3. 4 AGO

    A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney

    Dave Haslam and Melanie Williams join us to discuss A Taste of Honey (1958), Shelagh Delaney's first play, written and produced when the author was not yet 20 years old. To describe this as an expert panel would be an understatement: Dave Haslam is a former resident DJ at the legendary Haçienda club in Manchester and the author of Manchester, England: The Story of the Pop Cult City; Melanie Williams is a professor of film studies at UEA whose most recent book was the BFI monograph on the big screen adaptation of A Taste of Honey (1961). How did a Salford teenager change the face of British theatre? Nearly 70 years on, why do the play's themes and characters continue to resonate in the 21st century? And what did Shelagh Delaney do for an encore (and why do so few people know about it)? This show will open your eyes.  On 27th Oct 2025 Backlisted is recording a show at 92NY in New York, on William Maxwell at the New Yorker. Tickets are available now from https://www.92ny.org. To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1 h y 16 min
  4. 21 JUL

    The Ballad of Halo Jones by Alan Moore

    The writer Alan Moore is the subject of this long-awaited episode. Joining Andy and Una is the author and dramatist Simon Guerrier, who has chosen The Ballad of Halo Jones, Moore's collaboration with illustrator Ian Gibson. It was first appeared in weekly instalments in the British comic 2000 AD, before being published in omnibus form by Titan Books in 1986. It tells the story of a bored teenage girl looking for a way out of her humdrum 30th-century existence. For reasons discussed in the show, Moore and Gibson never completed ...Halo Jones, but the saga remains a landmark of British comic books nonetheless. We also take a look at several of Moore's other projects, including (deep breath) Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Jerusalem, Top Ten, Neonomicon and Providence, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and From Hell, and explore what makes him both the most influential figure in modern comics and a British cultural icon. We also hear from the great man himself, offering words of writing wisdom as only he can. PS. Just don't refer to them as "graphic novels". * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1 h y 8 min
  5. 8 JUL

    Angel by Elizabeth Taylor

    Angel (1957) by the English writer Elizabeth Taylor, is the subject of this special episode - and, as you'll hear, the next episode of Locklisted too.* Joining Andy and Una for a hotly disputed umpteenth appearance on the podcast is our guest, the critic and broadcaster Andrew Male. We last featured Elizabeth Taylor in 2019 when we discussed The Soul of Kindness (1964) on episode 102. Now we are revisiting this most Backlisted of authors, with perhaps her most Backlisted novel, Angel, about a character who could herself be the subject of a Backlisted episode, Angel Deverell, neglected lady novelist and sacred monster. The conversations we have had on Backlisted over the last decade return again and again to the themes of this magnificent book: the craft of writing; popularity with the public vs literary merit; separating the art from the artist; the problem of 'likability'; the burden of narrative; and the pitiless mechanics of the book business. Writers such as Hilary Mantel, Philip Hensher and Anita Brookner have all described Angel as a masterpiece and, without revealing the plot of this episode, and its spontaneous sequel, we could hardly agree more. * Sign up at www.patreon.com/backlisted to listen, join in with the book chat, listen without adverts and receive the show early. ** To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. *** For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm ****You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1 h y 12 min
  6. 24 JUN

    The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner

    Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them (1948) is the subject of this episode, almost ten years since Backlisted covered the same author's classic debut Lolly Willowes (1926). Joining Andy, Una and Nicky to discuss this magnificent and inimitable historical novel - and to consider what, if anything, we have learnt during the last decade - is our friend Tanya Kirk, author, editor and the Librarian of St John's College, Cambridge; Tanya appeared on previous episodes about Winifred Holtby's South Riding and Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes. Described by one commentator as the ultimate workplace novel, if your workplace happens to be a medieval convent, The Corner That Held Them reflects Sylvia Townsend Warner's love of nuns, nouns and nonconformists. It is a story without a plot that somehow grips the reader from beginning to end; a work of fiction, according to the author, written "on the purest Marxian principles", that foregrounds the struggle of the individual within enclosed systems i.e. a hastily-constructed nunnery; and an epic novel spanning two centuries of religious persecution, plague, murder, famine and betrayal, that still locates humour in the bleakest, dampest prospect. It is a truly magical book and it was an absolute delight to return to it here, for the first time. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive music writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1 h y 14 min

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The literary podcast that has been giving new life to old books since 2015. For show notes visit backlisted.fm and get an extra two shows a month by supporting the pod at patreon.com/backlisted

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