Backlisted

Backlisted
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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

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Springs of Affection by Maeve Brennan - rerun

    There can be few writers more deserving of Backlisted’s attention than the Irish writer, Maeve Brennan. An adopted New Yorker, Brennan died there in 1993 and was by that time so thoroughly forgotten in her native land, that she received no obituaries in any Irish papers. We are joined by the writers Sinéad Gleason and David Hayden to discuss her collection, The Springs of Affection – subtitled ‘stories of Dublin’ – which was first published posthumously by Houghton Mifflin in 1997, although all but one of these first appeared in the New Yorker, where Brennan was a staff writer for twenty-seven years. It was the enthusiastic praise from other writers including Alice Munro, Edna O’Brien and Mavis Gallant among others, that helped get The Springs of Affection the kind of international attention that the two collections published in Maeve’s lifetime failed to achieve. Since then, Maeve Brennan’s reputation has grown steadily, and her stories are now regularly and favourably compared to those of Joyce, Chekov and Colette. In Ireland, in particular, she has won the admiration of a new generation of women writers, who in Anne Enright’s phrase, see her as ‘a casualty of old wars not yet won.’ This episode also features Andy revisiting the Linda Nochlin’s classic 1971 essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? while John is impressed by Orlam, P.J. Harvey’s dark and brooding verse novel, written entirely in Dorset dialect. * 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1hr 18min

  2. 27 APR

    De Profundis by Oscar Wilde

    Back in 2022, our guest was Stephen Fry, writer, actor and polymath, who joined John and Andy to discuss Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, the essay addressed to Lord Alfred Douglas in 1897 'from the depths' of Wilde's incarceration in Reading Gaol. It has been described by Colm Tóibín as 'one of the greatest love letters ever written'; it is also Wilde's most powerful testament of the sacred duty of the artist as he conceived it. We discuss the work's convoluted publication history, Wilde's posthumous reputation and his ongoing relevance in the 21st century.This feels like a good time to promote the brilliant series John has written on all the living species on this incredible planet. It is narrated by Stephen Fry and is available for free to Audible subscribers - just search 'Wonderful Life with Stephen Fry'. * 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 get extra bonus fortnightly episodes + original writing, become a patron at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1hr 21min

  3. 14 APR

    Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald - rerun

    In this episode from March 2019, Andy and John are joined by Georgina Morley who was then the Non-Fiction Editorial Director at Picador,  and Lucy Scholes, the Senior Editor at McNally Editions. The book under discussion is Penelope Fitzgerald’s Human Voices, her fourth novel, set in the BBC's Broadcasting House during the Second World War. Before that, John extols the virtues of The Good Immigrant (USA) edited by Nikesh Shukla & Chimene Suleyman and Andy is impressed by Sarah Moss’s Ghost Wall.  * 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. *There is a bonus episode on Penelope Fitzgerald's Booker Prize winning novel Offshore for our Patreon subscribers, along with book chat, no adverts, and extra fortnightly episodes and original writing. ⁠www.patreon.com/backlisted⁠ * 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1hr 11min

  4. 31 MAR

    Alma Cogan by Gordon Burn - Rerun

    In a special edition recorded earlier this year live at the Durham Book Festival, John and Andy are joined by writers Adele Stripe and Ben Myers to discuss Gordon Burn's debut novel Alma Cogan. The 'What Have We Been Reading?' slots are occupied by Pevsner's guide to Durham and The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro * 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. *If you'd like to support the show, join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and get extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a patron at www.patreon.com/backlisted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1hr 3min

  5. 17 MAR

    Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry - Rerun

    Recorded back in 2017, John and Andy were joined by poet, radio presenter, playwright and genuine tyke Ian McMillan to discuss Malcolm Lowry's 1947 masterwork, Under The Volcano. Also, The Factory of Light by Michael Jacobs, and more Rosemary Tonks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1hr 5min

  6. 2 MAR

    The Inheritors by William Golding

    Joining John and Andy in this episode are multiple returnees and Official Friends of Backlisted: Dr Una McComack and Andrew Male. The book they are here to talk about is The Inheritors by William Golding, his second published novel (after Lord of the Flies) and first released by Faber & Faber in 1955. And it is one of the titles on the list Andy and John made when they first met to talk about Backlisted and the kind of books they’d like to feature. This episode also features Andy enjoying Square Haunting by Francesca Wade and John highlights a new poetry anthology from Bloodaxe Books called Staying Human. This show was recorded back in June 2020 and is a rerun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1hr 26min

  7. 10 FEB

    Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

    Dr Rowan Williams, theologian, poet and former Archbishop of Canterbury, joins Andy and John for a thoughtful and moving discussion of Till We Have Faces (1956), the last novel by C.S. Lewis. This episode was recorded in London in June 2025. Although not as well-reviewed as his previous work, C.S. Lewis believed Till We Have Faces to be "far and away my best book". Over the 70 years since publication, critical opinion has risen in line with the author's estimation. The book shows a more troubled, less dogmatic side to Lewis that that displayed in The Case for Christianity or, for that matter, The Chronicles of Narnia. The novel is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, a story that haunted Lewis ever since he was an undergraduate. It is an endlessly fascinating text that cannot be pinned down easily, and we were very fortunate to be able to discuss it with Rowan Williams, who has a lifetime of experience reading Lewis, and this book in particular. We hope you get as much from the conversation, and from reading the novel, as we have. * 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1hr 12min

  8. 27 JAN

    The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch

    Ian Patterson, author of Books: A Manifesto , returns to Backlisted for a joyful discussion of Iris Murdoch and her sixteenth novel The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974), the winner of the Whitbread literary award for fiction. For reasons that will be obvious, the talk soon turns to other novels by Murdoch, including The Bell (1958), The Black Prince (1973), The Sea, the Sea (1978) and The Green Knight (1993), plus the film adaptations of A Severed Head (1961) and the unknown book that spawned erotic thriller Love Standing Up (1985). We listen to interview clips from the archive and excerpts from her remarkable and prescient speech ‘Art and Tyranny’ (1972). The author was considered to be a literary titan in her lifetime. But where does her reputation stand in 2026? Was Murdoch a philosopher who wrote novels, a novelist who wrote philosophy, a pioneer of wild swimming, or a unique combination of the three? This is a playful and wide-ranging conversation between Ian, Una, Andy and Nicky, with articulate individuals exchanging sophisticated ideas in a manner similar to, yet entirely unlike, characters in an Iris Murdoch novel. We hope you enjoy it just as much as we did. *For £150 off any Serious Readers HD Light and free UK delivery use the discount code: BACK at seriousreaders.com/backlisted * 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 get extra bonus fortnightly episodes and original writing, become a patron at www.patreon.com/backlisted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1hr 12min
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About

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

Information

  • Creator
    Backlisted
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    266
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Backlisted

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