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The Book Club — Arts
The Book Club

Literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented weekly by Sam Leith.

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Latest Episodes:

Patrick Barwise and Peter York: The War Against the BBC Nov 25, 2020

Show notes

Sam Leith is joined by Patrick Barwise and Peter York to talk about their new book The War Against the BBC. They discuss investment in the arts, claims of excessive spending, and Rupert Murdoch's view of the broadcasting ecology.

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James Hawes: The Shortest History of England Nov 18, 2020

Show notes

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is James Hawes. The bestselling author of The Shortest History of Germany turns his attention in his latest book to our own Island Story: The Shortest History of England. He tells me why he thinks there's real value in so brief an overview of our history, how Jurassic rock formations doomed our politics, why we never got over the Conquest, how the break-up of the Union is now an inevitability, and why the Cross of St George is a funny emblem for English nationalists to rally behind.

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Antony Gormley & Martin Gayford: Sculpture from Prehistory to Now Nov 11, 2020

Show notes

In this week's books podcast, I'm joined by the sculptor Antony Gormley and the art critic Martin Gayford to talk about their new book Shaping The World: Sculpture from Prehistory to Now. They talk about the special place sculpture occupies in the arts, the lines of connection between its ancient origins and the avant-garde, and their views on the new fashion for tearing down statues. Plus, Antony talks about his own work from Field to the Angel of the North — and why he and Martin can't see eye-to-eye on the Baroque.

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Carmen Callil: Oh Happy Day Nov 04, 2020

Show notes

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the publisher and historian Carmen Callil, whose new book Oh Happy Day: Those Times and These Times, tells the story of how her 18th-century ancestors were transported to Australia. She uses their story as a window into a densely imagined account of English and Aussie social history, and of the darker side of empire. She tells me why the Industrial Revolution wasn’t always a good thing, why it isn’t over the top to compare the British state apparatus to the Nazis - but also about her own childhood in Melbourne and why as a fervent anti-imperialist she accepted a Damehood.

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Natalie Haynes: Women in the Greek Myths Oct 28, 2020

Show notes

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is the writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes, whose new book Pandora's Jar: Women In The Greek Myths investigates how the myths portrayed women from Pandora to Medea, and how those images have been repurposed in the retellings of subsequent generations. She tells me why Theseus isn't quite the hero we imagine him, how Erasmus's mistranslation of a single word crocked Pandora's reputation for good, why Euripides was a feminist avant la lettre, and how the Gorgon got her body.
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Gyles Brandreth: Theatrical anecdotes Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

In this week's books podcast, I'm joined by the irrepressible Gyles Brandreth - whose latest book is the fruit of a lifelong love of the theatre. The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes is a doorstopping compendium of missed cues, bitchy put-downs and drunken mishaps involving everyone from Donald Wolfit to Donald Sinden. Gyles explains how he always wanted to be Danny Kaye but also the Home Secretary, why live theatre is magical in a way cinema never can be, and how he got round the dismaying insistence of his publishers that all these anecdotes needed to verifiably true.

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Rowland White and Tim Gedge: Harrier 809 Oct 14, 2020

Show notes

In this week’s edition of the Book Club podcast I’m joined by two guests. One is Rowland White, whose new book, Harrier 809: Britain’s Legendary Jump Jet and the Untold Story of the Falklands War, tells the story of the air war in the Falklands from the frantic logistical scrambling when 'the balloon went up', via spy shenanigans in South America, to the decisive action in theatre. The other is Tim Gedge, the commanding officer of 809 Squadron who flew in that war.

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Hugh Aldersey-Williams: The Making of Science in Europe Oct 07, 2020

Show notes

If you know the name of Christiaan Huygens at all, it'll probably be as the man who gave his name to a space probe. But Hugh Aldersey-Williams, author of Dutch Light: Christaan Huygens and the Making of Science in Europe, joins this week's Book Club podcast to argues that this half-forgotten figure was the most important scientist between Galileo and Newton. He tells a remarkable story of advances in optics, geometry, probability, mathematics, astronomy - as well as the invention of the pendulum clock and the discovery of the rings of Saturn - against the backdrop of a turbulent post-Reformation Europe and the beginnings of an international scientific community. Plus, we identify an early-modern prototype for Dominic Cummings in the court of Louis XIV.

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Roy Foster: On Seamus Heaney Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the distinguished Irish historian Roy Foster, talking about his new book On Seamus Heaney. He tells me how 'Famous Seamus'’s darkness has been under-recognised, how he negotiated with the shade of Yeats and the explosive politics of Ireland to find an independent space to write from, and just how 'certus' the man who signed himself 'Incertus' really was.

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Kate Summerscale: The Haunting of Alma Fielding Sep 23, 2020

Show notes

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Kate Summerscale, here to talk about her latest book The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story. Kate uses the true story of an eruption of poltergeist activity in 1930s Croydon to give what turns into a thoughtful and poignant look at the mental weather of interwar Britain, and the shifting meanings of the occult in light of new ideas about physics and the psychology of trauma. She tells me about the story's enduring mysteries and ambiguities, how spookily it chimed with its historical background - and about flying Bovril and a talking mongoose called Gef.

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

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