The TLS Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Visions of Violence Mar 24, 2022

Show notes

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Miranda France, the TLS’s Hispanic editor, to discuss the Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor and two new works that approach brutal and brutalized lives in innovative ways; Michael Caines, also of the TLS, considers a collection of essays that sets out to complicate stereotypes of East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain; and there’s focus on film, including Nosferatu at 100, unsung heroines of the big screen, and a fresh look at Marilyn Monroe’s difficult stay in London.

‘Paradais’ by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes

‘Aquí no es Miami’ by Fernanda Melchor

‘East Side Voices: Essays celebrating East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain’, edited by Helena Lee

‘When Marilyn Met the Queen: Marilyn Monroe’s life in England’ by Michelle Morgan

‘The Performer’s Tale: Nine lives of Patience Collier’ By Vanessa Morton

‘Forever Young: A memoir’ by Hayley Mills

‘The Great Peace: A memoir’ by Mena Suvari

‘Movie Workers: The women who made British cinema’ by Melanie Bell

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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Rock Star, Freak, Agitator Mar 17, 2022

Show notes

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the critic Nelly Kaprièlian and the TLS’s French editor Russell Williams to discuss ‘Anéantir’, the latest novel by France’s best-known and maybe most controversial writer, Michel Houellebecq; the TLS’s Toby Lichtig talks us through a new memoir by the ‘pre-eminent author of British Jewish novels’, Howard Jacobson, and we consider a masterclass in sympathy from Anne Tyler, a tale of revenge by Japan’s ‘Queen of mysteries’, and a wartime reckoning in Finland.

‘Anéantir’ by Michel Houellebecq

‘Mother’s Boy: A writer’s beginnings’ by Howard Jacobson

‘French Braid’ by Anne Tyler

‘Lady Joker: Volume one’ by Kaoru Takamura, translated by Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell

‘Land of Snow & Ashes’ by Petra Rautiainen, translated by David Hackston

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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Say What You’re Going To Say Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the writer and critic Mary Norris to discuss the phenomenon that is Margaret Atwood – surely her kind of success requires a method? A new collection of essays and talks sheds some light; Sujit Sivasundaram, the author of ‘Waves Across the South: A new history of revolution and empire’, considers a work of non-fiction by the novelist Amitav Ghosh which paints a compelling picture of how the trade in nutmeg prefigured today’s environmental crisis

‘Burning Questions: Essays and occasional pieces 2004–2021’ by Margaret Atwood

‘The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a planet in crisis’ by Amitav Ghosh

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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Faint Praise Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the critic Muriel Zagha to discuss a new play by Florian Zeller, ‘the most successful representative of contemporary French theatre’; Kathryn Hughes, the author of ‘Victorians Undone: Tales of the flesh in the age of decorum’, explores the cultural significance of passing out, from ‘Troilus and Criseyde’ to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, via Shakespeare and Bram Stoker; plus, a poem by Ange Mlinko, ‘Storm Windows’

‘The Forest’ by Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton, Hampstead Theatre, until March 12

‘Swoon: A poetics of passing out’ by Naomi Booth

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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Birds of a Feather Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Jeremy Mynott, the author of ‘Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience’ and ‘Birds in the Ancient World’, to ponder 12,000 years of human–bird relations. ‘How is it that, despite a historically deep-rooted veneration, we could also have predated, exploited and depleted bird populations to the point where more than one in ten species is now threatened with extinction?’; and Janet Montefiore, Chair of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society, asks whether this vivid and varied satirical novelist might finally take her place alongside Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bowen among the canon of accepted classics? Plus, a Life of the poet Valentine Ackland, still best known as Warner’s partner

‘Flight From Grace: A cultural history of humans and birds’ by Richard Pope

‘Avian Illuminations: A cultural history of birds’ by Boria Sax

‘Birds and Us: A 12,000-year history: from cave art to conservation’ by Tim Birkhead

‘Valentine Ackland: A transgressive life’ by Frances Bingham

‘Lolly Willowes’, ‘Mr Fortune’s Maggot’, ‘ The True Heart’, ‘Summer Will Show’, etc, by Sylvia Townsend Warner – for other books by Warner, find Janet Montefiore’s article at the-tls.co.uk.

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A Story With Strings Attached Feb 17, 2022

Show notes

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Alex Clark are joined by Ann Hallamore Caesar, Professor Emerita in Italian Literature at the University of Warwick, to discuss the birth and legacy of Pinocchio, the world’s most famous (and most insolent) puppet – is his story really only for children? And do we need another English translation?; George Berridge, a TLS editor and restaurant-kitchen survivor, considers two close-ups on the troubled life of the chef, restaurateur and TV presenter Anthony Bourdain

‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ by Carlo Collodi, translated and edited by John Hooper and Anna Kraczyna

‘Bourdain: In stories’ by Laurie Woolever

'In the Weeds: Around the world and behind the scenes with Anthony Bourdain’ by Tom Vitale

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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Writers at the Gates of Dawn Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark are joined by Sara Hudston to talk about how to write about our environment, who gets to write about it, why it is so crucial - and "horsey" books; and James McConnachie, himself a keen player, discusses the future of strategy games, given that the computers are increasingly beating the humans

Women on Nature, edited by Katherine Norbury

Wild Isles, edited by Patrick Barkham

Gifts of Gravity and Light, edited by Anita Roy and Pippa Marland

Out of Time: Poetry from the climate emergency, edited by Kate Simpson

Seven Games: A Human History by Oliver Roeder

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun! Feb 03, 2022

Show notes

This week, to mark 100 years since the publication of ‘Ulysses’, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the novelist Audrey Magee to discuss how James Joyce wrestled with the demands, political and personal, of the Irish language; the anthropologist and science writer Barbara J. King reviews Andrea Arnold’s film ‘Cow’, which attempts to show life from an animal’s perspective; plus, Mary Beard shares a few thoughts on Roman kissing.

'Cow', directed by Andrea Arnold

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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Clarity, Honesty, Fluff Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Benjamin Markovits, the novelist, critic and teacher of creative writing, to discuss 100 American essays spanning 300-odd years (‘have we got any better at it?’); the sinologist Rana Mitter discusses the supremely difficult, and controversial, job of adapting the Chinese script for the modern age; plus, ‘Edelweiss’, a poignant new poem by Fiona Benson

‘The Glorious American Essay: One hundred essays from colonial times to the present’, edited by Phillip Lopate

‘Kingdom of Characters: A tale of language, obsession, and genius in modern China’ by Jing Tsu

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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Carnival of Darkness Jan 20, 2022

Show notes

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the writer and broadcaster Muriel Zagha to discuss 'Nightmare Alley', an unsettling vision of delight and deceit from the Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro; the historian Abigail Green explores the untold stories of the women behind Europe’s premier banking dynasty, the Rothschilds; plus, a dinosaur poem of note

'Nightmare Alley', various cinemas

'The Women of Rothschild: The untold story of the world’s most famous dynasty' by Natalie Livingstone

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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