Books podcast

Books podcast: Michael Rosen on The Disappearance of Émile Zola

Imagine if Dostoyevsky had spent a year or two knocking around Penge. Or if Balzac had sojourned in Stoke Poges. If those great European novelists seem out of place in a provincial English setting, you’ll get a flavour of the comedy and poignancy of Émile Zola: The Upper Norwood Years, as Michael Rosen’s new book could have been called bit wasn’t. The former Children’s Laureate and presenter of Radio Four’s Word of Mouth joins me in this week’s podcast to discuss The Disappearance of Émile Zola: Love, Literature and the Dreyfus Case, which describes the true story of how the great novelist, on the run from the French authorities in

Books podcast: Cosmosapiens

This week in the books podcast, we’re taking on some big issues. John Hands, the author of Cosmosapiens: Human Evolution From The Origin of the Universe, is in the grand tradition of ambitious gentleman amateurs. His book attempts to answer the fundamental human questions – who are we, why are we here, and where are we going? In doing so he considers everything from the origins of the universe to evolutionary theory. The answers he arrives at fly in the face both of Darwinian orthodoxy and the Standard Model of theoretical physics. Yet he argues that, as an outsider, he’s better placed to weigh the arguments than those labouring in

Books podcast: Antonia Fraser’s Israeli diary

In this week’s Books Podcast, I talk to Lady Antonia Fraser about her new book. Our Israeli Diary, 1978 is a little time capsule: a day-by-day diary she compiled of a fortnight spent with her late husband Harold Pinter visiting Israel nearly four decades ago, and had thought lost until it more or less tumbled out of a cupboard at her home. It was a pivotal time. In 1978 Harold and Antonia had left their own marriages but had not yet been able to marry each-other — so they were, as Harold declared at passport control, officially “lovers”. And it was the first visit either she or Harold had ever

Books podcast: The war on the old

Is there a war on the old? Yes, says John Sutherland, the respected author and critic who is currently Emeritus Professor of Modern Literature at UCL. His new book, The War on the Old, posits the idea that an ‘intergenerational conflict’ has risen to the surface in recent years, compounded by the discrepancies in voting intentions brought to light by Brexit. As he faces up to impending old age, Sutherland despairs for the NHS and its focus on cures, rather than quality of life. Sutherland joins the podcast this week to discuss these issues and much more. His book is the latest in a series of so-called ‘provocations’ and there’s no doubt that

Books podcast: Michael Lewis and The Undoing Project

The latest books podcast sees us sitting down with Michael Lewis – the author of Liar’s Poker, The Big Short, Flashboys and Moneyball — to ask how his latest book, The Undoing Project, comes to tell the story of the “intellectual bromance” between Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman; a friendship that completely reshaped the disciplines both of psychology and economics. It’s a fascinating and moving tale — and one that Lewis is uniquely well positioned to write. You can listen to the podcast here: And if you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to subscribe on iTunes.

Books podcast: Treasure palaces

In this week’s books podcast I talk about Treasure Palaces with its editor Maggie Fergusson. This is a remarkable collection of essays by writers on revisiting museums that have meant something special to them. The book has a stellar cast-list — Alice Oswald, Julian Barnes, Andrew Motion, Margaret Drabble, Roddy Doyle, William Boyd and Ali Smith among them — and the essays bring something personal and unexpected out of each. Maggie talks about how she snagged the big names —and what their choices had to say. You can listen to the episode here: And if you enjoyed that, please subscribe on iTunes for a new podcast every Monday (though we’re

Books podcast: The Dahl debate

In the year of Roald Dahl’s centenary, this week’s Spectator Books Podcast considers a sacred cow. Lucy Mangan, author of Inside Charlie’s Chocolate Factory, drapes garlands of flowers; while the critic James McConnachie readies the captive bolt gun… You can listen here: And if you enjoyed this week’s episode please subscribe on iTunes!

Books podcast: Can you solve Alex Bellos’s problems?

This week in the books podcast, I talk to Alex Bellos, author of the superbly engrossing Can You Solve My Problems?, about mathematical and logical puzzles: what they can teach us, the oddballs who invent them, and the pleasure that they offer. Plus, a first for this podcast, we’ll be setting a brain-teaser at the beginning for you to solve in real time. And who knows: you may even learn who owns the zebra…* You can listen here: And, if you enjoyed that, subscribe on iTunes for a new episode every Monday. *You won’t learn who owns the zebra.

Books podcast: The Detection Club

Nothing like a spot of murder as the evenings draw in. In this week’s podcast I talk to the crime writers Andrew Taylor and Simon Brett about the enduring appeal of the detective story — and why they are becoming harder and harder to write in the age of DNA profiling and forensic science. We talk, too, about golden age crime-writing, the Detection Club, and The Sinking Admiral — a witty new version of a literary game of consequences first played by Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and G K Chesterton back in 1931. You can listen here: And if you enjoyed that, please subscribe on iTunes for new episodes every

Books podcast: The biographer’s tale

In this week’s Spectator books podcast, it’s the Biographer’s Tale. I‘m joined by the doyen of romantic biographers Richard Holmes, and our regular reviewer Frances Wilson — author of the hugely acclaimed new Life of Thomas de Quincey, Guilty Thing. Jumping off from Richard’s new book This Long Pursuit: Reflections of a Romantic Biographer, we talk about where life-writing fits into the literary world. How do you go about it: with Richard’s “footsteps” approach, as much biographer as travel-writer; or with Frances’s deep dive in the library? Do you need to love your subjects, and what if you grow to hate them? And why is it that, however accomplished they

Books podcast: Ben Lerner’s hatred of poetry

Why do so many people think poetry is important, and so few of them read it? And why does what might pass unnoticed as a minority activity, like — say — tiddliwinks or sniffing bicycle seats, arouse such strong views in the public at large? The award-winning American writer Ben Lerner has a theory. In this week’s Spectator books podcast I talk to him about his new collected poems, his monograph The Hatred of Poetry, and how he drew inspiration from the gigantic Wal-Mart in his hometown of Topeka, Kansas. You can listen to our conversation here: And if you enjoyed that, please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes for

Books podcast: Andrew Solomon’s Far & Away

In this week’s Spectator podcast I talk to Andrew Solomon. Though he’s best known for his work on depression (The Noonday Demon) and identity (Far From the Tree, which I reviewed here), his new book looks not inward but out. Far & Away: How Travel Can Change The World collects essays from three decades of extreme globetrotting. Here he talks about Trumpism, Brexit, needing somewhere to go — and how he found himself in Senegal “naked, covered in ram’s blood, drinking a coke and feeling pretty good”. You can listen to my interview with Andrew here: And if you enjoyed that, please subscribe on iTunes for a fresh episode every

Books podcast: What’s the point of the Man Booker Prize?

In this week’s Spectator Books podcast, we’re talking about tomorrow night’s big announcement: the 2016 Man Booker Prize. This year’s prize — like every year’s, it seems — has caused controversy. What is the prize for? Is it good for the literary culture? And how does the shortlist stand up? Paul Beatty (US) – The Sellout (Oneworld) Deborah Levy (UK) – Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton) Graeme Macrae Burnet (UK) – His Bloody Project (Contraband) Ottessa Moshfegh (US) – Eileen (Jonathan Cape) David Szalay (Canada-UK) – All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape) Madeleine Thien (Canada) – Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Granta Books) I’m joined by our chief critic Philip

Books podcast: Hisham Matar’s The Return

In the latest Spectator Books podcast, I talk to Hisham Matar — newly shortlisted for the UK’s most prestigious non-fiction prize, the Baillie Gifford — about his new book The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between. When Hisham was 19, his Libyan dissident father was abducted from exile by the Gadaffi regime and disappeared into Tripoli’s most notorious jail. The writer spent 20 years not knowing what had really happened. He talks here about his long struggle to find out, and his first trip back after the regime had fallen…. You can listen to our conversation here: and please subscribe on iTunes to get our weekly episodes.

Books podcast: The Masculinity Problem

We hear a lot about a “crisis of masculinity” these days, but nobody seems to be in agreement about what it consists of. On the one hand, we hear of “rape culture”, absent fathers and everyday sexism; on the other, complaints of the feminisation of society, political correctness and the disappearance of traditional male role-models. Are men a gender that has – to adapt Dean Acheson — lost its empire and still not found a role? In this, the second of our weekly Books podcasts, I asked two writers of recent books on the subject to talk about it. One is Rebecca Asher, author of Man Up: Boys, Men and

The Spectator launches new books podcast

Today we’re proud to launch the Spectator’s Books Podcast, a literary younger sibling of our popular weekly podcast on politics and current affairs. Each week I’ll be hosting a discussion about the most interesting recent books and the literary talking-points of the day. Books contain every subject known to man – and rather than focusing narrowly on fiction or literary biography, we want to take full advantage of their range. We want to roam as widely as the written word itself. In the coming weeks I’ll be talking to the Libyan novelist Hisham Matar, recently longlisted for the country’s most prestigious non-fiction prize for his exquisite memoir of his dissident