166. Paul Theroux - The Kingdom By the Sea

Forty years ago the writer Paul Theroux hoisted his knapsack on his back and set off on a journey on foot around the coast of the United Kingdom; the effects of Thatcherism were being felt in earnest and the Falklands War was in progress. The Kingdom by the Sea, Theroux's grumpy, funny account of this journey, was published the following year (1983) and caused outrage in many of the seaside towns the author had passed through and seemingly written off.

In this episode the Backlisted team - Andy, John, Nicky and Tess - revisit the book, and a few books like it, to discuss whatever happened to travel writing; how Britain has changed since 1982; and what Theroux got right - and wrong - about his adopted country. In addition, John enjoys a more recent travelogue, Felicity Cloake's new book Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey (Mudlark); while Andy reads two poems from Fiona Benson's stunning new collection Ephemeron (Cape Poetry).

Books mentioned:

Paul Theroux - The Kingdom By the Sea; The Great Railway Bazaar; The Happy Isles of Oceania; The Mosquito Coast
Jonathan Raban - Coasting
Fiona Benson - Ephemeron
Felicity Cloake - Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey
George Orwell - The Road to Wigan Pier
W.G. Sebald - The Rings of Saturn
Roger Deakin - Waterlog
Iain Sinclair - Lights Out for the Territory
Bill Bryson - Notes From a Small Island
Daniel Defoe - A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain
Samuel Johnson & James Boswell - A Journey through the Western Isles of Scotland
Michael Bracewell - Souvenir
Anne Theroux - The Year of the End

Other links:

Paul Theroux on Arena: Blackpool (BBC, 1989)
Auberon Waugh reviews The Kingdom By the Sea in the New York Times
Review of The Year of the End by Anne Theroux - Rachel Cooke (Guardian, Jul 2021)

165. Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast

Novelist Joanne Harris (Chocolat, A Narrow Door) is our guest for a celebration of Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950) and Titus Alone (1959) by Mervyn Peake, three novels which are often referred to, erroneously, as The Gormenghast Trilogy. With Joanne's expert guidance, John and Andy revisit Peake's visionary work for the first time in decades and are surprised and delighted by what they discover. Also in this episode, Andy marks the belated UK publication of Maud Martha, the sole novel by poet Gwendolyn Brooks (Faber); while John enjoys Geoff Dyer's new book about tennis and much more, The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings (Canongate).

Books mentioned:

Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan; Gormenghast; Titus Alone; Titus Awakes; The Gormenghast Trilogy
Joanne Harris - Chocolat; A Narrow Door
Gwendolyn Brooks - Maud Martha
Kay Dick - They
Rachel Ingalls - Mrs Caliban
Wilson Harris - Palace of the Peacock
Emeric Pressburger - The Glass Pearls
Geoff Dyer - The Last Days of Roger Federer & Other Endings
James Joyce - Ulysses
Thomas Love Peacock - Nightmare Abbey
Victor Hugo - Les Miserables; Notre-Dame de Paris
J. L. Husymans - A Rebors
John Braine- Room at the Top
Albert Canus - The Outsider
Joe Orton - Entertaining Mr Sloane
W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman - 1066 & All That
Colin Wilson - The Outsider

Other links:

Hundred Years of Mervyn Peake
Desert Island Discs, Sir Ranulph Fiennes:
Desert Island Discs, Keith Floyd:
The Mervyn Peake official website:
Peake Studies
The Cure, Faith
Gormenghast (2000) on Amazon Prime:
Joanne Harris website
New Folio Society edition of the Gormenghast Trilogy (sic), illustrated by Dave McKean and with an introduction by Neil Gaiman, it costs £745 plus P&P but knock yourselves out!

164. Elizabeth Bowen - The Death of the Heart

Tessa Hadley (Free Love, Late in the Day) joins us for a discussion of The Death of the Heart (1938), the sixth novel by Anglo-Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen; as you'll hear, Tessa has been reading and rereading Bowen's work since she discovered it in her local library when she was 12 years old. We go deep into the glorious idiosyncrasies (and idiosyncratic glories) of Bowen's style and consider why her reputation has waxed and waned in the years since her death in 1973.

Also in this episode, John celebrates his recent trip to New Orleans with a reading of Nine Lives (Random House US), Dan Baum's book about the city; and Andy navigates his way round Géricault's painting ‘The Wreck of the Medusa’ using Tom de Freston's new book Wreck (Granta) as his compass.

Books mentioned:

Elizabeth Bowen - The Death of the Heart; The Last September; The House in Paris; Eva Trout; The Selected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen (edited by Tessa Hadley); Collected Stories (introduction by Angus Wilson); The Mulberry Tree (edited by Hermione Lee)
Tessa Hadley - Free Love; Late in the Day
George Ewart Evans - Where Beards Wag All; Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay
Robert Ashton - Where are the Fellows Who Cut the Hay?
Tom de Freston - Wreck: Géricault’s Raft & the Art of Being Lost at Sea
Dan Baum - Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death & Life in New Orleans
Hugh Walpole - Rogue Herries
Ivy Compton Burnett - More Women than Men
Henry Green - Living, Loving , Party Going

Other links:

Elizabeth Bowen - Truth and Fiction, BBC 1956
Elizabeth Bowen interview, 1959
The Death of the Heart, 1987 film adaptation
The Elizabeth Bowen Society
Channel 4 documentary on three Anglo-Irish sisters, 1986
Tessa Hadley on re-reading Elizabeth Bown, LRB (9 Feb, 2020)

163. Oscar Wilde - De Profundis

Our guest is Stephen Fry, writer, actor and polymath, who last week joined John and Andy in person 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. In addition, Andy has been reading Hayley Campbell's fascinating All the Living and the Dead (Raven Books), which he describes as "a work of true rigour mortis"; while John digs enthusiastically into Villager (Unbound), the new novel from writer and former Backlisted guest Tom Cox.

Books mentioned:

Oscar Wilde - De Profundis & Other Prison Writings (edited by Colm Tóibín); The Importance of Being Earnest & Other Plays (edited by Peter Raby); The Soul of Man Under Socialism & Selected Critical Prose
Stephen Fry - Fry’s Ties; Stephen Fry’s Inside Your Mind (Audio)
Hayley Campbell - All the Living & the Dead
Tom Cox - Villager
Matthew Sturgis - Oscar: A Life
Richard Ellmann - Oscar Wilde
Emmanuel Carrère - The Kingdom

Other links

Bunthorne sings "Am I Alone and Unobserved?" from Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience (1891)
De Profundis read by Simon Russell Beale, introduction by Merlin Holland
De Profundis: Oscar Wilde's Letter from Inside (BBC Radio 4, 2016)
Omnibus: Oscar (BBC One, 1997)
Prisoner C33 (BBC Four, 2022)
Neil Bartlett reads the whole of De Profundis in the old chapel of Reading Prison, 2016
Patti Smith reads extracts from De Profundis in the old chapel of Reading Prison, 2016
Rupert Everett reads ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ in the old chapel of Reading Prison, 2016
Stephen Fry in Wilde (Brian Gilbert, 1997)
The Happy Prince (Rupert Everett, 2018)
John Betjeman and Jim Parker, ‘The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel’ (from Betjeman's Banana Blush, Charisma Records 1974)
Colm Tóibín on De Profundis, 2016
The Oscar Wilde Society

162. Natalia Ginzburg - Family Lexicon

Publisher Marigold Atkey and journalist Emily Rhodes join us for a discussion of Lessico famigliare, Natalia Ginzburg's novelistic memoir or autobiographical novel, first published in Italy in 1963 and most recently translated by Jenny McPhee as Family Lexicon (Daunt/NYRB). Ginzburg had a long and distinguished career in Italian literature, theatre and politics. This episode explores her fascinating life and asks why her work is finding new readers and admirers in the 21st century, amongst them Rachel Cusk and Sally Rooney. Also in this episode John enjoys How To Gut a Fish (Bloomsbury), a debut collection of short stories by Shelia Armstrong; while Andy reflects on Vashti Bunyan's pilgrimage to the Outer Hebrides, as recounted in Wayward (White Rabbit), her memoir of the 1960s and beyond.

Books mentioned:

Natalia Ginzburg - Family Lexicon (translated by Jenny McPhee); The Little Virtues (translated by Dick Davis); Voices in the Evening (translated by D.M. Low); The Dry Heart (translated by Frances Frenaye); All Our Yesterdays (translated by Angus Davidson); Valentino & Sagittarius (translated by Avril Bardoni)
Vashti Bunyan - Wayward
Sheila Armstrong - How to Gut a Fish
Tove Ditlevsen - Childhood, Adulthood, Dependency: the Copenhagen Trilogy (translated by Tiina Nunnally & Michael Favala Goldman)
Gerald Durrell - My Family & Other Animals
Giorgio Bassani - The Garden of the Fonzi-Continis (translated by Jamie MacKendrick)
Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend - Book 1 in the Neapolitan Trilogy (translated by Ann Goldstein)
Donatella Di Pietrantonio - A Girl Returned (translated by Ann Goldstein)

Other links:

Emily Rhodes’ Walking Book Club
Old Memories
Colm Tóibín on Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg interview on Italian TV, 1964
Pier Paolo Pasolini - The Gospel According to St Matthew (1964)

161. Andrew Salkey - Escape to An Autumn Pavement & Jamaica

Our guests are both new to Backlisted: the legendary publisher, editor, writer Margaret Busby and the award-winning poet, Raymond Antrobus. They join us to discuss the work of the Caribbean writer, Andrew Salkey, in particular his 1960 Hampstead ‘bedsit novel’, Escape to An Autumn Pavement, and his epic poem Jamaica, which explores the historical foundations of Jamaican society and was first published in 1973 by the pioneering press, Bogle L’Ouverture. As you will discover, Salkey was a consummate live performer - as are both our guests – and the episode make a strong case for his work to be revisted. This episode also features Andy enjoying the graphic novel and memoir, All the Sad Songs by Summer Pierre, while John is blown away by Aftermath, Preti Taneja’s brave and uncompromising account of recovering from a public tragedy.

Books mentioned:

Andrew Salkey - Escape to an Autumn Pavement; Jamaica; Away; Hurricane
Margaret Busby - Daughters of Africa (ed); New Daughters of Africa (ed)
Raymond Antrobus - The Perseverance; All the Names Given; Can Bears Ski?
Summer Pierre - All the Sad Songs
Preti Taneja - Aftermath
Sam Selvon - The Lonely Londoners
George Lamming - The Pleasures of Exile
Colin Macinnes - Absolute Beginners
Roger Mais - Black Lightning
Ursula Le Guin - The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories
Robin Costs Lewis - Voyage of the Sable Venus
Monique Roffey - The Mermaid of Black Conch

Other links:

Lord Kitchener - ‘My Landlady’
Andrew Salkey reading his poetry and being interviewed by Henry Lyman, 1986
George Lamming interviewed by Huw Weldon, Monitor 1960
Caribbean Voices: Paul Mendez on Andrew Salkey

160. Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49

For this episode both our guests are old Backlisted hands: Sarah Churchwell, Professor in American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London and Sam Leith, literary editor of the Spectator.

We are discussing the 1966 postmodern novel The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, by some way his shortest book, but no less complex and intriguing for its relative brevity. Sound the muted post horn!

Also in this episode, Andy extols the subtle virtues of former guest Susie Boyt’s novel, Loved and Missed while John discovers the Ukrainian-American poet Ilya Kaminsky’s dramatic sequence, Deaf Republic, which tells the stories of a fictional town falling under foreign occupation.

Books Mentioned:

Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49; Against the Day; Gravity’s Rainbow
Susie Boyt - Loved & Missed
Ilya Kaminsky - Deaf Republic
Sarah Churchwell - The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe; Behold America: A History of America First and the American Dream; The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Myth of the Lost Cause
Sam Leith - You Talkin’ to Me: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama; Write to the Point: How to be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page

Other links:

Deaf Republic audiobook
CNN report, 1997
Inherent Vice book trailer:
Pynchon on The Simpsons:
The Story of the US Mail, 1954:

159. Raymond Briggs - Fungus the Bogeyman

We are joined by author-illustrator Nadia Shireen and writer Andrew Male for a smellybration of Fungus the Bogeyman (1977) by the great Raymond Briggs, the much-loved and bestselling picture book Andrew describes as "the children's Anatomy of Melancholy". We consider Briggs's life and work in full: Father Christmas, The Snowman, When the Wind Blows, Ethel & Ernest and the sepulchral Time For Lights Out (2019), his latest - and perhaps last - book; we also hear several times from the (often very funny) author himself.

Also in this episode Andy talks about issues raised by reading Laugh a Defiance, a long out-of-print memoir by campaigner Mary Richardson; while John shares his enthusiasm for Jessica Au's new novel, Cold Enough For Snow (Fitzcarraldo).

Books mentioned:

Raymond Briggs - Fungus the Bogeyman; Father Christmas; The Snowman; When the Wind Blows; Ethel & Ernest; UG: Boy Genius of the Stone Age and His Search for Soft Trousers; The Man; Notes from the Sofa; Time For Lights Out
Nadia Shireen- Grimwood; The Bumblebear
Tom de Freston - Wreck: Géricault’s Raft and the Art of Being Lost at Sea
Jessica Au - Cold Enough for Snow
Robert Burton - An Anatony of Melancholy
Edmund Burke - A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime
Thomas Carlyle - Sartor Resartus

Other links:

David Bowie introduction to The Snowman, 1984
Paul McCartney - ‘Bogey Music’ from McCartney II (1980)
Raymond Briggs, Desert Island Discs, 1983
Raymond Briggs, Desert Island Discs, 2005
Raymond Briggs discusses Fungus the Bogeyman on TV, 1979
When the Wind Blows, BFI DVD
Ethel & Ernest Trailer
Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen and Milkmen (documentary, 2019)

158. Winifred Holtby - South Riding

Our guests are Tanya Kirk, Lead Curator of Printed Heritage Collections 1601-1900 at The British Library, and Backlisted's old friend Una McCormack, a New York Times bestselling author. We are discussing Winifred Holtby's classic final novel South Riding, published posthumously in 1936 and widely admired for its broad canvas of social realism and as a classic of early feminism. Also in this episode John updates us on his progress through Olga Tokarczuk's The Books of Jacob (Fitzcarraldo), translated by Jennifer Croft; while Andy has been reading My Rock 'n' Roll Friend (Canongate), Tracey Thorn's memoir of her longstanding friendship with Lindy Morrison, the former drummer of The Go-Betweens.

Books mentioned:

Winifred Holtby - South Riding; Land of Green Ginger; Mando, Mandoa; The Crowded Street; Poor Caroline; Virginia Woolf: A Critical Memoir
Tracey Thorn - My Rock ‘n’ Friend
Olga Tokarczuk - The Books of Jacob
Tanya Kirk & Lucy Evans - Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights (British Library Tales of the Weird)
Una McCormack - The Autobiography of Mr Spock
George Eliot - Middlemarch
Robert Tressell - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Vera Brittain - Testament of Youth; Testament of Friendship
Mary Stott (ed) - Women Talking: An Anthology from the Guardian Women's Page 1922-1971
Nicola Griffith - Slow River
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
Marion Shaw - The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby

Other links:

South Riding, 1938 British film adaptation
South Riding, 1948 US radio adaptation
South Riding, adapted by Stan Barstow, Yorkshire TV, 1974
Trailer for South Riding, adapted by Andrew Davies, BBC TV, 2011

157. Winter Reading Special II - Short Stories

This episode of Backlisted features Andy, John and Nicky chatting about short stories and the perennial appeal of the form to both writers and readers. This is a sequel to the first Winter Reading show we posted in January. Books under discussion include Wendy Erskine's new collection Dance Move; The Voice in My Ear by Frances Leviston; Rupert Thomson's memoir This Party's Got to Stop; Randall Jarrell's Book of Stories; A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders; and, ahead of our full episode on her novel South Riding, coming next week, Pavements at Anderby by Winifred Holtby. Andy reads a story entitled ‘The Old Spot’ from the latter volume which has not been republished, anthologised or broadcast in full since its original appearance in 1937. (He promises to work on his Yorkshire accent in the meantime.)

Books mentioned:

Wendy Erskine - Dance Move
Frances Leviston - The Voice in My Ear
Rupert Thomson - This Party’s Got to Stop
Randall Jarrell - Randall Jarell’s Book of Stories
George Saunders - A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
Winifred Holtby - Remember, Remember! - Selected Stories

156. Dorothy L. Sayers - Gaudy Night

Authors Harriet Evans (The Beloved Girls) and Francesca Wade (Square Haunting) join us to celebrate Dorothy L. Sayers's 'novel not without detection' Gaudy Night (1935), perhaps the high point in the classic series of books featuring Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey. Sayers was a feminist pioneer and we discuss her intellectual life and brilliant and unorthodox career. Also in this episode, John dips into The Art of the Glimpse (Head of Zeus), an anthology of Irish short stories edited by Sinéad Gleeson, and reads something short and magical by Dermot Healy; and Andy recommends Tessa Hadley's new book Free Love (Jonathan Cape) in these terms: "Imagine Elizabeth Taylor had written a novel inspired by Richard Thompson's ‘Beeswing’”.

Book mentioned:

Dorothy L. Sayers - Gaudy Night; Strong Poison; Have His Carcasse; Murder Must Advertise; The Nine Tailors
Sinéad Gleason (ed.) - The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories
Tessa Hadley - Free Love
Harrier Evans - The Beloved Girls; The Garden of Lost & Found
Francesca Wade - Square Haunting

Other links:

British Council Film: Oxford (1941)
Edward Petherbridge on playing Lord Peter Wimsey
Great Lives: Dorothy L. Sayers (2014)
Gaudy Night: A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery (BBC TV adaptation)
The Dorothy L. Sayers Society

155. Stephen Sondheim - Finishing the Hat & Look, I Made a Hat

Stephen Sondheim's biographer David Benedict and writer and musician Jason Hazeley join us for a special episode devoted to Finishing The Hat and Look, I Made Hat, the late and very great songwriter's two volumes of lyrics, memoir, criticism and much more, first published in 2010 and 2011; Sondheim's work defies easy categorisation and these glorious books are no exception.

NB. This show contains many expert recommendations for further listening and, as you'll hear, putting it together was a real thrill. Somehow we also find time to discuss the novel O Caledonia, a modern Scottish classic by Elspeth Barker, and Finna, the second collection by American poet Nate Marshall.

Books mentioned:

Stephen Sondheim - Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes (via Internet Archive)
Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011), with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany (Kindle Edition)
James Lapine - Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created "Sunday in the Park with George"
Nate Marshall - Finna
Elspeth Barker - O, Caledonia
Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Dodie Smith - I Capture the Castle
William Strunk - The Elements of Style

Other links:

Sunday in the Park with George, original Broadway production
Sunday in the Park with Stephen, BBC 1990
South Bank Show on Sweeney Todd, 1980
South Bank Show Revisited, 2010
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened: Merrily We Roll Along, Netflix 2016
Original Cast Album: Company, documentary by D.A. Pennebaker, 1980
West Side Story (1961)
Into the Stephen Sondheim Archive, Radio 4, Dec 2021
The Stephen Sondheim Society, a charitable trust and invaluable resource

154. Winter Reading Special

Happy New Year!

We begin 2022 with a stack of books to see us through the winter: poetry, history, fiction and science. Andy, John and Nicky discuss and read from The Kids by Hannah Lowe (Bloodaxe); The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow (FSG/Allen Lane); Love in Five Acts by Daniela Krien (MacLehose Press); Men Who Feed Pigeons by Selima Hill (Bloodaxe); The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk (Fitzcarraldo Editions); The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English by Hana Videen (Profile Books); Eat or We Both Starve by Victoria Kennefick (Carcanet). Plus there's a special quiz to kick things off.

Please support us and unlock bonus material on our Patreon.

Books mentioned:

Hannah Lowe - The Kids
David Graeber and David Wengrow -The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
Daniela Krien - Love in Five Acts (translated by Jamie Bulloch)
Selima Hill - Men Who Feed Pigeons
Olga Tokarczuk -The Books of Jacob (translated by Jennifer Croft)
Hana Videen - The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English
Victoria Kennefick - Eat or We Both Starve

153. E. Nesbit - The Railway Children

Merry Xmas everybody! Our friends Katherine Rundell and Frank Cottrell-Boyce, two wonderful guest authors, join us to celebrate the life and work of Edith Nesbit and perhaps her best-loved novel, The Railway Children (1906).

This podcast has it all: cracker jokes and conversation, readings and music, laughter and tears, a forthright debate over whether Daddy is innocent or guilty, and even a special Christmas quiz featuring tenuous links - have a pen and piece of paper to hand (and maybe a box of tissues too).

Also in this bumper episode of Backlisted, John revisits another magical childhood favourite, Hobberdy Dick by K.M. Briggs; while Andy bravely attempts to summarise Alan Moore's epic novel Jerusalem and shares just one of its 1172 magickal pages with us.

Books mentioned:

E. Nesbit - The Railway Children; The Railway Children (audiobook read by Jenny Agutter); Five Children and It; The Story of the Treasure Seekers; The Wouldbegoods; The Phoenix & the Carpet
Katherine Rundell - Rooftoppers; The Explorer
Frank Cottrell-Boyce - Millions, Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth; Noah’s Gold
K.M. Briggs - Hobberdy Dick
Alan Moore - Jerusalem
Eleanor Fitzsimmons - The Life and Loves of Edith Nesbit

Other links:

Railway Children, an international children's charity working with street children in India, East Africa & the UK
The Edith Nesbit Society
The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway
The Edison Concert Band, Joy to the World, recorded 1906
Johnny Douglas, Theme from The Railway Children
The Railway Children (1970), dir. Lionel Jeffries
The Railway Children (BBC, 1968), dir. Julia Smith
Bernard Cribbins, ‘When I'm Sixty-Four’ (1967)
Vince Hill, ‘More Than Ever Now’ (1970)
The Wouldbegoods, ‘Christmas in Haiti’ (1999)
Lotte Berk, Get Physical! exercise LP (1982) feat. voiceover by Sally Thomsett
Soundtrack to The Railway Children with readings by Lionel Jeffries from the novel
The Railway Children, abridged audiobook read by Dinah Sheridan
The Railway Children, unabridged audiobook read by Jenny Agutter
Christopher D Lewis, Theme to The Railway Children (solo piano)
Judy Garland, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’, from Meet Me in St Louis (1941)

152. Pete Dexter - Deadwood

Andy and John are joined by authors Shawn Levy (A Year in the Life of Death, Rat Pack Confidential) and Erica Wagner (Chief Engineer, First Light) to discuss US writer Pete Dexter's second novel Deadwood (1986), described by the Washington Post on publication as 'maybe the best Western ever written'. In addition to enjoying this unpredictable and uproarious historical novel, we investigate the differences - and notable similarities - between Dexter's work and the classic TV series of the same name that followed a decade later.

Also this week, John has been reading Katherine May's life-affirming memoir, The Electricity of Every Living Thing, while Andy pays tribute to Nina Simone's Gum by musician Warren Ellis, a book that asks profound questions about what it means to be divine.

Please support us and unlock bonus material at https://www.patreon.com/backlisted.

Books mentioned:

Pete Dexter - Deadwood; Paris, Trout; Brotherly Love
Shawn Levy - A Year in the Life of Death; Rat Pack Confidential; Dolce Vita Confidential; Ready, Steady, Go
Erics Wagner - Chief Engineer; First Light
Warren Ellis - Nina Simone’s Gum
Katherine May - The Electricity of Every Living Thing
Raynor Winn - The Salt Path
Elmore Leonard - The Complete Western Stories
Peter Carey - The True History of the Kelly Gang
Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove
Michael Ondaatje - The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
Charles Portis - True Grit
Hugh Kenner - Ulysses

Other links:
Erich von Schmidt, ‘Days of 49’ (1960)
Bob Dylan, ‘Days of 49’ (1970)
Pete Dexter speaking at the New York State Writers Institute, 2005
Pete Dexter talks to Vice about Deadwood, 2009
Al Swearingen meets Wild Bill Hickok, Deadwood (2004)
Logan English, ‘What Was Your Name in the States?’ (1957)
Logan English, The Days of '49: Songs of the Gold Rush, Folkways Records (1957)
Doris Day, ‘The Deadwood Stage’ (from Calamity Jane)
Bill Monroe, ‘Christmas Time's a Comin'‘

151. Robin Hyde - The Godwits Fly

Andy and John are joined by the author Paula Morris, who joins from Auckland to discuss the novel The Godwits Fly (1938) and the life of its author Iris Wilkinson AKA Robin Hyde.

In recent years, Iris Wilkinson's writing has been rediscovered and restored to the canon of New Zealand literature, where it occupies a place alongside Katherine Mansfield's; The Godwits Fly is a highly autobiographical novel spanning the years 1910-28.

Also this week, John has been captivated by Neurotribes, Steve Silberman's fascinating study of neurodiversity, while Andy revels in the forensic detail of Glenn Frankel's new book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic.

This episode wouldn't have happened without Rachael King or WORD Christchurch Festival: https://wordchristchurch.co.nz

Books mentioned:

Robin Hyde - The Godwits Fly; Dragons Rampant
Paula Morris - Shining Land: Looking for Robin Hyde; On Coming Home; Rangatira; Forbidden Cities
Glenn Frankel - Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic
Steve Silberman - Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently
Jean Rhys - Voyage in the Dark
Evelyn Waugh -Scoop
Katherine Mansfield - Selected Stories
Witi Ihimaera - His Best Stories
Kirsty Gunn - Rain & Other Stories
Emily Perkins - Novel About My Wife

Other links:
Keith Woodley from Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre tells us about godwits
Ana Hato and Maori Choir - Pokare Kare, rec. February 1927
Split Enz - Iris (from Waiata, 1981)
Split Enz - Six Months in a Leaky Boat (from Time and Tide, 1981)
Split Enz - Haul Away (from Time and Tide, 1981)

150. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Notes from Under the Floorboards

Welcome to the 150th episode of Backlisted!

To mark the occasion we are joined by authors Alex Christofi (Dostoevsky in Love) and Arifa Akbar (Consumed: A Sister's Story) for a discussion of one of Russia's greatest writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, who was born in Moscow on November 11 1821, 200 years ago this month. We concentrate on his pioneering novella Notes From Under the Floorboards AKA Notes From Underground (1864) and consider its impact and continuing relevance to modern life.

Also in this episode John enjoys Dark Neighbourhood (Fitzcarraldo), the debut collection of stories by Vanessa Onwuemezi; and, having let it settled for a few months, Andy unveils his favourite novel of the year, Gwendoline Riley's My Phantoms (Granta).

Books mentioned:

Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Notes from Underground (trs. Constance Garnett); Crime & Punishment (trs. Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky); The Gambler (tr. Jane Kentish)
Arifa Akbar - Consumed: A Sister’s Story
Alex Christofi - Dostoevsky in Love; Let Us Be True; What Doesn't Kill You: Fifteen Stories of Survival
Gwendoline Riley - My Phantoms; My Phantoms (audiobook read by Helen McAlpine ); First Love
Vanessa Onmuewezi - Dark Neighbourhood
Fenanda Melchor - Hurricane Season (trs. Sophie Hughes)
Nikolai Chernyshevsky - What is To Be Done?
Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis & Other Stories (trs. Michael Hofmann)
Hemann Melville - Bartleby the Scrivener
Rowan Williams - Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction
Vladimir Nabokov - Lectures on Russian Literature

Other links:

Film trailer for The Brothers Karamazov (1958) starring William Shatner
Doctor Rowan Williams on Dostoevsky and Christianity
’Song from Under the Floorboards’ - Magazine
’Dostoevsky’ - Scott Helman
Dostoevsky and the Russian Soul: new BBC Radio 4 documentary with Rowan Williams
BBC documentary from 1975 presented by Malcolm Muggeridge

Backlisted Special: Alan Garner - Treacle Walker

This is a Backlisted special, recorded at the Bodleian Library in Oxford to celebrate the publication of Treacle Walker the new novel by Alan Garner (Fourth Estate). 

The panel discussion features Erica Wagner, writer and critic and editor of First Light, an anthology of pieces about Alan Garner’s work; Dr Melanie Giles, archaeologist and the author of Bog Bodies, the definitive account of the phenomenon which plays a significant role in the book’s story; and Professor Bob Cywinski, physicist, whose conversations with Alan Garner about time, landscape and local legend provided the inspiration for the novel. 

The podcast also features readings from the novel from the (excellent) 4thEstate audio book featuring Alan’s schoolfriend, the actor Robert Powell and audio clips from an interview about the novel that Alan recorded with his daughter, Elizabeth Garner. The music is by John Dipper, taken from a short film by David Heke premiered at the live event. All proceeds from the event went to support The Blackden Trust, the Garner’s educational charity based in The Old Medicine House, a Grade II timber framed building that Alan and Griselda Garner saved from destruction and which is also the setting ofTreacle Walker.

Books mentioned:

Alan Garner - Treacle Walker; Treacle Walker (audio book read by Robert Powell); The Stone Book Quartet; Boneland; Thursbitch; Strandloper; Red Shift; Where Shall We Run To? The Voice That Thunders
Eric Wagner - First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner; Chief Engineer: The Man who Built Brooklyn Bridge
Melanie Giles - Bog Bodies

Other links:

Treacle Walker - a film by David & Alan Garner with music by John Dipper
The Blackden Trust

149. Elizabeth Jane Howard - Something in Disguise

For this year's Hallowe'en special John and Andy are joined by Backlisted's old fiends Andrew Male and Laura Varnam, following previous guest appearances on episodes dedicated to Beowulf (2020) and Daphne du Maurier's The Breaking Point (2019). Together we explore the work of the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, specifically her ghost stories, tales of horror and accounts of psychological terror: Something in Disguise (1969), Odd Girl Out (1972), Mr Wrong (1975), Falling (1999), and We Are For the Dark (1951), the volume of strange stories she co-authored with previous Backlisted subject, Robert Aickman.

Also this week, Andy is gripped by Heike Gessler's Seasonal Associate (Semiotext(e)), the novelist's account of working in Amazon's warehouse in Leipzig, while John enjoys being unsettled by Women's Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1980-1940, edited by Melissa Edmundson, the first in a series of 'Weird' anthologies published by Handheld Press.

NB. THIS EPISODE IS PACKED WITH SPOILERS and you may wish to read Something in Disguise before you listen to the podcast.

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Books mentioned:

Elizabeth Jane Howard - Something in Disguise; Falling; Mr Wrong; Odd Girl Out; The Long View; The Light Years
Elizabeth Jane Howard & Robert Aickman - We Are For the Dark
Elizabeth Jane Howard - Slipstream: A Memoir
Melissa Edmunson (ed) - Women’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women 1890-1940
Melissa Edmunson (ed) - Women’s Weird 2: More Strange Stories by Women 1890-1937
James Machin (ed) - British Weird: Selected Short Fiction 1893-1937
Heike Gessler - Seasonal Associate
Robert Aickman - The Wine Dark Sea
Kingsley Amis - The Green Man

Other links:

‘Black Sabbath’ by Nikos Achilles
Elizabeth Jane Howard interviews Evelyn Waugh, Monitor, 1964
Elizabeth Jane Howard discusses her adaptation of Something in Disguise and reads from the novel, 1982
Elizabeth Jane Howard and Frank Delaney review Margaret Atwood's novel Bodily Harm, 1982
Elizabeth Jane Howard interview with Sally Hardcastle, 1987
Elizabeth Jane Howard discusses Falling with Eleanor Wachtel, 2003
Elizabeth Jane Howard discusses Falling with James Naughtie, 2004
Martin Amis remembers his stepmother Elizabeth Jane Howard, 2015
’Down by the Old Millstream’ by Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra

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148. Dorothy Baker - Cassandra at the Wedding

Andy & John are joined by publisher Alexandra Pringle and Simon Thomas, editor and co-host of the Tea or Books? podcast. The book under discussion is Cassandra at the Wedding, the fourth and final novel by Dorothy Baker, first published in 1962 by Houghton Mifflin in the USA and Victor Gollancz in the UK. What is it about this darkly funny tale of two devoted sisters that continues to appeal to generations of readers?

Also in this episode John enjoys Notes from an Island by Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä, newly reissued by Sort Of Books, while Andy returns to early 1980s London via Michael Bracewell's new book Souvenir (White Rabbit).

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Books mentioned:

Dorothy Baker - Cassandra at the Wedding; Young Man with a Horn; Trio
Tove Jansson & Tuulikki Pietilä - Notes from an Island
Michael Bracewell - Souvenir; Perfect Tense
Tove Jansson - The Summer Book; The Winter Book; Fair Play
Mollie Panter Downes - My Husband Simon
Mary Essex - Tea is So Intoxicating
F. Tennyson Jesse - A Pin to See the Peepshow
Winnifred Boggs - Sally On the Rocks
Dorothy Evelyn Smith - O, the Brave Music
Esther Freud - Hideous Kinky; Peerless Flats
Lucy Ellman - Sweet Desserts
Miriam Toews - All My Puny Sorrows
Meg Rossoff - The Great Godden

Other links:
Peter Flannery on adapting the book for radio
Trailer for Young Man With a Horn
Bix Beiderbecke - ‘Bless You! Sister’