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