For this episode, Andy and John are joined by James Hannah, whose first novel, The A to Z of You and Me, was published by Doubleday in 2015, and was listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction. A second novel is in preparation. He has a Masters in Samuel Beckett Studies from the University of Reading, home of the Beckett International Foundation. He also discovered and popularised the Toblorange. He is joined by Jo Waugh. Jo is a senior lecturer in nineteenth-century literature at York St John University. She directs a module there called ‘Sick Novels: Literature and Disease' on which students this year read Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year. She’s interested in contagion narratives generally, and has written about rabies in Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley. She also co-hosts the podcast, ‘Smith and Waugh Talk About Satire’, in which she and Dr Adam Smith discuss the history, form, function, and future of satire. They are here to talk about A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe first published in 1722, but set in 1665. The episode also features Andy falling in love with Crusoe’s Daughter by Jane Gardam and John being mesmerised by Tishani Doshi’s Small Days and Nights.

Books mentioned

Daniel Defoe - A Journal of the Plague Year; Robinson Crusoe; Moll Flanders
James Hannah - The A to Z of You and Me,
Jane Gardam - Crusoe’s Daughter
Tishani Doshi - Small Days and Nights
Samuel Pepys - The Diaries