For this episode John and Andy are joined by Sam Leith, the literary editor of the Spectator and host of their books podcast. Sam’s most recent book is Write To The Point: How To Be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page, and he's currently trying to write a month-by-month chronicle of 2019 in rhyme royal. They are also joined by Jennifer Lucy Allan, a writer on sound and music, who has just submitted a PhD on foghorns, which she will be turning into a book for Lee Brackstone’s new imprint at Orion. She runs the record label Arc Light Editions, is an occasional presenter of BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, and writes regularly for The Wire, the Guardian, The Quietus and others. The book they are discussing is The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, a collection of science fiction short stories first published in the US by Doubleday in 1951. The episode also features Andy’s enthusiasm for On Chapel Sands, the book that Laura Cumming has been waiting her whole career to write (published by Chatto & Windus) and John being deeply impressed by Jay Bernard’s Surge (also published by Chatto) a collection of poetry written to remember and respond to the death of 13 young people of colour in the New Cross Fire of 1981.

Books mentioned:

Ray Bradbury - The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles, The Golden Apples of the Sun, Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes
Laura Cumming - On Chapel Sands
Jay Bernard - Surge
Sam Leith - Write To The Point: How To Be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page
Raymond Antrobus - The Perseverance
H.P. Lovecraft -The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
Ian MacEwan - Machines Like Me
H.G. Wells - The War of the Worlds
Jean-Paul Sarte - Nausea
J.G. Ballard - The Complete Short Stories: Vol 1

Other links:

Ray Bradbury interviews by Groucho Marx in 1956
Ray Bradbury on BBC World Service, Meridian (1989)
Ray Bradbury - Text of ‘Skeleton’ (1945)
The Martian Chronicles TV series (1980)
’Fuck Me Ray Bradbury’ by Rachel Bloom
The New Cross Fire 1981 (Wikipedia)
Andy’s review of On Chapel Sands in The Spectator
Backlisted Bookseller of the Week: Foyles Westfield Stratford City