London Review Bookshop Podcasts

Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar’s debut collection Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Penguin) has been attracting ecstatic reviews and endorsements. The poet Fanny Howe writes ‘The struggle from late youth on, with and without God, agony, narcotics and love, is a torment rarely recorded with such sustained eloquence and passion as you will find in this collection’. Kaveh Akbar was joined in reading and conversation by Richard Scott, whose debut collection Soho (Faber) paints an uncompromising portrait of love and shame in contemporary London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Timothy Morton was at the shop to discuss his latest work, Being Ecological (Pelican), which argues for a radically different approach to global warming. Rather than continually anticipating an extinction that is already upon us, being ecological and re-joining the biosphere can be liberating: if humans give up the delusion of controlling everything around us, we can refocus on pleasure. The evening was chaired by Gareth Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Novelists Tessa Hadley and Ariana Harwicz discuss the dark art of fiction writing with critic Catherine Taylor. Ariana Harwicz is one of the leading lights of contemporary Argentinian literature, and *Die, My Love*, a gripping thriller set in France, is the first of her books to appear in English. This event marked the launch of Charco Press, a new publisher of outstanding contemporary Latin American literature appearing in English translation for the first time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, his final work and published in the year of his death in 1768, has been somewhat neglected of late in favour of his earlier The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Narrated by Yorick, one of the dramatis personae of the earlier book and a barely disguised self-portrait of Sterne himself, A Sentimental Journey is marked by the author’s trademark sharp wit, good humour and sense of irony. 250 years after its first publication, this landmark in the history of travel writing was discussed by the writer and traveller Iain Sinclair and the cartoonist Martin Rowson, author of a graphic novel adaptation of Tristram Shandy and illustrator of a new edition of A Sentimental Journey produced by Uniformbooks for the Laurence Sterne Trust, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This event took place in partnership with the Laurence Sterne Trust. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whether railing against the clean eating movement or reviewing fast food restaurants for Vice, journalist, writer and 2013 Bake Off runner up Ruby Tandoh is a refreshing new voice in food writing. In her third book Eat Up! (Serpent’s Tail) Tandoh displays her characteristic straight-talking and self-criticism in a dazzling dissection of food fads, gourmet culture and fake science. She discussed food, sex, race, misogyny and other pressing issues with fellow journalist and writer Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American poet Danez Smith and Zambian-born British poet Kayo Chingonyi read from their latest collections Don’t Call Us Dead and Kumukanda (both Chatto and Windus). Two of the most exciting voices in contemporary poetry, their work investigates race and the frustrations of being expected to write only about race, as well as gender, politics, exile, longing, and everything else that poetry can encompass. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is distraction? Do we need more or less of it? And how might it be sensed, indulged, or explored in the essay and other kinds of writing? This event brought together three essayists - Adam Phillips, Anne Stillman, and Matthew Bevis - to consider the values and vagaries of distraction and its close relatives. The talk was run in conjunction with the Cambridge Humanities Review, an independent journal of long-form essays and reviews. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To celebrate the publication of In Therapy: The Unfolding Story (Profile/Wellcome Collection), Susie Orbach was in conversation with Lisa Appignanesi. In this new updated edition, Orbach, who The New York Times called the 'most famous psychotherapist to have set up couch in Britain since Sigmund Freud' explores what goes on in the process of therapy through a series of dramatized case studies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In an age of increasing individualism, we have never been more alone and miserable. But what if the true nature of happiness can only be found in others? In Radical Happiness, leading feminist thinker Lynne Segal argues that we have lost the art of radical happiness—the art of transformative, collective joy. Lynne Segal was at the shop to discuss Radical Happiness and the political and emotional potential of being together with writer and campaigner Melissa Benn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carol Mavor, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Manchester, reflects in her latest book Aurelia (Reaktion) on the very particular place that fairy tales hold in our culture and in the popular imagination. 'Aurelia is as strange, enigmatic, and full of magic as its subjects' writes the essayist Maggie Nelson. Mavor was in conversation with cultural critic, mythographer and historian of the folk tale Marina Warner. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To celebrate the publication of the London Review Bookshop's beautiful limited edition of Peter Carey’s new novel 'A Long Way From Home', LRB publisher Nicholas Spice spoke to Carey about his deep family connections with cars, maps and stories, the question of race in Australia, and how all these things come together in the new work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Acclaimed children's writer, poet, educationalist and broadcaster Michael Rosen was at the shop to present his latest book So They Call You Pisher! (Verso), a memoir of his childhood and early adulthood. Born into a Jewish Communist family in the East End of London in 1946, Rosen's early life was one of Party meetings, radical camping holidays, revolutionary hopes and disillusionments, and of political self-discovery. Warm and witty, his memoir gives a vivid account of growing up on the left in post-war Britain. Michael Rosen was in conversation with the medical writer and journalist Anne Karpf, author of, most recently, The School of Life's How to Age. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Professor Richard Sennett has spent an intellectual lifetime exploring how humans live in cities. In this pair of essays Richard Sennett explores displacement in the metropolis through two vibrant historical moments: mid-nineteenth-century Paris, with its community of political exiles, a place where ‘you look in the mirror and see someone who is not yourself’; and Renaissance Venice, where state-imposed restrictions on ‘outsider’ groups – including prostitutes as well as Jews – had some surprising cultural consequences. Richard Sennett discussed these ideas with Sewell Chan, international news editor at the New York Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Audre Lorde (1934-92) described herself as ‘Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet’. Born in New York, she had her first poem published while still at school and her last in the year of her death in 1992. Her extraordinary belief in the power of language – of speaking – to articulate selfhood, confront injustice and bring about change in the world remains as transformative today as it was then, and no less urgent. Your Silence Will Not Protect You (Silver Press) brings Lorde’s essential poetry, speeches and essays together in one volume for the first time, with a preface by Reni Eddo-Lodge and an introduction by Sara Ahmed. To celebrate the publication, Reni Eddo-Lodge, author of the acclaimed Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, discussed Lorde's work and legacy with Sarah Shin, co-founder of Silver Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My House of Sky (Little Toller) tells the hitherto largely unknown story of J.A. Baker, author of nature writing classic The Peregrine. Working with an archive of materials that only came to light in 2013, Hetty Saunders provides an invaluable insight into the life of the reclusive naturalist, whose work has influenced writers and artists as diverse as Richard Mabey and Werner Herzog. To celebrate the publication of this new biography, Hetty Saunders was joined by Robert Macfarlane, author of Landmarks, and conservationist and editor of Baker's Diaries, John Fanshawe. The evening was chaired by Gareth Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The two parts of Mary Beard’s latest book were originally given as lectures in the LRB’s prestigious Winter Lecture series, and subsequently appeared as essays in the magazine itself. In each part of the book, Mary Beard deals with the history and politics of women in public life, and draws on personal experience, family history and an unrivalled knowledge of the Classics. On November 21st at 7pm Mary Beard was at St George’s Bloomsbury where she spoke about her latest book *Women & Power* and about her position as one of Britain’s most prominent public intellectuals. Mary Beard was joined by Professor Sarah Churchwell, professorial fellow in American literature and chair of public understanding of the humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marx’s Das Kapital, published in three volumes between 1867 and 1883, exercised a profound influence on the history and politics of the 20th century, and, despite the expectations of many, continues to resonate through the 21st. In Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason (Profile), David Harvey, Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York Graduate School and the author of many highly acclaimed books on Marx and Marxism, explains in clear and concise language just what it is that makes Marx’s analysis so powerful, and what it still continues to offer us for the future. Harvey was in the bookshop in conversation with architectural critic and journalist Owen Hatherley, author of, most recently, The Ministry of Nostalgia and Landscapes of Communism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do we think about when we think about football? Football is about so many things: memory, history, place, social class, gender, family identity, tribal identity, national identity, the nature of groups. It is essentially collaborative, even socialist, yet it exists in a sump of greed, corruption, capitalism and autocracy. At our event in the Bookshop on 2 November, Philosopher Simon Critchley attempted to make sense of it all with writer, critic and Norwich City fan Juliet Jacques. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following her Man Booker shortlisted Autumn, Ali Smith was at the shop to present its sequel Winter, (Hamish Hamilton), the second in a quartet of novels reflecting and embedded in the shifting seasons. A book full of truths for the post-truth era, Winter confronts and contrasts this bleakest of seasons with the evergreen qualities of love, memory, art and laughter. Smith was in conversation with Olivia Laing, writer and critic, and author of, most recently, The Lonely City (Canongate). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iain Sinclair has been writing about London for most of his adult life, and if any of us can even begin to understand this peculiar sort of city that we sort of call a sort of home, then it's with Sinclair that we begin. The Last London (Oneworld) is the culmination of Iain's London project, although 'project' is far too determined a word to describe a body of work so many-layered, so prodigiously polyvalent. At our event at St. George's, Bloomsbury, he talked about the book and the city with comedian, writer and film director Stewart Lee, another Londoner from elsewhere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.