In his latest book In Writing (Hamish Hamilton) psychoanalyst and regular LRB contributor Adam Phillips celebrates the art of close reading and asks what it is to defend literature in a world that is increasingly devaluing language. Through a vivid series of readings of writers he has loved, from Byron and Barthes to Shakespeare and Sebald, Phillips draws on ... Show More
Mar 4
Nell Stevens & Olivia Laing: The Original
In The Original (Scribner), Nell Stevens’s second novel, Grace Inderwick grows up as the ward of a cold Victorian family in which the only warmth and affection is provided by her cousin Charles. After many years missing at sea, Charles returns to the household. But is this the re ... Show More
57m 11s
Feb 25
Liliane Lijn & Jennifer Higgie: Liquid Reflections
In 1958 the 18-year-old Liliane Lijn left New York for Paris, determined to become an artist. Her captivating memoir Liquid Reflections (Hamish Hamilton) tells the story of her meetings with poets, painters, philosophers and revolutionaries and of the development of her groundbre ... Show More
1 h
Feb 18
Kathryn Scanlan & Emily LaBarge: Aug 9 – Fog
Twenty years ago Kathryn Scanlan (Kick the Latch, The Dominant Animal) acquired a diary at a public estate auction. It was kept by Cora E. Lacy, an eighty-six-year-old woman living in a small Illinois town, from 1968 to 1972. Scanlan began to compulsively read and reread the stra ... Show More
57m 6s
Nov 2019
74 | Stephen Greenblatt on Stories, History, and Cultural Poetics
An infinite number of things happen; we bring structure and meaning to the world by making art and telling stories about it. Every work of literature created by human beings comes out of an historical and cultural context, and drawing connections between art and its context can b ... Show More
1h 6m
May 2021
#330 Nick Hornby: Getting Published, Dealing With Rejection
Nick Hornby is the author of many novels, including High Fidelity, About a Boy, Juliet, Naked and others, and now he has a new book Just Like You which I thoroughly enjoyed and is out in paperback. He is also the author of Fever Pitch, a book on his life as a devoted supporter of ... Show More
29m 29s
Mar 2019
RU24: DR DANY NOBUS Part 1: Psychoanalysis, Education, Philosophy, Psychology, University
Professor Dany Nobus is a Clinical Psychologist, Psychoanalyst and former Chair of the Freud Museum London. Main research interests include the history, theory and practice of psychoanalysis, the history of psychiatry, and the intersections between psychoanalysis, philosophy and ... Show More
54m 29s
Mar 2023
Ben Davies et al., "Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Drawing on an ethnographic study of novel readers in Denmark and the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic, Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic (Oxford UP, 2022) provides a snapshot of a phenomenal moment in modern history. The ethnographic approach shows what no historical acc ... Show More
57m 31s
Jun 2021
Salman Rushdie on Truth, Language and the Power of Stories
Salman Rushdie, internationally bestselling author and ‘Best of the Booker’ winner, is a storyteller of the highest order, illuminating truths about our society and culture through his dazzling prose. Best known as a novelist, he is also a compelling essayist and last month he ca ... Show More
55m 58s
Feb 2021
Luc Sante, "Maybe the People Would Be the Times" (Verse Chorus Press, 2020)
Maybe the People Would Be the Times (Verse Chorus Press, 2020) could be described as a memoir in essay form. Collecting pieces from the past two decades, this book covers Luc Sante's childhood as an immigrant from Belgium, his engagement with the downtown arts scene that gave ris ... Show More
47m 17s
May 2023
511 Annie Ernaux, Winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature (with Alison Strayer) | My Last Book with Bob Blaisdell
Jacke talks to Alison Strayer, translator of several books by French author Annie Ernaux, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022. PLUS he talks to author and Chekhov expert Bob Blaisdell about his choice for the last book he will ever read.
ANNIE ERNAUX (The Years, Gettin ... Show More
41m 47s