Who was the Queen of English literature. Was it Jane Austen with her sensitive ear for the hypocrisy lurking beneath the genteel conversation in the drawing rooms of Georgian England? Or Emily Brontë with the complex tale of violent attraction, thwarted love, death and the supernatural that she recounts in her masterpiece 'Wuthering Heights'?
In this, the f ... Show More
Yesterday
How Sex Scenes in Film Can Reshape Real Intimacy, With Intimacy Coordinator Ita O’Brien
Intimacy coordinators have irreversibly transformed how we portray sex on screen, and they are not without their detractors. In the wake of MeToo, Ita O’Brien’s work as a top intimacy coordinator on Normal People, Sex Education and I May Destroy revolutionised how actors, directo ... Show More
39m 59s
Jul 18
Olivia Laing on Art, Solitude, and The Lonely City at 10 (Part Two)
Olivia Laing is known as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature. Their work is renowned for its capacity to make abstract ideas feel precise, intimate, and beautifully thought through without ever talking down to the reader. Their books include the number o ... Show More
34m 3s
Jul 16
Olivia Laing on Art, Solitude, and The Lonely City at 10 (Part One)
Olivia Laing is known as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature. Their work is renowned for its capacity to make abstract ideas feel precise, intimate, and beautifully thought through without ever talking down to the reader. Their books include the number o ... Show More
39m 28s
Dec 2023
Was Jane Austen Gay? And other questions from the LRB archive
Tom Crewe, Patricia Lockwood, Deborah Friedell, John Lanchester, Rosemary Hill and Colm Tóibín talk to Tom about some of their favourite LRB pieces, including Terry Castle’s 1995 essay on Jane Austen's letters, Hilary Mantel’s account of how she became a writer, and Alan Bennett’ ... Show More
41m 17s
Aug 2024
Jane Austen, Simone de Beauvoir and Herodotus
What do Jane Austen, Simone de Beauvoir and Herodotus have in common? They all appear in three of this year’s Close Readings series, in which a pair of LRB contributors explore an area of literature through a selection of key works. This week, we’re revisiting some of the highlig ... Show More
31m 33s
Nov 2025
Series 11: Agatha Christie
Was Agatha Christie a creative legend, who dominated an entire genre and continues to captivate a global audience? Or does her choice of language, titles and storylines reveal a much more sinister, dangerous side to the queen of murder? Fatiha El-Ghorri, Jess Fostekew and Eshaan ... Show More
33m 42s
Apr 2022
403 The Wonderful World of Mysteries (A Best-of-HOL Episode)
Mysteries! In this best-of episode, Jacke revisits conversations with three guests for three different angles on this popular and enduring literary genre. First, Jonah Lehrer (Mystery: A Seduction, A Strategy, A Solution) discusses what exactly makes mysteries so compelling. Then ... Show More
1 h