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London Review Bookshop Podcast
Emily Wilson, Edith Hall, Juliet Stevenson & Tobias Menzies: The Iliad
Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey, published in 2017, the first into English by a woman, was hailed as a ‘revelation’ by the New York Times and a ‘cultural landmark’ by the Guardian. With her translation of the Iliad, ten years in the making, she has given us a complete Homer for a new generation.
Emily Wilson, professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, is a regular contributor to the LRB and the host of one of our Close Readings series of podcasts, Among the Ancients. Wilson was joined in conversation by Edith Hall, professor at Durham University and the author of many acclaimed books on Ancient Greek culture and its influence on modernity. The event was chaired by Wilson’s Close Readings co-host, Thomas Jones, and passages from Wilson’s Iliad were read by acclaimed actors Juliet Stevenson and Tobias Menzies.
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Anne Serre & Lucie Elven: A Leopard-Skin Hat
53:54|Anne Serre’s latest novel to appear in English, brilliantly translated from the French by Mark Hutchinson, was written in the aftermath of the death of the author’s younger sister, and recounts the tortured relationship between an unnamed narrator and his close childhood friend Fanny, a young woman suffering from profound psychological distress. Hailed in Le Point as a 'masterpiece of simplicity, emotion and elegance’, A Leopard-Skin Hat (Lolli Editions) is a bewildering rollercoaster of hope and despair, calling into question the form of the novel itself.Serre, Bordeaux-born author of 14 previous novels, was joined in conversation about her work with novelist and LRB contributor Lucie Elven.Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodKate Young & Nicola Dinan: Experienced
54:46|In her debut novel Experienced (4th Estate) writer and cook Kate Young delves into the world of queer dating following, reluctant Bette on an odyssey of sexual encounters as she tries to catch up on the decade of fun she missed out on before coming out, always intending to return after the adventure to her true love Mei. ‘A fizzing rollercoaster of a romcom,’ writes Caroline O'Donoghue. ‘The sexiest book you'll read all year, and the most heartening’. Young read from her novel, and talked about it with Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies.Lucy Sante & Juliet Jacques: I Heard Her Call My Name
01:02:25|Born in Belgium in 1954 to conservative, Catholic parents, Lucy Sante migrated to New York in the 1960s, where she became associated with the Bohemian artistic milieu of the city. After producing several highly acclaimed works of history such as Low Life and The Other Paris and translating Félix Fénéon’s feuilletons for NYRB as Novels in Three Lines, she announced in 2021 that she was transitioning: ‘Yes, I’ve known since at least age 11 but probably earlier and yes, I suppressed and denied it for decades’, she wrote at the time. In I Heard Her Call My Name (Hutchinson Heinemann), ‘a generous, fearlessly revealing book’ (Samantha Hunt), she describes with great grace, wit and humility her decision to begin living the life she knew was truly hers.Sante is in conversation about her memoir with writer and filmmaker Juliet Jacques.London Feeds Itself: Jonathan Nunn & Owen Hatherley
01:07:45|Born in the pandemic lockdown of 2020, when Britain’s restaurants had closed their doors, Jonathan Nunn founded the online newsletter Vittles, which rapidly established itself as the premier platform for exploring food cultures in Britain and around the world. Out of Vittles was born London Feeds Itself, a fascinating collection of essays written at the intersections of food, architecture, history, and demography. First published by Open City in 2022, London Feeds Itself now appears in a new edition in association with Fitzcarraldo.In this episode, Jonathan Nunn speaks about the project with architectural historian Owen Hatherley, whose essay ‘The Housing Estate’ from the book serves as a springboard for the discussion.Get the book: https://londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/london-feeds-itself-jonathan-nunnFind more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodIain Sinclair & Xiaolu Guo: Pariah Genius
59:23|During the Covid lockdown Iain Sinclair took delivery of two large yellow boxes containing fresh prints of photographs by the master-chronicler of Soho John Deakin who died, obscure and penniless, in a Brighton hotel room in 1972. Sinclair, another master-chronicler of London’s hidden past, uses those and other images and memories – (‘an invaluable catalogue of artists and divas, actors, film producers, criminals and derelicts’) – to bring back to life the unique artistic milieu of Bohemian London in the 50s and 60s. Iain Sinclair read from and talked about Pariah Genius (Cheerio), in conversation with memoirist, novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo.CAConrad & Luke Roberts: Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return
01:07:45|CAConrad is one of the most productive and inventive poets of their generation. Writing in the New York Times, Tracey K. Smith described how Conrad’s poetry ‘invites the reader to become an agent in a joint act of recovery, to step outside of passivity and propriety and to become susceptible to the illogical and the mysterious’ – a susceptibility fully evidenced in Conrad’s latest Penguin collection, Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return.Conrad is joined by Luke Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Modern Poetry at King’s College London.Olivia Laing & Jon Day: The Garden Against Time
56:23|Drawing on her own experience restoring a walled garden in Suffolk, and moving between real and imagined gardens, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to John Clare’s enclosure elegies, from a wartime sanctuary in Italy to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Olivia Laing’s The Garden Against Time interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth. She was joined in conversation with writer, critic and frequent LRB contributor Jon Day.Get The Garden Against Time: https://lrb.me/gardenlaingFind more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodSarah Perry & Helen Macdonald: Enlightenment
55:36|At a Bethesda Baptist chapel two worshippers, separated in age by three decades, are drawn together by common interests, driven apart by divergent loves, before being reunited by the mysteries surrounding their small town. Francis Spufford describes Enlightenment (Jonathan Cape) as ‘a book in which everything is kindled into light by Sarah Perry’s rapt, luminous attention: friendship, betrayal, faith, astronomy, the drizzle on the streets of Essex and the heavens above them.’ Sarah Perry, author of Essex Girls, Melmoth and The Essex Serpent, read from the novel and talked about it with nature writer and novelist Helen Macdonald.Anne Michaels & Stephen Dillane: Held
01:02:44|Held is Anne Michaels’ long-awaited new novel – following on from the 1996 classic Fugitive Pieces and 2009’s The Winter Vault – exploring, in the words of Margaret Atwood, ‘war and its damages, passed through generations over a century’.Michaels shared an extended reading from Held with actor Stephen Dillane, who played Jakob Beer in the 2007 film adaptation of Fugitive Pieces, and was joined in conversation by the evening's host, Gareth Evans.Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodGet the book: https://lrb.me/heldpod