London Review Bookshop Podcasts

Tariq Ali's sold-out event at the Bookshop presented an insightful picture of Pakistan's long and complex reationship with the West, and in particular with the United States of America.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For the first time since being labelled a 'snakeoil salesman, an ingrate and a hypocrite' for his opinions on the international presence in Afghanistan, Rory Stewart spoke at the Bookshop about international intervention and 'Afghanistan rhetoric and reality'.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sebastian Barry and Richard Mason shared their own versions of what it is to be a lonely and possibly mad old woman, reading from their newly-published novels The Secret Scripture and The Lighted Rooms respectively, on the publication date of the former.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the day of publication of Taking Pictures, Anne Enright confessed to a full house at the Bookshop that 'I can't tell you how relieved I am not to be reading about suicide', before reading from the new collection.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In Flat Earth News (Chatto & Windus), Nick Davies exposes the reality of daily life in the Fleet Street news factory and makes a passionate appeal for a return to the first principles of truth-telling journalism. He was at the Bookshop to discuss his work and its reception.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In typical full-throttle style, eieek takes the opportunity to hit back at criticisms of Violence published in the LRB and elsewhere, and to expand on both his work and that of other philosophers.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In London: City of Disappearances, Iain Sinclair turns away from official versions and approved histories, and with the help of a host of contributors, brings to light the fugitive scraps, faded newspaper cuttings and patterns in the dust. Novelist and psychogeographer Will Self and the outspoken architectural commentator Jonathan Meades discussed and read from the book.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Although best known in the English-speaking world for his autobiography I Saw Ramallah, Mourid Barghouti has published 14 volumes of poetry. After treating the audience to a reading from his work in both English and (briefly) Arabic, he answered a range of questions from both the audience and Ruth Padel, focusing primarily on the political background to his work.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Shortly after its publication, Andrew O'Hagan reads from Be Near Me, his powerful third novel on cultural clash between an English priest and Scottish village society.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Iain Sinclair spirals outwards from the centre of London as he reads from and discusses Edge of the Orison, examining family history and the disintegration of middle England through the prism of John Clare's Journey out of Essex.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Hare free-associates on politics, theatre and writing, inspired by his collection Obedience, Struggle and Revolt.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The actress and political activist Betsy Blair discusses Hollywood in the 1950s, her marriages to Gene Kelly and Karel Reisz, her tangles with the Blacklist, her adventures in Europe and the writing of her memoir, The Memory of All That.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One of the original Beats, Michael McClure was back in London for the first time in thirty years and gave an exclusive reading at the Bookshop.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Robert Chandler reads from his newly-published translation of Nikolay Leskov's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk on which the libretto of Shostakovich's opera is based.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Don Paterson read from his 2004 collection Landing Light (Faber), which won both the Whitbread Prize for Poetry and the T.S. Eliot prize.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the day following press night at the National Theatre, Alan Bennett spoke at the London Review Bookshop about The History Boys. The play asks questions about history and how it should be taught, and about education and its purpose.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

To celebrate the publication of Carcanet's new anthology of the New York School poets, editor Mark Ford, poets Lee Harwood and Sarah Maguire, and translator Piotr Sommer read selections from the new collection.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Terry Castle, editor of The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Aristo to Stonewall, explored the emergence of and transformation of the idea of lesbianism, and how it has been collectively embellished over the last five centuries.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In one of the first events held at the London Review Bookshop, Mary Beard and Robert Irwin squared up to each other to debate the relative greatness of two magnificent structures, the Alhambra and the Parthenon.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.