Books podcast

In this week’s Books Podcast, I talk to Lady Antonia Fraser about her new book. Our Israeli Diary, 1978 is a little time capsule: a day-by-day diary she compiled of a fortnight spent with her late husband Harold Pinter visiting Israel nearly four decades ago, and had thought lost until it more or less tumbled out of a cupboard at her home. It was a pivotal time. In 1978 Harold and Antonia had left their own marriages but had not yet been able to marry each-other — so they were, as Harold declared at passport control, officially “lovers”. And it was the first visit either she or Harold had ever

Is there a war on the old? Yes, says John Sutherland, the respected author and critic who is currently Emeritus Professor of Modern Literature at UCL. His new book, The War on the Old, posits the idea that an ‘intergenerational conflict’ has risen to the surface in recent years, compounded by the discrepancies in voting intentions brought to light by Brexit. As he faces up to impending old age, Sutherland despairs for the NHS and its focus on cures, rather than quality of life. Sutherland joins the podcast this week to discuss these issues and much more. His book is the latest in a series of so-called ‘provocations’ and there’s no doubt that

The latest books podcast sees us sitting down with Michael Lewis – the author of Liar’s Poker, The Big Short, Flashboys and Moneyball — to ask how his latest book, The Undoing Project, comes to tell the story of the “intellectual bromance” between Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman; a friendship that completely reshaped the disciplines both of psychology and economics. It’s a fascinating and moving tale — and one that Lewis is uniquely well positioned to write. You can listen to the podcast here: And if you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to subscribe on iTunes.

In this week’s books podcast I talk about Treasure Palaces with its editor Maggie Fergusson. This is a remarkable collection of essays by writers on revisiting museums that have meant something special to them. The book has a stellar cast-list — Alice Oswald, Julian Barnes, Andrew Motion, Margaret Drabble, Roddy Doyle, William Boyd and Ali Smith among them — and the essays bring something personal and unexpected out of each. Maggie talks about how she snagged the big names —and what their choices had to say. You can listen to the episode here: And if you enjoyed that, please subscribe on iTunes for a new podcast every Monday (though we’re

In the year of Roald Dahl’s centenary, this week’s Spectator Books Podcast considers a sacred cow. Lucy Mangan, author of Inside Charlie’s Chocolate Factory, drapes garlands of flowers; while the critic James McConnachie readies the captive bolt gun… You can listen here: And if you enjoyed this week’s episode please subscribe on iTunes!

Nothing like a spot of murder as the evenings draw in. In this week’s podcast I talk to the crime writers Andrew Taylor and Simon Brett about the enduring appeal of the detective story — and why they are becoming harder and harder to write in the age of DNA profiling and forensic science. We talk, too, about golden age crime-writing, the Detection Club, and The Sinking Admiral — a witty new version of a literary game of consequences first played by Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and G K Chesterton back in 1931. You can listen here: And if you enjoyed that, please subscribe on iTunes for new episodes every

In this week’s Spectator books podcast, it’s the Biographer’s Tale. I‘m joined by the doyen of romantic biographers Richard Holmes, and our regular reviewer Frances Wilson — author of the hugely acclaimed new Life of Thomas de Quincey, Guilty Thing. Jumping off from Richard’s new book This Long Pursuit: Reflections of a Romantic Biographer, we talk about where life-writing fits into the literary world. How do you go about it: with Richard’s “footsteps” approach, as much biographer as travel-writer; or with Frances’s deep dive in the library? Do you need to love your subjects, and what if you grow to hate them? And why is it that, however accomplished they

Why do so many people think poetry is important, and so few of them read it? And why does what might pass unnoticed as a minority activity, like — say — tiddliwinks or sniffing bicycle seats, arouse such strong views in the public at large? The award-winning American writer Ben Lerner has a theory. In this week’s Spectator books podcast I talk to him about his new collected poems, his monograph The Hatred of Poetry, and how he drew inspiration from the gigantic Wal-Mart in his hometown of Topeka, Kansas. You can listen to our conversation here: And if you enjoyed that, please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes for

In this week’s Spectator Books podcast, we’re talking about tomorrow night’s big announcement: the 2016 Man Booker Prize. This year’s prize — like every year’s, it seems — has caused controversy. What is the prize for? Is it good for the literary culture? And how does the shortlist stand up? Paul Beatty (US) – The Sellout (Oneworld) Deborah Levy (UK) – Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton) Graeme Macrae Burnet (UK) – His Bloody Project (Contraband) Ottessa Moshfegh (US) – Eileen (Jonathan Cape) David Szalay (Canada-UK) – All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape) Madeleine Thien (Canada) – Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Granta Books) I’m joined by our chief critic Philip

In the latest Spectator Books podcast, I talk to Hisham Matar — newly shortlisted for the UK’s most prestigious non-fiction prize, the Baillie Gifford — about his new book The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between. When Hisham was 19, his Libyan dissident father was abducted from exile by the Gadaffi regime and disappeared into Tripoli’s most notorious jail. The writer spent 20 years not knowing what had really happened. He talks here about his long struggle to find out, and his first trip back after the regime had fallen…. You can listen to our conversation here: and please subscribe on iTunes to get our weekly episodes.

Today we’re proud to launch the Spectator’s Books Podcast, a literary younger sibling of our popular weekly podcast on politics and current affairs. Each week I’ll be hosting a discussion about the most interesting recent books and the literary talking-points of the day. Books contain every subject known to man – and rather than focusing narrowly on fiction or literary biography, we want to take full advantage of their range. We want to roam as widely as the written word itself. In the coming weeks I’ll be talking to the Libyan novelist Hisham Matar, recently longlisted for the country’s most prestigious non-fiction prize for his exquisite memoir of his dissident