The Critic Books Podcast

📚From prison stints for defacing books, to the historical evolution of the “shelfie”, Emma Smith's Portable Magic is a riot of detail, scholarly insight, and fun. What gives a book its “bookhood“? What makes some volumes so collectable? Francesca Peacock is joined by the literary critic Lucasta Miller — author of Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph (2021) and The Brontë Myth (2001), amongst others — to discuss Smith's new work. 

On this episode, Francesca Peacock is joined by Sarah LeFanu to discuss Marjorie Grant's novel Latchkey Ladies, which has been out of print for just over a century. It was recently republished by Handheld Press, and Sarah — the author of a biography of Rose Macaulay — penned the introduction. 

In this episode of The Critic Books Podcast, Francesca Peacock is in conversation with Alexander Larman about his piece in the April issue of the magazine: “How to be a cult writer”. What makes a writer “cult”? Is Iris Murdoch a cult writer? Is Ian McEwan? What is the difference between a cult figure and a coterie figure? All these questions are discussed, alongside Byron, Rochester, Virginia Woolf, and Nancy Mitford. 

What makes it "Stewkey" rather than "Stifkey"? How has Norfolk and Norwich changed in the last few decades? What is different about writing short stories rather than novels? In this episode of The Critic books podcast, D J Taylor speaks about his new collection of short stories — all based in the Norfolk area. 

What happens when two women meet on the train and agree to murder their ex-husbands? Amanda Craig's latest novel is a panoramic look at Britain in the wake of Brexit, and asks what it takes to push people to their limits. 

What happened in the decade Britain was without a monarch? Was day-to-day life altered by the revolution? Paul Lay, The Critic's Literary Editor, speaks to Anna Keay about her new book The Restless Republic, which seeks to answer these questions.

A cross-dressing sailor, renowned pick-pocket, and a mad Duchess — the women of Holly Kyte's Roaring Girls are anything but boring. By exploring the lives of eight broadly unknown women from early modern British history through to the eighteenth century, Holly Kyte asks what it meant to strain at the limits of womanhood before feminism was even a nascent movement.

Set across Oxford, London, and Karachi — and between 1981 and 2003 — Yasmin Cordery Khan's debut novel is a mix of family drama and mystery. Francesca Peacock spoke to her about the book, and they touch on everything from Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty to the BCCI crisis. 

It is 100 years since John Reith, Arthur Burrows, and Cecil Lewis first set up the British Broadcasting Company, as it was then known. A General Strike, a world war, and a number of scandals later — Auntie Beeb is now a well-known fixture in British life. Francesca Peacock spoke to David Hendy about his new history of the corporation, which takes a look at the BBC right through from its early days to the recent history of the pandemic. 

Set in Prussia and Australia in 1836, Devotion is a story of suppression, repression, and love. Francesca Peacock spoke to Hannah Kent about the historical basis behind her novel, and its contemporary importance.