Backlisted

Our Hallowe'en special from 2020 was on the Old English poem, Beowulf, composed somewhere in England more than a thousand years ago. The atmospheric tale of supernatural monsters and human heroes has inspired scores of translations over the centuries and we will discuss several, including versions by Seamus Heaney, J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael Morpurgo and the powerful new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley. Andy and John are joined by regular Backlisted Hallowe’en guest Andrew Male, the senior associate editor of MOJO magazine, and Dr Laura Varnam, who first appeared on our last Hallowe’en episode to discuss Daphne Du Maurier’s collection, The Breaking Point. As well as being a Du Maurier expert, Laura is also the Lecturer in Old and Middle English Literature at University College, Oxford and teaches Beowulf to undergraduates. Before that, to put everyone in a suitably spooky mood, we all discuss stories taken from Robert Shearman’s remarkable experiment in storytelling, We All Hear Stories in the Dark. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and get extra bonus episodes and original writing, become a patron at ⁠www.patreon.com/backlisted⁠ + there's a free trial week. *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2019 we made this show on W.G. Sebald's book The Rings of Saturn, which was first published in Germany in 1995. Joining John and Andy to walk around this enigmatic masterpiece are the writer and swimmer Philip Hoare and the novelist Jessie Greengrass. Other books under discussion are The Years by Annie Ernaux and Fiona Benson's award-winning poetry collection Vertigo & Ghost. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and get extra bonus episodes and original writing, become a patron at ⁠www.patreon.com/backlisted⁠ + there's a free trial week. *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joining us are the novelist, playwright and memoirist Alice Jolly and novelist Patrick McCabe, to discuss the A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. First published in 1924, by the end of that year, A Passage to India had sold 17,000 copies in Britain and 54,000 in the USA and today is viewed as a seminal text in post-colonial literature. A Passage to India grapples with, among many themes, colonialism and faith, and is set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. In this episode we reflect on its legacy today. This show was recorded at our first live event of 2023, at Dartington Hall, Devon as part of the Byline Festival. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and get extra bonus episodes and original writing, become a patron at ⁠www.patreon.com/backlisted⁠ + the first week is free *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In light of the death of Annie Dillard, we are revisiting our discussion of her Pulitzer Prize-winning classic Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. First published in 1974, when Dillard was still in her twenties, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction the following year. A landmark work of nature writing, observation and spiritual enquiry, it established Dillard as one of the most distinctive voices in American literature. Joining us are writers Jay Griffiths and Geoff Dyer, both making their Backlisted debuts in the original episode. Griffiths is the author of Wild: An Elemental Journey and, most recently, How Animals Heal Us, published in paperback in 2026. Dyer’s books include The Last Days of Roger Federer and his recent memoir Homework, an account of his childhood and adolescence in postwar England. Also in this episode, Andy has been reading Pages from the Goncourt Journals, a gossip-rich glimpse into 19th-century French literary life, which has a foreword by Geoff Dyer, while John talks about the life and work of John Donne through Katherine Rundell’s acclaimed biography Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recorded live in Galway in 2021, we were joined by novelist Mary Costello for a special episode recorded live at Galway International Arts Festival in Ireland. The book we're debating is Elizabeth Costello (2003) by South-African born Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee, a novel that politely asks the reader to consider, amongst other matters, animal rights, the power of faith and the limits of fiction itself. Also in this episode, books by two Irish authors: Sally Rooney's novel Beautiful World, Where Are You and John Moriarty’s The Hut at the Edge of the Village, a collection edited by Martin Shaw and published by the Lilliput Press. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm*If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Returning to a show we made in 2022. The Ice Palace or Is-slottet by Tarjei Vesaas is a 20th century classic by one of Norway’s greatest modern writers. First published by Gyldendal in 1963, it went on to win the Nordic Council Literary Prize in 1964. In 1966, it was published in Elizabeth Rokkan’s English translation by Peter Owen who described it as the best novel he ever published. To discuss it we’re joined by friend of the show Max Porter – who’s surprised it isn’t the most famous book in the world – and by another great Norwegian, Karl Ove Knaussgård, who agrees but who also think’s Vessas’s The Birds (or Fuglane), published six years earlier, might be even better. We discuss both books in their English translations (recently released as Penguin Modern Classics) and Karl Ove treats us to a reading from the beginning of The Ice Palace in Norwegian. This episode also features Andy sharing his pleasure and deep amusement at Bob Dylan’s latest book – The Philosophy of Modern Song (Simon & Schuster) while John is moved by Emergency, Daisy Hildyard’s darkly beautiful novel about a rural Northern childhood overshadowed by presentiments of the coming climate disaster (Fitzcarraldo Editions). * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon - the first week is free - at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In light of it's republication by Faber this month, we are replaying this wonderful episode where author Rose Ruane first brought Gaining Ground A.K.A. Abra (1978) by Canadian feminist writer Joan Barfoot to our attention back in 2024.One day, seemingly on a whim, a woman walks out of her home and her marriage, forsaking her family for a life of near-solitude and self-sufficiency. Many years later, her daughter, now grown-up, comes to find her and to ask a simple question: why? But there are no easy answers. In a long and distinguished literary career, Barfoot has won the Marian Engel Award and been long listed for the Man Booker Prize, for Critical Injuries (2002). Back in 2024, her debut novel, seemed to have vanished almost as thoroughly as its female protagonist; as you will hear from our discussion, we thought the book richly deserved to be rediscovered and are very happy now it is available to purchase. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and get extra bonus episodes and original writing, become a patron at www.patreon.com/backlisted + there's a free trial week. *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just in time for the summer holidays, the Backlisted team recommend six books we have enjoyed recently: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee; Boulder by Eva Baltasar; Flashlight by Susan Choi; The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley; The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly; and The Gilt Kid by James Curtis. New and not-so-new reading for the months ahead, as we take a brief break from our sabbatical to return for this 2026 Summer Reading special. Have a great summer. x * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at ⁠uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted⁠ where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit ⁠www.backlisted.fm⁠ *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and get extra bonus episodes and original writing, become a patron at ⁠www.patreon.com/backlisted⁠ + there's a free trial week. *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter ⁠here⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over here in the UK, we are well and truly into summer: some of us have World Cup fever, and others... have not. To celebrate the continuing balm, we are rerunning one of our classic summer reading episodes from 2023, where John, Andy and Nicky choose six books, old and new: O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker; Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale; The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time by Catherine Taylor; Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry; A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀; and The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds by John Higgs. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at ⁠uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted⁠ where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit ⁠www.backlisted.fm⁠ *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and get extra bonus episodes and original writing, become a patron at ⁠www.patreon.com/backlisted⁠ + there's a free trial week. *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter ⁠here⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recorded back in 2018 at Port Elliot festival, Andy and John are joined on stage by writer, actor and comedian Ben Moor, author of More Trees to Climb (Granta) and whose comedy show ‘Book Talk Book Talk Book’ first premiered at that years Festival, and writer and journalist Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love and the forthcoming The Agatha Christie Cure and is currently at work on her first novel. The book under discussion is Pierre Bayard’s How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, first published in France as Comment parler des livres que l'on n'a pas lus? by Editions du Minuit in 2007, and in the UK by Granta in a translation by Jeffrey Mehlman. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices