Lit Bits

In which Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) are joined by film critic and author James Mottram to discuss several matters pertaining to literature and film. We three grapple with, among other things, the strange discourse of The Empire Strikes Back —the life and opinions of Thomas Hanks Esq—the many difficulties involved when translating prose to the cinema—the peculiarities of reading a book while attending the cinema—Mr Thomas Hanks (actor)—the attractions or otherwise of becoming a screenwriter—the curious circumstances that befell Thomas Hanks—as well as more surprising and unexpected adventures, full of learning and good wit.----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... Did we mention Tom Hanks? James Mottram is the author of The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood. Listen to more Lit Bits here.

In which Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) forget old acquaintance in a Soho doorway as a December deluge rains on their parade to make their new year resolutions. More exercise, less saturated fat, and a diet of Jeffrey Archer, EL James and Jon Bon Jovi’s epic poem about a strip club. ----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... For the sake of auld lang syne. Whatever that means. Listen to more Lit Bits here.

Walk this way. Talk this way. As Run DMC once said before taking their annual Boxing Day ramble to the pub. Adam 'Lit' Smyth and James 'Bits' Kidd follow suit and do their talking while they’re walking – and vice versa – tumbling out of the French House in Soho, recorder in hand.----more----  What is Lit Bits? Listen here... With the heaven’s opening, and the pubs closing, our intrepid pair retire ‘neath the shady bow of an umbrella and wander the streets, searching for links between literature and perambulation. Fellow strollers include Paul Auster, Ben Jonson, and Philip Sidney. Lit Bits. Fellas with umbrellas. Listen to more Lit Bits.  

In which Adam 'Lit' Smyth and James 'Bit' Kidd don the party hats, parp those funny trumpets and let it all hang out. Or very nearly. This is Lit Bits' way of asking: how do novels, plays and poems celebrate good times (come on).    What is Lit Bits? Listen here... Is humanity way too down with ambivalence to have a good time (come on, let's celebrate)? Are we too sad these days to strut our whatsits? So: Dickens does Christmas. Milton does Shakespeare. Carver does vodka. Gerard Manley Hopkins does the night. Frank O’Hara does love. And Kool and the Gang does … well, exactly what Kool and the Gang should. Yaa-HOO! Or, if you prefer, Goo-gle. This is your celebration! It might even work with Ask Jeeves (Ask Jeeves that one, kids). First broadcast on Resonance FM. Listen to more Lit Bits.

With Black Friday burning a hole in his tracksuit, James ‘Bits’ Kidd heads for a shopping mall in Poughkeepsie, upstate New York, to blow the entire Lit Bits expense account on a five-speed neck massager.----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... As well as flashing the cash, James wonders about at least some of the following. Why are there no clocks in malls? Why are there so many guns in malls? What is a five-speed neck massager? If a tree falls in a shopping mall, does anyone hear it fall? And does anyone really go shopping in shops anymore? Till you drop. Listen to more Lit Bits here.

In which Lit Bits (Adam 'Lit' Smyth and a train-delayed—but eventually present—James 'Bits' Kidd) are joined by poet Liane Strauss to discuss mistakes, slips, wanderings, and things not quite going to plan. A dash of Shakespeare; a shot of Keats; a half-pint tumbler of Wallace Stevens; and a generous lacing of Phil “Errare” Larkin.----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... Like knights errant, but in Harris tweed. Liane Strauss is the author of Leaving Eden (Salt Publishing, 2010) and Frankie, Alfredo, (Donut Press, 2009). Her poems have appeared in a variety of journals in the US and the UK, including The Hudson Review, The Georgia Review, Poetry Review, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner and Magma. She teaches literature and creative writing at Birkbeck College, The Poetry School and The City Literary Institute. Listen to more Lit Bits here.

Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bit’ Kidd) ascends to a hidden portal in the London Library and finds not Thetans, but a creepily broken desk. Is this where recalcitrant members go to die? ----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... Is this what happens if you write in pen in the margin of page 423 of that Lord Byron biography? Is this what happens if you make stains on the red carpet of the reading room? Adam and James gird their loins, brace their mainsail, and buckle their swashes to confront - FEAR. What books make you scream? MR James, Jeffrey Archer, and a terrifying revelation neath the undercrofting. But what’s that noise on the stairs? Be ye afeared. Be ye verry afeared. Prithee. Listen to more Lit Bits here.

In which Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) – never afraid to tackle the big issues – dons its metaphysical (and metaphorical) wig, takes a deep breath, and plunges into TRUTH in films and books. Joined by historical whizzes Alex von Tunzelmann and Hallie Rubenhold, the pod wrestles with JFK; Margaret Thatcher; Christian Bale; John Keats; The French Revolution; T.S. Eliot; Shakespeare; a couple of llamas; and dear, dear Mel Gibson.----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... Questions that are pondered. Why did no one realise America won the Trojan War? Can Leonardo di Caprio play anyone not born in the 21st century? And if history is written by winners, then little wonder no one has asked Sven Goran Erikkson to direct a movie. Hallie Rubenhold is a novelist and historian. She is the author of the bestselling The Five; The Untold Lives of The Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, The Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack and the extraordinary story of Harris’ List (2005), which was adapted for TV on BBC4; Lady Worsley’s Whim; An Eighteenth Century Tale of Sex, Scandal and Divorce (2008); and Mistress of My Fate; The Confessions of Henrietta Lightfoot (2011). Alex von Tunzelmann is the author of Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire (2007), and Red Heat. Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean (2011). She writes the ‘Reel History’ column for The Guardian, on popular films and historical accuracy. Listen to more Lit Bits here.

It’s chocks away as Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) are joined, for five high-altitude minutes, by Alex von Tunzelmann and Hallie Rubenhold, to talk planes and books. Just what do you read during a flight? Why is airplane food so terrible? Why does every movie seem to star Seth Rogan? And who exactly is Seth Rogan????? Reading, writing, doomed ambition and all manner of zipless unmentionables.----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... Fasten your seatbelts. Put out that cigarette. Don’t sit near Gerard Depardieu. Emergency exits can be found there and there...and there. Listen to more Lit Bits here.

Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) pop down the boozer for a quick 0.5. Beginning a seemingly inexhaustible fascination with recording nonsense in boozers, our intrepid pod duo battle their way out of the The Lord John Russell to chat about James Joyce and Geoffrey Chaucer. In the process, they struggle to describe Ulysses’ multi-vocal pub conversations, and scratch their heads about just how many whiskeys Dylan Thomas downed before descending that great beer cellar in the basement.----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... Lit Bits also experiences its first brush with fame, as three not especially wise men stare us out during the pod. Pretty scary. Two pints of cider. Ice in the cider. Listen to more Lit Bits here.