Books Podcast: Recent Episodes
Guardian
A weekly podcast, presented by editor of Guardian books Claire Armitstead, for author interviews, readings and discussions - plus a full recording of our monthly book club.
The Guardian has launched a new series called Reverberate that we think you’ll like. Each week, Chris Michael will explore incredible stories from around the world about when music shook history. In the first episode, we hear from Kashy Keegan, an unknown singer-songwriter in a sleepy English town who became the voice of Hong Kong’s nascent pro-democracy movement. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to hear the rest of the series
We wanted to bring you another episode from our Innermost series. In the last episode of our first season, two callers tell Leah Green how their relationships sent them down unexpected paths, one with criminal consequences Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to hear the rest of the series
The Guardian has launched a new series called Innermost that we think you will like. Each week, callers will tell Leah Green what’s going on behind closed doors. In the first episode, we hear how an uncle’s funeral and meals with an emotionally distant brother help James and Jess think about their families in new and unexpected ways. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to hear the rest of the series
On our final episode, the diplomat who spearheaded the Paris Agreement discusses why we should feel optimisitic about our ability to tackle the climate crisis. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
We speak to Horrible Histories consultant and podcaster Greg Jenner about the history of celebrity and share what listeners are reading. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Mathematician Adam Kucharski talks about how the concept of ‘contagion’ is rooted in our social lives and we share your reading tips for lockdown. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show we talk to Toby Ferris about his pursuit of the Dutch master and look at how the literary world is dealing with the pandemic. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show we talk to the Northern Irish writer about his new novel and discuss how headlines can impact our appetite for certain books. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s podcast, we talk to Tsiolkas about his novel on the life of St Paul and the historian Holland explains what we know about the man. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, the bestselling fantasy author talks about how he came to invent a magical branch of the Met, and we discuss Hilary Mantel’s new novel The Mirror & The Light. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we talk to graphic novelist Isabel Greenberg about her comic Glass Town and the 2020 longlist for the International Booker prize. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Alexander Boxer talks about his book A Scheme of Heaven and we discuss why Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers tried to remove a juror for her reading history. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
The novelist explains how she discovered her family was woven into history, plus the new wave of Ethiopian literature in English. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
The crime writer joins us to discuss the mechanics of mystery novels, plus Margaret Atwood at the Hay festival in Cartagena. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
The geneticist explains why science offers no support for prejudice. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
We welcome not one but two Costa winners, as the victors in the novel and the debut fiction categories join us in the studio. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
The novelist explains her sudden decision to write her controversial thriller, and we hail TS Eliot prize winner Roger Robinson. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, the novelist explains how she came to write about her insomnia and we consider why indie bookshops are booming in the UK and Ireland. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
This week, the creator of the biggest child villain in literature talks about comedy writing and seeing his creation adapted by Disney. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Priya Basil talks about the dynamics of the dinner table and her book Be My Guest, and we chat about the best books of the year. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Ben Lerner and Meena Kandasamy talk about drawing on their most embarrassing and vulnerable moments to write fiction. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
A former member recalls growing up in ‘America’s most hated family’ and Claire McGlasson explains why we’re fascinated by cults. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we talk to Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the two authors who published as James SA Corey and the space opera The Expanse. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, the Pulitzer prize winning novelist talks about the return of her wonderfully difficult character in Olive, Again. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Rory MacLean and Luke Harding talk about the challenges of writing about Russia, the subjectivity of experience and getting high on ‘Putin’s Pecker’. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, Jamie talks about her new essay collection Surfacing and we hear a rare recording of the Cider with Rosie author. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, the US novelist talks about Donald Trump’s border policy and the personal toll of researching those left behind by the cartels. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we talk about endangered languages with Belarusian poet Valzhyna Mort, Maori poet Vaughan Rapatahana and publisher Clive Boutle. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we talk about books as physical objects and look at the history of Gilgamesh through centuries of translation. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we discuss the shock decision to split the prize between Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo, and look at two books about the UK’s Windrush generation. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, the British-American author talks about her 1,000-page stream-of-consciousness and we chat about ‘difficult books’. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, the US novelist talks about The Dutch House and we discuss your additions to our top 100 books of the 21st century list. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Journalist Nesrine Malik talks about her book We Need New Stories and we discuss the Guardian’s top 100 books of the 21st century. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we look at the history of political memoirs, and speak to fantasy author Brian Catling and Weil sibling biographer Karen Olsson. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we talk to Laura Cumming and Rhik Samadder about their memoirs, take a look at the Booker shortlist and give a verdict on Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
In this week’s show, Rushdie talks about his Booker-nominated novel and we discuss the best literary road trips. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
The Turkish author talks about 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, her new, Booker prize-longlisted novel. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Writers including Penelope Lively, Caryl Philips, Howard Jacobson and Yomi Sode explore how this idea has changed over time. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Rachel DeLoache Williams recalls her time with hoaxer Anna Sorokin in My Friend Anna and we rank the best true crime books. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
David Shariatmadari reveals how English is evolving – or in Jacob Rees-Mogg’s case, refusing to – and Cecelia Watson shares her passion for the semicolon. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
This week, Taddeo discusses her bestseller about the intimate lives of women, and we take a look at the 2019 Booker prize longlist. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we speak to the poet about his debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and discuss the evolution of the Great American Novel. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we talk to Jacobson about his new novel, and discuss the compelling career of Murdoch. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
with Johny Pitts and Roger Robinson. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
The outgoing US poet laureate talks about her career, and we chat about the work of Alice Oswald, the new Oxford professor of poetry. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
This podcast contains descriptions of violence which some may find distressing. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
For Refugee Week, two writers discuss their experiences as asylum seekers and the challenges facing refugees around the world. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we meet the author of An American Marriage fresh from her win, and speak to Newman about her time-travelling novel The Heavens. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Claire and Sian bring you some of the highlights from the annual books festival held in the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
Sarah Krasnostein talks about her biography The Trauma Cleaner and we remember children’s author Judith Kerr. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, Andrea Wulf shares her new graphic novel biography of Alexander von Humboldt and professional forager John Wright takes us on a hunt for wild food in London. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
The American Psycho author talks about the reactions to his first book in 10 years, and we discuss the UK’s new poet laureate, Simon Armitage. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we speak to Heida Ásgeirsdóttir about her life as a farmer, and to Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson about her collection Constellations. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, Crossan talks about using poetry in her novel-in-verse Toffee and Dunthorne shares why he writes poetry to escape novels. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we sit down with Shakespeare expert Emma Smith and novelist Tash Aw talks about his latest book, We, the Survivors. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
On this week’s show, we discuss the 2019 shortlist for the best fiction in translation with Boyd Tonkin, and speak to Nicole Flattery about her short story collection, Show Them a Good Time. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
This week we hear two contrasting approaches to eternal questions of belonging, plus regional differences in literature. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
This week we talk comedy with Nina Stibbe and turn to the serious topic of booksellers’ pay. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod
How can we construct a sense of self from the fragments of life we can recall? We dissect how science and fiction shed light on the mysteries of memory
Warning strong language and imagery described in this podcast: This week’s podcast is dedicated to an in-depth and thorny discussion of women in sci-fi and the process of writing in and around the genre.
We examine beginnings and endings, with a novel set in a nursing home and a physicist who explores the influence of the big bang on our daily lives
The Israeli novelist Amos Oz talks about prose, poetry and politics in his latest novel, Judas
As the Booker prize announces a shortlist that’s long on surprises, we talk to Deborah Levy and assess the contenders for this year’s award
We talk about memory loss and addiction with Man Booker longlisted author David Means and neuroscientist Marc Lewis.
As part of a series of readings to celebrate publication of le Carré’s memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, Rachel Weisz reads from the 2001 novel The Constant Gardener, in which British diplomat Justin Quayle takes on the might of big pharma after the murder of his activist wife in Kenya
As part of a series of readings to celebrate publication of le Carré’s memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, Simon Russell-Beale reads from the 1963 novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, in which world weary spymaster Alec Leamas is called back for one last mission in east Germany...
As part of a series of readings to celebrate publication of le Carré’s memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, David Harewood reads from the 1968 novel A Small Town in Germany, in which Alan Turner investigates the mysterious disappearance of a foreign office worker in the West German Capital, Bonn
As part of a series of readings to celebrate publication of le Carré’s memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, Toby Jones reads from this 1974 novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, in which George Smiley attempts to uncover a Soviet mole in the secret intelligence service
As part of a series of readings to celebrate publication of le Carré’s memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, Damien Lewis reads from his 2010 novel about a Russian money launderer offers British intelligence information after a friend is killed by his superiors
The award-winning novelist explains to a Guardian Live audience why he picked a foetus as narrator of his latest novel, Nutshell
Tracy Chevalier and Esther Freud read stories inspired by Brontë’s most famous line: ‘Reader, I married him’
As the digital revolution sweeps through publishing, is editing in decline? We find out how the 21st-century editor works, with Diana Athill, Matt Weiland, Karolina Sutton and many more
Join this year’s Booker longlisted author AL Kennedy, Will Self and Tony Parsons as they discuss writing about the UK capital at a Guardian live event held in – guess where – London
We take a stroll through the streets of history and talk about women who wandered with author of Flâneuse, Lauren Elkin, and enjoy some great literary lyrics from the Bookshop Band
Orange Prize winner Rose Tremain gives an account of writing her latest book, The Gustav Sonata
Fragilities of language and identity feature in edgy new works from two debut novelists and ‘the rock star of modern poetry’
As clouds gather over public life, we turn to the books shining brightly this summer with Mark Lawson, Lisa McInerney and pack in a host of recommendations from Guardian writers
We examine how the most personal writing can illuminate a wider world as Hisham Matar and Margo Jefferson turn to memoir
As the UK adjusts to life outside the European Union, we ask if literature can get to the heart of an issue that dominated the referendum campaign
We explore memory and forgetting with a fictional artist who struggles with recall and a cultural historian examining the past to solve present troubles with data storage
The American novelist Don DeLillo gives an account of writing his modern masterpiece Underworld to the Guardian book club
Simon Ingram tackles the forbidding rock face of the mountaineering memoir, while Fiona Reynolds mounts a passionate plea for the defence of our natural landscape
Maggie Nelson explains the nuances of tackling gender and sexuality in her genre-bending memoir The Argonauts, while Chris Kraus talks about her 1997 feminist text I Love Dick enjoying a second life in 2016
The Orange Prize-winning novelist talks about her dystopian vision of economic collapse in the US at a Guardian live event recorded in London
The South Korean author of The Vegetarian explains her mysterious fable of a woman who refuses to eat Han Kang wins the 2016 Man Booker International prize
We drop in on Lahore, track Jean Rhys back to the Caribbean and tackle the troubling issue of payments to authors appearing at the UK’s 350 literary jamborees
Crime writing is up for interrogation this week, as we examine the evidence for our abiding obsession with murder and misdemeanours in both fact and fiction
Comedian Sara Pascoe explores how our experience is shaped by our physical form in Animal, and we track down a New Jersey pioneer with Amy Stewart
We tune in to the voices inside our heads with the psychologist Charles Fernyhough and the novelist Francesca Kay
We head to the UK’s biggest book fair to find independent publishers bringing us literary gems from all over the world
Guardian journalist Luke Harding and filmmaker Peter Pomerantsev discuss the assassination of Aleksander Litvinenko, and Masha Aloykhina of Pussy Riot shares the poetry that helped her survive prison
We look at challenging writing from both sides, with Iranian author Kader Abdolah and a discussion about the difficult experience of reading Hanya Yanagihara’s novel A Little Life
The Irish novelist gives an intimate account of how he wrote his most autobiographical novel, to the Guardian book club at a live event recorded in London
We put politics, performance and poetry under the lens with spoken-word stars Luke Wright and Hollie McNish
Robin Ince and Green Gartside explain why the music world needs a book prize and Olivia Laing follows Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol down lonely street
We look ahead to a dystopian California and a world where the wealth brought by oil no longer fuels autocrats and extremists
At a Guardian Live Book Club event, the Norwegian literary phenomenon Karl Ove Knausgaard explains how and why he has put the most intimate details of his life into his autobiographical novels
We travel around the human body with GP Gavin Francis, venture into the operating theatre with surgeon Samer Nashef and join investigative reporter Jack Parlabane on the trail of ‘blade bitch’
Twenty years after David Foster Wallace’s magnum opus was first published it continues to delight and astonish. We discuss the unending pleasures of Infinite Jest
On a trip to the Calais refugee camp known as ‘the Jungle’, we explore the impact of books, storytelling and creativity on the refugees there, take a tour of their library and speak to one of the members of Pussy Riot visiting the camp
As migration continues to dominate the headlines, we go walkabout in a capital city transformed by new arrivals with Ben Judah, while Sunjeev Sahota explores home and identity in Sheffield
At a Guardian Live event John Irving, one of America’s greatest living novelists, discusses his new book, Avenue of Mysteries, with author and professor of creative writing Jeanette Winterson
As National Libraries Day approaches, we salute these temples of learning with the writers Ali Smith, Jackie Kay and Tom Holland, and head across the Channel to find out what’s on the shelves of the library in Calais’ Jungle
As a children’s novel is proclaimed Costa book of the year, and a new Guardian series sets out to identify the 100 best non-fiction books of all time, we investigate literary stature
To celebrate the publication of his autobiography The Outsider, Frederick Forsyth gives a rare public interview discussing his life as a bestselling novelist and Cold War spy
This week we find ourselves out of doors on the windswept islands of Orkney with Amy Liptrot and among the traffic-clogged streets of London with Emily Chappell
The winners of the TS Eliot prize and the National poetry slam explore the territory between lyric and music with singer-songwriter Emmy the Great
As Bill Bryson returns to travel writing after 15 years with The Road to Little Dribbling, he joins John Mullan to discuss his voyages around the United Kingdom
John Crace whips through the lastest instalment of EL James’s sado-masochistic bestseller, Grey, and asks if it’s time to apply the safe word
John Crace squashes Houellebecq’s Submission and asks whether the sacred monster of French fiction is just making trouble for its own sake
John Crace puts the annotated editon of the Nobel laureate’s poetical works through the wringer and assesses the stature of the modernist master
John Crace boils down The Buried Giant and asks whether this genre-bending quest novel is destined for the halls of glory or the mists of forgetfulness
John Crace puts the squeeze on Go Set a Watchman, and considers its effect on the author’s reputation
Gangs, gay sex and pandering to the white woman. Man Booker prize winner Marlon James talks to Guardian books editor, Claire Armitstead, and answers audience questions at a Guardian Live event on A Brief History of Seven Killings
Harper Lee stuns the world, Marlon James puts Jamaica on the Booker map and Michel Houellebecq imagines a Muslim France – our critics wrap up the year
Famous authors from Arthur Conan Doyle to Zadie Smith mingle with unfamiliar talents in an anthology which – according to its editor – proves the glory of an unjustly neglected artform with a 300-year pedigree
The award-winning author explains to the Guardian book club why he felt compelled to give babyboomers such a hard time in his acclaimed 2010 novel Find out more about Guardian Live events
We join judges, readers, the editor Robin Robertson and the winner of the 2015 Guardian first book award, Andrew McMillan
We examine the attractions of stepping into someone else's shoes with the novelists Kevin Barry and Vendela Vida
Sandi Toksvig reads from and talks about her latest book, A Slice of the Moon, an action-packed story of one family's journey across the world as they leave behind their home in Ireland during the potato famine and travel to America
We explore guilt, memory and courage with a novel from Edna O’Brien, a posthumous memoir from Kate Gross and the journals of Jean Lucey Pratt
Eoin Colfer, author of the bestselling Artemis Fowl novels, and award-winning picture book creator Oliver Jeffers have paired up to create a book about imaginary friends, Imaginary Fred. Find out how they met by chance, collaborated across continents by skype, and, of course, whether they have their own imaginary friendsBuy Imaginary Fred at the Guardian bookshop
In our fourth exclusive sound story celebrating Britain’s forests, the Granta young British novelist Evie Wyld reads her unsettling tale of marital tension at the end of times
In the third of our series of exclusive sound stories celebrating Britain’s forests, the Scottish poet and artist Alec Finlay reads his tale of a mythical submerged woodland
In the second of our series of exclusive sound stories celebrating Britain’s forests, Alan Garner reads his own tale of a newcomer who finds ‘ancient noise’ beneath the choked underlife of of Cheshire’s woodlands• Listen to The Green Stuff by Ali Smith
In the first of a series of exclusive sound stories inspired by the UK’s woodlands, the award-winning writer weaves a spellbinding tale from an encounter between a boy and a strange green child
We explore the timeless appeal of spectres and spooks with three writers who have a particular affection for eerie tales
From the streets of Istanbul we take a tour of 13 states of India and venture out into the English weather
The winner of the 2015 Man Booker prize, Marlon James, talks about returning to 1970s Jamaica and reads from A Brief History of Seven Killings
When Yugoslavia exploded into war at the end of the last century, Aleksandar Hemon and Saša Stanišić found themselves cast adrift. We catch up with fiction from Bosnian refugees who have found literary success in the US and Germany
The Booker-winning novelist Margaret Atwood joined Naomi Alderman at a Guardian Live event, where she discussed her latest vision of a bleak future, The Heart Goes Last
We find out what Morrissey’s novel tells us about this charming man, catch up with Royal Society prizewinner Gaia Vince and hear Oliver Morton’s plans for reshaping the planet
We discuss how literature can be forged from sadness with two writers longlisted for the Guardian first book award
The Booker prizewinning novelist Pat Barker joins us to discuss the third in her Life Class trilogy, Noonday
As the mysterious Italian author Elena Ferrante publishes the final instalment of her Naples quartet in English, we go in search of a literary phenomenon
The novelists explain how two very different books were powered by surprisingly similar ambitions
The Australian novelist on transforming his own woes into comedy and Kate Clanchy on defying commercial pressure to produce a ‘literary hand grenade’
We examine the enduring legacy of John Buchan’s thriller, with Robert McCrum and Kate Macdonald
Can humanity escape extinction by reaching for the stars? We confront final questions with the science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson and the psychologist Sheldon Solomon• Science fiction: the realism of the 21st century
We join Ralph Steadman in his studio as he teams up with Ceri Levy to put birds threatened with extinction in the frame, and hear how poets are responding to climate chaos
A struggling columnist tries to impress her editor – who just happens to be her father – in this extract from Jonathan Coe’s forthcoming novel, Number 11, to be published this November
The British author reads a short story in which she imagines a summer in the life of a young woman at odds with her family
What happens when you don’t find your comedian brother funny? A new work by the Canadian author
In this non-fiction essay, American writer Dave Eggers recalls a run-in with homeland security
Alex Clark discusses the challenges of writing your own life story with the authors of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? and H Is for Hawk
We look at intruders of our inner and outer environment with Fred Pearce and Alanna Collen
We explore why writers cast off the shackles of the standalone novel with Amitav Ghosh and the crime writing duo Nicci Gerrard and Sean French