Damian Barr's Literary Salon: Recent Episodes
LiveWriters
Damian Barr's Literary Salon tempts the world's best writers to read exclusively from their latest greatest works and share their own personal stories. Star guests include: Jojo Moyes, John Waters, Yaa Gyasi, Mary Beard, Diana Athill and Louis de Bernières - all in front of a live audience at leading glamorous locations world-wide. Our London home is the Savoy. Suave Salonnière Damian Barr is your host.
Produced by Megan Bay Dorman and Russell Finch.
Our dearest podcast listeners - we have a special, important message for you from our founder Damian Barr, as we say a very fond but sad farewell to the Literary Salon...
Some of you have come along in person or online or listened to our podcast for years. Thank you for being there—readers bring a book to life, and that’s what you’ve done for Salon. It’s been fifteen years since our first night at Shoreditch House and we’ve grown beyond any dream Damian dared have.
So in this special final episode, Damian shares his decision with you, takes us on a joyful trip down memory lane, and gives you a sneak peek of the next chapter...
Damian Barr's Literary Salon was founded 15 years ago by award-winning writer, columnist and broadcaster Damian Barr. Find out more about Damian and subscribe to his personal newsletter on his website - www.damianbarr.com.
Follow Damian on Twitter/X - @Damian_Barr
Follow Damian on Instagram - @mrdamianbarr
Podcast produced and edited by presenter/producer Megan Bay Dorman. For any podcast production or presenting enquiries, email Megan on mbaydorman@gmail.com
Podcast programmed by Sales, Marketing & Publicity Director Matt Casbourne. For any enquiries email Matt on mcasbourne@gmail.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Before the summer is out we wanted to share a page-turning holiday read on the podcast. The Orchid Hour takes us back to New York City, 1923, when Zia De Luca’s life is about to be shattered. She lives with her in-laws in Little Italy and works at the public library, but when an unassuming patron is murdered, the police investigation focuses on Zia...
After another tragedy strikes even closer to home, she learns the crimes are connected to a new speakeasy in Greenwich Village. When the police investigation stalls, Zia decides to find her own answers. As she’s pulled in deeper and deeper, will Zia be able to bring the killers to justice before they learn her secret?
This is a great book for anyone who enjoyed Broadway Butterfly by Sara Divello and Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman.
The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau is published by Lume, an imprint of Joffe Books, and available now. If you enjoy the work we do and would like to support the Literary Salon podcast, you can get a copy (at a discounted price!) from our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman. W: www.meganbaydorman.com E: mbaydorman@gmail.com Insta: @meganbaydorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne. Insta: @indiepublishermatt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our Book of the Week is a spellbinding debut novel by writer and commissioning editor on The Observer newspaper, Kathryn Bromwich. In At the Edge of the Woods, Laura lives alone in a cabin deep in the Italian Alps. When she isn’t translating documents, she spends her days climbing the mountains exploring the woods. But while she reconnects with nature, Laura is hiding from the violence of her past. The village where she purchases supplies grows wary of the woman in the cabin and of her increasingly odd behaviour...
With a deft hand and slow-burn tension, At the Edge of the Woods is a captivating novel for anyone who enjoyed Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller or Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm.
‘An exceptional debut; uncanny, unsettling, original and subtle.’ - Robert Macfarlane
At the Edge of the Woods by Kathryn Bromwich is published by independent press Two Dollar Radio and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman. W: www.meganbaydorman.com E: mbaydorman@gmail.com Insta: @meganbaydorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne. Insta: @indiepublishermatt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our Book of the Week will have you laughing and crying in equal measure! Stand-up comedian Jo Caulfield’s hilarious memoir, The Funny Thing About Death, is about two unconventional girls growing up in the 1970s.
Six years ago, Jo was about to go on stage when she found out that her big sister Annie had cancer. Not the best way to start a nationwide comedy tour. But the tour turns out to be a welcome distraction for them both. As Jo reports back from various hotels and service stations, they revisit their childhood and adolescence while navigating Annie's illness, learning through trial and error how to behave when someone you love gets sick.
'It’s a wildly satisfying and moving read... I loved this special book' - Graham Norton
The Funny Thing About Death by Jo Caulfield is published by Polygon, an imprint of Scottish independent press Birlinn, and available now. You can get yourself a copy while supporting the Literary Salon and UK indie bookshops by buying from our shop on Bookshop.org.
And if you fancy meeting Jo in St Andrews, pop along to a special event with her at Toppings bookshop on 20th September!
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman. W: www.meganbaydorman.com E: mbaydorman@gmail.com Insta: @meganbaydorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne. Insta: @indiepublishermatt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week we’re joined by Paul Dalgarno reading from his thoughtful, existential novel, A Country of Eternal Light.
Margaret Bryce has been having a hard time since dying in 2014. In a liminal place, we join Margaret as she revisits her life, from her Aberdeen prefab childhood to the birth of her twin girls, through Thatcher’s Britain, the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, the death of Princess Diana and the COVID pandemic. But as Margaret struggles to remember her past, there is something she’s also fighting to forget...
An emotional journey, A Country of Eternal Light by Paul Dalgarno is published by Polygon (an imprint of Birlinn Ltd) and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can support the Literary Salon's work by visiting our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this week's episode, Catherine Taylor reads from her new book The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time, a story about coming of age in the north of England during the 1970s and 80s. Historical events were happening all around her: from the pursuit and capture of the Yorkshire Ripper, to the anti-nuclear protests and Miners’ Strike. But there were also pressing concerns at home, including her parent’s divorce and a debilitating illness that would define her late adolescence...
We're so excited about this memoir and we hope you enjoy this reading from Catherine!
Damian will be in-conversation with Catherine this August at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
The Stirrings is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and available now. If you'd like a copy, you can support the podcast by buying from our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this week’s episode, Booker award-winning author Ben Okri combines fiction, essay and poetry in Tiger Work. This incredible collection, inspired by environmental activism, displays his classic blend of storytelling, fantasy and magic in tales that imagine messages sent to us from beyond the end, from those who saw it coming - exhorting us to change now.
'Both a work of lyrical imagination and a warning about the dangers we will face unless we take immediate action' - New Yorker
This is an important and incredible collection, and we hope you enjoy Ben's special reading for us.
Tiger Work by Ben Okri is published by Apollo, an imprint of Head of Zeus, and available now. We recommend visiting your local indie bookshop or you can support the Literary Salon by getting a copy from our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From the Booker longlisted author, and an Irish Times No.1 bestseller - Donal Ryan’s The Queen of Dirt Island is a searing, jubilant novel about four generations of women and the stories that bind them. On a council estate in County Tipperary, Ireland, the Aylward women stick with each other through thick and thin, and always with a wicked sense of humour.
The head of the family, Nana, is a woman who has buried two sons. Her daughter-in-law, Eileen, is estranged from her own parents, having 'shamed' them and given birth to Saoirse. And then there's Saoirse herself, eavesdropping on lives she cannot comprehend. It is only when they must battle for the inheritance of Dirt Island - a narrow strip of land adjacent to Eileen's childhood home - that they truly understand the roots that bind their lives together.
Listen now for an exclusive reading from Donal himself.
'Beautiful, compassionate... Donal Ryan at his inimitable best' - MAGGIE O'FARRELL
The Queen of Dirt Island is published by Transworld and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can support the work we do and the podcast by visiting our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast programmed by Matt Casbourne
Produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our next guest on the podcast is Essie Fox, reading from her instant Sunday Times bestseller, The Fascination. It’s a Victorian story about the estranged grandson of a wealthy collector of human curiosities, who becomes fascinated with teenage twin sisters, leading them into a web of dark obsessions... And we love this dazzlingly gothic novel from the bestselling author of The Somnambulist.
‘A magical, macabre masterpiece’ - A.J. West, author of The Spirit Engineer
This is a perfect pick for anyone who enjoyed Laura Shephard-Robinson's The Square of Sevens or Liz Hyder's The Illusions. (And if you’d like a non-fiction book on the subject of Victorian circuses and curiosities, then read John Woolf’s The Wonders.)
The Fascination by Essie Fox is published by independent publisher Orenda Books and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org. Or you can grab a special signed and numbered first edition with beautiful sprayed edges from our indie bookshop friends Goldsboro Books.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We’ve got a literary thriller in store for you this week! In the seaside town of Kinlough, Ireland, three old friends are thrown together for the first time since the disappearance of their friend Kala...
Fifteen years later Helen has reluctantly returned for her father's wedding; Joe is a world-famous musician back in town for a gig; and Mush has never left, too scared to venture beyond the counter of his mother's café. When two more girls go missing, the past and present collide as these estranged friends are forced to confront the events that led to Kala's disappearance, and to try to stop history from repeating itself...
Colin Walsh’s debut novel Kala is published by Atlantic Books and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
'A gritty heartbreaker of a thriller... Part heartfelt coming-of-age tale, part brutal Irish noir, this is a spectacular read for Donna Tartt and Tana French fans.' - Kirkus
Podcast programmed by Matt Casbourne
Produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Deep in Brazil's neglected Bahia hinterland, two sisters find an ancient knife beneath their grandmother's bed and, momentarily mystified by its power, decide to taste its metal. The tragedy that follows marks their lives and binds them together forever...
Heralded as a new masterpiece and the most important Brazilian novel of this century, The Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior merges folklore with the plight of Afro-Brazilian subsistence farmers, covering themes of family, spirituality, slavery and its aftermath. It has received the Prémio Leya, a prestigious Portuguese literary prize, and is Itamar’s English language debut novel. This gripping tale has been skilfully translated by Johnny Lorenz, who also reads this exclusive extract for us on the podcast.
A perfect story for lovers of The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, or Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor.
The Crooked Plow is published by independent publisher Verso and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Award-winning actor and creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Gertrude Stein, Miriam truly is a national treasure - and possibly our very favourite lesbian. She made us wait a long time for her extraordinary life story, and it's far richer and stranger than any part she's played. From declaring her love to Vanessa Redgrave to being told to be quiet by the Queen, her memoir This Much Is True is packed with brilliant stories, several of which Miriam shared with us in this live Literary Salon at the London Library. As you might expect from Miriam and her potty mouth, the conversation with Damian gets explicit and sweary at times, as well as being honest, intelligent and HILARIOUS - enjoy!
Interview and reading recorded live at Damian Barr's Literary Salon, at the London Library, in December 2021.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Live audio recorded by Jake Clark-Darby
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Smart, accessible, thoughtful, entertaining and frank: our Book of the Week is Black Girl, No Magic by Kimberly McIntosh. Informed by years of social policy research and campaign work, as well as her own personal experiences, this debut essay collection investigates the intersection of race and class in the UK. She discusses dismantling the myth of social mobility for those who conform to expectations, how systematic injustice impacts us all, and many other urgent questions.
Don’t worry if you’re not an expert on any of the above; this is a great place to start no matter your background.
‘Witty, fresh and full of life’ Liv Little, founder of gal-dem
'This book is a glowing achievement by one of the best essayists of her generation' Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, writer and managing editor of Skin Deep magazine
A book for fans of Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino and Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, Black Girl, No Magic by Kimberly McIntosh is published by The Borough Press and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A grand hotel, a famous opera star and a psychoanalyst with a hidden agenda. Our Book of the Week offers a glamorous, thrilling ride through murder, madness and the darkest recesses of the mind, set at Birmingham’s Regent Hotel in 1929, where guests sip absinthe cocktails on velvet banquettes and nothing is as it appears...
Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas is published by Apollo, an imprint of beloved publisher Head of Zeus, and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can get a copy from Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We’re thrilled to bring you a reading from And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu. This is the inaugural title from a new publisher on the scene: Roxane Gay Books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic. Roxane Gay is of course the bestselling author of Bad Feminist and her press will publish beautifully written, provocative, intelligent writing including underrepresented fiction, nonfiction and memoir.
And Then He Sang a Lullaby is a passionate and heartbreaking debut from a Nigerian writer and queer liberation activist, exploring what love and freedom cost in a society steeped in homophobia. It’s a poignant and searching book, reminding us of the work to be done around the world to ensure the safety and rights of our LGBTQ+ community.
‘A courageous, heart-in-mouth debut about the lives and loves of young gay Nigerians. I can't wait to see what Ani Kayode Somtochukwu writes next.’ - Patrick Gale, author of Mother’s Boy
We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week we’re bringing you a brilliant, poignant and darkly comic novel by Irish author Alice Ryan.
Molly Black has been running away since her parents died. But this time, or so says her note, she's gone for good... There's Been a Little Incident is an award-winning debut novel about grief, family and the people who are there for you when you can't be there for yourself.
'Warm, wry and genuinely funny' - Marian Keyes
Perfect for readers of Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan and Snowflake by Louise Nealan, we can’t wait for you to discover this fantastic book for yourself!
There’s Been A Little Incident is published by Head of Zeus and available now in paperback in all good bookshops, or from our shop on Bookshop.org.
Produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It’s time for some sex positivity! This week we’ve invited sex and relationship columnist Zachary Zane to read to you from his painfully funny memoir, Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto. The New York based author bares all in this memoir-manifesto, exploring how, even today, we live in a world that shames people for the sex they have and the sexualities they inhabit. Through the lens of his bisexuality and self-described sluttiness, Zachary breaks down how this sexual shame impacts our lives, and how we can unlearn the harmful, entrenched messages society imparts to us.
We recently featured a very popular interview with Zachary on our Instagram Live, in which he opened up about his sexual experiences, exploring polyamory, orgies, anonymous encounters and his thoughts on how to lead a fulfilling sex life in a long-term relationship, not to mention bi-visibility and dismantling toxic masculinity. Do head on over to that after you've enjoyed this special podcast episode with a brilliant reading from Boyslut!
‘Reading about Zane’s own sexual adventures is like getting invited to Sunday brunch by your wittiest, sluttiest, funniest friend and getting to listen to him recount his crazy weekend.’ - Dan Savage
Boyslut, perfect for readers of Unprotected by Billy Porter or Here for It by R. Eric Thomas, is published by Abrams Image, an imprint of Abrams & Chronicle Books. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We’ve got another page-turner on the podcast this week, this time by internationally bestselling author Joanne Harris!
In Broken Light, Bernie Moon has given her life to other people: her husband, her son, her friends. At nineteen she was full of dreams and ambitions; now almost fifty, and going through the menopause, she's fading, fast. When a young woman is murdered in a local park, it sparks a series of childhood memories and a talent that has lain dormant most of her adult life. But what will she do with this power and who will she become when she decides to use it..?
Perfect for readers of Naomi Alderman’s The Power and Stephen King’s Carrie.
'Profound, moving and utterly unforgettable' - CATRIONA WARD
Broken Light by Joanne Harris is published by Orion and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Prepare to be dazzled by our Book of the Week, Eyes Guts Throat Bones, an anthology of macabre tales at the end of civilisation. Moïra Fowley's spellbinding imagination will captivate your senses in an irresistible collection that explores our darkest impulses and deepest fears, interlaced with stories of queer love.
‘One of my favourite storytellers. These tales lingered, morphed, consumed me.’ Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Eyes Guts Throat Bones by Moïra Fowley is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and out now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We’re delighted to bring you a new instalment of The Darkland Tales! In this series, leading Scottish authors offer dramatic retellings of stories from their nation's history, myth and legend.
Last season we brought you Hex by Jenni Fagan. This season we’re spotlighting Nothing Left to Fear From Hell by award-winning author Alan Warner. In this story, Bonnie Prince Charles flees from the disastrous Battle of Culloden with a small band of companions through the mountainous landscapes of the north-west Highlands of Scotland. Dive into the past with this page-turning reimagining!
Nothing Left to Fear From Hell by Alan Warner is published by Polygon, an imprint of Scottish indie press Birlinn, and is available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Make room in your heart for our book of the week! Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out by Ryan Love is the feel-good book you need to read right now. When 79-year-old Arthur comes out to his family the announcement is met with mixed feelings and leads his grandson Teddy to reconsider sharing his own secret... Now the two must navigate a new world of love, heartbreak and finding their place in the queer community.
‘Uplifting and emotional’ Justin Myers
If you enjoyed page-turning books like Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper or Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare, you’ll love this novel.
Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out is published by HQ, an imprint of HarperCollins, and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
https://harpercollins.co.uk/collections/hq
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week we’re bringing you a gripping literary thriller set in the world of dark academia, for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Katy Hays The Cloisters.
In Joanna Margaret’s debut novel The Bequest, PhD student Isabel Henley arrives to study at St Andrew’s University but when her friend Rose disappears she must solve a 450 year-old mystery to save both their lives...
'Richly atmospheric and irresistibly readable' Joyce Carol Oates
The Bequest by Joanna Margaret is published by Head of Zeus and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We’re beyond thrilled to welcome Max Porter onto the podcast to read from his highly anticipated and acclaimed new novel, Shy! Max is the bestselling author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny. His latest story is about adolescent rage, struggles with mental health, imagination and coming-of-age in an alienating world, about being lost in the dark and the uncertainty of whether you’ll ever find yourself.
‘Shy is the strangest, most beguiling and affecting of all his books.’ Ian Rankin
Shy by Max Porter is published by independent press Faber and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
Produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week’s episode is especially for fans of folklore and readers of marvellous myths. White Cat, Black Dog contains seven modern fairytales from Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, featuring illustrations by award-winning artist Shaun Tan. Each is inspired by a classic fable retold with a modern twist, breathing new life into old favourites with Kelly’s signature imagination and wit.
If you enjoyed Salt Slow by Julia Armfield or The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter then this collection is for you!
White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link is published by Head of Zeus and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.
'This book is sublime' - Emma Straub
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If you could save the life of a loved one by trading in years of your own life, how many years would you give? How many lives could you save? Would you know when to stop? Francis Broad has negotiated the day of his death and now he must come to terms with the decisions he has made.
Three Gifts by Mark A. Radcliffe is our thought provoking, page-turning book of the week. Published by Brighton-based independent publisher Epoque Press, this book is available now and will appeal to readers of The Lovesong of Miss Queenie Hennessey by Rachel Joyce and One Day by David Nicholls: both authors who we adore and have hosted on the Literary Salon.
We recommend buying a copy of this beautiful book from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop at bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our book of the week is by Scottish debut author, Claire Alexander. Meredith, Alone is a poignant but optimistic novel about Meredith Maggs, a woman who hasn't left her house in 1,214 days. But she insists she isn't alone. She has her cat and her friend Sadie. There’s also her online support group, the Tesco delivery man and her treacherous memories to keep her company.
But something's about to change. All that stands between Meredith and the world is her own front door… what will it take for her to open it?
'Gorgeous. I shed tears. Very, very touching, sad, sweet and hopeful' MARIAN KEYES
Published by Michael Joseph and available now, we recommend buying from your local indie or you can grab a copy from our shop on Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Listeners, prepare for a winding tale:a cascade of true stories by DBC Pierre in his new book Big Snake Little Snake. Written while on his way to make a short film with a parrot in Trinidad, the book examines the nature of gambling and aims to shed light on the invisible odds and outrageous chances of everyday life on Earth. This satisfyingly existential book is published by independent press, Cheerio, and available now in all good bookshops.
‘Pierre's writing is heady, reaching glorious heights of linguistic invention’ Independent
We recommend buying from your local indie or you can get it from our shop at Bookshop.org .
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We love historical fiction and this week’s featured title, Hex by Jenni Fagan, is simply bewitching.
Edinburgh, December 1591. On this, the last night of her life, in a prison cell several floors below, convicted witch Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor – Iris, who says she comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they are and what they believe. Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day.
‘Brilliantly real characters shot through with feminist anger, word choice to make you shiver, and that knack of taking the road least expected' Kirstin Innes, author of Scabby Queen
Hex is published by Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn, and available now. We recommend buying from your local indie or you can get it from our shop at Bookshop.org.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We’re thrilled to feature latest book from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Queenie on the podcast! Candice Carty-Williams’ novel People Person is about five half-siblings with abandonment issues brought together by crisis in a story of heart, humour, and homecoming. The tension will have you turning the page and the characters will have you laughing to yourself into the wee hours of the morning as you finish this novel in one sitting.
So settle down to enjoy a juicy excerpt, read beautifully by our narrator Danielle Vitalis who also read for the audiobook.
‘People Person is a triumph… I loved every one of these beautifully rendered characters and I'm sure the world will too. I couldn't put it down.’ Caleb Azumah Nelson
Published by Trapeze, we recommend buying from your local indie or you can get it from our shop.
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Abi Morgan OBE is the BAFTA and Emmy-winning playwright and screenwriter who created the BBC's rave series The Split, The Iron Lady, Suffragette, The Hour and much more. She shifts from screen to page for her first book This Is Not A Pity Memoir, and we were thrilled to have the world premiere at a very special Literary Salon.
Poignant and heart-breaking but resolutely unwilling to rely on sentimental platitudes, Abi's memoir about a tragic change in her family circumstances is a profoundly powerful and perceptive read on love, grief and the eternal promise of hope.
Abi joined us at The London Library on 5th May 2022 to share a very powerful reading and conversation with Damian Barr. Not to be missed!
Podcast introduced and produced by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week’s reading comes to us from Dolen Perkins-Valdez, the New York Times bestselling author of Wench. Her timely new novel, Take My Hand, will get under your skin and stay with you long after the last page.
Montgomery, Alabama. 1973. Civil Townsend works at the Family Planning Clinic and has big plans to make a difference in her community, helping Black women make their own choices for their lives and bodies. But when she discovers the injections they’re giving young women are still experimental, she questions the motives of the clinic. Inspired by true events and a shocking chapter of American history, Take My Hand is a novel that will open your eyes and break your heart.
Published by Phoenix (an imprint of Orion) and available now. Grab a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can get it from our shop at Bookshop.org
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Prepare for some sparkling literature that you need to read this summer. That Green Eyed Girl by Julie Owen Moylan has everything we love in a book: a character-driven plot, a dual timeline, and a mystery that gradually unfolds making for a page-turning novel.
Ava is a young girl struggling to cope with an absent father and a mother suffering from a debilitating mental illness. She’s managing to keep it together, but only just. And then a parcel appears on her doorstep with a photo of a young woman with the word ‘LIAR’ scrawled across it. The riddle of the sender and its intended recipient become Ava’s obsession...
That Green Eyed Girl is published by Michael Joseph and available now. We recommend buying from your local indie or you can get it from our shop.
'I was hooked from the beginning' CLARE CHAMBERS, AUTHOR OF SMALL PLEASURES
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week we’re featuring Poguemahone: a wild, free-verse monologue, steeped in music and folklore, crammed with characters, both real and imagined. It’s an epic 600-page book by twice Booker-shortlisted author Patrick McCabe that takes place in the 1970s, in Northwest London, and in the fractured mind of Una Fogarty. This is a really exciting literary novel that plays with form - the kind of book we love to feature on our show.
Published by Unbound and available now in all good bookshops. We recommend buying from your local indie or you can get it from our shop at Bookshop.org.
‘One of the most original literary works in recent times. I bloody loved it’ Adelle Stripe, author of Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
EXTRA SPECIAL EPISODE ALERT! Enjoy this full-length Literary Salon with Douglas Stuart, hot-off-the-press!
Last week we held a very special evening with Douglas in conversation with Damian at an in-person Salon in Brighton - it was an incredible conversation, and we're still thinking about it. So join us as we celebrate Douglas' brilliant new novel 'Young Mungo', the story of two boys, two tribes and two Scotlands. Catholic James and Protestant Mungo live in the violent, macho world of Glasgow’s council schemes. They dream of escaping the gangs and the grey, fractured city. Will their dream come true?
'Thanks so much for a wonderful Salon Damian. I could have listened to Douglas all night. Such a tender, interesting and poignant interview.' - Araminta Hall
Young Mungo is out now and a definite must-read for 2022. If you'd like to support the Salon podcast and indie bookshops at the same time, you can grab a copy from our shop at bookshop.org (where you can also pick up a copy of Douglas' Booker-winning debut, Shuggie Bain).
Podcast introduced, produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As the weather warms, we’re bringing you a sun-drenched mid-century novel from the international bestselling author Adriana Trigiani. In 'The Good Left Undone', we’re treated to a family saga that spans a century, taking us from Italy to the UK and back again. Through the generations, the Cabrellis have been subject to the tides of history and it is up to Matelda, the matriarch nearing the end of her life, to pass on their legacy before it’s too late. Trust Adriana to offer up lush descriptions that will transport the senses in a book that you’ll want to savour, about love, family, and long-held secrets...
‘Rich in all the elements that make a story memorable… Adriana is, indeed, a storyteller second to none'
- Heather Morris, bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz
You can buy the book from your local indie or from our shop at Bookshop.org (which supports both the Literary Salon and indies across the UK with each purchase).
Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman
Programmed by Matt Casbourne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices