VINTAGE BOOKS: Recent Episodes
Vintage Books
Read boldly. Think differently. The Vintage Books Podcast is a fortnightly books podcast, released every other Sunday. What are you reading? That’s how great conversations start at Vintage. We publish some of the world’s most thought-provoking, unforgettable, beautifully designed books – from contemporary trail-blazers to our red-spine Vintage Classics. We know the thrill of coming across an undiscovered work of genius, of reading a classic that you’ve always meant to, of finding a book that speaks urgently to us and our times. We’re not just publishers, we’re passionate book lovers. #VintageBooksPodcast
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Tune in to hear Monique Roffey, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch (Costa Book of the Year 2020), in conversation with editor Jeremy Poynting from Peepal Tree Press.
You can find out more about The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey here: https://bit.ly/33W5Rl3
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Tune into hear Ossian Ward in conversation with Ai Weiwei, author of 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows. This conversation was recorded in partnership with Penguin Live and Manchester's HOME.
You can find out more about 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows here: https://bit.ly/3Cyazk5
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South African writer Damon Galgut, author of The Promise, speaks to Ted Hodgkinson (Head of Literature and Spoken Word at Southbank Centre) just days before it is announced that The Promise has won the 2021 Booker Prize.
You can find out more about The Promise here: https://bit.ly/306y1rp
Books and authors mentioned:
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf https://bit.ly/3BWMjHX
Howards End by E. M. Forster https://bit.ly/2ZYO22U
William Faulkner https://bit.ly/3bOdCK7
Patrick White https://bit.ly/3kfQ7OF
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This year marks 100 years of Vintage imprint Jonathan Cape. To celebrate, we’ve launched Cape in Conversation, a Vintage Books podcast miniseries which will see authors from across the generations and genres of Cape’s list discuss their work and ideas, and give you a flavour of the many kinds of book and different voices that Cape publishes.
Today, series host Shahidha Bari is in conversation with an artist who writes and a writer whose subject is often art, Celia Paul and Julian Barnes.
You can find out about Celia Paul’s work here: https://bit.ly/2XEZAqF
And about Julian Barnes’s work here: https://bit.ly/3B8PADQ
Julian recommends They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
Celia Paul recommends The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Bookseller article on the history of Jonathan Cape: https://bit.ly/3wx4n9w
Host Shahidha Bari is also a Jonathan Cape author – read more about her book and work as a journalist here: https://bit.ly/2RQpYuI
This was the final episode of Cape in Conversation; do go back and listen to the other episodes in the Vintage Books Podcast feed if you missed them.
Stay tuned for the next episode of the Vintage Books Podcast. Follow us on Twitter @vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to the Vintage newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: sign up here
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You can find out more about Sugar by Bernice McFadden here: https://bit.ly/3B4Dtbz
This episode contains explicit language.
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This week's episode of the Vintage Books Podcast features an extract from the audiobook of Greek Myths by Charlotte Higgins, illustrated by Chris Ofili.
Content notice: this episode contains mentions of rape and sexual violence.
You can find out more about the book here: https://bit.ly/greekmyths_Cs
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China Room by Sunjeev Sahota is the story of Mehar, a young bride in rural 1929 Punjab, and that of a young man who in 1999 travels from England to the now-deserted farm, its china room locked and barred. To celebrate its publication and being longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021, in this episode, Ted Hodgkinson talks to Kamila Shamsie and Sunjeev Sahota about China Room, authorship, writing histories, and more.
You can find out more about China Room by Sunjeev Sahota here: https://bit.ly/33lucwP
You can find out more about Kamila Shamsie's books here: https://bit.ly/3DQbDBF
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This year marks 100 years of Vintage imprint Jonathan Cape. To celebrate, we’ve launched Cape in Conversation, a Vintage Books Podcast miniseries which will see authors from across the generations and genres of Cape’s list discuss their work and ideas, and give you a flavour of the many kinds of book and different voices that Cape publishes.
Today, series host Shahidha Bari is in conversation with two authors, Alison Bechdel and Anne Enright.
You can find out more about Alison Bechdel's work here: https://bit.ly/37IDGUV
And about Anne Enright's here: http://bit.ly/3bXotQM
You can find out more about the history of Jonathan Cape here: https://bit.ly/3wx4n9w
Host Shahidha Bari is also a Jonathan Cape author – read more about her book and work as a journalist here: https://bit.ly/2RQpYuI
Shahidha will be back for Cape in Conversation on the Vintage Books podcast in six weeks, where she’ll be talking to two more writers, Celia Paul and Julian Barnes.
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This week's episode features an extract from the audiobook of GO BIG: How To Fix Our World by Ed Miliband.
You can find out more about GO BIG here – https://bit.ly/2UJFZUS
Tune into the Cheerful Book Club and join Ed Miliband, Geoff Lloyd and friends for a conversation about the biggest ideas in non-fiction books – https://bit.ly/3y4QJM2
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This week's episode features a special extract from the audiobook of Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal, author of the bestselling memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes.
You can find out more about Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal here: https://bit.ly/3vdOft0
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How can we create a better world for LGBTQ+ people? We Can Do Better Than This is an anthology in which 35 extraordinary voices share their stories and visions for the future. The editor, Amelia Abraham, talks to two of the contributors, Amrou Al-Kadhi and Naoise Dolan, about the power of queer reading.
You can find out more about the books here:
We Can Do Better Than This: https://bit.ly/3gYSDI1
Life as a Unicorn by Amrou Al-Kadhi: https://bit.ly/3w19DRY
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan: https://bit.ly/3A2J6Ha
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Journalist Marverine Cole talks to two of Vintage's new fiction writers, Jo Hamya, author of Three Rooms, and Anna Glendenning, author of An Experiment in Leisure.
You can find out more about Three Rooms here:
https://bit.ly/3xycFOP
You can find out more about An Experiment in Leisure here:
https://bit.ly/3vIZPvZ
Follow us on Twitter @vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to the Vintage newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: sign up here ᛫ Music by puremusic
This year marks 100 years of Vintage imprint Jonathan Cape. To celebrate, we’ve launched Cape in Conversation, a Vintage Books Podcast miniseries which will see authors from across the generations and genres of Cape’s list discuss their work and ideas, and give you a flavour of the many kinds of book and different voices that Cape publishes.
Today, series host Shahidha Bari is in conversation with two authors, Salman Rushdie and Katie Kitamura.
You can find out more about Katie Kitamura's work here: https://bit.ly/3oYsriY
And about Salman Rushdie's here: https://bit.ly/3idjpgT
You can find out more about the history of Jonathan Cape here: https://bit.ly/3wx4n9w
Host Shahidha Bari is also a Jonathan Cape author – read more about her book and work as a journalist here: https://bit.ly/2RQpYuI
Shahidha will be back for Cape in Conversation on the Vintage Books podcast in six weeks, where she’ll be talking to two more writers, Afua Hirsch and George Packer.
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Today's episode features a special audiobook extract from Double Blind by Edward St Aubyn, narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch.
You can find out more about Double Blind by Edward St Aubyn here: https://bit.ly/2ODyN9U
To listen to a previous episode, 'Symbiosis and Psychedelics ᛫ Edward St Aubyn & Merlin Sheldrake', tune in here or search on your podcast app: https://bit.ly/3fgMiqW
Follow us on Twitter @vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to the Vintage newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: sign up here ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz
This year marks 100 years of Vintage imprint Jonathan Cape. To celebrate, we’ve launched Cape in Conversation, a Vintage Books Podcast miniseries which will see authors from across the generations and genres of Cape’s list discuss their work and ideas, and give you a flavour of the many kinds of book and different voices that Cape publishes.
Today, series host Shahidha Bari is in conversation with two Booker Prize shortlisted authors, Ottessa Moshfegh and Rachel Kushner.
You can find out more about Rachel Kushner’s work here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1072533/rachel-kushner.html?tab=penguin-books
And about Ottessa Moshfegh’s here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1077359/ottessa-moshfegh.html
Bookseller article on the history of Jonathan Cape: https://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/news-stays-news-1249336
Host Shahidha Bari is also a Jonathan Cape author – read more about her book and work as a journalist here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1080750/shahidha-bari.html?tab=penguin-books
Shahidha will be back for Cape in Conversation on the Vintage Books podcast in six weeks, where she’ll be talking to two more novelists, Salman Rushdie and Katie Kitamura.
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This episode features a short story from the new collection, First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel. The audiobook is read by Kotaro Watanabe.
You can find out more about the collection here: http://bit.ly/FPS_HM
You can also find our previous episode, 'Translating Murakami ᛫ Ted Goossen' here – https://bit.ly/3eCj2s5
To hear an extract from Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, check out our previous episode here – https://bit.ly/3kK8CYZ
Follow us on Twitter @vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to the Vintage newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: sign up here ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz
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CN contains mentions of hallucinogenic drugs
You can find out more about Double Blind by Edward St Aubyn here: https://bit.ly/2ODyN9U
You can find out more about Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake here: https://bit.ly/2GNsRa9
To listen to a previous episode in which Merlin discusses 'Entangled Life', search 'Vintage Books Podcast: Discovering the world of fungi ᛫ Merlin Sheldrake' on the podcast platform you're currently using or click here: https://bit.ly/2JKaap5
Follow us on Twitter @vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to the Vintage newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: sign up here ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz
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What will the environmental legacy which we leave for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren look like? In an extract from What We Owe Each Other by Minouche Shafik, one of the world's most influential economists and Director of the London School of Economics explores climate change and the social contract.
You can find out more about What We Owe Each Other by Minouche Shafik here: bit.ly/whatweoweeachother
Follow us on Twitter @vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to the Vintage newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: sign up here ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz
Arts journalist and author of the Pages & Co. series, Anna James, talks to two of Vintage's new fiction writers, Pip Williams, a writer and researcher who discusses her debut historical fiction novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, and Megan Nolan, a writer and journalist who is publishing her first novel, Acts of Desperation.
You can find out more about The Dictionary of Lost Words here:
https://bit.ly/3qL2DHn
You can find out more about Acts of Desperation here:
http://bit.ly/2NG7SJA
Follow us on Twitter @vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to the Vintage newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: sign up here ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz
In this episode we share a special extract from the audiobook of Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Todayby Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
You can find out more about Begin Again by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. here, now available in paperback, ebook and audiobook:
http://bit.ly/36Pzsea
Wondering where to start reading James Baldwin's works? Check out this reading list:
http://bit.ly/2XFoXFq
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In this episode, Alexandra Heminsley, journalist and author of Some Body to Love, discusses parenthood, bodies, and writing with author Emma Jane Unsworth.
You can find out more about Some Body to Love by Alexandra Heminsley here: http://bit.ly/39ZQUgG
Find out more about Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth here: http://bit.ly/3iIJaDY
Follow us on Twitter @vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to the Vintage newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: sign up here ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz
In this episode we share a special episode from the audiobook of The Truths We Hold by US Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris.
You can find out more about The Truths We Hold here, now available in paperback, ebook and audiobook:
http://bit.ly/2JbWGC2
Follow us on Twitter @vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to the Vintage newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: sign up here ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz
Can fairy tales be feminist? We have published a new Vintage Classics Series, 'A Fairy Tale Revolution', featuring four stories remixed and reimagined by the incredible writers, Malorie Blackman (Blueblood), Kamala Shamsie (Duckling), Rebecca Solnit (Cinderella Liberator), and Jeanette Winterson (Hansel and Greta). The four beautiful books are illustrated by Laura Barrett.
You can find out more about the four books here at the Penguin Shop:
http://bit.ly/3mtWHPS
We wanted to mark the Vintage Books Podcast's 10th anniversary with something special. Join us for a unique Christmas episode created by Black Ballad, featuring Head of Editorial at Black Ballad, Jendella Benson, in conversation with award-winning author Diana Evans. The topic of conversation is 'Home', and the discussion touches on Black Lives Matter, Black British identity today, and Diana's career as a writer.
Black Ballad is an award-winning, UK based lifestyle platform that seeks to tell the human experience through eyes of black British women.
Let us know your thoughts on home, the British canon or anything else on Instagram or Twitter by tagging @vintagebooks and @blackballaduk in your posts.
You can find out more about Diana Evans' books here: https://bit.ly/dianaevansbooks
Other books mentioned:
- Lara by Bernardine Evaristo
- The Street by Biyi Bandele-Thomas
- Small Island by Andrea Levy
Check out Black Ballad's The Survival Guide, a podcast on motherhood: listen here or search on your usual podcast app.
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Nurses have never been more important. In this episode, author Christie Watson is in conversation with Marverine Cole, discussing her nursing career of twenty years, motherhood, coping with life during a pandemic, and her new book. The Courage to Care is about inspirational nurses, and the bravery of patients and families, from the bestselling author of The Language of Kindness.
In The Courage to Care Christie Watson reveals the remarkable extent of nurses' work. We benefit from nurses' expertise in our hospitals and beyond: in our schools, on our streets, in prisons, hospices and care homes. When we feel most alone, nurses remind us that we are not alone at all. We are all deserving of compassion, and as we share in each other's suffering, Christie Watson shows us how we can find courage too. The courage to care.
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: http://bit.ly/VintageNewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://bit.ly/OrbitingaDistantPlanet
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In this episode we are celebrating Haruki Murakami, a writer who has been delighting readers with his unique blend of the surreal and the familiar for over 40 years. To mark the publication of new audio editions of Murakami's beloved works, here is a special extract from Norwegian Wood, a novel published in 1987, which turned him into a literary phenomenon and which continues to delight readers new and old.
To find out more about the new audio editions of Murakami's works, you can search for them on your usual audiobook app or click the links below:
Norwegian Wood – https://bit.ly/2IiNRGu
Kafka on the Shore – https://bit.ly/2IeTdCm
A Wild Sheep Chase – https://bit.ly/2UbgiIJ
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – https://bit.ly/32nxyPK
The Elephant Vanishes – https://bit.ly/3eCj2s5
You can also find our previous episode, 'Translating Murakami ᛫ Ted Goossen' here – https://bit.ly/3eCj2s5
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: http://bit.ly/VintageNewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://bit.ly/OrbitingaDistantPlanet
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As part of our celebrations for Black History Month we are celebrating and spotlighting the stories from the book, Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation by Colin Grant. Here's a special extract from the book which draws on over a hundred first-hand interviews, archival recordings and memoirs by the women and men who came to Britain from the West Indies between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. Find out more about Homecoming here: http://bit.ly/Homecoming_CG
Listen to the Vintage Books Podcast episode when we chatted to author Colin Grant here or search for 'The history we don't hear about ᛫ Colin Grant ᛫ Vintage Books Podcast'.
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: http://bit.ly/VintageNewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://bit.ly/OrbitingaDistantPlanet
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Biologist and writer Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Life, joins us on the Vintage Books Podcast to tell us more about the amazing world of fungi.
We are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Vintage Books Podcast! Thank you so much for supporting us on this journey. Get in touch to share your favourite episode from the podcast! You can find us @vintagebooks on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook
You can find out more about Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake here:
http://bit.ly/EntangledLifeMS
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: http://bit.ly/VintageNewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://bit.ly/OrbitingaDistantPlanet ᛫
Looking for your next Autumn read? Here's a special extract from There There by Tommy Orange! Find out more about the book here: http://bit.ly/ThereThereTO ᛫ Listen to the Vintage Books Podcast episode when we chatted to author Tommy Orange here: http://bit.ly/TommyOrangeVBP or search for 'How do you rewrite the story of a people? ᛫ Tommy Orange ᛫ Vintage Books Podcast' ᛫ Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: http://bit.ly/VintageNewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://bit.ly/OrbitingaDistantPlanet ᛫
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We speak to Mohsin Zaidi all about his memoir, A Dutiful Boy ᛫ Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: po.st/vintagenewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant ᛫
Read the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1084998/mohsin-zaidi.html
We talk to the translator of Stalingrad, the Russian Classic that is Vasily Grossman's prequel to Life and Fate ᛫ Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: po.st/vintagenewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant ᛫
Read the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1090800/stalingrad/9780099561361.html
Huge thanks to Tiffany Tsao (https://tiffanytsao.com) and Elisabeth Jaquette (http://www.elisabethjaquette.com) ᛫
Books mentioned:
Elizabeth’s translation of The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous ᛫
Tiffany’s translation of Paper Boats by Dee Lestari ᛫
The Wandering by by Intan Paramaditha ᛫
More links to check out: ᛫
Intersastra: https://www.intersastra.com/blog/unrepressed ᛫
Borderless book club: https://www.peirenepress.com/borderless-book-club/ ᛫
᛫ Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: po.st/vintagenewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
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Looking for a Summer read? A special extract from Evie Wyld's new book! Check out the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1112836/the-bass-rock/9781911214397.html ᛫ Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: po.st/vintagenewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
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What's it like to work in a bookshop right now? https://burleyfisherbooks.com/ ᛫ Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: po.st/vintagenewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
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Read the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1118351/how-to-be-an-antiracist/9781847925992.html ᛫
Help Fund Inclusive Indies: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/inclusive-indies ᛫
How to support black publishers and bookshops: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/june/support-black-authors-publishers-bookshops.html ᛫ Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: po.st/vintagenewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
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We talk to the author of The See-Through House My Father in Full Colour about home, grief and what she's reading
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1118046/the-see-through-house/9781784743109.html
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Crime writer Ruth Ware and Publicist Ryan talk all things crime, assumptions about genre and what's really lurking behind the curtains of one of the world's favourite genres! ᛫ Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks ᛫ Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: po.st/vintagenewsletter ᛫ Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
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What Have I Done? https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1117973/what-have-i-done-/9781529110210.html
Write Now!penguin.co.uk/writenow
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
We talk to author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, David Quammen, about the current corona virus pandemic and break down it's key causes.
Read the book! https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1079469/spillover/9780099522850.html
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
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Sign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: po.st/vintagenewsletter
Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Come and listen to Mother Ship: The Podcast! https://open.spotify.com/show/3X0EcDBZVpPN29cm2ldars
Mother Ship: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1116702/mother-ship/9781784709464.html
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Actress by Anne Enright: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1118568/actress/9781787332065.html
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooks
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Check out Let Me Not Be Mad by A K Benjamin https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1082821/a-k-benjamin.html?tab=penguin-books
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
We meet Deepa Anappara & An Yu, two incredible new debut authors from VINTAGE.
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Episodes featured:
Nine strangers and a natural catastrophe ᛫ Richard Powers
https://play.acast.com/s/vintagepodcast/4eee90f4-8ae5-46ce-98a8-80eba4061611
The Testaments Book Club ᛫ Atwood's new novel discussed by Helen Lewis, Sanne Vliegenthart, Bookseller Jessica and Leena Norms
https://play.acast.com/s/vintagepodcast/2f29d6ae-c378-4ad3-b41b-035bec599c99
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Thanks to West Sussex Libraries and Liverpool Library!
Follow West Sussex libraries!
· Facebook page: www.facebook.com/WestSussexLibraries
· Twitter: @WSCCLibraries
· Website: www.westsussex.gov.uk/libraries
Follow Liverpool Library!
· Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/liverpoollib/
· Twitter: https://twitter.com/CentralLibrary_
· Website: https://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries/find-a-library/central-library/
Books discussed:
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Lowborn by Kerry Hudson
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstein
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay
Expectation by Anna Hope
Take a look at all five in the Vintage Japanese Classics... https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/vincjap/vintage-classic-japanese-series.html
Thanks to our guests:
Polly Barton
https://twitter.com/pollyfmbarton
https://www.pollybarton.net/
and
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
https://twitter.com/rowanhlb
https://rowanhisayo.com/
Episode mentioned with Intan Paramaditha ... https://open.spotify.com/episode/4PfL1WDt2l4RXamDIb2V5N
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Colin Grant talks about his passion to capture the stories of Windrush, and his incredible book Homecoming, whichdraws on over a hundred first-hand interviews, archival recordings and memoirs by the women and men who came to Britain from the West Indies between the late 1940s and the early 1960s.
Take a closer look at the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1116148/homecoming/9781787331051.html
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Jung Chang's incredible books:
https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1011625/jung-chang.html?tab=penguin-books
Mentions of miscarriage: 13:00 - 14:15
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Thanks to our panelists:
Ayesha Hazarika - https://twitter.com/ayeshahazarika
M.P. Jess Phillips - https://twitter.com/jessphillips
Arifa Akbar (journalist)- https://twitter.com/Arifa_Akbar
Jacqui Hunt, Director of Equality Now Europe - https://twitter.com/jacq_hunt
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Thanks to out guests:
Helen Lewis:
https://twitter.com/helenlewis
Sanne Vliegenthart:
https://twitter.com/booksandquills
Jessica Graham from Primrose Hill Bookshop:
https://twitter.com/PHBookshop
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Come with us to our sell-out event at the Second Shelf with Bidisha, Charlotte Mendelson and Daisy Johnson in conversation with Lucy Scholes.
The new editions: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2019/jul/where-to-start-reading-iris-murdoch-books.html
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Leena talks to author of How to Catch a Mole, Mark Hamer.
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- How to Catch a Mole
- Marc Hamer
- Longlisted for the Wainwright Book Prize 2019
- A life-affirming book about the British countryside, the cycle of nature, solitude and contentment, through the prism of a brilliant new nature writer’s experience working as a traditional mole-catcher, and why he gave it up.
- I have been catching moles in gardens and farms for years and I have decided that I am not going to do it any more. Molecatching is a traditional skill that has given me a good life but I am old now and tired of hunting and it has taught me what I needed to learn.
- Although common, moles are mysterious: their habits are inscrutable, they are anatomically bizarre, and they live completely alone. Marc Hamer has come closer to them than most, both through his long working life out in the Welsh countryside, and his experiences of rural homelessness as a boy, sleeping in hedgerows.
- Over the years, Marc has learned a great deal about these small, velvet creatures who live in the dark beneath us, and the myths that surround them, and his work has also led him to a wise and uplifting acceptance of the inevitable changes that we all face. In this beautiful and meditative book, Marc tells his story and explores what moles, and a life in nature, can tell us about our own humanity and our search for contentment.
- How to Catch a Mole is a gem of nature writing, beautifully illustrated by Joe McLaren, which celebrates living peacefully and finding wonder in the world around us.
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Leena Norms talks to Richard Powers - author of twelve novels who lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and is author of the Pulitzer Prize winning literary novel, The Overstory.
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
He has recently been awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his latest book, The Overstory. It's the story of an artist who inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, and a winding collection of strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, who are brought together in a last stand to save it from catastrophe.
We sat down with Richard to talk about our ancient connection to trees, the importance of 'long books' and why falling in love with nature will make reluctant activists of us all.
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018
A wonderous, exhilarating novel about nine strangers brought together by unfolding natural catastrophe as climate change becomes an ever-growing concern.
‘The best novel ever written about trees, and really, just one of the best novels, period’ Ann Patchett
‘Breathtaking’ Barbara Kingsolver, New York Times
An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. An Air Force crewmember in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan.
This is the story of these and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, who are brought together in a last stand to save it from catastrophe.
‘It’s not possible for Powers to write an uninteresting book’
Margaret Atwood
‘Dazzlingly written’
Robert Macfarlane
‘It’s a masterpiece’
Tim Winton
‘An astonishing performance’
Benjamin Markovits, Guardian
pulitzer prize winning books 2019 man booker shortlist 2018 climate change tree woods wood woodland forest historical american literary metaphysical visionary myths folklore international nature trees ecology fiction twentieth century environment book robert macfarlane underland old ways lost words anything is possible my name is lucy bartlett elizabeth strout milkman anna burns esi edugyan washington black in our mad and furious city guy gunaratne daisy johnson everything under rachel kushner mars room sophie mackintosh water cure michael ondaatje warlight robin robertson long take sally rooney normal people from a low and quiet sea donal ryan paul auster ian mcewan sebastian faulks julian barnes hidden life of trees peter wohlleben ministry of utmost happiness arundhati roy orfeo the time of our singing the echo maker gain generosity the gold bug variations
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Two incredible debut authors talk belonging, heritage and responsibility in their writing.
THE BOOKS:
The Parisian by Isabella Hammad: https://po.st/TheParisian
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell: https://po.st/kcaqB5
Thank you so much to Sam Baker for chairing this wonderful discussion... https://twitter.com/SamBaker
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Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns by Kerry Hudson http://po.st/lowbornbook
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Want to read What Red Was along with us?
Reading list: http://po.st/VintageWomen
Secret Facebook Group: http://po.st/VintageWomenBookClub
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Ordinary People by Diana Evans http://po.st/OrdinaryPeople
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Want to read Zawe's book with us?
Reading list: http://po.st/VintageWomen
Secret Facebook Group: http://po.st/VintageWomenBookClub
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Check out The Growing Season by Helen Sedgwick http://po.st/TheGrowingSeason
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Take a look at the book, Invisible Women! http://po.st/InvisibleWomenPodcastLink
We're pledging to make sure we read lots of women in 2019 - and we'd like you to join us! We're pairing a brand new release with a well-loved classic every month and discussing them together over in our secret Facebook group.
Look at the list: po.st/VintageWomen
Join the Club: po.st/VintageWomenBookClub
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Leena goes to Iceland to find out all about Iceland's literary history.
The last episode: http://po.st/IcelandicBookwormsP1
Check out some Laxness books: http://po.st/Laxness
Thanks to our interviewees:
Ragnar Jonasson http://www.ragnarjonasson.com/
Svanborg Sigurðardóttir, Birta and at Peninn Eymundson https://www.penninn.is/
Sjón https://sjon.siberia.is/
Pétur Már Ólafsson https://bjartur-verold.is/
Stella Soffía Jóhannesdóttir Director of the Icelandic literature festival
Kristín Eiríksdóttir https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4463051.Krist_n_Eir_ksd_ttir (Kristín has a book coming out in English in 2019 so watch out for that!)
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Leena goes to Iceland to find out all about Iceland's literary history.
Thanks to our interviewees:
Ragnar Jonasson http://www.ragnarjonasson.com/
Svanborg Sigurðardóttir, Birta and at Peninn Eymundson https://www.penninn.is/
Sjón https://sjon.siberia.is/
Pétur Már Ólafsson https://bjartur-verold.is/
Stella Soffía Jóhannesdóttir Director of the Icelandic literature festival
Kristín Eiríksdóttir https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4463051.Krist_n_Eir_ksd_ttir (Kristín has a book coming out in English in 2019 so watch out for that!)
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Listen to The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story by Christie Watson: http://po.st/LOKAudiblePodcast
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Here's what we're reading: http://po.st/VintageWomen
Join the group: http://po.st/VintageWomenBookClub
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Help by Simon Amstell http://po.st/HelpPaperback
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House of Nutter by Lance Richardson http://po.st/HouseOfNutter
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A Tudor Christmas: http://po.st/ATudorChristmasPod
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Leena goes to Iceland to find out all about Icelandic reading traditions at Christmas.
Thanks to our interviewees:
Ragnar Jonasson http://www.ragnarjonasson.com/
Svanborg Sigurðardóttir, Birta and at Peninn Eymundson https://www.penninn.is/
Sjón https://sjon.siberia.is/
Pétur Már Ólafsson https://bjartur-verold.is/
Stella Soffía Jóhannesdóttir Director of the Icelandic literature festival
Kristín Eiríksdóttir https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4463051.Krist_n_Eir_ksd_ttir (Kristín has a book coming out in English in 2019 so watch out for that!)
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Editors Liz Foley and Beth Coates talk Nanowrimo, writing and how to get your manuscript in shape.
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The Little Prince: http://po.st/LittlePrincePod
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Check out Eve Was Shamed: http://po.st/EveWasShamedPod
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To children, or not to children? Vintage staff Leena, Charlotte and Ana discuss Sheila Heti's Motherhood and their feelings on the pressures placed on women.
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Palaces for the People Eric Klinenberg
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1114463/palaces-for-the-people/9781847924995.html
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Ted Goossen is joined by journalist Jake Kerridge to discuss the process of translating Killing CommendatoreHaruki Murakami's brand new novel.
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Thanks so much to Hannah from English Pen for coming along!
https://www.englishpen.org/
More about Banned Books Week
https://bannedbooksweek.org/
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Mostly Lit have taken over the Vintage podcast - and they're talking film adaptations; the good, the bad and the downright ugly.
Listen to their podcast: http://po.st/MostlyLit
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
How Saints Die by Carmen Marcus http://po.st/AQxGsJ
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
The Stopping Places is a powerful look at heritage, community and what it means to belong. This week on the Vintage Podcast, Leena talks to Damian Le Bas about his road trip through Gypsy Britain, speaking truth to prejudice and what we often get wrong about the Traveller community…
The Stopping Places, A Journey Through Gypsy Britain by Damian Le Bas http://po.st/wF1YZp
Download the audiobook: http://po.st/StoppingPlacesAudible
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
There There by Tommy Orange: http://po.st/hql0pD
Download the audiobook: http://po.st/AudibleThereThere
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Irvine Welsh on writing, reception and Dead Men's Trousers.
Dead Men's Trousers by Irvine Welsh http://po.st/ZNxwlU
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
We welcome online book expert Jean to the studio, to chat feminist book clubs, how to choose your next read and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit.
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson http://po.st/q3qjxr
Thanks to Jean for coming on and sharing her knowledge.
Join the Feminist Orchestra bookclub!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/femorchestra
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/182685-the-feminist-orchestra-bookclub
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Music is Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz http://po.st/OrbitingADistant
Fatima Farheen Mirza has sitting in a McDonalds when she got the call of her life...
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza http://po.st/4i5jLE
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We talk to Sarah Jessica Parker about her life-long love of reading and the recent launch of SJP for Hogarth and her first acquisition, A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza.
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza http://po.st/4i5jLE
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The Vintage bookish experts give you a run down of books to take you around the world this summer...
Liz's recommendation:
Waiting For The Wild Beasts To Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma http://po.st/uu0f7y
Ed's recommendation:
Home and Away, Writing the Beautiful Game by Karl Ove Knausgaard http://po.st/Q51vQ6
Ellie's recommendation:
Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue http://po.st/24q94N
Corina's recommendation:
Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami http://po.st/aKtCa4
Rowena's recommendation:
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes http://po.st/gh53Op
Jade's recommendation:
Watching You by Arne Dahl http://po.st/YoOvm7
Mikaela's recommendation:
The Traitor's Niche by Ismail Kadare http://po.st/e3RMlA
Hattie's recommendation:
There There by Tommy Orange http://po.st/8c3PnU
Rosanna's recommendation:
Restoration by Rose Tremain http://po.st/jsgAGi
Leena's recommendation:
Small Country by Gaël Faye http://po.st/OLqeOW
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We talk to Ben Ben Rhodes, who was President Obama’s speechwriter, foreign-policy adviser, and confidant. His book records the Administration’s struggle to shape its own narrative.
The World As It Is tells the full story of what it means to work alongside a radical leader; of how idealism can confront reality and survive; of how the White House really functions; and of what it is to have a partnership, and ultimately a friendship, with a historic president.
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1115109/the-world-as-it-is/#M4vr2KyXvFJHiyJ5.99
http://po.st/TheWorldAsItIs
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Small Country by Gaël Faye http://po.st/QCHbus
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Find out more about The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner http://po.st/TheMarsRoom
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A live event all about the wonderful new collection, 'Tales from a Master's Notebook, Stories Henry James Never Wrote' http://po.st/1tAWOl
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When Henry James died he left behind a series of notebooks filled with ideas for novels and stories that he never wrote. Now ten of our best contemporary authors and James enthusiasts have written new short stories based on these 'germs' of ideas. Differing dramatically in setting and style, these stories are modern interpretations of the richly suggestive and enticing notes that Henry James left behind, offering a fresh and original approach to a canonical literary author.
Professor Philip Horne, a renowned authority on Henry James, has edited and introduced this collection, which also includes transcripts of James’s original jottings allowing readers to trace the raw ideas through to their modern-day interpretations.
Contains stories by Colm Toibin, Rose Tremain, Jonathan Coe, Paul Theroux, Amit Chaudhuri, Giles Foden, Joseph O'Neill, Lynne Truss, Susie Boyt and Tessa Hadley.
WITH A FOREWORD BY MICHAEL WOOD
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1111097/tales-from-a-master-s-notebook/#ogCrVtOmfckA0Ebj.99
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We spoke to Meg Wolitzer about her new book, The Female Persuasion http://po.st/uogZyB
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Donald Maclean, code name Orphan, was the most enigmatic member of the infamous Cambridge spies. Like the rest of that extraordinary group, Maclean was recruited while at university to become a mole for Russia’s Communist regime during the Cold War, leaking huge amounts of top-secret British intelligence before he was forced to disappear. On a damp day in April this year, author Roland Phillipps took Alex Clark on a tour of Whitehall, where Donald worked for the Foreign Office and spied for the Russians, to explain why he decided to write A Spy Named Orphan, and to give us an insight into what made Maclean go from gifted diplomat to dangerous traitor.
A Spy Named Orphan, The Enigma of Donald Maclean by Roland Philipps http://po.st/VcqTxR
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We talk to publisher, editor and friend of Angela Carter, Carmen Callil.
Where to start with Angela Carter: http://po.st/WhereToStartACarter
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A nurse and a doctor walk in to a recording studio... and ask if medicine an art or a science, wonder what they would change about the health care system in the UK and talk about the patients they'll never forget.
Brainstorm, Detective Stories From the World of Neurology by Suzanne O'Sullivan: http://po.st/BrainstormP
The Language of Kindness, A Nurse's Story by Christie Watson: http://po.st/LanguageofKindnessP
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To celebrate the release of Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian we have a very specialaudi
Check out the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1116767/cat-person/
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We talk translation, Chinese culture and love with translator Nicky Harman and editor Nick Skidmore.
Our Story by Rao Pingru, Nicky Harman (Translator)
Check out the book: http://po.st/OurStoryRao
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Rao Pingru was a twenty-six-year-old soldier when he first saw the beautiful Mao Meitang. One glimpse of her through a window as she put on lipstick was enough to capture Pingru’s heart. It was a moment that sparked a union that would last almost sixty years.
But when Meitang passed away in 2008, Pingru realised that their marriage and all the small moments and memories of a life together, would be lost to history. And so at the age of eighty-eight, in an outpouring of love and grief, Pingru began to paint.
Our Story is a memorial to Pingru and Meitang’s epic romance, told through Pingru’s exquisitely detailed paintings and handwritten notes. We see Pingru and Meitang through the decades, through both poverty and good fortune, and as they grow so too does China: the nation undergoing political turmoil and seismic cultural change.
A tale both tragic and inspiring, of enduring love and simple values, Our Story is an old-fashioned romance that unfolds within the rush of a rapidly changing nation. A love letter, a work of folk art and a historical testament, Our Story is a truly unique graphic memoir.
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The Leopard, Revised and with new material by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa http://po.st/uUd8wp
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The Line Becomes A River by Francisco Cantú http://po.st/rnpATd
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Leena Norms talks to Samantha Harvey about her book The Western Wind
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15th century Oakham, in Somerset; a tiny village cut off by a big river with no bridge. When a man is swept away by the river in the early hours of Shrove Saturday, an explanation has to be found: accident, suicide or murder? The village priest, John Reve, is privy to many secrets in his role as confessor. But will he be able to unravel what happened to the victim, Thomas Newman, the wealthiest, most capable and industrious man in the village? And what will happen if he can’t?
Moving back in time towards the moment of Thomas Newman’s death, the story is related by Reve – an extraordinary creation, a patient shepherd to his wayward flock, and a man with secrets of his own to keep. Through his eyes, and his indelible voice, Harvey creates a medieval world entirely tangible in its immediacy.
Read more about the book: http://po.st/LmknRr
Kirsty Logan and her editor Liz Foley hash out the editing process and how Kirsty's New Book, The Gloaming, came to be.
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Kirsty Logan - The Gloaming
'The best lives leave a mark.' A bewitching tale of first love, shattering grief, and the dangerous magic that draws us home.
Mara’s island is one of stories and magic, but every story ends in the same way. She will finish her days on the cliff, turned to stone and gazing out at the horizon like all the islanders before her.
Mara’s parents – a boxer and a ballerina – chose this enchanted place as a refuge from the turbulence of their previous lives; they wanted to bring up their children somewhere special and safe. But the island and the sea don’t care what people want, and when they claim a price from her family, Mara’s world unravels.
It takes the arrival of Pearl, mysterious and irresistible, to light a spark in Mara again, and allow her to consider a different story for herself.
The Gloaming is a gorgeous tale of love and grief, and the gap between fairy tales and real life.
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1113850/the-gloaming/#oc5jAKil6pHDT36C.99
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Never read Trainspotting? There's never been a better time. In preparation for the release of Dead Men's Trousers, we learn a little bit about the context of Trainspotting from publicist and Welsh enthusiast Aiden.
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Irvine Welsh - Dead Men's Trousers
Mark Renton is finally a success. An international jet-setter, he now makes significant money managing DJs, but the constant travel, airport lounges, soulless hotel rooms and broken relationships have left him dissatisfied with his life. He’s then rocked by a chance encounter with Frank Begbie, from whom he’d been hiding for years after a terrible betrayal and the resulting debt. But the psychotic Begbie appears to have reinvented himself as a celebrated artist and – much to Mark’s astonishment – doesn’t seem interested in revenge.
Sick Boy and Spud, who have agendas of their own, are intrigued to learn that their old friends are back in town, but when they enter the bleak world of organ-harvesting, things start to go so badly wrong. Lurching from crisis to crisis, the four men circle each other, driven by their personal histories and addictions, confused, angry – so desperate that even Hibs winning the Scottish Cup doesn’t really help. One of these four will not survive to the end of this book. Which one of them is wearing Dead Men’s Trousers?
Fast and furious, scabrously funny and weirdly moving, this is a spectacular return of the crew from Trainspotting.
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1115641/dead-men-s-trousers/#rAcuhfevkHa9xWer.99
Download the Trainspotting audiobook: http://po.st/TrainspottingAudioPod
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To celebrate International Women's Day we're revisiting one of our favourite interviews - Mary and Bryan Talbot discuss how they wrote the story of Sally Heathcote and turned it in to a graphic novel.
Books mentioned:
This Is Just My Face, Try Not to Stare by Gabourey Sidibe http://po.st/3npVj5
My Own Story (Vintage Feminism Short Edition) by Emmeline Pankhurst http://po.st/Wk536x
Motherhood by Sheila Heti http://po.st/yiA8zE
Brit(ish), On Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch http://po.st/2TuupL
Sally Heathcote, Suffragette by Mary Talbot http://po.st/LbuJvn
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Mary Talbot, Kate Charlesworth, Bryan Talbot - Sally Heathcote Suffragette
Sally Heathcote: Suffragette is a gripping inside story of the campaign for votes for women. A tale of loyalty, love and courage, set against a vividly realised backdrop of Edwardian Britain, it follows the fortunes of a maid-of-all-work swept up in the feminist militancy of the era. Sally Heathcote: Suffragette is another stunning collaboration from Costa Award winners, Mary and Bryan Talbot. Teamed up with acclaimed illustrator Kate Charlesworth, Sally Heathcote's lavish pages bring history to life.
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1095547/sally-heathcote/#YUleeg6y1buGjRhO.99
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Alex Clark and Lucy Mangan discuss best-beloved books, their extraordinary creators, and looks at the thousand subtle ways they shape our lives.
Lucy's top 4 children's books for grown-ups http://po.st/LucyMangansTop4
Read an extract from the book http://po.st/BookwormExtract
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Alex Clark meets Richard Lloyd Parry, whose new book tells the story tells of how a nation faced a catastrophe, and the bleak struggle to find consolation in the ruins.
Read more about the book:
Ghosts of the Tsunami, Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry http://po.st/CAJ24J
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Richard Lloyd Parry - Ghosts of the Tsunami
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONE FOLIO PRIZE
‘The definitive book on the quake which killed more than 15,000 people.’ Mail Online
‘You will not read a finer work of narrative non-fiction this year.’ Economist
‘A breathtaking, extraordinary work of non-fiction.’ Times Literary Supplement
‘A future classic of disaster journalism.’ Observer
On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of north-east Japan. By the time the sea retreated, more than 18,500 people had been crushed, burned to death, or drowned.
It was Japan’s greatest single loss of life since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It set off a national crisis, and the meltdown of a nuclear power plant. And even after the immediate emergency had abated, the trauma of the disaster continued to express itself in bizarre and mysterious ways.
Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, lived through the earthquake in Tokyo, and spent six years reporting from the disaster zone. There he encountered stories of ghosts and hauntings. He met a priest who performed exorcisms on people possessed by the spirits of the dead. And he found himself drawn back again and again to a village which had suffered the greatest loss of all, a community tormented by unbearable mysteries of its own.
What really happened to the local children as they waited in the school playground in the moments before the tsunami? Why did their teachers not evacuate them to safety? And why was the unbearable truth being so stubbornly covered up?
Ghosts of the Tsunami is a classic of literary non-fiction, a heart-breaking and intimate account of an epic tragedy, told through the personal accounts of those who lived through it. It tells the story of how a nation faced a catastrophe, and the bleak struggle to find consolation in the ruins.
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1112149/ghosts-of-the-tsunami/#oHdQ3PebtOEPBOLp.99
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Afua Hirsch talks to Leena Norms all about race, belonging and the British crisis of identity.
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Afua Hirsch - Brit(ish)
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Where are you really from?
You’re British. Your parents are British. You were raised in Britain. Your partner, your children and most of your friends are British.
So why do people keep asking you where you are from?
Brit(ish) is about a search for identity. It is about the everyday racism that plagues British society. It is about our awkward, troubled relationship with our history. It is about why liberal attempts to be ‘colour-blind’ have caused more problems than they have solved. It is about why we continue to avoid talking about race.
In this personal and provocative investigation, Afua Hirsch explores a very British crisis of identity. We are a nation in denial about our past and our present. We believe we are the nation of abolition, but forget we are the nation of slavery. We are convinced that fairness is one of our values, but that immigration is one of our problems. Brit(ish) is the story of how and why this came to be, and an urgent call for change.
Read more about Brit(ish): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1112508/brit-ish/
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We're talking mermaids, folksong and mythology with two of our new Vintage voices; Imogen Hermes Gowar and Kerry Andrew.
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar: po.st/TheMermaidAndMrsHancock
Swansong by Kerry Andrew: po.st/Swansong
Thanks to Kerry for letting us use her music for this podcast. The two tracks featured were, in order of appearance, Three Ravens and Molly Bawn.
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Imogen Hermes Gowar - The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock
A Sunday Times bestseller, now longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize 2018.
‘A brilliantly plotted story of mermaids, madams and intrigue in 1780s London and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it become the Essex Serpent of 2018’ - The Pool
'Imogen Hermes Gowar is a soon-to-be literary star’ - Sunday Times
THIS VOYAGE IS SPECIAL. IT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING.
One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid.
As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… and a courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course, on which they will learn that priceless things come at the greatest cost.
Where will their ambitions lead? And will they be able to escape the destructive power mermaids are said to possess?
In this spell-binding story of curiosity and obsession, Imogen Hermes Gowar has created an unforgettable jewel of a novel, filled to the brim with intelligence, heart and wit.
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1113246/the-mermaid-and-mrs-hancock/#Jtfc3MlFwQtPB854.99
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'Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.'
Author Julian Barnes reads from his forthcoming new novel...
Don't forget, leave us a review on iTunes to be in with a chance of winning a copy of the book!
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Julian Barnes - The Only Story
**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER****
Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.
First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn’t know anything about that at nineteen. At nineteen, he’s proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention.
As he grows older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater than he could possibly have foreseen.
Tender and wise, The Only Story is a deeply moving novel by one of fiction’s greatest mappers of the human heart.
Find out more about the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1115400/the-only-story/
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A classic mystery for the festive season: mulled wine, mince pies...and murder. We bring you an extract from Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan http://po.st/C2JkbL.
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Mordecai Tremaine, former tobacconist and perennial lover of romance novels, has been invited to spend Christmas in the sleepy village of Sherbroome at the country retreat of one Benedict Grame.
Arriving on Christmas Eve, he finds that the revelries are in full flow - but so too are tensions amongst the assortment of guests.
Midnight strikes and the party-goers discover that it's not just presents nestling under the tree...there's a dead body too. A dead body that bears a striking resemblance to Father Christmas.
With the snow falling and the suspicions flying, it's up to Mordecai to sniff out the culprit - and prevent someone else from getting murder for Christmas.
Her house is on Montpelier Parade – just across town, but it might as well be a different world...
This week on the Vintage Podcast we bring you an extract from the Costa shortlisted Montpelier Parade by Karl Geary.
Listen to the whole book: http://po.st/MontpelierParadeAudio
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Karl Geary - Montpelier Parade
‘A delicate, crystalline, hugely impressive novel… He's yet another masterful younger writer coming through… Wonderful’ - Sebastian Barry
Her house is on Montpelier Parade – just across town, but it might as well be a different world. Sonny is fixing a crumbling wall in the garden when he sees her for the first time, coming down the path towards him. Vera.
Vera is older, wealthier, sophisticated, but chance meetings quickly become shy arrangements, and soon Sonny is in love for the first time. But there is something unsettling that Vera is keeping from him. Unfolding in the sea-bright Dublin of early spring, Montpelier Parade is an indelible novel about the things that remain unspoken between lovers. It is about how deeply we can connect with one another, and the choices we must make alone.
Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2017
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1112789/montpelier-parade/#YLdrwyev8OwJy3vP.99
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Where would we be without Charles Dickens? The biographer and academic Robert Douglas-Fairhurst and short story writer Helen Simpson join Alex Clark for a very festive edition of the Vintage Podcast.
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Robert is an award-winning biographer and Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford. His most recent book is The Story of Alice; before that he wrote Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist which won the Duff Cooper Prize. He is currently working on a new book called The Turning Point: Dickens’s World in 1851. The year of the Great Exhibition and the year in which Dickens began writing Bleak House, 1851 has been called the turning point of the century as well as of Dickens’s career.
You can read more about his books here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/robert-douglas-fairhurst/1074442/
Helen is the author of six short story collections including Four Bare Legs In a Bed, Constitutional and Hey Yeah Right Get A Life. In 2011 Helen wrote a short story for The Times called ‘The Chimes’ about a book club dissecting Dickens’s novel The Chimes, which he wrote as a follow up of sorts to A Christmas Carol. Later published in her collection Cockfosters, it draws uncomfortable parallels between Dickens’s world and our own – and has more than a little of Dickens’s playfulness about it too.
Read more about her work here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/helen-simpson/1006023/
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For lovers of Serial, a special audio extract from the Sunday Times best seller The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrère
Find out more about the book here: http://po.st/TheAdversary
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WATERSTONES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
Emmanuel Carrère - The Adversary
ON THE SATURDAY MORNING OF JANUARY 9, 1993, WHILE JEAN CLAUDE ROMAND WAS KILLING HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN, I WAS WITH MINE IN A PARENT-TEACHER MEETING...
With these chilling first words, acclaimed master of psychological suspense, Emmanuel Carrère, begins his exploration of the double life of a respectable doctor, eighteen years of lies, five murders, and the extremes to which ordinary people can go.
'As a writer, Carrère is straight berserk; as a storyteller he is so freakishly talented, so unassuming in grace and power that you only realize the hold he's got on you when you attempt to pull away... You say: True crime and literature? I don't believe it. I say: Believe it' Junot Díaz
'Mesmerising' Sunday Telegraph
'Stunning' Evening Standard
'Unputdownable' Washington Post
'A masterpiece' New York Times
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We meet animals experts and authors Stephen Moss and Peter Wohlleben talk about the strange and wonderful inner life of robins, crows and horses we might not be able to see from a glance...
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Keep calm – but do not carry on. A special audio extract from Nick Clegg's new book, How To Stop Brexit.
Download from audible: po.st/HowToStopBrexitAudible
Learn more about the book: po.st/HowToStopBrexit
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Keep calm – but do not carry on. There is nothing remotely inevitable about Brexit – except that it will be deeply damaging if it happens. Extricating Britain from Europe will be the greatest challenge this country has faced since the Second World War. And as negotiations with the EU expose the promises of the Brexit campaign to have been hollow, even some Brexit-voters now wish to exercise their democratic right to change their mind, seeing that the most pragmatic option is to … stop. It would certainly be the best thing for Britain. But how can it be done? Haven’t the people spoken?
No. In this indispensable handbook, Nick Clegg categorically debunks the various myths that have been used to force Brexit on Britain, not by ‘the people’ but by a small, extremely rich, self-serving elite, and explains precisely how this historic mistake can be reversed – and what you can do to make sure that it is.
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1115718/how-to-stop-brexit-and-make-britain-great-again/#DYu2wvzT2BCKruGx.99
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'I only realised this later, much later, when I came to fear that the beginning of that book was also the end of me.'
Alex Clark talks to Man Booker Winner Richard Flanagan
Read more about his wonderful book, First Person:
http://po.st/FirstPerson
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Six weeks to write for your life... In this blistering story of a ghostwriter haunted by his demonic subject, the Man Booker Prize winner turns to lies, crime and literature with devastating effect
A young and penniless writer, Kif Kehlmann, is rung in the middle of the night by the notorious con man and corporate criminal, Siegfried Heidl. About to go to trial for defrauding the banks of $700 million, Heidl proposes a deal: $10,000 for Kehlmann to ghostwrite his memoir in six weeks.
Kehlmann accepts but begins to fear that he is being corrupted by Heidl. As the deadline draws closer, he becomes ever more unsure if he is ghostwriting a memoir, or if Heidl is rewriting him—his life, his future. Everything that was certain grows uncertain as he begins to wonder: who is Siegfried Heidl—and who is Kif Kehlmann?
By turns compelling, comic and chilling, First Person is a haunting journey into the heart of our age.
Richard Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1961. His novels Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Gould’s Book of Fish, The Unknown Terrorist, Wanting and The Narrow Road to the Deep North have received numerous honours and are published in 42 countries. He won the Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North in 2014.
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The Jewish story is a history that is about, and for, all of us. Alex Clark speaks to Simon Schama about his new book Belonging, shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.
Read an extract from the book: http://po.st/f9Igdl
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Simon Schama - Belonging
Selected as a Book of the Year 2017 by the Daily Telegraph, Mail on Sunday and Observer
'A glittering gemstone of a book' The Times
The Jewish story is a history that is about, and for, all of us. And in our own time of anxious arrivals and enforced departures, the Jews’ search for a home is more startlingly resonant than ever.
Belonging is a magnificent cultural history abundantly alive with energy, character and colour. It spans centuries and continents, from the Jews’ expulsion from Spain in 1492 it navigates miracles and massacres, wandering, discrimination, harmony and tolerance; to the brink of the twentieth century and, it seems, a point of profound hope.
It tells the stories not just of rabbis and philosophers but of a poetess in the ghetto of Venice; a boxer in Georgian England; a general in Ming China; an opera composer in nineteenth-century Germany. The story unfolds in Kerala and Mantua, the starlit hills of Galilee, the rivers of Colombia, the kitchens of Istanbul, the taverns of Ukraine and the mining camps of California. It sails in caravels, rides the stage coaches and the railways; trudges the dawn streets of London, hobbles along with the remnant of Napoleon’s ruined army.
Through Schama’s passionate telling of this second chronicle in an epic tale, a history emerges of the Jewish people that feels it is the story of everyone, of humanity.
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1097828/belonging/#XA5dMaukSpq2W4Uk.99
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Our Poetry Special - part two! This time we're talking to Michael Simmonds Roberts about his new poetry collection,
Mancunia...
Read an extract from the book: http://po.st/f9Igdl
Manchester books that will make you want to visit http://po.st/ACfKjx
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Michael Simmonds Roberts - Mancunia
Shortlisted for the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize
PBS Autumn Recommendation
Mancunia is both a real and an unreal city. In part, it is rooted in Manchester, but it is an imagined city too, a fallen utopia viewed from formal tracks, as from the train in the background of De Chirico’s paintings. In these poems we encounter a Victorian diorama, a bar where a merchant mariner has a story he must tell, a chimeric creature – Miss Molasses – emerging from the old docks. There are poems in honour of Mancunia’s bureaucrats: the Master of the Lighting of Small Objects, the Superintendent of Public Spectacles, the Co-ordinator of Misreadings. Metaphysical and lyrical, the poems in Michael Symmons Roberts’ seventh collection are concerned with why and how we ascribe value, where it resides and how it survives. Mancunia is – like More’s Utopia – both a no-place and an attempt at the good-place. It is occupied, liberated, abandoned and rebuilt. Capacious, disturbing and shape-shifting, these are poems for our changing times.
Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1112493/mancunia/#ZiVegydh6ISYfdki.99
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Gearing up for National Poetry Day, we talk to two of our favourite poets and hear some of their poetry.
Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
http://po.st/NightSkyWithExitWounds
Kumukanda by Kayo Chingonyi
http://po.st/kumukanda
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An honest conversation with Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments, Two Pints, The Barrytown Trilogy and now, his new book, Smile.
Take a look at the book itself: po.st/DoyleSmile
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Smile has all the features for which Roddy Doyle has become famous: the razor-sharp dialogue, the humour, the superb evocation of childhood – but this is a novel unlike any he has written before. When you finish the last page you will have been challenged to re-evaluate everything you think you remember so clearly.
Just moved in to a new apartment, alone for the first time in years, Victor Forde goes every evening to Donnelly’s pub for a pint, a slow one.
One evening his drink is interrupted. A man in shorts and pink shirt brings over his pint and sits down. He seems to know Victor’s name and to remember him from school. Says his name is Fitzpatrick.
Victor dislikes him on sight, dislikes too the memories that Fitzpatrick stirs up of five years being taught by the Christian Brothers.
He prompts other memories too – of Rachel, his beautiful wife who became a celebrity, and of Victor’s own small claim to fame, as the man who says the unsayable on the radio.
But it’s the memories of school, and of one particular Brother, that he cannot control and which eventually threaten to destroy his sanity.
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Vintage Podcast goes on the road with graphic novelist Joff Winterhart to talk about illustration, storytelling and see the sights of London!
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More about Driving Short Distances by Joff Winterhart
Sam is 27 and needs to get a job. Keith, who claims to be a second cousin of his (absent) father, offers him one. On Keith’s card it says he does ‘distribution and delivery’, which seems to consist of ‘a lot of driving around, getting out of the car for a few minutes and then getting back in’, Sam tells his mother. And so the days go by, Keith driving to a trading estate, ducking into a portakabin, all the while telling Sam stories about his first boss, Geoff Crozier, his mentor in distribution and delivery. As the weeks pass, Sam gets to know Keith’s friends, flirty Hazel-Claire from whom they buy two pasties every day at lunchtime, a variety of receptionists, and a few tantalising secrets from Keith’s past…
As in Days of the Bagnold Summer, Joff Winterhart is a master at depicting ordinary life in all its utterly poignant and funny mundanity.
Driving Short Distances is the new book by Joff Winterhart, whose first graphic novel, Days of the Bagnold Summer, was described by Posy Simmonds as ‘original, funny, touching and beautifully observed’ and was shortlisted for the Costa Award for Best Novel.
"In Driving Short Distances Joff Winterhart has created an unforgettable central player, Keith Nutt, who deserves to join Keith Talent in the short but potent list of great British literary Keiths. He is an unforgettable character, beautifully drawn and exquisitely written, and he confirms Winterhart as one of the most talented graphic novelists in the UK." (Zadie Smith)
"Masterpiece is an overused word in reviews and ordinarily I avoid it… In this case, however, it is the only one that will do. Winterhart has delivered a perfect book, as good as mostly much better than any of the regular novels I’ve read so far this year. Like his first… its characters are superbly drawn. But with its themes of depression and its tender examination of the ways men talk (and fail to talk) to one another, it has a depth that book perhaps lacked. Days of the Bagnold Summer was shortlisted for the 2012 costa Novel award. This time around, Winterhart deserves to win it." (Rachel Cooke Observer)
Read more at http://po.st/DrivingShortDistances
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Welcome back to the second instalment of our Summer Read Two-Part Special here on the Vintage Podcast. Come rain, showers or maybe even a bit of sun, we’re here to introduce you to the authors behind some of Vintage’s newest and most anticipated fiction.
Books Featured:
A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee
http://po.st/StateOfFreedom
Missing Faye by Adam Thorpe
http://po.st/MissingFay
I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice
po.st/ifoundmytribe
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On a quest to find you something to read in the sun, Alex Clark joins Brian van Reet, Elif Batuman and Laurent Binet to give you a taster of the best Vintage as to offer this summer. Featured: Brian van Reet – Spoils https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1111841/spoils/ Elif Batuman – The Idiot https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1096423/the-idiot/ Laurent Binet – 7th Function of Language https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1110804/the-7th-function-of-language/
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Alex Clark joined Salman Rushdie at the Bath Festival for a conversation celebrating his 70th birthday. The duo discussed Rushdie’s novels, what it means to be eight weeks older than India, migration and the mindset that migrants acquire to survive, his friendship with Bruce Chatwin, and living in New York in the 1970s.
Salman Rushdie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His novel Midnight’s Children won the ‘Booker of Bookers’. His new novel, The Golden House, will be published by Vintage in September.
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'If you are able to make fun of yourself, you are not a victim. The situation that previously has paralysed you lost its power.' WINNER OF THE 2017 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE David Grossman, author of To the End of the Land and Falling Out of Time, joins us to discuss his most recent novel, the prize-winning A Horse Walks into a Bar. He expounds on the book's genesis, the difference between Israeli and Yiddish humour, and the stories we tell ourselves as people and nations. Read on for more about David Grossman: www.penguin.co.uk/authors/david-grossman/1061753/
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This May we celebrate outsiders: the people on the fringes; those who go against the grain. Irvine Welsh joins us to discuss his friendship with Howard Marks, once Britain’s most wanted man, and author of drug-smuggling travelogue Mr Nice. Tracy Chevalier breaks down her entry in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, New Boy, a remix of Othello set in the school playground. And taking us off the airwaves, J. D. Daniels discusses his idiosyncratic essay collection, The Correspondence, his thoughts on ‘the terror of being alive’, and the crucial difference between British and American lock-ins.
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'The people of Britain chose Brexit – they did not choose which Brexit' Yanis Varoufakis, author most recently of Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe’s Deep Establishment, was intricately involved in the highest levels of negotiations pertaining to Greece’s position within the EU. Now he campaigns globally for an international progressive alliance. Varoufakis talks with us about the stark choices he faced before, during, and after his tenure as finance minister. Was he willing to become an EU insider or would he remain an outsider? How best to negotiate with technocrats insistent on mutually disadvantageous deals? What will Britain's future look like after Brexit? And what can we do as citizens to slow the global slide into xenophobia, racism, and hopelessness?
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In this month's podcast we look at President Trump's first hundred days in office and the concurrent rise of interest in dystopian fiction. Will Rycroft joins Howard Jacobson to discuss how he transformed indignation into his new novel, Pussy. Yale Professor Timothy Snyder reads from his 'intervention' On Tyranny, and Stuart Williams and Will Smith speak on the book's schedule-defying publication. We close with Charlotte Knight, Fiona Wilson and Will Rycroft trying to understand the surge of interest in classic fictional dystopias. It's not as bleak as it sounds.
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Scottish independence is back in the news at the same time as we're all still struggling to get our heads around what Brexit might look like. With waves of populism and nationalism sweeping across Europe and beyond we speak to three writers with distinct points of view on what Scottishness means to them. We talk about the concept of home with Annalena McAfee, author of Hame; we walk the length of Hadrian's Wall with Rory Stewart, author of The Marches, and discuss the whole notion of borders; and finally we join Denise Mina on a tour of Glasgow's murky past as she tells us more about the real crime behind her latest novel, The Long Drop.
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We're back with part two of our February podcast and it's wonderful to have two authors to help us take a fresh look at masculinity and sexuality in two very different ways. Édouard Louis has caused a sensation in France with his autobiographical novel and its depiction of poverty, racism and homophobia. Ross Raisin has chosen the world of football as the setting for his tale of individuality and masculinity. Both authors give us the chance to look at love in a different way before Valentine's Day. Enjoy.
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We were always going to mention love in our February podcast but worry not, there's no pink hearts or teddy bears here - only great books and authors and a look at the more interesting aspects of love. James Lasdun talks about his new novel The Fall Guy, a book set in the Catskills, filled with obsession and unease from the very first page. John Burnside's latest novel, Ashland & Vine is also set in America and here he tells us more about how the absence of history in American life spurred him to tell the story of some of its counter-cultural past - a period of resistance that has striking parallels with the world we live in today. And because we love you we even round things off with a poem from Burnside's new collection, Still Life with Feeding Snake.
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Vintage were thrilled to see Keggie Carew win the Biography category of the Costa Awards for Dadland whilst Alice Oswald scooped the Poetry award for her collection, Falling Awake. To celebrate, whilst we await the judges decision on which book will win the overall prize, you can hear our interview with Keggie about her unorthodox father and captivating recordings of Alice Oswald reading her poetry.
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Xiaolu Guo meets her parents for the first time when she is almost seven. They are strangers to her. When she is born her parents hand her over to a childless peasant couple in the mountains. Aged two, and suffering from malnutrition on a diet of yam leaves, they leave Xiaolu with her illiterate grandparents in a fishing village on the East China Sea. It’s a strange beginning. A Wild Swans for a new generation, Once Upon a Time in the East takes Xiaolu from a run-down shack to film school in a rapidly changing Beijing, navigating the everyday peculiarity of modern China: censorship, underground art, Western boyfriends. In 2002 she leaves Beijing on a scholarship to study in Britain. Now, after a decade in Europe, her tale of East to West resonates with the insight that can only come from someone who is both an outsider and at home. Xiaolu Guo’s extraordinary memoir is a handbook of life lessons. How to be an artist when censorship kills creativity and the only job you can get is writing bad telenovela scripts. How to be a woman when female babies are regularly drowned at birth and sexual abuse is commonplace. Most poignantly of all: how to love when you’ve never been shown how.
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Xiaolu Guo - One Upon a Time in the East
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award
Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize
Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018
A Sunday Times Book of the Year****
'This generation's Wild Swans' Daily Telegraph
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We're beginning 2017 with a bumper podcast filled with classic goodness. Translator Robert Chandler and author Cathy Rentzenbrink join Alex Clark to discuss the Russian Greats, Will Rycroft chats with Samantha Ellis about the life of Anne Brontë and Edmund Gordon tells us more about the invention of Angela Carter.
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The debut novel from Karl Geary introduces us to Sonny and Vera, a young man and an older woman who meet and forge an unconventional relationship in the Dublin of the early 1980s Chance meetings become shy arrangements, and soon Sonny is in love for the first time. Casting off his lonely life of dreams and quiet violence for this new, intoxicating encounter, he longs to know Vera, even to save her. But what is it that Vera isn’t telling him? Unfolding in the sea-bright, rain-soaked Dublin of early spring, Montpelier Parade is a beautiful, cinematic novel about desire, longing, grief, hope and the things that remain unspoken. It is about how deeply we can connect with one another, and the choices we must also make alone.
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Karl Geary - Montpelier Parade
Selected as a Book of the Year in 2017 in the Irish Times and The Times
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2017
‘A delicate, crystalline, hugely impressive novel… He's yet another masterful younger writer coming through… Wonderful’ - Sebastian Barry
Her house is on Montpelier Parade – just across town, but it might as well be a different world. Sonny is fixing a crumbling wall in the garden when he sees her for the first time, coming down the path towards him. Vera.
Vera is older, wealthier, sophisticated, but chance meetings quickly become shy arrangements, and soon Sonny is in love for the first time. But there is something unsettling that Vera is keeping from him. Unfolding in the sea-bright Dublin of early spring, Montpelier Parade is an indelible novel about the things that remain unspoken between lovers. It is about how deeply we can connect with one another, and the choices we must make alone.
Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2017
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Midnight approaches and we're about to welcome in a new year. The great news is that a new year means new books, oodles of them. Alex Clark and Will Rycroft are joined by Jen Campbell for part two of our bumper podcast. What books are they most looking forward to in the year ahead and have they made any reading resolutions?
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A stocking crammed full of goodness this month with a Books of the Year chat with Jen Campbell; Ruth Padel on her new collection, Tidings, and Jeanette Winterson on why she loves Christmas and some of the stories behind her new book Christmas Days. This is just part one; part two arrives before the new year to tell you all about the books we're looking forward to in 2017.
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Jeanette Winterson - Christmas Days
'Packed with charm and beautifully illustrated, it's a book that will solve your gift dilemmas and let you escape the less salubrious aspects of Christmas for a literary wonderland' Stylist
Everybody loves a Christmas story. The tradition of the Twelve Days of Christmas is a tradition of celebration, sharing and giving. And what better way to do that than with a story?
Read these stories by the fire, in the snow, travelling home for the holidays. Give them to friends, wrap them up for someone you love, read them aloud, read them alone, read them together. Enjoy the season of peace and goodwill, mystery, and a little bit of magic.
There are ghosts here and jovial spirits. Chances at love and tricks with time.
There is frost and icicles, mistletoe and sledges. There’s a cat and a dog and a solid silver frog. There’s a Christmas cracker with a surprising gift inside.
There’s a haunted house and a SnowMama. There are Yuletides and holly wreaths. Three Kings. And a merry little Christmas time.
And for the icing on the Christmas cake, there are twelve festive recipes from Yuletides past and present. Red cabbage, gravlax, turkey biryani, sherry trifle, Mrs Winterson’s mince pies and more.
Ruth Padel - Tidings
‘Come with me
to St Pancras Old Church, on a little London hill...’
It’s Christmas Eve and on this enchanted night Charoum, the Angel of Silence, can speak. As night turns to day, he unfolds a resonant story of a little girl, a homeless man and a fox...
In the tradition of Charles Dickens and Dylan Thomas, Tidings takes us on a journey into the heart of Christmas, showing us celebrations down the ages and across the globe – as dawn sweeps from East Australia to Bethlehem, from London to the Statue of Liberty in New York.
This is Christmas in all its magic, reminding us that it is a time not only of good tidings, but of loneliness and longing, compassion and connection.
Beautifully illustrated and exquisitely musical, Tidings is a poem to be read out loud and cherished.
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To celebrate the publication of Haruki Murakami’s Absolutely on Music, VINTAGE held an afternoon of music and discussion at Spiritland in King’s Cross. This live edition of the VINTAGE Podcast featured James Rhodes, renowned concert pianist and author; Jeremy Warmsley, one half of the band Summer Camp; Suzanne Dean, Creative Director at VINTAGE and Murakami’s UK cover designer; John Mitchinson, Publisher at Unbound; Liz Foley, Murakami’s UK Publisher along with regular hosts Alex Clark and Will Rycroft; all sharing their thoughts on Murakami, music and reading. Absolutely on Music is transcribed from intimate conversations between Haruki Murakami and acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa. They discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more. Ultimately this book gives readers an unprecedented glimpse into the minds of two maestros.
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Haruki Murakami - Absolutely on Music
An unprecedented glimpse into the minds of two maestros.
Haruki Murakami's passion for music runs deep. Before turning his hand to writing, he ran a jazz club in Tokyo, and the aesthetic and emotional power of music permeates every one of his much-loved books. Now, in Absolutely on Music, Murakami fulfills a personal dream, sitting down with his friend, acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa, to talk about their shared interest.
They discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more.
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One night last winter, Antoine Leiris was at home looking after his son while his wife, Hélène, was at a concert with friends. Suddenly he started receiving text messages asking if he was ok. Turning on the TV, Antoine watched the terrorist attacks in Paris unfolding around him and tried to call Hélène. She didn’t answer. That night Hélène was killed, along with 88 other people, at the Bataclan Theatre. Three days later, Antoine wrote an open letter to his wife’s killers on Facebook. He refused to be cowed or to let his 17-month-old son’s life be defined by their acts. ‘For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom,’ he wrote. Instantly, that short post caught fire and was shared thousands of times around the world. You Will Not Have My Hate is an extraordinary and heartbreaking memoir about how Antoine, and his baby son Melvil, endured after Hélène’s murder. With courage, moral acuity, and absolute emotional honesty, he finds a way to answer the question, how can I go on? This is the rare and unforgettable testimony of a survivor, and a universal message of hope and resilience. This book is a guiding star for us all in perilous times. What matters most in life? How do you build a happy life when terrible things happen? What is left behind when you lose the person you love the most?
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Antoine Leiris - You Will Not Have My Hate
'A beacon of hope in a dark world' Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Pool
One night in November 2015, when Antoine Leiris was at home looking after his baby son, his wife Hélène was killed, along with 88 other people, at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris. Three days later, Antoine wrote an open letter to his wife’s killers on Facebook. He refused to be cowed or to let his baby son’s life be defined by their acts. ‘For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom,’ he wrote. Instantly, that short post caught fire and was shared thousands of times around the world. An extraordinary and heartbreaking memoir, You Will Not Have My Hate is a universal message of hope and resilience in our troubled times.
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Two authors take their inspiration from Shakespeare and create something entirely new. This month's podcast looks at transformations and allows you the listener to be in at least two places at once. Recorded at the Cheltenham and Manchester Literary Festivals and London's Southbank Centre, we hear from Margaret Atwood about her new novel Hag-Seed whilst she also teaches Alex Clark how to rap. Ian McEwan tells us more about Nutshell and we get to hear readings from both. Plus an interview with digital artist Zach Lieberman who allows people to interact with the very words on the page.
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Margaret Atwood - Hag-Seed
Felix is at the top of his game as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he’s staging a Tempest like no other. It will boost his reputation. It will heal emotional wounds.
Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. Also brewing revenge.
After twelve years, revenge finally arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison. Here, Felix and his inmate actors will put on his Tempest and snare the traitors who destroyed him. It’s magic! But will it remake Felix as his enemies fall?
Ian McEwan - Nutshell
Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home – a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse – but not with John. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy's womb.
Told from a perspective unlike any other, Nutshell is a classic tale of murder and deceit from one of the world’s master storytellers.
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Winner of the Man Booker prize in 2015, Marlon James, met with Irvine Welsh at the Hay Festival this year and they both spoke with Alex Clark about their writing lives, violence in fiction, writing as a political act, and what comes next after winning a big prize.
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In a fascinating interview Andrew Solomon, a journalist and essayist of remarkable perception and prescience, talks about the single conversation that sparked his desire to travel, why he thinks it should be compulsory for people to travel abroad and sample other cultures, and why he also believes you are never too young to see the world. Indulge your wanderlust with this special insight into over twenty years of travelling the globe.
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To celebrate its place on the shortlist for the 2016 Man Booker Prize we have an interview with David Szalay about his novel All That Man Is. Is the modern male in crisis and what does this fractured tale across Europe have to tell us about them? Alex Clark interviews a man with an unsparing glance into the inside of men's heads.
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David Szalay - All That Man Is
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
Winner of the 2016 Gordon Burn Prize
Nine men. Each of them at a different stage of life, each of them away from home, and each of them striving – in the suburbs of Prague, beside a Belgian motorway, in a cheap Cypriot hotel – to understand just what it means to be alive, here and now.
Tracing an arc from the spring of youth to the winter of old age, All That Man Is brings these separate lives together to show us men as they are – ludicrous and inarticulate, shocking and despicable; vital, pitiable, hilarious, and full of heartfelt longing. And as the years chase them down, the stakes become bewilderingly high in this piercing portrayal of 21st-century manhood.
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Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestselling Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, envisions a not-too-distant world in which we face a new set of challenges. Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? In Homo Deus, he examines our future with his trademark blend of science, history, philosophy and every discipline in between. In this month's podcast we chat to research scientist and author of The Knowledge, Prof. Lewis Dartnell about the impact of Harari's last book Sapiens before speaking to harari himself about his vision of our future.
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Yuval Noah Harari - Homo Deus
‘Homo Deus will shock you. It will entertain you. Above all, it will make you think in ways you had not thought before.’ Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking Fast, and Slow
Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestselling Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, envisions a not-too-distant world in which we face a new set of challenges. In Homo Deus, he examines our future with his trademark blend of science, history, philosophy and every discipline in between.
Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century – from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.
War is obsolete
You are more likely to commit suicide than be killed in conflict
Famine is disappearing
You are at more risk of obesity than starvation
Death is just a technical problem
Equality is out – but immortality is in
What does our future hold?
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Caring deeply about our children is part of what makes us human. Yet the thing we call ‘parenting’ is a surprisingly new invention. In The Gardener and the Carpenter, the pioneering developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik argues that the familiar twenty-first-century picture of parenting is profoundly wrong – it's not just based on bad science, it's bad for children and their parents too. In this special podcast she explains more about the contradictions at the heart of being a parent and why the best thing for both parents and children might also be the easiest thing.
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Alison Gopnik - The Gardener and The Carpenter
Selected as a Book of the Year by the Financial Times
‘The Gardener and the Carpenter should be required reading for anyone who is, or is thinking of becoming a parent’ Financial Times
Caring deeply about our children is part of what makes us human. Yet the thing we call ‘parenting’ is a surprisingly new invention. In the past thirty years, the concept of parenting and the huge industry surrounding it have transformed childcare into obsessive, controlling, and goal-orientated labour intended to create a particular kind of child, and therefore a particular kind of adult.
Drawing on the study of human evolution and her own cutting-edge scientific research into how children learn, Gopnik shows that although caring for children is profoundly important, it is not a matter of shaping them to turn out a particular way. Children are designed to be messy and unpredictable, playful and imaginative, and to be very different both from their parents and from each other. The variability and flexibility of childhood lets them innovate, create, and survive in an unpredictable world. ‘Parenting’ won't make children learn – but caring parents let children learn by creating a secure, loving environment.
In The Gardener and the Carpenter, the pioneering developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik argues that the familiar twenty-first-century picture of parenting is profoundly wrong – it's not just based on bad science, it's bad for children and their parents too.
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Fear-mongering populists, distrust in the establishment, personality contests instead of reasoned debate: these are the results of the latest elections. Democracy is in bad health. In his book Against Elections, David Van Reybrouck offers a new diagnosis – and an ancient remedy. In this interview he explains the difference between democracy and elections, why sortition and lottery might offer a way to improve our democracy and why the most important thing is for a population to be informed before making any decision. Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1112592/against-elections/#8ujeGpPBblyfr387.99
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David Van Reybrouck - Against Elections
Democracy is in bad health. Against Elections offers a new diagnosis – and an ancient remedy.
Fear-mongering populists, distrust in the establishment, personality contests instead of reasoned debate: these are the results of the latest elections.
In fact, as this ingenious book shows, the original purpose of elections was to exclude the people from power by appointing an elite to govern over them.
Yet for most of its 3000-year history, democracy did not involve elections at all: members of the public were appointed to positions in government through a combination of volunteering and lottery.
Based on studies and trials from around the globe, this hugely influential manifesto presents the practical case for a true democracy – one that actually works.
Urgent, heretical and completely convincing, Against Elections leaves only one question to be answered: what are we waiting for?
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What better way to talk about Flâneuse than to walk the streets of London with author Lauren Elkin. We stroll through Bloomsbury to talk about Virginia Woolf and other female walkers of the city as we discuss the themes behind her fascinating book. 'Flâneuse [flanne-euhze], noun, from the French. Feminine form of flâneur [flanne-euhr], an idler, a dawdling observer, usually found in cities. That is an imaginary definition.' If the word flâneur conjures up visions of Baudelaire, boulevards and bohemia – then what exactly is a flâneuse? In this gloriously provocative and celebratory book, Lauren Elkin defines her as ‘a determined resourceful woman keenly attuned to the creative potential of the city, and the liberating possibilities of a good walk’. Part cultural meander, part memoir, Flâneuse traces the relationship between the city and creativity through a journey that begins in New York and moves us to Paris, via Venice, Tokyo and London, exploring along the way the paths taken by the flâneuses who have lived and walked in those cities. From nineteenth-century novelist George Sand to artist Sophie Calle, from war correspondent Martha Gellhorn to film-maker Agnes Varda, Flâneuse considers what is at stake when a certain kind of light-footed woman encounters the city and changes her life, one step at a time. Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1098499/flaneuse/#m7szjT6vgomZ68rS.99
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Lauren Elkin - Flâneuse
'Flâneuse [flanne-euhze], noun, from the French. Feminine form of flâneur [flanne-euhr], an idler, a dawdling observer, usually found in cities.
That is an imaginary definition.'
If the word flâneur conjures up visions of Baudelaire, boulevards and bohemia – then what exactly is a flâneuse?
In this gloriously provocative and celebratory book, Lauren Elkin defines her as ‘a determined resourceful woman keenly attuned to the creative potential of the city, and the liberating possibilities of a good walk’. Part cultural meander, part memoir, Flâneuse traces the relationship between the city and creativity through a journey that begins in New York and moves us to Paris, via Venice, Tokyo and London, exploring along the way the paths taken by the flâneuses who have lived and walked in those cities.
From nineteenth-century novelist George Sand to artist Sophie Calle, from war correspondent Martha Gellhorn to film-maker Agnes Varda, Flâneuse considers what is at stake when a certain kind of light-footed woman encounters the city and changes her life, one step at a time.
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Alex Clark and Will Rycroft are joined in the studio by blogger Simon Savidge to discuss what makes the perfect summer read; we go around the world with Emma Cline, Milena Busquets, Yewande Omotoso and Ruth Ware as they explain why location was so important to their latest books; and Andrew Solomon explains why travel is more than just a leisure activity after 25 years traversing the globe. Make sure the first thing you pack this summer is the Vintage Podcast. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1108144/far-and-away/ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1109287/the-girls/ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1109295/this-too-shall-pass/ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1109235/the-woman-next-door/ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1099629/the-woman-in-cabin-10/
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In August 2014, Farida, like any ordinary teenage girl, was enjoying the summer holidays before her last year at school. But Farida lived in the mountains of northern Iraq — and what happened next was unimaginable. Her village was an ISIS target. ISIS jihadists murdered the men and boys, including her father and brother, before taking Farida and the other women prisoner. This is the story of what happened to Farida after she was captured: the beatings, the rapes, the markets where ISIS sold women like cattle, and Farida's realisation that the more resistant she became, the harder it was for her captors to continue their atrocities against her. So she struggled, she bit, she kicked, she accused her captors of going against their religion, until, one day, the door to her room was left unlocked. She took her chance and, with five younger girls in her charge, fled into the Syrian desert. Farida showed incredible courage in the face of the unthinkable, and now with The Girl Who Beat ISIS she bravely relives her story to bear witness. Searing and immediate, this is the first memoir by a young woman that shows first-hand what life is like for innocents caught up in the maelstrom of day-to-day life with ISIS. Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1110490/the-girl-who-beat-isis/#gKOQ3gf8LEkXIq50.99
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Farida Khalaf - The Girl Who Beat ISIS
In August 2014, Farida, like any ordinary teenage girl, was enjoying the summer holidays before her last year at school. But Farida lived in the mountains of northern Iraq — and what happened next was unimaginable. Her village was an ISIS target.
ISIS jihadists murdered the men and boys, including her father and brother, before taking Farida and the other women prisoner. This is the story of what happened to Farida after she was captured: the beatings, the rapes, the markets where ISIS sold women like cattle, and Farida's realisation that the more resistant she became, the harder it was for her captors to continue their atrocities against her. So she struggled, she bit, she kicked, she accused her captors of going against their religion, until, one day, the door to her room was left unlocked. She took her chance and, with five younger girls in her charge, fled into the Syrian desert.
Farida showed incredible courage in the face of the unthinkable, and now with The Girl Who Beat ISIS she bravely relives her story to bear witness. Searing and immediate, this is the first memoir by a young woman that shows first-hand what life is like for innocents caught up in the maelstrom of day-to-day life with ISIS.
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A summer of sport beckons and we have a podcast to compete. Raphael Honigstein and Danny Kelly talk football ahead of Euro 2016; how did Germany effect Das Reboot, what's the future for the sport amid all the corruption and who do you want to draw in the office sweepstake? Richard Askwith tells us what made the Czech runner Emil Zatopek so special. Anders Ericsson, the man behind the 10,000 hours rule explains why practice makes perfect and talent is a myth. And finally in tribute to Muhammad Ali we hear an excerpt from George Plimpton's Shadow Box, soon to be published by Vintage in the UK along with his other amazing participatory sports journalism books. On your marks, get set.... Football - from start Zatopek: 23:50 Anders Ericsson: 31:50 Plipton on Ali: 56:08 Raphael Honigstein: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/raphael-honigstein/1050718/ Richard Askwith: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/richard-askwith/1047711/ Anders Ericsson:https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/anders-ericsson/1076269/ George Plimpton: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/george-plimpton/1019619/
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George Plimpton - Shadow Box
Stepping into the ring against light-heavyweight champion Archie Moore, George Plimpton pauses to wonder what ever induced him to become a participatory journalist. Bloodied but unbowed, he holds his own in the bout – and brings back this timeless book on boxing and its devotees, among them Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ernest Hemingway, and Norman Mailer.
Shadow Box is one of Plimpton’s most engaging portraits of professional sport seen through the eyes of an inquisitive and astute hopeful. From the gym, the locker room, the ringside, and even in the harsh glare of the ring itself, Plimpton documents what it truly means to be a boxer in some of the finest writing of his career.
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Is there a crisis in masculinity? What does male friendship look like? Do gender norms harm both sexes and what can we do to challenge them? A wide-ranging and provocative discussion with Rebecca Asher and Juno Dawson (including a cameo appearance from Prince the dog) is accompanied by interviews with David Szalay and Rose Tremain as we look at how novels and non-fiction are examining the modern male.
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Mark Haddon reads from and talks about his debut story collection, The Pier Falls. Why has it taken him so long to want to write in the short form and what were the stories that helped him to change his mind? https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1109789/the-pier-falls/
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Mark Haddon - The Pier Falls
A Spectator Book of the Year
An expedition to Mars goes terribly wrong.
A seaside pier collapses.
A thirty-stone man is confined to his living room.
One woman is abandoned on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean.
Another woman is saved from drowning.
Two boys discover a gun in a shoebox.
A group of explorers find a cave of unimaginable size deep in the Amazon jungle.
A man shoots a stranger in the chest on Christmas Eve.
In this first collection of stories by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon demonstrates two things: first that he is a master of the short form (several of the stories have been longlisted for prizes), second that his imagination is even darker than we had thought.
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We're taking you to Greece in this month's podcast and also on another journey through time. Yanis Varoufakis talks with Owen Jones about his life as an activist, his arrests on the picket line and his own father's struggles with oppresive rule that led to imprisonment in a concentration camp. Alex Andreou, winner of the inaugural Jane Grigson Trust Award, brings food and memory into the studio as we talk about childhood favourites, what real Greek food is and how caring for his mother has brought Greek culture and food flooding back into his writing. Finally we head to the British Museum with Caroline Alexander to look at Greek antiquity and the age of Homer. Why did she want to write a new translation of the Iliad and what can we learn today from this ancient text?The nearest thing to a time machine is this week's Vintage Podcast.Please leave comments to let us know what you think and we'll see you next month for more bookish goodness.The full conversation with Alex Andreou can be found here:...
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Alex Andreou, winner of the inaugural Jane Grigson Trust Award, chats to Alex Clark and Will Rycroft about the food of his childhood, his mother's struggle with dementia and the culture of Greece that informs everything from the current financial crisis to the food on our plates. A truly immersive podcast that reveals the hidden art of real Greek food.
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In this special podcast Alex Clark is given a unique tour of Sissinghurst Castle by Juliet Nicholson, whose new book, A House Full of Daughters, details her childhood growing up there as the grand-daughter of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1099352/a-house-full-of-daughters/
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Juliet Nicholcon - A House Full of Daughters
All families have their myths and Juliet Nicolson’s was no different: her flamenco dancing great-great-grandmother Pepita, the flirty manipulation of her great-grandmother Victoria, the infamous eccentricity of her grandmother Vita, her mother’s Tory-conventional background.
A House Full of Daughters takes us through seven generations of women. In the nineteenth-century slums of Malaga, the salons of fin-de-siècle Washington DC, an English boarding school during the Second World War, Chelsea in the 1960s, these women emerge for Juliet as people in their own right, but also as part of who she is and where she has come from.
1930's Paris, post-war London and the '60s in Sissinghurst; we've slipped the shackles of the studio for this month's podcast and gone on location for a special featuring apricot cocktails, top London trivia and a unique insight into one of the most famous gardens in the Garden of England. Will Rycroft talks to Sarah Bakewell about Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and modern existentialism whilst sipping apricot cocktails at Le Beaujolais. Alex Clark walks through London with Anthony Quinn as they discuss the landscape of his latest novel, Freya. She then gets an exclusive tour of Sissinghurst Castle from Juliet Nicolson, who grew up there during the 1960s. There's a time and a place for everything and this month the Vintage podcast takes you to three very specific times and places. An immersive listen for every type of reader.
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Anthony Quinn - Freya
Freya Wyley meets Nancy Holdaway amid the wild celebrations of VE Day, the prelude to a devoted and competitive friendship…
Freya, ambitious and outspoken, pursues a career on Fleet Street while Nancy, less self-confident, struggles to get her first novel published. Both friends become entangled with Robert Cosway, a charismatic young man whose own ambition will have a momentous bearing on their lives.
Flitting from war-haunted Oxford to the bright new shallows of the 1960s, Freya plots the unpredictable course of a woman’s life and loves in extraordinary times.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1089993/at-the-existentialist-cafe/9780701186586/ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1110797/freya/9781910702505/ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1099352/a-house-full-of-daughters/
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No flowers, no chocolates, but all the right words. This is what we talk about when we talk about love - on the Vintage podcast. This month Alex Clark and Will Rycroft talk to Anna Jean Hughes from digital publisher The Pigeonhole about the many different types of love and which books played an important role in shaping their perception of love and lust. Louis de Bernières comes in to talk about his latest collection of poetry and how love has influenced both that and his current fiction. And finally, in an extraordinary interview about her late husband Paul, Lucy Kalanithi talks about his memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, which has been sweeping up everyone who reads it. A profound and uplifting book about how to live a good life gives us a chance to talk about a very special kind of love. https://thepigeonhole.com/ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1099471/of-love-and-desire/ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1109814/when-breath-becomes-air/
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Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live.
When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity – the brain – and finally into a patient and a new father.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when when life is catastrophically interrupted? What does it mean to have a child as your own life fades away?
Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.
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Author Julian Barnes and Vintage Creative Director Suzanne Dean have been working together for 20 years. To mark the publication of their latest collaboration, the new novel The Noise of Time, Alex Clark spoke to them both in the Vintage Podcast studio about how a book design comes together, what makes a cover iconic and why neither will let the other retire. See some of the covers in this feature article: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/in-conversation/interviews/2016/jan/26/julian-barnes-and-suzanne-dean/
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Julian Barnes - The Noise of Time
In May 1937 a man in his early thirties waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House. Any celebrity he has known in the previous decade is no use to him now. And few who are taken to the Big House ever return.
Everyone's a critic in this month's podcast. Alex Clark and Will Rycroft get tips from London's booksellers on the hot titles to look out for this year as well as mentioning a few themselves including the new novel from Julian Barnes, The Noise of Time. Sarah Howe gives fascinating insight into her poetry collection, A Loop of Jade, fresh from winning the TS Eliot Prize. And D J Taylor discusses the literary landscape from Grub Street to Bloggers with plenty of opinion along the way. Download and immerse yourself in the world of books.
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Julian Barnes - The Noise of Time
In May 1937 a man in his early thirties waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House. Any celebrity he has known in the previous decade is no use to him now. And few who are taken to the Big House ever return.
Sarah Howe - Loop of Jade
There is a Chinese proverb that says: ‘It is more profitable to raise geese than daughters.’ But geese, like daughters, know the obligation to return home. In her exquisite first collection, Sarah Howe explores a dual heritage, journeying back to Hong Kong in search of her roots.
With extraordinary range and power, the poems build into a meditation on hybridity, intermarriage and love – what meaning we find in the world, in art, and in each other. Crossing the bounds of time, race and language, this is an enthralling exploration of self and place, of migration and inheritance, and introduces an unmistakable new voice in British poetry.
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The Vintage Podcast is ringing the changes; new music, new format - same great authors and books. Join Alex Clark and Will Rycroft as they look back at 2015 and discuss big books, little books and everything in between. What were their favourites, their podcast highlights and what do they have planned for the future? We'd love to know what you think so do please leave a comment and don't forget to follow us so you're the first to catch our next podcast in the new year.
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To celebrate the launch of the Hogarth Shakespeare project, in which today's best-loved authors create new novels based on the plays of Shakespeare, we have a podcast special with Jeanette Winterson and Howard Jacobson in conversation with Alex Clark. What drew them to the project, what made them choose the play they did, and what were the challenges of adapting the Bard? Jeanette Winterson's The Gap of Time is published on October 1st Howard Jacobson's Shylock Is My Name will be published in February next year. http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/HogarthShakespeare/
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Jeanette Winterson - The Gap in Time
A baby girl is abandoned, banished from London to the storm-ravaged American city of New Bohemia. Her father has been driven mad by jealousy, her mother to exile by grief.
Seventeen years later, Perdita doesn't know a lot about who she is or where she's come from - but she's about to find out.
Jeanette Winterson’s cover version of The Winter’s Tale vibrates with echoes of Shakespeare's original and tells a story of hearts broken and hearts healed, a story of revenge and forgiveness, a story that shows that whatever is lost shall be found.
Howard Jacobson - Shylock Is My Name
A re-envisaging of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, from the Man Booker Prize-winner and our great chronicler of Jewish life.
‘Who is this guy, Dad? What is he doing here?’
With an absent wife and a daughter going off the rails, wealthy art collector and philanthropist Simon Strulovitch is in need of someone to talk to. So when he meets Shylock at a cemetery in Cheshire’s Golden Triangle, he invites him back to his house. It’s the beginning of a remarkable friendship ...
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August skys may have turned to rain but this month's podcast takes you back to a glorious summer weekend and the Vintage Live event at the Wilderness Festival. Alex Clark hosts authors Nicci Cloke, Anna Whitwham, Samantha Harvey, Evie Wyld, Samantha Ellis, Kirsty Logan, Andrew McMillan and Deborah Moggach to discuss getting published, what fiction is for and adapting work for the big screen. Sit back, relax, and imagine yourself in the comforting warmth of our marquee in Oxfordshire.
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You can find out more about the author's books below.
Anna Whitwham: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/009958445x/anna-whitwham/boxer-handsome/ Nicci Cloke: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099593653/nicci-cloke/lay-me-down/ Samantha Harvey: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099597667/samantha-harvey/dear-thief/ Evie Wyld: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/022409971x/evie-wyld-and-joe-sumner/everything-is-teeth/ Samantha Ellis: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099575566/samantha-ellis/how-to-be-a-heroine-or-what-i-ve-learned-from-reading-too-much/ Kirsty Logan: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/1846559162/kirsty-logan/the-gracekeepers/ Andrew McMillan: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0224102133/andrew-mcmillan/physical/ Deborah Moggach: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/1784740470/deborah-moggach/something-to-hide/
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In a special podcast we visit the Sipsmith distillery with Richard Godwin, author of The Spirits, to discover first of all how gin is made, before heading back to the studio and mixing it with a few simple ingredients to create classic cocktails. Can we get through the whole programme without slurring our words? http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0224101188/richard-godwin/the-spirits/
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Richard Godwin - The Spirits
Of all the skills you might acquire in life, the ability to make a good cocktail will never be a waste of time. No lover will complain when you present them with a well-iced Negroni as they walk through your door; no house-guest will complain about a round of Gin Sours.
‘To cocktail’ was coined as a verb by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1928. This guide embodies that Golden Age spirit while giving it a thoroughly modern makeover. Expressly structured for the amateur, it will remind you just how much pleasure there is in cokctailing at home.
This month in 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, featuring John Tenniel's classic illustrations, was published for the very first time (the edition was quickly withdrawn when Tenniel complained about the printing of his illustrations and an improved edition was published in November). To celebrate, Alex Clark talks with Robert Douglas-Fairhurst about The Story of Alice and with Creative Director Suzanne Dean about design, fashion and the icon that is Alice.
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This month we have stars in our eyes as Alex Clark talks to Deborah Moggach and Sadie Jones about seeing their work adapted for the screen and to Harriet Horobin-Worley about working together with Studio Canal on a new enhanced ebook of Graham Greene's The Third Man. Find out more about Deborah Moggach here: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/authors/3404/deborah-moggach/ Find out more about Sadie Jones here:http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/authors/7644/sadie-jones/ Find out more about The Third Man here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/the-third-man/id997687519?mt=11
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Graham Greene - The Third Man
Experience the thrilling search for the Third Man as you follow Harry Lime through the gloomy and treacherous streets of Vienna, a city divided by war and corruption. This undisputed spy classic is now available for the first time with video and photography from the film that inspired the novel.
In this innovative new format, readers can see the development of Greene’s masterful writing in the original script of the movie, with extra content showcasing the film’s distinctive soundtrack and Oscar-winning cinematography. See clips and photos of Orson Welles embodying one of his most iconic characters alongside the text at key points. The unparalleled film and archive materials add new layers to the characters and the mystery at the heart of the story.
This is a special digital edition to celebrate Studio Canal's restored edition of the film. It includes:
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An array of film clips and stills embedded in the text of the novel
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A large selection of behind-the-scenes photos from the archive, including candid photos of Orson Welles and the cast on set
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Scans of the original post-production script
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May was a bumper month for fiction so this month's podcast focuses on three brilliant novels. Alex Clark talks to Kirsty Logan about her magical debut novel The Gracekeepers, to Vesna Goldsworthy about her Gatsby-inspired novel Gorsky and to Irish Laureate Anne Enright about her latest novel, The Green Road. You can also hear an amazing speech from Anne Enright by following this link: https://soundcloud.com/vintagebookspodcast/anne-enright-on-ireland-writing-and-reading Find out more about ... The Gracekeepers: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/1846559162/kirsty-logan/the-gracekeepers/ Gorsky: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/1784740098/vesna-goldsworthy/gorsky/ The Green Road: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0224089056/anne-enright/the-green-road/
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Kirsty Logan - The Gracekeepers
A flooded world.
A floating circus.
Two women in search of a home.
North lives on a circus boat with her beloved bear, keeping a secret that could capsize her life.
Callanish lives alone in her house in the middle of the ocean, tending the graves of those who die at sea. As penance for a terrible mistake, she has become a gracekeeper.
A chance meeting between the two draws them magnetically to one another - and to the promise of a new life.
But the waters are treacherous, and the tide is against them.
Anne Enright - The Green Road
Hanna, Dan, Constance and Emmet return to the west coast of Ireland for a final family Christmas in the home their mother is about to sell. As the feast turns to near painful comedy, a last, desperate act from Rosaleen - a woman who doesn't quite know how to love her children - forces them to confront the weight of family ties and the road that brought them home.
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The latest podcast from Vintage is an Irvine Welsh special. Alex Clark interviews the man himself about his latest novel, A Decent Ride, which sees the return of hustler cabbie 'Juice' Terry Lawson. It's as wild and raucous a ride as you'd expect from Irvine and you can also hear an extract from the audio book read by Tam Dean Burn. Apologies for the quality of the audio this month. A 'technical hitch' will not recur next month!
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Irvine Welsh - A Decent Ride
A rampaging force of nature is wreaking havoc on the streets of Edinburgh, but has top shagger, drug-dealer, gonzo-porn-star and taxi-driver, ‘Juice’ Terry Lawson, finally met his match in Hurricane ‘Bawbag’?
Can Terry discover the fate of the missing beauty, Jinty Magdalen, and keep her idiot-savant lover, the man-child Wee Jonty, out of prison?
Will he find out the real motives of unscrupulous American businessman and reality-TV star, Ronald Checker?
And, crucially, will Terry be able to negotiate life after a terrible event robs him of his sexual virility, and can a new fascination for the game of golf help him to live without… A DECENT RIDE?
A Decent Ride sees Irvine Welsh back on home turf, leaving us in the capable hands of one of his most compelling and popular characters, ‘Juice’ Terry Lawson, and introducing another bound for cult status, Wee Jonty MacKay: a man with the genitals and brain of a donkey.
In his funniest, filthiest book yet, Irvine Welsh celebrates an un-reconstructed misogynist hustler – a central character who is shameless but also, oddly, decent –and finds new ways of making wild comedy out of fantastically dark material, taking on some of the last taboos. So fasten your seatbelts, because this is one ride that could certainly get a little bumpy…
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Put down your pens and pick up your protractor, this month Alex Clark delves inside the world of maths with Cedric Villani, Tom McCarthy and Rob Eastaway.
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In this love themed podcast, Alex Clark explores why lying might be the key to a successful love life; we’ll be telling love stories in reverse; and we’ll probably get a little bit soppy – we just can’t help ourselves. With Vintage authors: Philippa Rice, Clancy Martin and Nicci Cloke.
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Want to start writing in 2015? Alex Clark speaks to the winners and judges of some of Vintage's writing competitions including the Bodley Head and Financial Times Essay Prize, Harvill Secker Young Translator’s Prize, and the Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Novel Short Story Prize to inspire you to pick up your pen this year.
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Alex Clark celebrates a vintage year for literary prizes, interviewing the winning authors of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, Guardian First Book Award, Forward Prize for Poetry and William Hill Sports Book of the Year.
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Adam Thirlwell, Karl Ove Knausgaard and Yuval Noah Harari join Alex Clark for a men's special in celebration of International Men's Day.
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Join Alex Clark in a special Vintage Design Podcast as she talks to renowned designers Pascal Anson and Dominic Wilcox, whose books Ordinary Made Extraordinary and Variations on Normal are published by Square Peg this autumn, and Vintage’s own in-house book designers Stephen Parker and Matt Broughton from the CMYK team. See here for a gallery of innovations from Pascal and Dominic: http://on.fb.me/Zpni6l
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Ian McEwan and Martin Amis are two old friends - who also happen to be literary superstars. Listen to them discuss their thought-provoking new books, The Children Act and The Zone of Interest, look back over their distinguished careers and consider the current state and the future prospects of the novel. The podcast is presented by journalist Alex Clark. Contains strong language.
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Ian McEwan - The Children Act
A brilliant, emotionally wrenching new novel from the author of Atonement and Amsterdam.
Fiona Maye, a leading High Court judge, renowned for her fierce intelligence and sensitivity is called on to try an urgent case. For religious reasons, a seventeen-year-old boy is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life. Time is running out.
She visits the boy in hospital – an encounter which stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. But it is Fiona who must ultimately decide whether he lives or dies and her judgement will have momentous consequences for them both.
Martin Amis - The Zone of Interest
Shortlisted for the 2015 Walter Scott Prize
'Surely his masterpiece… Intelligent, terrifying and comic… Amis has tackled the biggest questions with imagination and intelligence, and the ultimate strength of this masterly novel is that he knows, and shows, that although there is no answer to the questions Auschwitz poses, we must never stop asking them. Read it, ponder it – revel in it indeed – then read it again.'
Allan Massie, Scotsman
There was an old story about a king who asked his favourite wizard to create a magic mirror. This mirror didn’t show you your reflection. Instead, it showed you your soul – it showed you who you really were. But the king couldn’t look into the mirror without turning away, and nor could his courtiers. No one could.
What happens when we discover who we really are? And how do we come to terms with it? Fearless and original, The Zone of Interest is a violently dark love story set against a backdrop of unadulterated evil, and a vivid journey into the depths and contradictions of the human soul.
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Alex Clark talks to five Man Booker 2014 shortlisted authors from across Penguin Random House in this special episode featuring past winner Howard Jacobson, Ali Smith, Richard Flanagan, Neel Mukherjee and Joshua Ferris.
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A special World War One literature podcast to mark the centenary of when Britain entered the Great War. Alex Clark is joined by Sebastian Faulks, Emily Mayhew and Brian Turner.
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It's a bumper year for British cycling as the Tour de France hits our shores. In a cycling special, Alex Clark talks to Tim Moore about slogging around the routes of cycling’s greatest races; Max Leonard discusses the Lanterne Rouge; and Ellis Bacon of The Cycling Anthology gives us a taster of the latest volume.
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To mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protest this June, Alex Clark talks to Xiaulo Guo, one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, about her new book I Am China. The New Yorker China correspondent Evan Osnos sends us his dispatch taken from Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China, and Wild Swans author Jung Chang talks about the most important woman in Chinese history, Empress Dowager Cixi.
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Alex Clark charts the UK feminist movement from the Suffragettes to today’s fourth-wave feminism in this podcast special. She talks to the founders of The Vagenda blog, and now book, discussing the media’s relationship with women, and also the creators of Sally Heathcote: Suffragette, a graphic novel which delves into the history of feminism in the UK.
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Tune in to listen to an exclusive interview with Irvine Welsh about his new novel The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins and to delve into the world of a slang lexicographer, with Jonathon Green and his new book Odd Job Man.
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From the number one bestselling author of Trainspotting
Meet Lucy Brennan – an aggressive personal trainer who has just become a media hero after taking down a would-be gunman in Miami.
The one witness to the daring rescue is Lena Sorensen – an overweight depressive who is becoming increasingly obsessed with Lucy…
Irvine Welsh’s latest creation captures the two great obsessions of our time – how we look and where we live – and tells a story so subversive and dark it blacks out the Florida sun.
For thirty years Jonathon Green has been collecting slang – the indefinable language of the gutter, the brothel, the jail, the barroom – producing a succession of dictionaries, most recently the three-volume Green's Dictionary of Slang, that have been recognised as the most comprehensive and authoritative ever compiled. In this fascinating memoir Green reveals that he first began collecting slang in the 1970s, noticing that the contemporary authorities (notably Eric Partridge) preferred the past to the present, unaware of the huge array of new slang being coined by the counter-culture. He ponders why he still does this strange, lonely job, exploring the satisfaction that can be gained by tracking down the first use of a term just encountered in one of the cheap dime novels he devours for research. The lexis leans towards pimping and prostitution, crime and imprisonment, violence and cruelty, drunken and drugged debauches: what does this say about the man who spends every day truffling for it?
A fascinating look at how one man has built a lexis of 125,000 words that includes 1,740 words for sexual intercourse, 1,351 for the penis, 540 for defecation/urination, 247 for fat, 219 for vomiting and 180 for anal sex, Odd Job Man will delight all those who love the words that the conventional dictionaries leave out.
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In the March Vintage podcast with Alex Clark we hear from some on Vintage’s new female authors to celebrate International Women’s Day. With Lauren Owen, Hermione Eyre, Eva Dolan and Anna Whitwham.
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In our February Vintage Podcast with Alex Clark we explore how and why humans excel with David Epstein, a new novel by Jennifer Clement paints a vivid portrait of modern Mexico, and Trevor Cox gives us a masterclass in how to become better listeners.
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