London Review Bookshop Podcast

A new novel from Edna O'Brien is without question a major literary event, and *The Little Red Chairs* (Faber) is her first for a decade. A hunted war criminal from the Balkans takes refuge in an isolated village on Ireland's West coast, masquerading as a faith healer, and exercises a fatal attraction over its inhabitants. At this event in the Bookshop, O'Brien talked about the novel with *LRB* mainstay Andrew O'Hagan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ten years after the publication of his highly acclaimed and prize-winning 1599 James Shapiro moves the Shakespeare story on to 1606, the year of *King Lear*, *Macbeth* and *Antony and Cleopatra*. At the shop talking about *1606* (Faber) with Shapiro was Charles Nicholl, author of *The Reckoning*, *The Lodger* and *Traces Remain*. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Claire-Louise Bennett and Joanna Walsh met at the London Review Bookshop to read from and discuss their new books, Pond (Fitzcarraldo Editions) and Hotel (Bloomsbury). The discussion was chaired by Katherine Angel, author of Unmastered: A Book on Desire, Most Difficult to Tell (Penguin). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elena Ferrante's translator, Ann Goldstein, was joined by Joanna Biggs, Lisa Appignanesi and Alex Clark to discuss the appeal and mystery of the enigmatic Italian author. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dino Joannides, consummate food fanatic, bon viveur and author chaired a panel of writers and chefs to discuss the question: 'Is there such a thing as Italian cuisine?'. On the panel was food educator and journalist Katie Parla, historian Professor John Dickie and celebrated chef Francesco Mazzei. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In July 2012, aged thirty, Juliet Jacques underwent sex reassignment surgery—a process she chronicled with unflinching honesty in a Guardian column. Interweaving the personal with the political, Trans: A Memoir is a powerful exploration of debates that comprise trans politics in a world where, even in the liberal and feminist media, transgender identities go unacknowledged, misunderstood or worse. It is also a moving and involving portrait of an artist, tracing Jacques’s path to becoming a writer, via her explorations of film, music and art. With award-winning novelist and writer Chloe Aridjis, Jacques discussed the cruxes of writing and identity and the problems of performance and confessional writing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seventy-five years ago, on 26 September 1940, perhaps the 20th century's greatest cultural critic died in a small town on the Spanish border as he attempted to leave France, escaping the Nazis. This summer, writer and commentator Brian Dillon imagined a retracing of Benjamin's steps, tracking his life's work to that terminus in the Pyrenees. Scholar and Benjamin biographer Esther Leslie has recently edited and translated Benjamin's *On Photography* (Reaktion Books) and translated his *Archive* (Verso Books). Together they considered the extraordinary range, achievement and reach of this remarkable and hugely influential writer. The evening was hosted by Gareth Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at Oxford University and, according to Simon Jenkins 'geographer royal by appointment to the left' was at the shop to present a new edition of his *Inequality and the 1%* (Verso), in conversation with Dawn Foster. 'Dorling asks questions about inequality that fast become unswervable,' wrote Zoë Williams in the *Guardian*. 'Can we afford the superrich? Can society prosper? Can we realize our potential?' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alexandra Harris, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool University, was at the shop to talk about her latest book Weatherland (Thames and Hudson), a study of the complex relationship between English artists and writers and the infamous British weather, from Chaucer in the 14th century to John Piper in the 20th. Harris was in conversation with art historian and biographer Frances Spalding. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three of the best new poets in years were reading in the Bookshop. Helen Mort’s *[Division Street][1]* (Chatto) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize (almost unheard of for a debut collection) and the Costa Prize; Liz Berry’s *[Black Country][2]* (Chatto) won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection; and Sarah Howe’s just-released *[Loop of Jade][3]* (Chatto) is shortlisted for the same award. United by a strong sense of place, any one of them on their own would be worth turning out for – on a rare triple-bill, presenting an evening of poetry and conversation, they’re unmissable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steven Nightingale's Granada: The Light of Andalucía (Nicholas Brealey) is a rhapsodic celebration of one of Spain's most beautiful and fascinating cities, and his adoptive home. From the extraordinary flourishing of Granada under the Moors, when it became the effective cultural and philosophical capital of the known world, through the horrific ethnic cleansing of the 15th and 16th centuries, to the tragedy of Civil War and one of the city's most famous sons Federico GarcÍa Lorca in the 20th century, Nightingale's account is as captivating and digressive as the tangled streets of El Albayzín itself. Steven Nightingale was in conversation with the historian of Arabic literature Robert Irwin, whose study of Granada's most famous landmark, The Alhambra, is published by Profile. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Israeli author Etgar Keret has been described by Clive James as 'one of the most important writers alive', by Salman Rushdie as 'A brilliant writer ...The voice of the next generation' and by the New York Times as 'A genius.' Keret is mainly celebrated for his short – often very short – stories, but he has also written graphic novels, and screenplays for film and television. Etgar Keret joined us at the shop to read from and talk about his latest book The Seven Good Years (Granta), a darkly absurd memoir of the author's recent past that ruminates on everything from his three-year-old son's impending military service to the terrorist mindset behind 'Angry Birds', and whose anti-hero is a dogged telemarketer who seems likely to pursue Keret to, and possibly beyond, the grave. He was in conversation with the novelist Naomi Alderman, whose most recent novel The Liars' Gospel is published by Penguin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two very different books, Iain Sinclair’s Black Apples of Gower and Brian Catling’s The Vorrh share a measure of common ground: the Cave of Origin (in which all narratives fester and cook). The two writers discuss and read from their work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the past two decades Carcanet’s New Poetries anthologies have been discovering the best new poets in English, and have provided readers with their first taste of authors such as Sophie Hannah, Patrick McGuinness, David Morley and Sinéad Morrissey. To celebrate the publication of New Poetries VI we hosted an evening of readings by some of the featured poets; Jee Leong Koh, Rebecca Watts, Joey Connolly, Vahni Capildeo and (our very own) John Clegg. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alice in Wonderland is 150 years old this year. To celebrate her anniversary we have invited Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and Fellow of Magdalen College, to talk about his latest book The Story of Alice (Harvill Secker), a triple biography of Caroll's Alice books, of their subject Alice Liddell, and their creator Charles Dodgson. Douglas-Fairhurst will be in conversation with Vanessa Tait, author of The Looking Glass House (Atlantic), and the great grand-daughter of Alice Liddell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In On Elizabeth Bishop novelist and essayist Colm Tóibín provides a deeply personal meditation on one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, and one who has had a powerful influence on his own work. ‘Above all,’ writes Saskia Hamilton, ‘he honours Bishop’s exact ways with language, and his sifting of what is said from what is unsaid in her poetry illuminates his own watchful and patient art as a novelist.’ Tóibín joined us at the shop to talk about Elizabeth Bishop with the poet and critic Ruth Padel whose most recent collection, Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth, was published by Chatto in 2014. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'The more conscious a work of art is of its audience, the more curated it becomes.'‘Curation’ has become a buzzword, applied to everything from music festivals to artisanal cheese. Inside the art world, the curator reigns supreme, acting as the face of high-profile group shows in a way that can eclipse the contributions of individual artists. At the same time, curatorial-studies programs continue to grow, and businesses are adopting curation as a means of adding value to content. David Balzer joined us at the Bookshop in conversation with Zoe Pilger, author of Eat My Heart Out (Serpent's Tail). The pair discussed Balzer's new book, Curationism (Pluto Press), and questioned: what is a curator, exactly? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alberto Manguel is a Canadian writer, translator, editor and critic, but most of all, he is a reader. In his latest book Curiosity (Yale) Manguel guides us through the history of questioning using the authors he has particularly valued in his own reading life – among them Aquinas, Montaigne, Lewis Carroll, Rachel Carson and, pre-eminently, Dante. Alberto Manguel joined us at the Bookshop to speak about his book, and about the pleasures, dangers and rewards of reading, with John Sutherland, Emeritus Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The May General Election looks likely to be the closest in a generation. But what happens after it? The gap between the two main parties is narrower than ever, and their share of the vote in the election is set to reach a new low. What hope is there that in these conditions, a progressive agenda will re-emerge in British political life? What forces – economic, social, environmental – are likely to shape the landscape of British politics over the next five years, or the next twenty? Can the centre hold, or will we see a fragmentation and radicalisation of politics? Aaron Bastani, founder of Novaramedia.com, Jeremy Gilbert, professor of cultural and political theory at University of East London and author of Common Ground: Democracy and Collectivity in the Age of Individualism and Zoe Williams, Guardian columnist and author of Get it Together: Why We Deserve Better Politics joinined Paul Myerscough of the London Review of Books to discuss the future of British politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elena Poniatowska’s work, in both fiction and journalism, has always been devoted to giving a voice to the voiceless, the disenfranchised and the oppressed. Her most famous book La noche de Tlatelolco (1971) dealt with the massacre of up to 300 protesters in Mexico City in 1968. Others of her books have been recreations of the lives of ordinary Mexicans, such as the victims of the 1985 earthquake, and of well-known artists and radicals such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti. Her most recent novel Leonora, recently translated for Serpent’s Tail by Amanda Hopkinson, is based on the life of the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington who sought and found refuge in Mexico, the country where she created most of her finest work and where she died in 2011. Poniatowska will be appearing at the shop to talk about her career with the poet and publisher Michael Schmidt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer and film-maker Jonathan Meades joined us at the Bookshop to present and discuss *Pedigree Mongrel* (Test Centre), a new album composed of specially-recorded readings from his books *Pompey* (1993), *Museum Without Walls* (2012) and *An Encyclopaedia of Myself* (2014). Combined with the distinctive soundscapes of Mordant Music, *Pedigree Mongrel* is both a unique retrospective of Meades’s fictional and essayistic writings, and a new and significant standalone work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Short stories don't have to be like short stories. They can be experiences, visitations, slices of events or part revelations of a truth or a lie. Kirsty Gunn and Deborah Levy joined us at the Bookshop to discuss how they go about making up their own short fiction and the influence of modernism in their recent collections, Infidelities and Black Vodka. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katharine Norbury's affecting memoir The Fish Ladder (Bloomsbury) deals with grief, recovery and the redemptive power of stories and journeys. Abandoned as a baby in a Liverpool convent, Norbury was brought up by loving adoptive parents. As an adult, and having recently suffered a miscarriage, she embarked with her nine-year-old daughter on a journey to trace a river from sea to source. The novelist and critic Amit Chaudhuri has described her book about that journey as an 'extraordinary exploration of how we use narrative to understand our place in the world'. Katharine Norbury was joined at the shop by novelist, poet and fellow memoirist Blake Morrison for an evening of literary conversation. Blake Morrison's many books include two masterpieces of family literature And When Did You Last See Your Father? (Granta) and Things My Mother Never Told Me (Vintage). His latest title Shingle Street (Chatto) is his first full-length poetry collection for nearly 30 years. Set on and around the Suffolk coast, it handles matters personal, political and ecological with Morrison's characteristic honesty and verbal dexterity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patrick Cockburn, regular contributor to the LRB and Middle East correspondent for the Independent, is, according to Seymour Hersh, 'Quite simply, the best Western journalist at work in Iraq today'. His latest book The Rise of Islamic State: ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution (Verso) describes the origins of the new rebel state in Iraq and Syria, setting it in the context of the region's turbulent recent history, and reflecting on its possible futures. Cockburn joined us at the Bookshop to discuss his book, and its implications, with Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4 News international editor and author of Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Islamic scholar Robert Irwin joined us at the Bookshop in discussion with mythographer Marina Warner about a groundbreaking new translation of Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange, and its implications for our understanding of the classical Arabic storytelling tradition. The 18 medieval tales collected here (by Penguin Classics), probably originating in the 9th and 10th centuries, are the earliest examples of Arabic stories known to have survived. A few of the stories were collected and adapted, centuries after their composition, in The Arabian Nights. The remainder have never before appeared in English Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Kraus is the author of four novels, most recently Summer of Hate, and two books of art and cultural criticism. The New York Observer describes her as 'the art world's favorite novelist,' and her recent monograph, Lost Properties, about conceptual art and economic activism, was published for the 2014 Whitney Biennial. She is a co-editor of the independent Semiotexte, with Hedi El Kholti and Sylvere Lotringer, and founded the Native Agents imprint that initially published first-person female writing. Torpor, her third novel, will be re-published in a critical edition this winter. She teaches at the European Graduate School, and is presently writing a critical biography of the American writer Kathy Acker. On a rare visit to London, she spoke with Zoe Pilger, author of Eat My Heart Out (Serpent's Tail) about schizophrenic projects, male muses and wilful amateurism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Ellroy’s hardboiled, idiosyncratic explorations of Los Angeles police corruption and midcentury Washington power politics have earned him a worldwide following; his new novel, Perfidia (Cornerstone), is the first in a new trilogy featuring some familiar characters, including the gleefully amoral Dudley Smith. Ellroy joined us at the Bookshop in conversation with the American novelist David Vann, whose most recent book is Goat Mountain (Windmill). Warning: contains strong language. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writing about place – a sub-genre of travel writing that subverts it by being about staying put, rather than moving – has been enjoying an extraordinary vogue of late. Three of the genre’s finest practitioners joined us at the shop to discuss its significance and future. Philip Marsden’s Rising Ground (Granta) explores the small part of Cornwall to which he has recently transplanted himself; Julian Hoffman, in The Small Heart of Things (Georgia) finds home around the shores of Greece's Prespa lakes, and Ken Worpole in The New English Landscape, a collaboration with the photographer Jason Orton (Field Station), proposes a new paradigm for topographical beauty based on the post-industrial landscape of the Thames estuary. The evening was hosted by Gareth Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When I was in eighth grade my history teacher wrote on my report card: “She only does what she wants to do.” She thought that was a bad thing, and it’s not.Jane Smiley won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres, a retelling of King Lear transplanted to 20th-century Iowa. She joined us at the shop to read from her latest novel, Some Luck (Mantle), the first book in a projected trilogy, which returns to rural Iowa in the 1920s. Charlotte Mendelson wrote of the book: ‘So here it is at last, the Great American Novel and, in retrospect, it seems obvious that the great Jane Smiley would be the one who wrote it.’ Jane Smiley spoke in conversation with Alex Clark. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our top 1% take 15% of all income. That’s the highest share of anywhere in Europe. Our bottom fifth are the poorest in Europe. In Inequality and the 1% (Verso) Danny Dorling (Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography of the School of Geography and the Environment of the University of Oxford, or, as Simon Jenkins more pithily put it, 'geographer royal by appointment to the left'), goes in pursuit of the latest research into how the lives and ideas of the richest 1 per cent affect the remaining 99 per cent of us. The findings are shocking. Inequality in the UK is increasing as more and more people are driven towards the poverty line, with profound implications for education, health and life expectancy. Danny Dorling joined us at the Bookshop in conversation with Kate Pickett, Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York, and co-author (with Richard Wilkinson) of the ground-breaking The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 'The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It' (Allen Lane) Owen Jones analyses the people and institutions that govern our lives – government, the media, the banks and the accountancy firms – and exposes usually invisible networks that bind them together. Far from working on our behalf, as they often claim, these institutions are, Owen Jones argues, the biggest threat to our democracy today. Owen joined Paul Myerscough at the Bookshop to present his argument, and to debate its implications. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leading sociologist of art [Sarah Thornton][1] goes behind the scenes with 33 living artists including Ai Weiwei, Maurizio Cattelan, Cindy Sherman and Isaac Julien to ask the apparently simple but vexing question, ‘What is an artist?' Thornton joined us at the Bookshop to talk about her new book, *[33 Artists in 3 Acts][2]* (Granta), with the celebrated artist Isaac Julien. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In what may well be the largest work of public art in history, Turner prize-winner Mark Wallinger placed a uniquely designed labyrinth in each of London's 270 Underground stations. The project was commissioned to mark the 150th anniversary of London Underground. His extraordinary art-work is documented in Labyrinth: A Journey Through London’s Underground, published by Art / Books in association with Art on the Underground and with contributions from Christian Wolmar, Marina Warner and Will Self. Mark Wallinger came to the Bookshop to talk about the project with Will Self. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vasily Grossman, now widely regarded as the greatest Russian novelist of the 20th century, died 50 years ago this month. The author of the remarkable Everything Flows and Life and Fate (the only manuscript ever to be itself arrested by the Soviet authorities), Grossman was a crucial witness to the multiple horrors of the period. He did not live to see his greatest books published. This was a unique evening of readings and discussion: Robert Chandler, Grossman’s finest translator, reported back from the first Grossman conference in Russia; historian Antony Beevor and journalist John Lloyd provided commentary; and Janet Suzman gave a reading of extracts and stories. The panel went on to discuss Grossman’s extraordinary achievement and his legacy both in Russia and internationally, in a conversation chaired by Gareth Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Meek came to the bookshop to talk about his new book, Private Island (Verso), a scathing assessment of the last two decades’ privatisation of public assets, ranging from electricity to postal services to municipal housing. What has been lost? Who has benefited? And what’s been the impact on Britain’s wider polity? In the words of John Lanchester, ‘some of it will make you sad, some of it will make you furious, but you are guaranteed to be left feeling that you understand this country much better.’ James Meek was in conversation with journalist Dawn Foster. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Self’s latest novel Shark explores the hidden history of the late 20th century, taking in the American invasion of Cambodia, the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and reckless experimentation with psychotropic drugs. Self joined us at the Bookshop to read from Shark and take on questions from the audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six autobiographical novels, published in Norway between 2009 and 2011 under the series title *Min Kamp* (‘My Struggle’) have excited controversy and critical acclaim in equal measure. Knausgaard’s unflinching and almost uncritical laying on of detail has led some critics to call him ‘the Norwegian Proust’. ‘There is something ceaselessly compelling about Knausgaard’s book’, wrote James Wood in the *New Yorker*. ‘Even when I was bored, I was interested.’ Karl Ove Knausgaard was joined by Andrew O'Hagan at Saint George's Church, Bloomsbury for a discussion of writing and the boundaries of autobiography. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ali Smith has been described by Kate Atkinson as ‘one of the few contemporary writers ploughing a genuinely modernist furrow.’ Her latest novel *how to be both* continues her almost reckless experimentation with form and content, adapting the artistic techniques of fresco painting to literature in telling a dual-time tale of art, love, injustice and redemption. Ali came to the Bookshop to give a reading from her novel, and went on to discuss it with Alex Clark of the *Guardian*. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'Who has the temerity to call themselves a philosopher? The word “philosopher" is an honorific. It should be bestowed upon you by others.' Lars Iyer’s latest novel Wittgenstein Jr (Melville House) concerns the academic career of a group of Cambridge philosophy students, deeply under the influence of their teacher, whom they have nicknamed ‘Wittgenstein’. ‘Wittgenstein’s’ austere, exacting philosophy provides a tragicomic counterpoint to the chemical excesses of student life as the novel moves towards an unexpectedly hopeful and touching conclusion. Lars Iyer joined us at the Bookshop to read from his work, and to discuss it with the philosopher and Wittgenstein biographer Ray Monk. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘It's a bit mysterious, but somehow the emotion I feel at the heart of whatever I'm writing comes through, usually by my not insisting on it.’ Lydia Davis made a rare London appearance at the Bookshop to read from and discuss her unique body of work. She spoke with Adam Thirlwell about titles, translation and small thoughts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Helen Macdonald and Tim Dee came to the Bookshop to talk about birds, and about writing about birds. Radio producer Tim Dee propelled himself into the front rank of British nature writing in 2009 with his remarkable birdwatching memoir The Running Sky, followed in 2013 by Four Fields. Helen Macdonald, writer, poet, naturalist, conservationist, historian and some-time falconer, has recently published H is for Hawk which recounts how, under the literary tutelage of T.H. White and in part as a strategy for overcoming personal grief, she acquired and trained a goshawk of her own. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the world commemorates the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War historian Douglas Newton recounts the hidden history of Britain’s decision to enter the conflict. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, including the private papers and correspondence of leading politicians of the time, Newton pays particular attention to the widespread and vehement opposition to the war, both inside parliament and in the country at large, and reveals how Asquith, Edward Grey and Winston Churchill colluded, against the wishes and instincts of many of their parliamentary colleagues, to bring the country into the war, by any means necessary. Douglas Newton was in conversation with Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers, on 4 August, the hundredth anniversary of Britain's declaration of war on Germany. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nigel Smith, currently Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature at Princeton, was in conversation about the thought, literature and legacy of the Ranters with Sir Stephen Sedley, formerly a judge in the Court of Appeal, frequent contributor to the LRB and an acknowledged authority on the history of English radicalism. Folk singer Leon Rosselson performed two of his songs at the event: 'Abiezer Coppe' and 'The Diggers'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best known in Britain for her award-winning novel Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels is also an acclaimed poet. Her latest collection, Correspondences, shortlisted for the 2014 Griffin Prize, is an extraordinary and utterly sui generis collaboration with painter Bernice Eisenstein. In a unique, accordion-style format, Michaels’s resonant book-length poem, a historical and personal elegy, unfolds on one side of the book’s pages. On the other, and in unison, Bernice Eisenstein's haunting portraits depict the 20th century writers and thinkers the poem summons: Paul Celan, Nelly Sachs, W.G. Sebald, Anna Akhmatova, Primo Levi and others, each accompanied by quotations that illuminate the deeper connections among them. Anne Michaels joined us for an evening of readings and discussion in conversation with Gareth Evans, publisher of Railtracks, Michaels’s meditative dialogue with John Berger, produced in association with the bookshop in 2011. With thanks to Ledbury Poetry Festival. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geoff Dyer’s latest book Another Great Day at Sea (Visual Editions), illustrated with the photographs of Chris Steele-Perkins, recounts daily life aboard an American aircraft carrier the USS George H. W. Bush, on which Dyer spent time as a kind of writer in residence. Philip Hoare wrote of it in the Guardian: ‘This is beautiful writing. It is urgent, funny, utterly in-the-moment and achingly honest. … Like the captain, like the crew, like the ship, Dyer's superb book constantly reiterates its excellence. It virtually stands to attention on its own.’ Geoff Dyer came to the Bookshop to speak about the project with Chris Mitchell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leslie Jamison’s essays deal with illness, art, running, loss, the female body and everything else besides. She joined us at the shop to discuss her work with the author Olivia Laing. The conversation touched on artificial sweeteners, the essay as a form and the difficulties of writing about pain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'The first thing you find out in any textbook about maps is that they don't work. There's no such thing as a good map.'What is a map? And what is a map’s relation to the real world? In Mapping it Out: An Alternative Atlas of Contemporary Cartographies (Thames and Hudson) a stellar cast of modern artists, architects, scientists and theorists, including Yoko Ono, Mona Hatoum, Tim Berners-Lee, Anish Kapoor and Damien Hirst, reimagine, vertiginously, the visual techniques we use for representing space, time and reality. Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator, art critic and the originator of the project, joined us at the Bookshop in conversation with the novelist Tom McCarthy, who provided the introduction to the book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Film-maker, graphic designer, animator, cartoonist, photographer, internet and new media pioneer, installationist, novelist, critic, publisher – the French artist Chris Marker, who died in 2012 on the day of his 91st birthday, was as versatile as he was prolific. He is best known for his film masterpieces Sans Soleil and La Jetée (the inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys) but his influence has been felt, perhaps even more keenly since his death, in almost every field of artistic endeavour. In an evening of readings, screenings and discussion, Chris Darke, critic and co-curator of the first retrospective of Chris Marker’s work across all media, was in conversation with the acclaimed cultural commentator and essayist Brian Dillon about Marker’s writing in all forms, from little known novels and short stories through essays and critical pieces to his outstanding film scripts. The evening was hosted by Gareth Evans, Film Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery. The event was presented with thanks to, and in association with, the Whitechapel Gallery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Almost a century after Einstein first proposed it, the full ramifications of the General Theory of Relativity are still being debated. Pedro Ferreira is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and his new book The Perfect Theory brings to life both the science and the scientific controversies which have surrounded the General Theory since its conception. Pedro was at the Bookshop in conversation with Marcus du Sautoy, who wrote of him: ‘You couldn't ask for a better guide to the outer reaches of the universe and the inner workings of the minds of those who've navigated it.’ Their discussion ranged over the origins and implications of the theory - from black holes to time travel - and explored where research into general relativity might take us in the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Siri Hustvedt’s latest novel The Blazing World (Sceptre) artist Harriet Burden, consumed by fury at the lack of recognition she has received from the New York art establishment, embarks on an experiment: she hides her identity behind three male fronts who exhibit her work as their own, to universal acclaim. ‘All intellectual endeavours’ Burden herself remarks pugnaciously at the novel’s opening ‘fare better in the mind of the crowd when the crowd knows that somewhere behind the great work … it can locate a cock and a pair of balls.’ Siri Hustvedt was joined in conversation by the art critic Sarah Thornton, author of Seven Days in the Art World. The pair discussed the book's themes of art, gender bias and subterfuge, lighting upon neuroscience, the nature of celebrity and wine-tasting along the way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.