London Review Bookshop Podcast

John Berger came to the Bookshop to celebrate the life and work of Aimé Césaire on the occasion of Archipelago's reissue of Césaire's long poem Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1936). Born in Martinique in 1913, Césaire was one of the founding voices of the négritude movement in Francophone literature. He considered this work his “break into the forbidden,” at once a cry of rebellion and a celebration of black identity. The English translation by John Berger and Anya Bostock retains the visceral, lyric energy of the French original. John Berger opened the evening with a reading from Return to My Native Land, and was then joined in conversation by the poet and translator David Constantine. The pair discussed Césaire's work, exploring what it means to write in one's mother tongue and the nature of hope. Berger concluded the evening with a reading of Peter Blackman's 'Stalingrad'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Javier Cercas rose to fame in the English-speaking world with The Soldiers of Salamis which won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2004 and was one of our early bestsellers. He continued his exploration of modern Spanish history with The Anatomy of a Moment, a work of non-fiction that investigated the failed coup of 1981. Now he returns to fiction with Outlaws, a fast-paced and morally complex tale of disaffected youth set in the period just after the end of the Franco dictatorship. Javier was joined in conversation by Paul Preston, Príncipe de Asturias Professor of Contemporary Spanish Studies at the LSE and author of The Spanish Holocaust. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quoting from the letters, diaries, reviews, and essays of novelists and drawing on their biographies, Schmidt’s The Novel – A Biography (Harvard) invites us into the creative dialogues between authors and between books, and suggests how these dialogues have shaped the development of the novel in English. Michael Schmidt spoke with Michael Wood, author and regular contributor to the London Review of Books, in a conversation chaired by novelist Kirsty Gunn. The discussion covered the 13-year process of writing the book, the social function of the novel, an appalling misprint involving Martin Amis and favourite reads old and new. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'The tutored and passionate eye of the director holds the space, which otherwise would be without boundary, indiscriminate and endless.' Since making her first film at the age of 14, Sally Potter has established herself as one of Britain's leading directors – of dance and theatre as well as of cinema. In her new book, Naked Cinema (Faber),she strips bare the art of directing actors for the camera. Potter has always been noted for her extraordinary rapport with performers, and for her ability to coax extraordinary performances out of them. Here she leads the reader through the film-making process, from casting to screening, always placing the actor at the heart of her account. Concrete examples are provided by a series of revealing interviews with actors she has worked with, including Julie Christie, with whom she worked on her first feature film The Gold Diggers, Annette Bening (Ginger and Rosa) and Jude Law who dragged up for her in Rage. Sally spoke about her book and her career with Gareth Evans, The Whitechapel Gallery's curator of film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following the hugely enjoyable launch event last year for [*The Flamethrowers*][1], Rachel Kushner returned to the shop to mark the UK publication (by Vintage) of her first novel [*Telex From Cuba*][2], set among the American expatriate community on the eve of Castro's revolution. Rachel was in conversation with Robert Collins, Deputy Editor of the *Sunday Times* and an early champion of *The Flamethrowers*. The pair explored the history of United Fruit Yellow, how best to throw a hand grenade, and the mysterious character of Rachel K... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In his new book, 'Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism' (Profile), David Harvey unravels the paradoxes at the heart of capitalism – its drive, for example, to accumulate capital beyond the means of investing it; its imperative to use labour-saving technologies that leave consumers bereft of adequate means of consumption; and its compulsion to exploit nature to the point of extinction. Such are the tensions that underpin the persistence of mass unemployment, the downward spirals of Europe and Japan, and China’s and India’s unstable lurches in uncertain directions. Not that these contradictions are all destructive in the short term: they produce the crises through which capitalism has historically reconstituted itself in new guises. But can capitalism survive in the long run by staggering from crisis to crisis? David was in conversation with Owen Jones, author of 'Chavs' (Verso). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To celebrate the publication of The Bloomsbury Cookbook (Thames & Hudson), we held an exclusive evening at the Bookshop, a stone’s throw away from the kitchens and dining rooms where the Bloomsbury group would converge. Author Jans Ondaatje Rolls was in conversation with artist Cressida Bell on the world of the Bloomsbury group. The talk was accompanied by a menu of recipes and cocktails inspired by the book, courtesy of Terry Glover of the London Review Cake Shop; the evening opened with a cocktail devised by Vanessa Bell, followed by salmon mayonnaise, a good deal of truffle cream and the potent Green Dragon Quaglino.... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2010 Nick Hunt set out on an epic walk in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor, across the whole European continent ‘from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn.’ Relying, like his hero, on the hospitality of strangers and using Patrick Leigh Fermor’s writings as his only guide, Hunt crossed Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, partly to see how much had changed, and how much hadn’t, but mainly in order to have a ‘good old-fashioned adventure.’ His account of his journey Walking the Woods and the Water is published by Nicholas Brealey. Nick Hunt was in conversation with Patrick Leigh Fermor’s friend and biographer Artemis Cooper, who in 2013 worked with Colin Thubron to complete Paddy’s final work The Broken Road. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May-Lan Tan and Will Eaves joined us at the Bookshop for the launch of their respective books, Things to Make and Break (since shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award) and The Absent Therapist (since shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize), both published by CB Editions. The authors treated us to a selection of passages from their work, featuring night-schools, spanking clubs and ex-girlfriends. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since their last appearance at the LRB Bookshop, the poets of New Poetries V have been busy: five debut collections (and one forthcoming), prestigious awards, general excitement. Reunited at last, Tara Bergin, OIi Hazzard, Helen Tookey, Rory Waterman, Julith Jedamus and Lucy Tunstall read from their new volumes, in an evening that marked out the territory for the next generation of British poetry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam Foulds’s latest novel, In The Wolf’s Mouth (Jonathan Cape), expands on the themes of violence, conflict and the distortions of history that have characterised his work since 2007’s The Broken Word. Set in Sicily as the Second World War moves into its endgame, the novel is a vivid study of the moral compromises and historical elisions forced on us by war and its aftermath. Adam was in conversation with Andrew Motion, the former poet laureate, whose most recent book is Silver: Return to Treasure Island (Vintage). Daniel Marc Janes reviewed this event for Litro Magazine: 'Though Foulds treats questions of humans’ capacity for violence[...] it would be wrong, Motion suggests, to overlook the quiet optimism of works such as The Broken Word and In the Wolf’s Mouth. These works are concerned not just with violence but with reconstruction.' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s memoir A Sense of Direction is an account of three pilgrimages – the Camino de Santiago, a tour of Buddhist temples on the island of Shikoku, and a journey to the tomb of a Hasidic Rabbi in the Ukraine – undertaken in the wake of a family crisis. Gideon was at the shop to talk about pilgrimage, writing and reconciliation with Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be? and Christian Lorentzen, senior editor at the London Review of Books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author Derek Jarman died on 19 February 1994. To mark the 20th anniversary of his death, we hosted an evening of readings and discussion. Our focus was a very little-known but crucial part of Jarman’s work, his poetry, and in particular the volume 'A Finger in the Fishes Mouth', unavailable for over 40 years and now reprinted in facsimile by the estimable Test Centre. Derek's partner Keith Collins and his biographer Tony Peake were joined by Ali Smith and Sophie Mayer to consider the poetic in Derek's oeuvre and to read from the collection. In the spirit of collaboration for which Derek was renowned, the reading was also offered to the audience, so that the whole collection was heard on this most poignant of anniversaries. The evening was hosted by Gareth Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark the paperback publication of Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author Philip 'Leviathan' Hoare’s acclaimed new book The Sea Inside, we held an evening exploring the wondrous world of whales. One of our best non-fiction writers and a fine broadcaster, Hoare wrote and presented the BBC Arena film The Hunt for Moby-Dick and directed three films for BBC’s ‘Whale Night’. He was also co-curator, with Angela Cockayne, of the Moby-Dick Big Read . Artist film-maker Jessica Sarah Rinland focuses on whales in both long and short works. She presented a screening of her film A Boiled Skeleton, depicting the journey of a bottlenose whale, caught in 1860 and currently stored in the basement of UCL’s Grant Museum. Ex-whaler John Burton read live from the newspaper article that covered the whale’s journey. The evening was hosted by Gareth Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'The past is a mosaic; we make it out of present materials.'Jonathan Lethem’s latest book Dissident Gardens (Cape) tells, in a ‘torrent of potent voices, searing ironies, popculture allusions, and tragicomic complexities’ the story of three generations of a radical New York family, at the same time painting a vivid portrait of the American Century. Jonathan Lethem was in conversation with Benjamin Markovits, author of A Quiet Adjustment and named by Granta as one of their Best Young British Novelists of 2013. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Self was at the shop to discuss the work of Guy Debord, and in particular The Society of the Spectacle, a 1967 work which offered an eerily accurate prediction of our mediated, image-saturated times. Self's introduction to the new Notting Hill edition beathes fresh life into the original 1970 translation. He writes: 'Never before has Debord’s work seemed quite as relevant as it does now, in the permanent present that he so accurately foretold. Open it, read it, be amazed ...’ Self was joined in discussion by film-maker Patrick Keiller, whose recent book The View from the Train explores the cities and landscapes of modern Britain. The event was chaired by Matthew Beaumont, Senior Lecturer at UCL and editor of Restless Cities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a year that might well see the beginning of the end of the United Kingdom, one of our foremost historians of national identity provides an analysis of the various Acts of Union that have until now more or less held the country together. In her latest book Acts of Union, Acts of Disunion (Profile), published to coincide with a 15-part Radio 4 series, she draws on art, architecture and literature as well as political history to ask what Britishness has meant in the past, what it means now, and what it might mean in the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In his second collaboration with landscape photographer Jason Orton, Ken Worpole – ‘for many years one of the shrewdest and sharpest observers of the English social landscape’ ('The Independent') – examines the shifting perspective of England’s landscape aesthetic in the latter half of the 20th century, away from the rural interior towards the more disrupted landscapes of East Anglia and the Thames estuary. Listen to Ken Worpole in conversation about 'The New English Landscape' (Field Station) and its implications for landscape architecture, topography and psychogeography with author Rachel Lichtenstein and chaired by Gareth Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In American Smoke (Hamish Hamilton), the third part of a loose trilogy of topographical ruminations that began with Hackney: That Rose-red Empire and Ghost Milk, Iain Sinclair follows the traces of the writers of the American Beat generation – Kerouac, Burroughs, Charles Olson, Gary Snyder, Malcolm Lowry and more – in a journey that takes in the Old West, Mexico, volcanoes, murder, and a good deal else besides. He was at the shop to talk about the book with writer, editor and curator Gareth Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gillian Darley and David McKie’s study of Nairn - Ian Nairn: Words in Place – published by Five Leaves, reintroduces to a new generation an architectural critic whose work has influenced writers and critics such as J.G. Ballard, Will Self, Iain Sinclair and Jonathan Meades, who once described Nairn as ‘a great poet of the metropolis’. Gillian Darley and David McKie discussed Ian Nairn’s life and work, and Owen Hatherley, author of A New Kind of Bleak and A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain chaired this discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Polish poet, novelist, painter and translator Jacek Dehnel appeared at the shop in conversation with his translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones.Antonia Lloyd-Jones is a full-time translator of Polish literature and this evening was the occasion of her being presented with the Found in Translation Award for the second time (given by the Polish Book Institute, the Polish Cultural Institute London and the Polish Cultural Institute New York). Jacek talked with Antonia about how his writing reflects and interacts with literary and art historical tradition, as well as Polish culture, history and politics. This event was supported by the Polish Cultural Institute London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Safe Area Gorazde, Palestine, and Footnotes in Gaza, graphic novelist Joe Sacco introduced to his chosen genre a politically charged seriousness that changed it for ever. In his latest work he turns to the past with a harrowing depiction of war in the trenches. To mark the publication of The Great War (Jonathan Cape), Joe Sacco appeared at the shop with David Boyd Haycock, whose group biography of five First World War artists A Crisis of Brilliance was published in 2009. Their conversation provided a compelling exploration of art, journalism and violence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Philosopher Simon Critchley took on Shakespeare's Hamlet, and our abiding preoccupation with it, via a series of classic interpretations, notably those of Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Hegel, Freud, Lacan and Nietzsche. The discussion was chaired by Dr Shahidha Bari of Queen Mary, University of London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a rare UK performance Canadian poet Anne Carson read from her recent verse novel Red Doc>, a sequel to her 1998 Autobiography of Red. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The inaugural discussion of a new series to commemorate Frank Kermode's highly influential work saw Jacqueline Rose and Michael Wood, among others, ranging freely and informally across his contributions to criticism in numerous fields, from apocalyptic theory to contemporary fiction. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What would happen if a story were successively translated by a series of novelists, each one working only from the version immediately prior to their own – the aim being to preserve that story’s style? Adam Thirlwell's Multiples set out to explore this idea. To celebrate its UK publication, several writers from the anthology - Tash Aw, A.S. Byatt, Joe Dunthorne, Adam Foulds, Ma Jian and Francesco Pacifico - joined Adam Thirlwell at the Bookshop to talk about the project. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Kushner isn’t only a novelist. She is also a regular contributor of sharp criticism to such free-thinking American publications as Artforum, and however good her stories and sparkling her prose, she has other aims in her novel too. Its subject is inequality – economic, social, sexual – but the art world, with its attendant performances, is always there to complicate it." Naomi Fry (LRB 18 July 2013) Rachel Kushner came to the bookshop to talk about her new book, 'The Flamethrowers'. Set in the art world of the 1970s, the novel explores themes of gender, terrorism and authenticity. She spoke in conversation with Nina Power, senior lecturer in philosophy at Roehampton University and the author of 'One-Dimensional Woman'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author Joshua Cohen came to the shop celebrate the publication of Attention! a (short) history' (Notting Hill). He was joined by writer and critic Brian Dillon for a dicussion of the cultural history of the concept of attention: an evening of conversation which ranged across centuries and subjects, from Saint Augustine to amphetamines. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Distinguished critic and translator Edith Grossman was in conversation with Daniel Hahn of the British Centre for Literary Translation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

China Miéville read from his work, and discussed some of the issues raised by it with Ben Eastham, co-founder and editor of The White Review. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sheila Heti was in conversation about writing, life and the future of fiction with the critic and experimental novelist Adam Thirlwell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Marcus talks to Christian Lorentzen about his novel The Flame Alphabet, as well as previous works The Age of Wire and String and Notable American Women. Topics covered include online fiction magazines, mathematics, creating a religion, why writing courses are unfairly criticised, the influence of Borges, encyclopaedias as a source of literary delight and ‘Reader’s Cream’, a lotion Marcus is developing to improve reader sensitivity. Marcus’s latest book is Leaving the Sea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Turkish writer Kaya Genç discussed with Maureen Freely how his writing reflects and interacts with literary traditions, as well as Turkish culture, history and politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Symmons Roberts has been described by Jeanette Winterson as ‘a religious poet for a secular age’ and by Les Murray as ‘a poet for the new chastened, unenforcing age of faith that has just dawned.’ His latest collection Drysalter (Jonathan Cape) is a series of 150 poems each of 15 lines and takes its name from the ancient trade in powders, chemicals, salts and dyes, while drawing formal inspiration from the Book of Psalms. Michael will be at the shop to read from his work, and to discuss his poetry and its inspirations with fellow poet and essayist Jean Sprackland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Wood visited the Bookshop to talk about his new collection of pieces, The Fun Stuff, and to discuss life, literature, and the role of the critic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Translators Adriana Hunter and Polly McLean shared their versions of a specially-commissioned short story by the French writer Emma Becker, with Sarah Ardizzone in the chair and Emma Becker herself on the panel. The event explored the particular challenges of translating erotic fiction, discussing the decisions the translators made about voice and vocabulary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our first Literary Friendships event brought together Colm Tóibín with his friend the writer László Krasznahorkai. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Glyn Maxwell offers us a guide to reading poetry in seven chapters: ‘White’, ‘Black’, ‘Form’, ‘Pulse’, ‘Chime’, ‘Space’ and ‘Time’. Described by Katy Evans-Bush in Poetry Review as being ‘as highly charged as a stick of poetry dynamite’, On Poetry sold out its first printing in less than a week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our first Live Translation event of the 2012-13 season explored the work of Guatemalan author Eduardo Halfon, named one of the best young Latin American writers by the Hay Festival of Bogotá. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark the publication of the paperback edition of Mother, Brother, Lover, Jarvis Cocker joined us at the shop for a conversation with the novelist Jon McGregor – ‘Cocker’s lyrics were what made me want to tell stories’, McGregor wrote in the Guardian’s ‘My Hero’ column. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our International Translation Day event celebrated the distinguished career of Anthea Bell, who was in conversation with Daniel Hahn of the British Centre for Literary Translation. Literary translators are often compared to ventriloquists, but few have as many and varied voices as Anthea Bell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Self leads a panel discussion about questions thrown up by new technology, with special reference to ‘Kafka's Wound’, the digital literary essay he produced in collaboration with the LRB for The Space, a project from the Arts Council and BBC digital arts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teju Cole came to the Bookshop to discuss his first novel, Open City. The book, which follows a young Nigerian-German psychiatrist in New York City five years after 9/11, was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won both the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Internationaler Literaturpreis. Cole spoke in conversation with writer and journalist Max Liu. Their discussion took in the cities of Lagos, London and New York; W.G. Sebald; twitter as a literary medium; and the disturbing revelation which closes the novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'To the River' is the story of the Ouse, the Sussex river in which Virginia Woolf drowned in 1941. One midsummer week over sixty years later, Olivia Laing walked Woolf’s river from source to sea. The result is a passionate investigation into how history resides in a landscape - and how ghosts never quite leave the places they love. Olivia came to the bookshop to talk about 'To the River' with Jean Sprackland, who won the 2012 Portico Prize for non-fiction for 'Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach', a series of meditations prompted by walking on the wild estuarial beaches of Ainsdale Sands between Blackpool and Liverpool. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robert Macfarlane, perhaps the most accomplished exponent of the ‘New Nature Writing’, was at the Bookshop to describe his journeys, and to discuss what they can tell us about our nation, its history, present and people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two of Britain’s most eminent female writers discussed literature, fiction, women, the short story and much else besides. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Award-winning Swedish crime writers Karin Alvtegen and Håkan Nesser, chaired by Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen, lecturer in Scandinavian Literature at UCL, explore the power behind crime fiction's gripping narratives, its incisive portrayal of society and its confrontation with ideas of good and evil in a shades-of-grey world, where simple moral certainties aren't so easy to find. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two translators – Shaun Whiteside and Mike Mitchell – went head to head with their versions of a previously untranslated work. Novelist Daniel Kehlmann provided the challenge, with the event chaired by Daniel Hahn, interim director of the BCLT and chair of the Translators Association. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Novelists Daniel Kehlmann and Benjamin Markovits share interests in their work in biography, genius and failure, charisma and the question of how to give voice to real historical figures but have differences too; both make fuel for a very interesting conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writing in El Pa’s, Jordi Gracia described Os libros arden mal as 'a novel that could have been history or biography, but is instead a work of literature written by an author at the height of his powers'. Manuel Rivas read from his work and talked with Jonathan Dunne, who has translated several of his books into English. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.