London Review Bookshop Podcast

Prize-winning poet, essayist, dramatist and actor Ramsey Nasr was voted Poet Laureate of the Netherlands in 2009. Nasr was in conversation with prizewinning British poet Ruth Padel, who has published seven poetry collections, a wide range of non-fiction, and a novel, Where the Serpent Lives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Anatomy of a Moment is a patient dissection of a key episode in recent European history – the attempted coup in Spain in 1981. In his meticulous analysis of the moment when gunmen stormed the Spanish parliament, Javier Cercas has created an intriguing book which occupies a fascinating space between fiction and reality. Paul Preston, Professor of Spanish History at LSE joined Cercas to discuss the challenges of historical writing in a conversation chaired by Lisa Hilton, acclaimed author of Queen’s Consort. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Catalan novelists Najat el Hachmi, Carles Casajuana and Teresa Solana, chaired by Peter Bush, discussed their work and the experience of being Catalan novelists. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the Netherlands' most distinguished living authors, Cees Nooteboom discussed short stories, death and translation with A.S. Byatt. Chaired by Jan Dalley, Arts Editor of the Financial Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ali Smith read from her novel There but for the (Hamish Hamilton) and discussed her work with the audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Richard Sennett came to the Bookshop to discuss The Foreigner, a pair of essays in which he explores displacement in the metropolis through two vibrant historical moments: mid-19th-century Paris Renaissance Venice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An evening of poetry was held at the Bookshop to celebrate the publication of David Harsent's collection, *Night*. Jo Shapcott and Don Paterson joined David Harsent for a spellbinding set of readings, touching upon bee-keeping, Rothko, saints and siestas, and culminating in an atmospheric reading from *Night* itself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patti Smith's reading, drawn from her extensive body of work, including Just Kids, and alongside those writers she has long loved and advocated, was programmed in association with Artevents. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the eve of its confirmation as one of the six Man Booker shortlisted books for 2010, Tom McCarthy's ambitious and exhilarating novel C was the subject for discussion between its author and novelist Lee Rourke. McCarthy reads from C and considers its structure and themes – in particular its roots in the work of key 20th century theorists, literary, philosophical and psychological. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate, described by Le Monde as the greatest Russian novel of the 20th century, was regarded as so dangerous to the Soviet state that Mikhail Suslov declared that it could not be published for at least 200 years. Yekaterina Korotkova-Grossman, Vasily's daughter by his first wife, came to know her father only gradually. At first she saw little of him except during New Year holidays. In the mid-1950s she moved from the Ukraine to Moscow, and they became close in the last ten years of his life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yang Lian's poems collapse distances by combining a deep attention to the particular with the allusiveness of classical Chinese poetry, in which a word or image can contain all of tradition: 'With the cry of a wild goose, I am drawn into the Tang Dynasty at the instant of hearing, making Lee valley's waters flow twelve hundred years upstream.' Yang Lian was in conversation with his translator, Brian Holton, and Iain Sinclair, poet, documentary-novelist and East Londoner. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This event took place in association with English PEN, which exists to promote literature and its understanding, uphold writers' freedoms around the world, campaign against the persecution and imprisonment of writers for stating their views, and promote the friendly cooperation of writers and free exchange of ideas. PEN's Writers in Translation programme has, during the past five years, championed over 35 titles by writers from all over the globe, and supports the three speakers here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can the same thing be said in a different language, when the language carries the assumptions of a whole culture with it? How do you balance spirit and accuracy? What do you do with slang and puns and untranslatable words? However many questions we ask about translation in the abstract, we rarely see how it actually works. This event was about giving time and attention to that process. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An important champion of francophone literature, Mabanckou is both a writer engage, and a very engaging man. Teaching at the time in the French literature department at UCLA, he made a rare visit to London for the festival. Mabanckou talked about his work with Helen Stevenson, translator of Broken Glass and author of several books, including Instructions for Visitors: Life and Love in a French Town. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Edward Said described Elias Khoury as an artist who gives 'voice to rooted exiles and trapped refugees, to dissolving boundaries and changing identities, to radical demands and new languages'. Khoury was in discussion with the writer and journalist Jeremy Harding, a contributing editor at the London Review of Books, who has written extensively on Khoury's life and work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Julian Bell and Peter Campbell talked about things that painters can and can't do, in particular about the relationship painters have had to old art and the limits and opportunities that arise from society, its technology and its institutions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In conversation with the novelist Tom McCarthy, Jonathan Lethem read from Chronic City and discussed, inter alia, Manhattan's virtuality, the inspiration behind the character of Perkus Tooth, the price of things, and talking animals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With his new play about Auden and Britten, The Habit of Art, playing to packed houses at the National Theatre, Alan Bennett visited the Bookshop to read from his introduction to the play and to answer an eclectic range of questions from the audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LRB editor Mary-Kay Wilmers, and contributors Jeremy Harding and John Lanchester, discussed the pleasures and pitfalls of writing family histories, under the chairmanship of LRB publisher Nicholas Spice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A.S. Byatt and Adam Thirlwell both talked about their work, and discussed European literature and the art of the novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Dunant and Hilary Mantel read from Sacred Hearts and Wolf Hall, their respective latest novels, and discussed the particular challenges of writing historical novels and the importance of research with Joanna Bourke, Professor of History at Birkbeck College. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A few days after the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Ma Jian discussed his Tiananmen novel Beijing Coma with the Independent's literary editor Boyd Tonkin, interspersed with extracts from the novel read by his translator Flora Drew. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Four past winners of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize gathered in the Paul Hamlyn Library to discuss the difficulties of selling translated literature, the cultural resources available to translators, working on dead authors, translating dialect, and a host of other tricky areas involved in literary translation. The panel was chaired by the Arts Council's Kate Griffin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Faïza Guène discussed immigration in France, her success as a writer and what the French papers made of it all, the pleasures of writing in the first person and much more with her translator Sarah Ardizzone at the Bookshop's inaugural World Literature Weekend. Interpreter: Carine Kennedy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Launching the Bookshop's inaugural World Literature Weekend, Hanan al-Shaykh gave a lively reading from her memoir of her mother, The Locust and the Bird, as well as discussing the book with novelist Esther Freud. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As part of Faber & Faber's 80th anniversary celebrations, the London Review Bookshop welcomed two Faber authors to read from and discuss their first works: Sarah Hall's debut novel Haweswater and Clare Wigfall's collection The Loudest Sound and Nothing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iain Sinclair's appearance at the Bookshop always heralds a frantic scramble for seats. This event was no different, an opportunity to hear a reading from his new work, Hackney, That Rose Red Empire: A Confidential Report. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A veteran of peace initiatives across the Middle East and beyond, Alistair Crooke provides an account of the wellspring of Islamist movements, a defence of their underpinning intellectual traditions, and a cogent argument for engagement and dialogue. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In conversation with John Sutherland, Hanif Kureishi expanded on and discussed his cogitation on psychoanalysis, Something to Tell You. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jenny Diski was at the London Review Bookshop to be cheered up, apologise, and read from her latest book, Apology for the Woman Writing, a story drawn from the marginal notes that exist about Marie de Gournay, Montaigne's editor and onetime 'stalker'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In his first public appearance as Benjamin Black, John Banville read from Black's new novel The Lemur, and discussed the experience of writing as two different people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having confessed to the audience her apprehension about speaking in public, Janice Galloway displayed no trace of it in her accomplished reading from and lively discussion with Jenny Diski of her memoir, This Is Not About Me. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tariq Ali's sold-out event at the Bookshop presented an insightful picture of Pakistan's long and complex reationship with the West, and in particular with the United States of America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the first time since being labelled a 'snakeoil salesman, an ingrate and a hypocrite' for his opinions on the international presence in Afghanistan, Rory Stewart spoke at the Bookshop about international intervention and 'Afghanistan rhetoric and reality'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sebastian Barry and Richard Mason shared their own versions of what it is to be a lonely and possibly mad old woman, reading from their newly-published novels The Secret Scripture and The Lighted Rooms respectively, on the publication date of the former. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the day of publication of Taking Pictures, Anne Enright confessed to a full house at the Bookshop that 'I can't tell you how relieved I am not to be reading about suicide', before reading from the new collection. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Flat Earth News (Chatto & Windus), Nick Davies exposes the reality of daily life in the Fleet Street news factory and makes a passionate appeal for a return to the first principles of truth-telling journalism. He was at the Bookshop to discuss his work and its reception. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In typical full-throttle style, eieek takes the opportunity to hit back at criticisms of Violence published in the LRB and elsewhere, and to expand on both his work and that of other philosophers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In London: City of Disappearances, Iain Sinclair turns away from official versions and approved histories, and with the help of a host of contributors, brings to light the fugitive scraps, faded newspaper cuttings and patterns in the dust. Novelist and psychogeographer Will Self and the outspoken architectural commentator Jonathan Meades discussed and read from the book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Although best known in the English-speaking world for his autobiography I Saw Ramallah, Mourid Barghouti has published 14 volumes of poetry. After treating the audience to a reading from his work in both English and (briefly) Arabic, he answered a range of questions from both the audience and Ruth Padel, focusing primarily on the political background to his work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shortly after its publication, Andrew O'Hagan reads from Be Near Me, his powerful third novel on cultural clash between an English priest and Scottish village society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iain Sinclair spirals outwards from the centre of London as he reads from and discusses Edge of the Orison, examining family history and the disintegration of middle England through the prism of John Clare's Journey out of Essex. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Hare free-associates on politics, theatre and writing, inspired by his collection Obedience, Struggle and Revolt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The actress and political activist Betsy Blair discusses Hollywood in the 1950s, her marriages to Gene Kelly and Karel Reisz, her tangles with the Blacklist, her adventures in Europe and the writing of her memoir, The Memory of All That. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the original Beats, Michael McClure was back in London for the first time in thirty years and gave an exclusive reading at the Bookshop. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robert Chandler reads from his newly-published translation of Nikolay Leskov's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk on which the libretto of Shostakovich's opera is based. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Don Paterson read from his 2004 collection Landing Light (Faber), which won both the Whitbread Prize for Poetry and the T.S. Eliot prize. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the day following press night at the National Theatre, Alan Bennett spoke at the London Review Bookshop about The History Boys. The play asks questions about history and how it should be taught, and about education and its purpose. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To celebrate the publication of Carcanet's new anthology of the New York School poets, editor Mark Ford, poets Lee Harwood and Sarah Maguire, and translator Piotr Sommer read selections from the new collection. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Terry Castle, editor of The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Aristo to Stonewall, explored the emergence of and transformation of the idea of lesbianism, and how it has been collectively embellished over the last five centuries. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.