London Review Bookshop Podcast

In his debut collection Strange Beach – the very first title in Fitzcarraldo’s new poetry series – poet and choreographer Oluwaseun Olayiwola finds the body to be a porous landscape across which existential dilemmas of gender, sexuality and race are enacted and explored. Poet and novelist Andrew McMillan writes of Olayiwola’s work ‘the tideline of the poetic phrase is constantly shifting, is forever rebuilt and remade on the shifting sands of language, every grain of a word held up to the light to consider its myriad refractions.’ Olayiwola read from Strange Beach, and was joined in conversation about his work by the poet and critic Camille Ralphs. Find more events at the London Review Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod

From his arrival in London in 1981 – clutching a suitcase and sewing machine – to his death from AIDS on New Year’s Eve 1994, Leigh Bowery – the man described by Boy George as ‘modern art on legs’ – led an extraordinary life; a life chronicled in the equally extraordinary biography by his closest friend and confidante Sue Tilley, reissued by Thames and Hudson this February. Tilley was at the shop to discuss Bowery’s life and legacy with Charlie Porter, author of What Artists Wear, and whose debut novel Nova Scotia House was published by Particular Books in March. Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod

In The Position of Spoons novelist, essayist and playwright Deborah Levy invites the reader to share in her interior world, mapping her own life through the lives and works of the artists and writers who have shaped her own practice, from Marguerite Duras to Colette and Ballard, and from Lee Miller to Francesca Woodman and Paula Rego. Levy, described by Lauren Elkin as ‘one of the most exciting voices in contemporary British fiction’, talks about it here with Adam Thirlwell.

Matthew Hollis has reworked the classic Anglo-Saxon poem The Seafarer into a poem desperately relevant for our times: in a society threatened by climate change and the coming-loose of social bonds, Hollis invites us to hear, as the Anglo-Saxons did, the spirit music of land, wind and sea. Hollis’s text is one half of a collaborative project with the photographer Norman McBeath, who was at the shop with Hollis to present and talk about their work. The discussion was chaired by Sara Hudston of Hazel Press. Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod

In Serendipity (Reaktion) Carol Mavor uses Anne Frank’s journal, discovered in the Secret Annex after the Second World War, Emily Dickinson’s poems, scribbled on salvaged envelopes hidden in a drawer, Lolita, rescued from incineration by Nabokov’s wife Véra and her own memory of eating a frozen hot chocolate in New York’s Serendipity 3, a dessert café favoured by Andy Warhol, to muse upon the serendipitous afterlives of objects. Mavor, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Manchester and prolific author of books and articles about art and culture, was in conversation about fragments, remnants and what remains with novelist, essayist and translator Lauren Elkin.

In his 2014 Dante’s Inferno poet and provocateur Philip Terry moved the action to Essex University. His Purgatorio (Carcanet) transports us to nearby Mersea Island, where Ted Berrigan leads our author up an artificial mountain to meet with artists Grayson Perry, Rachel Whiteread and Damien Hirst, as well as Christopher Marlowe, Boris Johnson, Lady Diana, Jean Paul Getty, Hilary Clinton, Allen Ginsberg, Samuel Beckett, Martin McGuinness, Ciaran Carson and Anoushka Shankar. Philip Terry was joined in conversation with Marina Warner at the Bookshop. Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod

Brian Dillon, author of the insightful trilogy on essayism, and Kate Briggs, a talented translator of Roland Barthes and author of This Little Art, join the discussion with expert moderator Helen Charman. They explore the art of literary translation, tackling its challenges and nuances. The conversation dives into the playful use of punctuation and how it shapes voice. They reflect on balancing structured planning with spontaneity in writing, and the deep connection between personal experience and narrative craft, offering a wealth of literary inspiration.

Tariq Ali, a Pakistani-British political activist and author known for his work in the New Left Review, is joined by Oliver Eagleton, an associate editor and author. They discuss Ali's colorful past, including his vibrant experiences during the revolutionary movements of the 1970s. The conversation delves into the evolving dynamics within the Labour Party and the ideological battles faced by leftists today. They also examine the interplay between politics and poetry as tools for resistance and reflect on the muted responses from Sunni regimes regarding ongoing geopolitical crises.

Simon Critchley, a leading philosopher and author of 'On Mysticism,' engages in a captivating dialogue with James Butler. They explore the intertwining of mysticism with political and religious disillusionment, advocating for a reevaluation of its value. Highlighting figures like Julian of Norwich and T.S. Eliot, they delve into the complexities of self-transcendence and the challenges of expressing mystical experiences. The conversation also bridges the gap between individual suffering, collective journeys, and non-theistic spirituality, offering rich insights into the mystical tradition.

Campaigning journalist Claud Cockburn – defiantly anti-establishment and proudly Communist – had as his watchword ‘believe nothing until it is officially denied’, a saying borrowed by his son Patrick, himself a legendary foreign correspondent, for his biography of his maverick father. Described by schoolfriend Graham Greene as the greatest journalist of the twentieth century, Cockburn was born at the heart of the establishment it became his life’s work to satirise, lampoon and undermine, with reports from Berlin during the rise of Fascism and Spain during the Civil War, as well as New York, Washington and Chicago, where he once conducted an interview with Al Capone. Patrick Cockburn spoke at the shop about Believe Nothing Until It Is Officially Denied (Verso), and its lessons for journalism then, now and in the future, with journalist Duncan Campbell. Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod Listen to Neal Ascherson discuss Claud Cockburn: https://lrb.me/aschersonpod Get the book: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/believe-nothing-until-it-is-officially-denied-claud-cockburn-and-the-invention-of-guerrilla-journalism-patrick-cockburn