The TLS Podcast

This week, Helen Bynum enjoins us to consider the secret lives of plants; and Jacqueline Banerjee on love and marriage in the world of George Eliot.‘Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence’ by Paco Calvo with Natalie Lawrence‘The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life’ by Clare CarlisleProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft considers how the First World War triggered a wave of xenophobia and a Red Scare.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/american-midnight-adam-hochschild-book-review-geoffrey-wheatcroft/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Flora Willson explores the struggle of four women composers to have their work heard, and Biancamaria Fontana on the late David Graeber’s survey of Madagascan pirate kingdoms.‘Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World’ by Leah Broad‘Pirate Enlightenment: Or the Real Libertalia’ by David GraeberProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our first instalment, we talk to novelist Dame Margaret Drabble and her son, gardener and TV presenter Joe Swift. Their wide-ranging conversation includes a disagreement over pelargoniums, Joe’s childhood insistence on playing football in his mother’s cottage garden, the joys of irregular hedges and fashions in fiction and foliage alike.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Mazower asks: did the Ottomans preserve the Parthenon and Elgin wreck it?https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/who-saved-the-parthenon-william-st-clair-book-review-mark-mazower/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Margaret Drabble and Joe Swift talk about the relationship between literature and gardening; and a new short-story collection from Margaret Atwood.‘Turning Leaves’, a new podcast from the TLS team‘Old Babes in the Wood’ by Margaret AtwoodProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ferdinand Mount considers how the English upper classes appropriated fair play from the lower orders.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/an-english-tradition-jonathan-duke-evans-book-review-ferdinand-mount/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we hear about the pursuit of the perfect library, and celebrate the brilliance of crime writer Josephine Tey. Irina Dumitrescu on the bibliophile’s life‘The Franchise Affair’, ‘To Love and Be Wise’ and ‘The Daughter of Time’ by Josephine TeyProduced by Charlotte Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Godfrey-Smith on two books about living like a deer and learning from the birds.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/deer-man-geoffroy-delorme-the-parrot-in-the-mirror-antone-martinho-truswell-book-review-peter-godfrey-smith/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we examine the highs and very many lows of the writing life. Tom Seymour Evans explores a disquieting biography of crime writer James Ellroy, and Stephen Marche shines a light into the abyss of literary failure in his new book.‘Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy’ by Steven Powell‘On Writing and Failure’ by Stephen MarcheProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.