The TLS Podcast

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Emer Nolan, Professor of English at Maynooth University, to discuss the letters of John McGahern, one of Ireland’s most accomplished writers of fiction; How did Napoleon get his hands on Veronese’s enormous masterpiece “The Wedding Feast at Cana”, once safely housed in a Venetian monastery? Does it matter and should we do anything to remedy the situation? Ruth Scurr, the author of ‘Napoleon: A Life told in gardens and shadows’, considers Napoleon’s thirst for art, and its legacy; plus, a quick look at some of 2021’s most favourably reviewed films and plays ‘The Letters of John McGahern’, edited by Frank Shovlin‘Napoleon’s Plunder: And the theft of Veronese’s Feast’ by Cynthia SaltzmanProduced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Francesca Wade, at work on a book about Gertrude Stein’s afterlife, to discuss Stein’s ‘lost’ notebooks – and the magnificent amount of research conducted by Leon Katz, who discovered them some seventy years ago – and shed new light on the writer’s process and personal life; and the musician and critic Wesley Stace takes us back to a stormy but productive time in the life of The Beatles, via a new film by Peter Jackson‘No no no, nonsense, never: Hidden notebooks reveal the tense relationships behind Gertrude Stein’s genius’ by Francesca Wade, in this week’s TLS.‘The Beatles: Get Back’, on Disney+Produced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark discuss roses, Orwell and rhizomatic thinking with Margaret Drabble; Kathryn Hughes is our guide through histories of self-improvement; plus, what log-rolling really means.'Orwell's Roses' by Rebecca Solnit'The Art of Self-Improvement' by Anna Katharina SchaffnerThe Log Driver's Waltz: https://www.nfb.ca/film/log_drivers_waltzProduced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by TLS editors to look through twelve months of intriguing books, as nominated by contributors including Mary Beard, the poet Paul Muldoon and the writer and critic Marina Warner, covering a range of genres and subjects, from ancient Greek swear words to fictional messiahsFor the full round-up, go to the-tls.co.uk/ Produced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Lucy Dallas and Toby Lichtig are guided by Mark Ford through Concord, Massachusetts, the home of Emerson, Thoreau and the Transcendentalists; we talk to Susan Owens about the mystery and melancholy of lighted windows seen from outside; plus, new work from Dave Eggers and Zadie Smith'The Transcendentalists and their world' by Robert A. Gross'The Every' by Dave Eggers'The Wife of Willesden' by Zadie Smith'The Lighted Window: Evening walks remembered' by Peter DavidsonProduced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the TLS's fiction editor Toby Lichtig speaks to 2021’s Booker Prize-winner Damon Galgut, whose recent novel ‘The Promise’ follows one family through three decades of life and death in South Africa; Douglas Smith, whose books include a biography of Rasputin, turns to Russia in the 1830s to try to understand the Russia we face today; plus, the lyrics of Paul McCartney, explained by the man himself'The Promise' by Damon Galgut'1837: Russia’s quiet revolution' by Paul W. Werth'The Lyrics: 1956 to the present' by Paul McCartney, edited by Paul Muldoon – discussed at an event at the Royal Festival Hall, London on November 5; available to stream until November 12 Stream link: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/literature-poetry/lyrics-paul-mccartney-conversation-live-streamProduced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Michael Sherborne to consider a master of science fiction, H. G. Wells, whose life was a runaway spaceship… until it ran out of steam; Niki Segnit, the author of ‘The Flavour Thesaurus’, explores some of the world’s rarest and most endangered foods; plus how sustainable – ecologically and economically – is book selling?‘The Young H. G. Wells: Changing the world’ by Claire Tomalin‘The City of Dr Moreau’ by J. S. Barnes‘Eating To Extinction: The world’s rarest foods and why we need to save them’ by Dan SaladinoProduced by Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, ahead of COP26, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by David Wallace-Wells, the author of ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’, to discuss a flurry of new books on climate change and what to do about it, from quiet reflection to radical, explosive action; and the biographer of royals A. N. Wilson considers a lively new Life of King George V that suggests the monarch wasn’t that dull after all‘Deep Adaptation: Navigating the realities of climate chaos’, edited by Jem Bendell and Rupert Read‘How To Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to fight in a world on fire’ by Andreas Malm‘Saving Us: A climate scientist’s case for hope and healing in a divided world’ by Katharine Hayhoe‘Geopolitics For the End Time: From the pandemic to the climate crisis’ by Bruno Maçães'George V: Never a dull moment’ by Jane RidleyProducer: Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Michael Caines are joined by Jenni Quilter, the author of ‘New York School Painters and Poets: Neon in daylight’, to discuss the colourful and ceaselessly experimental work of the American artist Helen Frankenthaler; and Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford, reviews a radical (and watery) new production of ‘Macbeth’ that redeems the fallen world of this overfamiliar tragedy.‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’, Almeida Theatre, London; also streaming‘Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York’ by Alexander Nemerov‘Helen Frankenthaler: Radical beauty’, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London; until April 18, 2022A special subscription offer for TLS podcast listeners: www.the-tls.co.uk/buy/podProducer: Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Russell Williams, to talk through the uniquely French phenomenon of the rentrée littéraire - the politics, the scandals, the big beasts and the new voices; and Michele Pridmore-Brown considers a recent book that offers a cultural history of breast milk and the rise of the bottle.‘White Blood: A history of human milk’ by Lawrence Trevelyan Weaver  A special subscription offer for TLS podcast listeners: www.the-tls.co.uk/buy/podProducer: Sophia Franklin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.