Book Shambles

The man behind everything from Zippy and Sweep to goblins from the Labyrinth, Ronnie Le Drew, joins Robin and Josie this week. There's much chat of puppets, naturally, via the work of Roald Dahl, Simon Callow, Anna Kemp and others plus Ronnie's own upcoming autobiography on Unbound.

In Part 2 of the Science Shambles specials from the Blue Dot Festival from Jodrell Bank, Robin and Josie tackle the issue of evolution and bananas before we chat about scientific delight in all things bookish with a bumper lineup of guests. There's science presenters and writers Dallas Campbell and Ginny Smith, immunologist Sheena Cruickshank, astronomer Paul Abel, the team from ScienceGrrl, impressionist Jon Culshaw and Public Service Broadcasting's J Willgoose. Because this episode was recorded in a large field where a music festival was also taking place, there is often a bit of background noise. Sorry about that.

Recorded at the Blue Dot Festival at Jodrell Bank, Robin chatted with various people about the great works of science and science fiction. And also some Mills and Boons. Robin and Josie kick things off and then our guests include physicist and professional pointer at wondrous things, Professor Brian Cox, Rosetta project scientist Dr Matt Taylor, space scientist Professor Monica Grady and actor, comedian and science writer Ben Miller. Because this episode was recorded in a large field where a music festival was also taking place, there is often a bit of background noise. Sorry about that.

Stand Up, actor and writer Isy Suttie joins Robin and Josie this week to talk about her new book, The Actual One. As usual, the conversation meanders through all sorts of stuff from stand up to Jane Eyre to poo to Sue Townsend. They also establish a new comedic cliche to replace the differences between men and women; The differences between Bronte fans and Austen fans. It’s bound to catch on.

Comedian Sarah Kendall joins Robin and Josie to talk about her upcoming Edinburgh show and Radio 4 series as well as bringing in a big bag of her favourite books. There’s Jeffrey Eugenides, Kurt Vonnegut, David Mitchell, Ben Moor, Marta Hillers and plenty of others. Also Josie reads us her favourite poem. Content Warning- The following episode contains a discussion about sexual violence.

Saturday night at Latitude, around midnight, Robin and Josie hosted a Book Shambles Live Horror Special to coincide with the launch of Dead Funny Encore from Salt Publishing. This special podcast includes highlights from the live show as week as backstage chats with some of the guests including Reece Shearsmith, Suzi Gage, Anna Savory and Rufus Hound.

Robin and Josie introduce the live panel held on Friday night at the 2016 Latitude where we asked the question, is art a spell? David Bowie's final work, visually and aurally, was some of the most potent of his career, made all the more so by his death three days after the release of Blackstar. His favourite books contained many on art, the occult and magick - so are the great creators shamanic… The panel, hosted by Robin, includes Daisy Campbell, Andrew O’Neill, John Constable and Hollie McNish.

Direct from day one of the Latitude Festival it’s Robin’s Book Shambles. Because Josie is still on route. Robin chats with comic book creators Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, poet Luke Wright and writer and comedian Shappi Khorsandi.

On the 100th anniversary of The Battle of the Somme on July 1st, Robin and Josie chatted with the acclaimed writer of 'The Missing of the Somme', Geoff Dyer about that plus his entire body of work including his new book, 'White Sands'. All that and jazz, Tarkovsky, Brexit, Jean Rhys, sitcoms and more.

Acclaimed writer Nikesh Shukla joins Josie and Robin this week to talk about his own work including the upcoming collection of essays, The Good Immigrant, plus everything from Spiderman comics to the dirty short stories of Philip Larkin...