Backlisted

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What's Backlisted about?

The literary podcast presented by John Mitchinson and Andy Miller. Brought to you by Unbound. Visit www.backlisted.fm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Backlisted Special - The bo...

01.24.2023

Welcome to our first Backlisted special of 2023. Today we’re joined by the award-winning novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce, an official friend of Backlisted, who returns for the first time since his appearance on the Christmas 2021 episode on The ...

Backlisted episodes:

01.24.2023 Backlisted Special - The books of our childhood Welcome to our first Backlisted special of 2023. Today we’re joined by the award-winning novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce, an official friend of Backlisted, who returns for the first time since his appearance on the Christmas 2021 episode on The ...
01.10.2023 The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins - rerun In memory of the great Carmen Callil, we are replaying the first of her two appearances on Backlisted.Joining Andy and John in this episode is Carmen Callil, the legendary publisher and writer, who is best know for founding the Virago ...
12.25.2022 Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild Merry Christmas Everyone! This year’s Backlisted Christmas special celebrates Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, a classic of children’s literature and the childhood favourite of our producer, Nicky Birch. We are joined by the writer Una McCormack and Tanya Kirk, the ...
12.13.2022 The Awakening by Kate Chopin The Awakening is an American classic, first published in 1899. The novel’s focus is the inner life of Edna Pontellier, a 29 year-old a married woman and mother of two boys, whose husband Léonce is a New Orleans businessman of ...
11.29.2022 The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas The Ice Palace or Is-slottet by Tarjei Vesaas is a 20th century classic by one of Norway’s greatest modern writers. First published by Gyldendal in 1963, it went on to win the Nordic Council Literary Prize in 1964. In 1966, ...
11.15.2022 The Springs of Affection by Maeve Brennan There can be few writers more deserving of Backlisted’s attention than the Irish writer, Maeve Brennan. An adopted New Yorker, Brennan died there in 1993 and was by that time so thoroughly forgotten in her native land, that she received ...
10.31.2022 The Altar of the Dead and Other Tales by Henry James This Hallowe’en episode of Backlisted focusses on the collection of ‘uncanny’ stories by Henry James, first gathered together under the title The Altar of the Dead and Other Tales to form the seventeenth volume of the New York Edition of ...
10.18.2022 Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle by the Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy was first published in 1965 and is the first of Dervla Murphy’s twenty-six books. It's a journal she kept on the 3,500 mile, six-month journey ...
10.04.2022 Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky Roadside Picnic, first published in 1972, is the best-known work of Russia’s most famous modern science fiction writers, Arkady & Boris Strugatsky, together the authors of 26 novels and scores of short stories. To discuss it we are joined by ...
09.20.2022 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell North and South is Elizabeth Gaskell’s fourth novel and considered by many to be her best. It tells the story of Margaret Hale, a principled young middle-class woman from the rural South whose family are obliged to re-settle in the ...
09.06.2022 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard Authors Jay Griffiths and Geoff Dyer are our guests for a discussion of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Annie Dillard was only twenty-nine when her first prose book was published in 1974; it went onto win the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction ...
08.02.2022 Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt The second novel by by literary wunderkind, Helen DeWitt, Lightning Rods is probably the most challenging book we’ve yet featured on Backlisted. Usually described as a satire on American capitalism, it is the diasarmingly upbeat and funny tale of Joe, ...
07.19.2022 The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham It's sixty-five years since John Wyndham published The Midwich Cuckoos, the fourth in his hugely successful series of science fiction novels that began in 1951 with The Day of the Triffids. Many people’s first introduction to The Midwich Cuckoos is ...
07.05.2022 The Kingdom by the Sea by Paul Theroux Forty years ago the writer Paul Theroux hoisted his knapsack on his back and set off on a journey on foot around the coast of the United Kingdom; the effects of Thatcherism were being felt in earnest and the Falklands ...
06.21.2022 Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake Novelist Joanne Harris (Chocolat, A Narrow Door) is our guest for a celebration of Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950) and Titus Alone (1959) by Mervyn Peake, three novels which are often referred to, erroneously, as the Gormenghast Trilogy. With Joanne's ...
05.23.2022 The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen Tessa Hadley (Free Love, Late in the Day) joins us for a discussion of The Death of the Heart (1938), the sixth novel by Anglo-Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen; as you'll hear, Tessa has been reading and rereading Bowen's work since ...
05.09.2022 De Profundis by Oscar Wilde Our guest is Stephen Fry, writer, actor and polymath, who last week joined John and Andy in person to discuss Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, the essay addressed to Lord Alfred Douglas 'from the depths' of Wilde's incarceration in Reading Gaol ...
04.25.2022 Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg Publisher Marigold Atkey and journalist Emily Rhodes join us for a discussion of Lessico famigliare, Natalia Ginzburg's novelistic memoir or autobiographical novel, first published in Italy in 1963 and most recently translated by Jenny McPhee as Family Lexicon (Daunt/NYRB). Ginzburg ...
04.11.2022 Escape to an Autumn Pavement and Jamaica by Andrew Salkey Our guests are both new to Backlisted: the legendary publisher, editor, writer Margaret Busby and the award-winning poet, Raymond Antrobus. They join us to discuss the work of the Caribbean writer, Andrew Salkey, in particular his 1960 Hampstead ‘bedsit novel’, ...
03.28.2022 The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon Our guests are both Backlisted old hands: Professor Sarah Churchwell, Professor in American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London and Sam Leith, literary editor of the Spectator. We ...
03.14.2022 Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs We are joined by author-illustrator Nadia Shireen and writer Andrew Male for a smellybration of Fungus the Bogeyman (1977) by the great Raymond Briggs, the much-loved and bestselling picture book Andrew describes as "the children's Anatomy of Melancholy". We consider ...
02.28.2022 South Riding by Winifred Holtby Our guests are Tanya Kirk, Lead Curator of Printed Heritage Collections 1601-1900 at The British Library, and Backlisted's old friend Una McCormack, a New York Times bestselling author. We are discussing Winifred Holtby's classic final novel South Riding, published posthumously ...
02.21.2022 Winter Reading II: Short Stories This episode of Backlisted features Andy, John and Nicky chatting about short stories and the perennial appeal of the form to both writers and readers. This is a sequel to the first Winter Reading show we posted in January. Books ...
02.07.2022 Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers Authors Harriet Evans (The Beloved Girls) and Francesca Wade (Square Haunting) join us to celebrate Dorothy L. Sayers's 'novel not without detection' Gaudy Night (1935), perhaps the high point in the classic series of books featuring Harriet Vane and Lord ...
01.24.2022 Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat by Stephen Sondheim Stephen Sondheim's biographer David Benedict and writer and musician Jason Hazeley join us for a special episode devoted to Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat, the late and very great songwriter's two volumes of lyrics, memoir, criticism ...
01.10.2022 Winter Reading 2022 Happy New Year! We begin 2022 with a stack of books to see us through the winter: poetry, history, fiction and science. Andy, John and Nicky discuss and read from The Kids by Hannah Lowe (Bloodaxe); The Dawn of Everything ...
12.25.2021 The Railway Children by E. Nesbit Merry Xmas everybody! Our friends Katherine Rundell and Frank Cottrell-Boyce, two wonderful guest authors, join us to celebrate the life and work of Edith Nesbit and perhaps her best-loved novel, The Railway Children (1906). This podcast has it all: cracker ...
12.13.2021 Deadwood by Pete Dexter Authors Shawn Levy (A Year in the Life of Death, Rat Pack Confidential) and Erica Wagner (Chief Engineer, Gravity) join us to discuss US writer Pete Dexter's second novel Deadwood (1986), described by the Washington Post on publication as 'maybe ...
11.29.2021 The Godwits Fly by Robin Hyde Our guest is author Paula Morris, who joins us from Auckland to discuss the novel The Godwits Fly (1938) and the life of its author Iris Wilkinson AKA Robin Hyde. In recent years, Iris Wilkinson's writing has been rediscovered and ...
11.15.2021 Notes from Under the Floorboards AKA Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky Welcome to the 150th episode of Backlisted! To mark the occasion we are joined by authors Alex Christofi (Dostoevsky in Love) and Arifa Akbar (Consumed: A Sister's Story) for a discussion of one of Russia's greatest writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, who ...
11.08.2021 Treacle Walker by Alan Garner This is a Backlisted special, recorded at the Bodleian Library in Oxford to celebrate the publication of Treacle Walker the new novel by Alan Garner (Fourth Estate). The panel discussion features Erica Wagner, writer and critic and editor of First ...
10.30.2021 Something in Disguise by Elizabeth Jane Howard For this year's Hallowe'en special we're joined by Backlisted's old fiends Andrew Male and Laura Varnam, following previous guest appearances on episodes dedicated to Beowulf (2020) and Daphne du Maurier's The Breaking Point (2019). Together we explore the work of ...
10.18.2021 Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker Our guests are publisher Alexandra Pringle and Simon Thomas, editor and co-host of the Tea or Books? podcast. They are here to discuss Cassandra at the Wedding, the fourth and final novel by Dorothy Baker, first published in 1962 by ...
10.04.2021 The Dream Songs by John Berryman Joining us on Backlisted this week is novelist and memoirist Susie Boyt (My Judy Garland Life, Loved and Missed). The book Susie has chosen for us to discuss is The Dream Songs (1969) by John Berryman, the publication of which ...
09.20.2021 Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee We are joined by novelist Mary Costello for a special episode recorded live at Galway International Arts Festival in Ireland on September 10th 2021. The book we're debating is Elizabeth Costello (2003) by South-African born Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee, a ...
09.06.2021 Summer Reading 2021 It’s time for our annual look at what we’ve been reading over the summer break. John, Andy and Nicky discuss David Keenan’s fourth novel Monument Maker; Open Water, a promising debut novella from Caleb Azumah Nelson; Deborah Levy’s three-volume ‘living ...
08.05.2021 Fat City by Leonard Gardner Perhaps the greatest boxing novel ever written, Leonard Gardner's Fat City was first published in 1969; it was shortlisted for the National Book Award; Joan Didion and Denis Johnson are amongst those who have sung its praises. The book was ...
07.19.2021 Heart of the Original By Steve Aylett Joining us on Backlisted this week is writer John Higgs, whose fascinating new book William Blake Vs The World is out now. We were thrilled John chose Steve Aylett's guide to originality, creativity and individuality, Heart of the Original, first ...
07.05.2021 In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes Returning to Backlisted this week are literary agents Becky Brown and Norah Perkins, joint custodians of the Curtis Brown Heritage list of literary estates and previously our guests on episode #109, Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. This time we are ...
06.21.2021 Are You Somebody? by Nuala O'Faolain Joining John and Andy this week is novelist and host of the books podcast Sentimental Garbage, Caroline O'Donoghue (Promising Young Women, Scenes of a Graphic Nature, All Our Hidden Gifts). We are discussing Nuala O'Faolain's revelatory memoir Are You Somebody? ...
06.07.2021 A Goat's Song by Dermot Healy Joining John and Andy this week are novelist Patrick McCabe (The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on Pluto, Winterwood) and Unbound's editor-at-large Rachael Kerr. We got together to discuss Dermot Healy's remarkable second novel A Goat's Song (1994) and the peripatetic life ...
05.24.2021 The Evenings by Gerard Reve Joining John and Andy this week are novelist Marie Phillips (Gods Behaving Badly, Oh, I Do Like To Be...) and novelist, screenwriter and poet Joe Dunthorne (Submarine, O Positive). The book we are discussing is Gerard Reve's debut novel De ...
05.10.2021 The Plague and I by Betty MacDonald Joining John and Andy this week are Natasha McEnroe, the Keeper of Medicine at the Science Museum in London, and novelist Lissa Evans, Backlisted's old friend and the show's Original Guest, both of whom are Betty MacDonald superfans. The Plague ...
04.26.2021 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman AKA Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne is the subject of this years-in-the-making episode of Backlisted. Published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767, Sterne's cock and bull story has entertained, baffled, enchanted, ...
04.12.2021 Água Viva by Clarice Lispector Clarice Lispector's Água Viva is the subject of this episode of Backlisted. Like several of Lispector's remarkable novels, this slim book caused a sensation when first published in her native Brazil in 1973. Exquisitely written and daringly abstract, it stands ...
04.01.2021 The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness is the subject of this episode. The book was first published in Iceland as Brekkukotsannáll in 1957, two years after Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Joining John and Andy to ...
03.15.2021 Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer Penelope Mortimer's fourth novel Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1958) is the subject of this episode of Backlisted. Joining John and Andy to discuss Mortimer's fearless and pioneering autobiographical fiction, including this book, Saturday Lunch With The Brownings (1960) and The Pumpkin ...
03.01.2021 Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey Josephine Tey's classic mystery Miss Pym Disposes (1946) is the subject of this special episode of Backlisted, recorded as part of Aberdeen's Granite Noir festival on February 19th 2021. Joining John and Andy to explore the life and career of ...
02.15.2021 Job: The Story of a Simple Man by Joseph Roth Joseph Roth's Job: The Story of a Simple Man (1930) is the subject of this episode of Backlisted. Joining John and Andy to explore this austere and powerful novel, first published in German as Hiob: Roman eines einfachen Mannes, are ...
02.08.2021 Locklisted: Teenage Books Special This Locklisted episode is the sequel to our earlier Children's Books Special. It was recorded in August 2020 and was previously available exclusively to supporters of our Patreon at patreon.com/backlisted. This time we cover our teenage years and the tricky ...

Older episodes

Backlisted

What's Backlisted about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Backlisted episodes:

Backlisted Special - The books of our childhood

The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins - rerun

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas

The Springs of Affection by Maeve Brennan

The Altar of the Dead and Other Tales by Henry James

Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy

Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

The Kingdom by the Sea by Paul Theroux

Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen

De Profundis by Oscar Wilde

Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg

Escape to an Autumn Pavement and Jamaica by Andrew Salkey

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs

South Riding by Winifred Holtby

Winter Reading II: Short Stories

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers

Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat by Stephen Sondheim

Winter Reading 2022

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

Deadwood by Pete Dexter

The Godwits Fly by Robin Hyde

Notes from Under the Floorboards AKA Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

Something in Disguise by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker

The Dream Songs by John Berryman

Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee

Summer Reading 2021

Fat City by Leonard Gardner

Heart of the Original By Steve Aylett

In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes

Are You Somebody? by Nuala O'Faolain

A Goat's Song by Dermot Healy

The Evenings by Gerard Reve

The Plague and I by Betty MacDonald

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Água Viva by Clarice Lispector

The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness

Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

Job: The Story of a Simple Man by Joseph Roth

Locklisted: Teenage Books Special