Backlisted

By Backlisted

What's Backlisted about?

The literary podcast presented by John Mitchinson and Andy Miller. For show notes visit backlisted.fm and get an extra two shows a month by supporting the pod at patreon.com/backlisted

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Backlisted episodes:

04.22.2024
A Marsh Island by Sarah Orne Jewett
For this episode we are joined by the writer, Noreen Masud, author of the acclaimed memoir, A Flat Place (currently shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction). The book she has chosen to discuss is A Marsh Island, a 19th century American novel by Sarah...
04.08.2024
The Children of Men by P.D. James
Novelist Andrew Hunter Murray and biographer Laura Thompson join us to discuss The Children of Men (1992), a dystopian thriller by the late P.D. James. The author is probably best remembered as one of Britain's greatest exponents of detective fiction, an heir...
03.26.2024
All My Pretty Ones by Anne Sexton
Award-winning poet Emily Berry joins us to consider the work and troubled life of Anne Sexton. We focus on her brilliant second collection All My Pretty Ones (1962). Sexton was a trailblazing American poet of the so-called 'confessional' school of the 1960s,...
03.12.2024
Coffee Table Books
This fully illustrated, lavishly produced episode of Backlisted represents the last word in coffee table books. Join John, Andy and Nicky as we dip into the origin, design and continuing appeal of specialist hardcover publishing, via some of our favourite...
02.27.2024
A Life in Movies by Michael Powell
This episode of Backlisted is devoted to A Life in Movies (1986), the first volume of memoirs of the filmmaker Michael Powell who, with his partner Emeric Pressburger, is responsible for some of the finest, most magical and soulful films ever to...
02.13.2024
Scouse Mouse by George Melly
This episode was recorded in the great city of Liverpool and celebrates the life and work of a great Liverpudlian: George Melly, sometime writer, jazz and blues singer, artist, critic, lecturer and aficionado of surrealism. We are joined by two...
01.30.2024
Love On The Dole by Walter Greenwood
We are joined by the writer Andrew Hankinson to discuss Walter Greenwood’s classic novel of Northern working-class life. First published in 1933, Love on the Dole, revolves explores the fortunes of the Hardcastle family, who live in industrial Salford in the...
01.16.2024
Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
For this first episode of 2024 we are joined by the chair of Virago Press, Lennie Goodings to discuss a novel by her fellow Canadian, Margaret Laurence. First published in 1964, The Stone Angel is a landmark in modern Canadian fiction. The...
12.25.2023
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
For this year’s Backlisted Christmas Special we are joined by the poet and novelist Clare Pollard and our producer Nicky Birch to discuss not just a book, but adaptations of a book – and there are hundreds to choose from...
12.12.2023
Briggflatts by Basil Bunting
Today’s episode focusses on a single long poem – Briggflatts by the Northumbrian poet Basil Bunting. It was recorded live in St Mary’s Church, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, as part of the Woodstock Poetry Festival. Andy and John are joined by...
11.28.2023
Trustee From The Toolroom by Nevil Shute
For our 200th episode, we are joined by Richard Osman: television presenter, longtime Backlisted listener, and one of the bestselling authors in the world today. We discuss Trustee from the Toolroom (1960), the final novel by Nevil Shute Norway, whose...
11.14.2023
Plays, Books and Stories: Samuel Beckett
In this episode, we feature the life and work of Samuel Beckett, one of the most important and influential voices of 20th century literature. We discuss Beckett’s writing across five decades, including his essays, short stories, novels and plays: ‘Dante…...
10.31.2023
Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary by M.R. James
Pour yourself a glass of sherry and light a candle, as we dedicate this year's Halloween special to Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), the first collection by M.R. James, probably the most celebrated and influential exponent of the weird...
10.23.2023
What Have We Been Reading? - October 2023
This is a new books special episode to fill the gap before we release the Hallowe’en episode next weekend and as part of our episode 200 celebrations. In it, we each select a book we’ve particularly enjoyed over the past year....
10.09.2023
The True History of the First Mrs Meredith by Diane Johnson
Episode #197 is dedicated to our late friend Carmen Callil, the founder of Virago, an author in her own right and, on a couple of memorable occasions, a former guest on Backlisted. Joining us are the writer Rachel Cooke and...
09.25.2023
Esther Waters by George Moore
In this episode we discuss the controversial and ground-breaking novel, Esther Waters by the Irish novelist George Moore. We are joined by Tom Crewe, author of the prize-winning New Life (Chatto & Windus) and one of this year’s crop of Granta’s Best of Young British...
09.12.2023
Galapágos by Kurt Vonnegut
In this episode we are delighted to welcome 2023 Booker Prize Winner Shehan Karunatilaka to discuss Kurt Vonnegut’s eleventh novel, Galapágos. First published in 1985, it is one of his most radical, intricate and humorous works, a Darwinian satire narrated by...
08.28.2023
A Kestrel For a Knave by Barry Hines (from Green Man Festival)
Author and illustrator Rose Blake and writer and musician Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne) joined Andy and John at the Greenman festival in Wales on August 18th 2023 to discuss Barry Hines's second novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968) and,...
08.14.2023
Summer Reading Special
This week, to mix things up a little, it’s our annual round-up of books, old and new, you might enjoy over the summer. John, Andy and Backlisted’s producer Nicky discuss: O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker (W&N Essentials); Sheep’s Clothing by...
07.31.2023
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
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07.17.2023
The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
Novelist Linda Grant and critic and editor Lucy Scholes return to Backlisted for a discussion of Margaret Drabble's third novel The Millstone, a book which has remained in print ever since it was first published in 1965, when Drabble was 26...
07.03.2023
The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
We are joined on this episode by authors Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad) and Nell Stevens (Briefly, A Delicious Life), who last featured on Backlisted #170 discussing North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. This time the talk...
06.19.2023
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet
We are joined by the crime novelist Mark Billingham to discuss his favourite book, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. First serialised in Black Mask magazine in 1929 and published the following year in book form by Alfred A. Knopf,...
05.29.2023
Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair by John Bossy
For this episode we are joined by the critic and former literary editor of the Independent on Sunday, Suzi Feay and the novelist and former Deputy Literary Editor of the Observer, Stephanie Merritt. Both are fans of the history-cum-detective story,...
05.15.2023
Graham Greene
The whole of the next hour and a bit is dedicated to the work of Graham Greene – a writer we have long wanted to tackle. We cover several representative pieces – not necessarily the most famous of Greene’s...
05.01.2023
Rerun: All The Devils Are Here by David Seabrook
Rachel Cooke, Observer writer, New Statesman TV critic and author joined John, Andy and former host Mathew way back in 2016 to discuss All The Devils Are Here, the astounding travelogue through Kent and the depths of human behaviour from...
04.17.2023
American Books Special
Welcome to the fourth Backlisted Special. While Andy and Nicky are both ‘gathering’ for the new season which will resume at the end of the month, John and Tess are joined by the writers and critics Erica Wagner and Sarah...
04.03.2023
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell - rerun
John introduces a rerun of an episode from November 2016, where Costa First Book nominee for My Name Is Leon, Kit de Waal joins John & Andy to discuss So Long, See You Tomorrow, the final novel by author and...
03.21.2023
Archive Books Special
Welcome to the third Backlisted Special. John and Nicky are joined by literary agents Becky Brown and Norah Perkins returning for their third appearance, having previously discussed the work of Barbara Pym and Dorothy B. Hughes. Becky and Norah are...
03.07.2023
Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys - rerun
This is the third in our re-released episodes – and only the second one we ever recorded. Has Jean Rhys’s reputation and influence grown since then? Does a seven-year-old Backlisted still pass muster? All this (and more) are considered in...
02.21.2023
Science Fiction Special
Welcome to our second Backlisted special of 2023. Today we’re joined by the best-selling writer Una McCormack, returning for a record-breaking ninth appearance, having most recently participated in the Christmas episode dedicated to Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield. These specials are designed to fill...
02.07.2023
Fungus The Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs - Revisited
In memory of Raymond Briggs we are replaying the episode where John and Andy were 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...
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...
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...

What's Backlisted about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Backlisted episodes:

A Marsh Island by Sarah Orne Jewett

The Children of Men by P.D. James

All My Pretty Ones by Anne Sexton

Coffee Table Books

A Life in Movies by Michael Powell

Scouse Mouse by George Melly

Love On The Dole by Walter Greenwood

Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Briggflatts by Basil Bunting

Trustee From The Toolroom by Nevil Shute

Plays, Books and Stories: Samuel Beckett

Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary by M.R. James

What Have We Been Reading? - October 2023

The True History of the First Mrs Meredith by Diane Johnson

Esther Waters by George Moore

Galapágos by Kurt Vonnegut

A Kestrel For a Knave by Barry Hines (from Green Man Festival)

Summer Reading Special

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

The Millstone by Margaret Drabble

The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet

Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair by John Bossy

Graham Greene

Rerun: All The Devils Are Here by David Seabrook

American Books Special

So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell - rerun

Archive Books Special

Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys - rerun

Science Fiction Special

Fungus The Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs - Revisited

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