A seam of superb Japanese detective novels and short stories have crossed the language barrier in recent years, teaching even the most culturally ignorant of us to tell our honkaku from our shin honkaku.  And here to give us a sense of the work involved in making that happen is literary translator Louise Heal Kawai.

Louise will most likely be familiar to GAD fans as the translator of The Honjin Murders (1946, tr. 2019) by Seishi Yokomizo and Murder in the Crooked House (1982, tr. 2019) by Soji Shimada — both of which were released through Pushkin Vertigo in what we’re all hoping is an indication of more to come — and has been working as a Japanese-English translator for almost two decades on a range of novels, poetry, short stories, and more besides.

So, while her work on The Honjin Murders forms the backbone of this discussion, she also gives a glimpse into the rigours and difficulties of the translator’s art: how translators end up on particular projects, the artistic challenges of communicating culturally unfamiliar concepts, what can happen when words fall into obsolescence, why television dramas aren’t always the translator’s friend…and more, though I’d hate to give anything away.

As ever, a range of listening options await: you can open the audio in your browser here, find the podcast on iTunes here, on Spotify here, or listen below; as ever, I hope you enjoy it — oh, and apologies for the variable quality of my audio, it was a microphone problem that I think I’ve fixed now (though, really, you’re not here to listen to me, are you?).

https://theinvisibleevent.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/09.-louise-heal-kawai.mp3

Thanks are due to Louise for her time and efforts, to Jonny Berliner for the music, to you for listening, and to everyone who continues to contact me about getting involved in future episodes.  This podcast is currently booked to continue up until about December at present, and beyond that…we’ll see.

The short story project that Louise mentions in which Japanese writers reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic can be found here, Louise can be found on Twitter here, and if you want to buy a copy of The Honjin Murders to help stimulate the possibility of future Japanese translations, well, here’s your chance.

Next Saturday — more podcast!  The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) by Agatha Christie is going to join the Spoiler Warning Club…

A seam of superb Japanese detective novels and short stories have crossed the language barrier in recent years, teaching even the most culturally ignorant of us to tell our honkaku from our shin honkaku.  And here to give us a sense of the work involved in making that happen is literary translator Louise Heal Kawai. … Continue reading In GAD We Trust – Episode 9: Japanese-English Translation + The Honjin Murders (1946) by Seishi Yokomizo [w’ Louise Heal Kawai]

Today was due to have been the sixth (sixth!) Bodies from the Library conference at the British Library but, for obvious reasons, it’s not.  I can’t, alas, give you a whole day of GAD-based discussion, but I can at least fill an hour with someone from that line-up of exceptionally knowledgable people, Tony Medawar.

Perhaps best-known for his exemplary work in ferreting out and anthologising otherwise-forgotten short stories by luminaries of crime fiction — having edited collections of works by, among others, Anthony Berkeley, Christianna Brand, John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, and Ruth Rendell — Tony has in recent years extended into multi-author anthologies with the Bodies from the Library collections.  So, with Bodies from the Library 3 due out soon, now is the perfect time to talk about Tony’s work: how he finds the stories, what his favourites are, and what we can expect from any future Bodies from the Library collections, as well as upcoming collections of works by John Dickson Carr and Freeman Wills Crofts.

Away from this, we also covered some of his work with the excellent CADS fanzine, through which he revealed the existence of a previously-unknown nom de plume for John Rhode, and his new role as producer of the International Agatha Christie Festival, including an announcement which I’m sure will be of great interest to pretty much all of you.

So, hopefully that grabs you, and you can open the audio in your browser here, find the podcast on iTunes here, on Spotify here, or listen below.  As ever, I hope you enjoy it.

https://theinvisibleevent.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/08.-tony-medawar.mp3

Thanks to Tony for his time, to Jonny Berliner for the music, to everyone out there who listens along — and a Happy Independence Day to those of you celebrating in these straitened times.  Bodies from the Library 3 is out on 9th July, place your bets now for what colour Bodies from the Library 4 will be when it hits us next summer…

~

I’m taking Tuesdays in July off, so will see you on Thursday for some Carter Dickson.  If you’re wondering how you’ll cope until then, allow me to remind you that all episodes of this podcast can be found on the blog here.

Today was due to have been the sixth (sixth!) Bodies from the Library conference at the British Library but, for obvious reasons, it’s not.  I can’t, alas, give you a whole day of GAD-based discussion, but I can at least fill an hour with someone from that line-up of exceptionally knowledgable people, Tony Medawar. Perhaps … Continue reading In GAD We Trust – Episode 8: Uncovering Long-Forgotten Short Stories + Bodies from the Library 3 (2020) ed. Tony Medawar [w’ Tony Medawar]

This week on my Lockdown Podcast In GAD We Trust, the cream of G.K. Chesterton’s stories about his crime-solving Roman Catholic priest as selected by John who blogs at Countdown John’s Christie Journal.

It went like this: John earmarked his ten favourite Father Brown stories, I read them, and we picked through their finer points, looking at the genre principles Chesterton was deploying, and the wider prospect of Brown as a character, his stature in comparison to some other Great Detectives, and what influence we think the earlier stories may have had on the forthcoming Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

Except that I accidentally read only nine of John’s choices — I did read 10 stories, don’t worry, I have a Maths degree and would almost certainly have noticed if I was one short — but hopefully that won’t disrupt things too much.  We also get into some fairly spoiler-rich details, too, so I’ll provide below the times that our look at each story starts for anyone wishing to skip over anything they’ve not yet read.

Okay, I think that’s it; click here to open the audio in your browser, or use the player below…

https://theinvisibleevent.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/07.-father-brown.mp3

Skip to the following times (h:mm:ss) for each story in order to avoid — or find! — spoilers:

‘The Secret Garden’ (1910) – 0:09:26

‘The Hammer of God’ (1910) – 0:12:54

‘The Sign of the Broken Sword’ (1911) – 0:19:33

‘The Eye of Apollo’ (1911) – 0:24:24

‘The Honour of Israel Gow’ (1911) – 0:33:54

‘The Strange Crime of John Boulnois’ (1913) – 0:41:09

‘The Oracle of the Dog’ (1923) – 0:46:47

‘The Dagger with Wings’ (1924) – 0:58:08

‘The Miracle of Moon Crescent’ (1924) – 1:02:43

‘The Blast of the Book’ (1933) – 1:05:37

Thanks are due to John for suggesting this and getting me to spend some more time with Chesterton, to Jonny Berliner for providing the music, and to you, the audience, for being, y’know, the audience.

John would also like it known that he has a spare copy of the first collection The Innocence of Father Brown (1910) which he’s willing to post free of charge to anyone in the UK who might be inspired to try Chesterton for themselves.  Contact him via his blog here if you want to be in the running, and the winning name will be drawn out of a hat next weekend.

Hope this finds you and your loved ones safe and well, see you for more podcastin’ in a fortnight.  In the meantime, all episodes of this podcast can be found on the blog here, on iTunes here, and on Spotify here.

This week on my Lockdown Podcast In GAD We Trust, the cream of G.K. Chesterton’s stories about his crime-solving Roman Catholic priest as selected by John who blogs at Countdown John’s Christie Journal. It went like this: John earmarked his ten favourite Father Brown stories, I read them, and we picked through their finer points, … Continue reading In GAD We Trust – Episode 7: The Father Brown Stories of G.K. Chesterton [w’ John @ Countdown John’s Christie Journal]

It’s long been a tenet of mine that detective fiction and comedy have a great deal in common, and to pursue that this week via the medium of podcasting I’ve enlisted the help of comedian Alasdair Beckett-King.

In a conversation ostensibly about the parallels between detective fiction and stand-up comedy we also manage to cover magic tricks, video games, impossible crimes, and Jonathan Creek alongside such matters as what hecklers have in common with The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) by Anthony Berkeley, who my favourite living stand-up comedian is, and surprisingly decent-sounding Netflix drama about the 11 days in which Agatha Christie went missing.

All this and more awaits.  You can open it in your browser here, or listen below, or scroll to the bottom of this post for exciting podcast-access news.

Whichever path you choose, I hope you enjoy it.

https://theinvisibleevent.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/06.-detectve-fiction-is-comedy.mp3

You can find Alasdair’s Twitter feed and the original thread of Whodidit? here, and peruse the various speculations of those who played along, or you can watch the whole thing unfurl via the glory of YouTube below:

My thanks, of course, to Alasdair, to Jonny Berliner for the music, and to you for listening; hopefully all this continues to provide some distraction at a time when we could frankly use it.

And there’s always Noah’s Golden Age of Detection Drinking Game if you need it, too…

~

Finally, I have brought myself kicking and screaming (there was a lot of both in making it happen) into whatever century this is by attempting to upload this podcast onto Spotify and iTunes.  I believe you can find it at either by clicking below…

It’s long been a tenet of mine that detective fiction and comedy have a great deal in common, and to pursue that this week via the medium of podcasting I’ve enlisted the help of comedian Alasdair Beckett-King. In a conversation ostensibly about the parallels between detective fiction and stand-up comedy we also manage to cover … Continue reading In GAD We Trust – Episode 6: Detective Fiction is Comedy [w’ Alasdair Beckett-King]

As the COVID-19 pandemic rolls into its 348th week, Brad from AhSweetMysteryBlog is here with some salutary advice.

See, back in March, Brad made a great case for the approaching crisis and enforced isolation being the perfect circumstances in which to read some mystery fiction, and he’s here today to expand upon that theme and suggest five ways in which a GAD fixation is the perfect preparation for these COVID-curtailed times.

If you’re looking to justify the hours you’ve spent in your reading chair/hammock/nook over the last few weeks, this is the episode for you.  You’ll naturally be desperate to know whether we’re able to fit in yet another mention of the films of Alfred Hitchcock — fast becoming an IGWT staple — and, as added incentive, you’ll get to hear me pay a compliment to the First Period novels of Ellery Queen…what more could you want?

The audio player is below, or you can click here to open it in your own browser; I apologise for the sound on my side of things going a bit woolly after a few minutes — it’s almost like Zoom itself knew that you only really want to hear what Mr. Friedman had to say and was trying to edge me out of the conversation.

Hope you enjoy…

https://theinvisibleevent.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/05.-gad-in-the-time-of-covid.mp3

Thanks, of course, to Brad for his time — though hopefully he’ll turn his phone off when we next record — to you for listening, and to Jonny Berliner for the music.

Hope this finds you all well, there will be more IGWT here in a fortnight; in the meantime, you can find all the episodes here.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rolls into its 348th week, Brad from AhSweetMysteryBlog is here with some salutary advice. See, back in March, Brad made a great case for the approaching crisis and enforced isolation being the perfect circumstances in which to read some mystery fiction, and he’s here today to expand upon that theme and … Continue reading In GAD We Trust – Episode 5: GAD in the Time of COVID-19 [w’ Brad @ AhSweetMysteryBlog]