Page One

This week’s vintage Page One, which originally went out in October 2012, sees Charles Adrian talking to comedian Tom Webb. There is a curious lack of books in this episode but Tom and host Charles Adrian have fun discussing facebook, Scott Capurro and The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. Incidentally – in case you are looking for connections – the last track is from the album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars and spiders build webs. It’s embarrassing, but there it is. You can follow Charles Adrian on twitter @charldrian.

Tom and Charles Adrian both have shows to plug at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2014. Information about Tom and his shows is here. Information about Charles Adrian and his show is here.

For the 65th Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian is joined by performance artist, writer and musician Nick Field. It may have been a tactical error to sit outside, at a café not far from Victoria station in London, where the background noise from taxis, buses and other voices threatens to overwhelm the conversation at times. Oh, and you will hear the microphone summersault off its improvised mic stand at one point. It is nearly the summer holidays for Page One; everythings is falling apart. But the episode is still worth listening to. Promise.

Nick’s music, incidentally, can be found online here.

Hosting Charles Adrian for the 64th Second-Hand Book Factory in her Motel de Nowhere in Bethnal Green is artist and performer Susannah Hewlett. They talk about the effect of abuse in different ways and the push to create nicknames. Information about Motel de Nowhere is here. and you can find out more about Chris Titmas here.

For the 63rd Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian is joined by writer and sometime academic Alan Cunningham. They talk about precision in the face of horror, the creation of fear and just plain good storytelling. Oh, and get ready to sit back and chill out at the end of the episode for nearly ten minutes of gentle bliss. You can listen to Alan talking to Charles Adrian about his own book, Count From Zero To One Hundred, here.

Shorter than usual, for good reason, this week’s Page One is a skim through the first pages of some short stories. Always remember that the first page of a short story is extremely good value because what you are getting is a greater proportion of the whole.

[Warning: some bad language occurs in the middle of the podcast]

For the 62nd Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian is joined by Gary Powell, who is the manager of a real book shop, on the street in Exmouth Market in London. After a wobbly start, they talk about an unlikely liking for sport, the realisation that maybe nobody can give you what you need and the latest addition to a classic collection.

You can buy the Rachel Kann book and find out more about her here.

The podcast with Gary’s boyfriend John, which we talk about, was put out again recently. You can listen and download here.

[Warning: some bad language from beginning]

For the 61st Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian sits down to eat with performer, writer, director and 32-year-old Caroline Horton. Without the help of physical books, they manage to talk about poetry competitions, lightness of touch and beauty in graphic form. You can find out more about Caroline here.

Another of the podcasts dredged up from Page One’s London Fields Radio past, Charles Adrian is joined here by ‘maker’ Greg Wohead. They talk about writing, running and the far north east (of America). Greg is a wonderful storyteller and is frequently to be found on tour – more information about his work and his tour dates is here. 

A note about the end of the podcast: Greg and I talk about the radio play The Air Gap, which Greg had starred in, and which told the story of Chelsea Manning. At the time of recording this conversation, Chelsea Manning was still known as Bradley Manning.

Joining Charles Adrian at the Farm Shop in Dalston for the 60th Second-Hand Book Factory is actress Liz Chan. They have a calm and quiet talk and exchange memories in different forms. Disclaimer: Having asked his guest to turn off her phone, Charles Adrian failed to turn off his; he apologises, therefore, for a little electronic interference towards the beginning of this recording. He also apologises for the occasional sound of chewing as he eats some rather nice lemon drizzle cake.

For the 59th Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian is joined by Dave Pickering, who is a freelance storyteller, podcaster and, on the day we met, author of an article about the disappearance of his previous job that was published in the Guardian’s Comment Is Free section; you can read the article here and the blog post that it is based on is here. Also, if  you think you might be interested, check out Miranda July’s Learning To Love You More project here. And here is a link to Dave’s Getting Better Acquainted podcast.

[Warning: some bad language during the first music track]