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  • Christianity in a One-Storey Universe - Part 4; Christian Atheism

    Continuing with his illuminating series, in part four Fr. Stephen Freeman discusses those (both non-Orthodox and Orthodox) for whom knowledge of God is but a relationship with a book (albeit a sacred book) or with ideas about God. These people are what Fr. Freeman calls "practical atheists." "Although a person may espouse a belief in God, it's quite possible for that belief to be so removed from everyday life that God's non-existence would make little difference."

    0 min
  • How to Reconnect to Earth (with Author Richard Powers)

    This week we have a soulful (and long overdue) conversation around climate change and the restorative power of nature with Pulitzer-prize winning author Richard Powers. We begin by defining the thematic through-line between The Overstory and Bewilderment (5:06), the eco trauma articulated in each text (9:10), how we may redefine hope in 2021 (16:08), and what the pandemic may teach us about the looming climate crisis (26:18). Powers also details the ecological shortcomings of capitalism (29:00), our myopic interpretation (and fear of) death (30:56). On the back-half, we unpack why he writes (33:48), the need for “productive solitude” (40:40), and the singular way he writes analytical and emotional characters (44:42). To close– a fitting scene from one of Powers’ earlier works, Plowing the Dark (50:30), in which an older man enters an used bookstore, unable to find the book intended. And in the absence of that book, Richard Powers will continue to do so (52:50). On the back-half, we unpack why he writes (33:48), the need for “productive solitude” (40:40), and the singular way he writes analytical and emotional characters (44:42). To close– a fitting scene from one of Powers’ earlier works, Plowing the Dark (50:30), in which an older man enters an used bookstore, unable to find the book intended. And in the absence of that book, Richard Powers will continue to do so (52:50). 

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    1 hr
  • Esther Freud Reads “Desire”

    Esther Freud reads her story “Desire,” from the September 27, 2021, issue of the magazine. Freud is the author of nine novels, including “Hideous Kinky,” “Mr. Mac and Me,” and “I Couldn’t Love You More.”

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    36 min
  • 35: Decline and Fall: A Literary Guide
    The Dark Ages, Late Antiquity, the late Roman . . . however you define the years spanning the fall of Rome, the period is rich in stories, real or reimagined.

    In this episode Dr Andy Merrills, Associate Professor of Ancient History, joins the Slightly Foxed team to cast light on the surviving literature. We begin with Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire before delving into 4th-century accounts by the Latin historian Ammianus Marcellinus, a spiritual autobiography by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, ecclesiastical chronicles by the Venerable Bede, Gallic tales of Christian miracles and relic-looting with Gregory of Tours and an alternative look at the period with the modern-day master of Late Antiquity, Peter Brown.

    From there we venture into fiction with Rosemary Sutcliff’s adventures inspired by archaeological finds and a retelling of the old British folk ballad ‘The Twa Sisters’ in Lucy Holland’s Sistersong, as well as Gore Vidal’s Julian and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant. We swap tales from Icelandic sagas and set sail on a tenth-century Viking long ship with Frans G. Bengtsson before heading beyond Hadrian’s Wall for a glimpse of the Lindisfarne Gospels on Holy Island and a hunt for second-hand gems at Barter Books in a converted Victorian railway station in Northumberland.

    And there’s more historical fiction to be found in further reading recommendations too, as we plunge into the seventeenth-century Essex witch trials with poet A. K. Blakemore’s novel The Manningtree Witches and follow the fortunes of a group of friends in wartime Europe in Olivia Manning’s classic Balkan Trilogy. (Episode duration: 42 minutes; 49 seconds )

    Books Mentioned
    We may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles listed below. Please get in touch with Jess in the Slightly Foxed office for more information.

    • A Countryman’s Winter Notebook, Adrian Bell (1:02)
    • Letters to Michael: a father writes to his son 1945–1947, Charles Phillipson (1:12)
    • The Rosemary Sutcliff Novels, Slightly Foxed Cubs. The final two in the series, The Shield Ring and Sword Song, are now available (2:00)
    • The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon (4:18)
    • The Later Roman Empire, Ammianus Marcellinus (9:30)
    • The History of the Franks, Gregory of Tours (10:41)
    • Confessions, Saint Augustine (13:54)
    • City of God, Saint Augustine (14:46)
    • Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede (15:34)
    • The World of Late Antiquity, Peter Brown (17:34)
    • Julian, Gore Vidal (22:14)
    • The Dream of Scipio, Iain Pears (22:54)
    • The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro (23:38)
    • Dawn Wind, Rosemary Sutcliff (25:06)
    • The Long Ships, Frans G. Bengtsson (26:08)
    • Beowulf: A New Translation, Maria Dahvana Headley (27:13)
    • Sistersong, Lucy Holland (27:30)
    • Le Morte Darthur, Thomas Malory (30:53)
    • The Last Kingdom, Bernard Cornwell (32:11)
    • The Manningtree Witches, A. K. Blakemore (38:17)
    • The Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning (40:47)

      Related Slightly Foxed Articles
      • Scaling Gibbon’s Everest, Richard Crockatt on Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Issue 68 (8:17)
      • A Frank Look at History, Andy Merrills on Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks, Issue 65 (12:48)
      • Last of the Pagans, Patrick Welland on Gore Vidal, Julian, Issue 45 (22:50)
      • The Sound of Chariots, Sue Gaisford on the Roman Britain novels of Rosemary Sutcliff, Issue 63
      • Light in the Dark Ages, Sue Gaisford on Rosemary Sutcliff, Dawn Wind, Issue 69
      • Magical Talisman, Sue Gaisford on Rosemary Sutcliff, Sword Song & The Shield Ring, Issue 71
      • Adrift on the Tides of War, Patrick Welland on Olivia Manning’s Balkan trilogy, Issue 63 (40:47)

        Other Links
        • Listen to Episode 18 of the Slightly Foxed Podcast: An Odyssey Through the Classics (0:20)
        • Barter Books, Alnwick (36:12)

          Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No.3 in E Major by Bach

          The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable
          43 min
        • Wellness Waters Part 2

          Manchán Magan visits a holy well with a hydrogeologist to search for the powers hidden in its water. With Dr Bruce Misstear.

          See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

          30 min
        • Tessa Hadley Reads “Coda”

          Tessa Hadley reads her story “Coda,” from the August 2, 2021, issue of the magazine. Hadley has published ten books of fiction, including the story collection “Bad Dreams and Other Stories” and the novel “Late In the Day,” which was published in 2019. She is a winner of the 2016 Wyndham-Campbell literature prize.

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          59 min
        • Wellness Waters

          Manchán visits St. Ciaran's Well in Co. Meath to learn about its cultural and spiritual history. With Dr. Ronan Foley.

          See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

          27 min
        • 33: The Golden Age of Crime Writing
          Diamond Dagger award-winning crime novelist and president of the Detection Club Martin Edwards and Richard Reynolds, crime buyer for Heffers Bookshop and member of the Crime Writers’ Association, lead our investigation in this month’s literary podcast. Together with the Slightly Foxed team, they take a magnifying glass to the Golden Age of crime fiction, tracing its origins to the interwar years when the Detection Club was founded and discussing why the genre continues to thrill.

          From relishing The Poisoned Chocolates Case and resurrecting Death of a Bookseller to the mystery of E. C. R. Lorac’s missing manuscript and meeting Baroness Orczy’s Teahouse Detective, the plot twists and turns as we collect British Library Crime Classics and celebrate Crime Queens Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Josephine Tey and others along the way. Whether enjoyed as well-crafted puzzles, social documents or guilty pleasures, detective fiction is laced with nostalgia as well as cyanide. To tie up loose ends, we finish with a visit to Agatha Christie’s holiday home, Greenway, a house fit for Hercule Poirot, and the setting of a Devonshire murder hunt in Dead Man’s Folly.

          Please find links to books, articles, and further reading listed below. The digits in brackets following each listing refer to the minute and second they are mentioned. (Episode duration: 44 minutes; 56 seconds)

          Books Mentioned
          We may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles listed below. Please get in touch with Jess in the Slightly Foxed office for more information.

          • Mortmain Hall and The Crooked Shore, Martin Edwards
          • The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie (3.57)
          • The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L. Sayers. (4.29)
          • The Red House Mystery, A. A. Milne (9.31)
          • The Old Man in the Corner, Baroness Orczy (10.34)
          • A Question of Proof, Nicholas Blake (12:09)
          • The Cask, Freeman Wills Crofts (14.02)
          • Lord Peter Wimsey, Dorothy L. Sayers (15:00)
          • Cards on the Table, Agatha Christie (15.39)
          • Francis Vivian’s Inspector Knollis Mysteries, published by Dean Street Press (15:58)
          • Tragedy at Law, Cyril Hare (16:53)
          • Thrones, Dominations, Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh (18.03)
          • Anthony Gilbert’s Arthur Crook novels (19.09)
          • Portrait of a Murderer, Anne Meredith (19.38)
          • Bloodshed in Bayswater, John Rowland is out of print (21.38)
          • Death of a Bookseller, Bernard J. Farmer is due to be published in a British Library Crime Classics edition in 2022 (21:41)
          • A Surprise for Christmas and Other Seasonal Mysteries and Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries, Ed. Martin Edwards (22:35)
          • Two-Way Murder, E. C. L. Lorac (33.40)
          • The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie (35.15)
          • Verdict of Twelve, Raymond Postgate (35.25)
          • And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie (35.57)
          • Arrest the Bishop, Winifred Peck, published by Dean Street Press (37.56)
          • The Poisoned Chocolates Case, Anthony Berkeley (38.42)
          • The Dry, Jane Harper (40.05)
          • Agatha Christie: A Biography, Janet Morgan (41.03)

            Related Slightly Foxed Articles
            • Murder Most Civilized, Emma Hogan on Agatha Christie, the Miss Marple books, Issue 17
            • Vane Hopes, Victoria Neumark on the novels of Dorothy L. Sayers, Issue 32
            • Hauntings, Michèle Roberts on Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night, Issue 63
            • A Gentleman on the Case, Brandon Robshaw on Margery Allingham, the Albert Campion novels, Issue 52
            • The Judge’s Progress, P. D. James on Cyril Hare, Tragedy at Law, Issue 12
            • Lost in the Fens, Julie Welch on the detective stories of Edmund Crispin, Issue 63

              Other Links
              • British Library Crime Classics (22:36)
              • Dean Street Press (30:40)
              • Download Heffers Crime Fiction Top 100, selected by Richard Reynolds. NB The file will download automatically on click. Please check your downloads folder (35:12)
              • Agatha Christie’s holiday home, Greenway, in Devon (42:37)

                Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No.3 in E Major by Bach

                The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable
                45 min
              • Breaking Bread

                Manchán Magan investigates the true origins of traditional Irish cuisine with Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire.

                See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

                17 min