This month on The Allender Calendar, I'm chatting to the author Ben Pester about his debut novel The Expansion Project. Part corporate satire, part Lynchian dreamscape, The Expansion Project explores loss, parenthood, grief, and the ways in which identity and meaning are being distorted as technology takes over our lives. It's also very funny!

We talked about balancing creativity with a day job, finding joy and humour in office work, and some key influences (including Gormenghast and The Unconsoled).

You can buy The Expansion Project here:

https://granta.com/products/the-expansion-project/

And Ben's fantastic collection of short stories Am I in the Right Place? is available here:

https://www.boilerhouse.press/product-page/am-i-in-the-right-place-by-ben-pester

If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

Interview in The London Magazine:

https://thelondonmagazine.org/interview-the-expansion-project-an-interview-with-ben-pester/

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This month on The Allender Calendar I'm joined by the fantastic comedian Pierre Novellie to discuss his 2024 book Why Can't I Just Enjoy Things?: A Comedian's Guide to Autism. It's a brilliant, and very funny, book which taught me so much about the condition. We discuss the misunderstandings and misconceptions surrounding autism, as well as Pierre's own experience of his diagnosis (following a heckle at a stand-up gig), and how it helped him to make sense of the way he experiences and interacts with the world.

Find out more about Pierre here:

https://www.pierrenovellie.com/

And you can follow him on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/pierrenovellie

And Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/pierrenovellie.bsky.social

And you can listen to Pierre's interview with John Robins on the How Do You Cope? podcast here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/pierre-novellie-i-wasnt-able-to-get-what-i-wanted-out/id1793829037?i=1000711833374

If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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This month on The Allender Calendar, I speak to the fabulous Bristol-based musician Emily Breeze, whose lipstick-smeared and glitter-drenched album Rats in Paradise is one of my favourites of the year. And Emily very kindly gave me permission to include snippets from the album in the episode!

We talk about the songwriting process, Emily's day job teaching at BIMM (the British and Irish Modern Music Institute) in Bristol, and about her literary and musical influences. We also frequently get sidetracked and end up chatting about queuing in pubs and the concept of Alan Partridge narrating Joyce's Ulysses.

Please check out Emily's album here:

https://sugarshackrecords.bandcamp.com/album/rats-in-paradise

And you can follow her on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/emilybreeze66/?hl=en

Emily is playing a few shows in December:

6 Dec: The Prince Albert - Stroud

7 Dec: Burdall's Yard - Bath

13 Dec: The Old Pint Pot - Salford

Also, I'm playing at The Prince Albert in Stroud on 5 December if you fancy coming down!

If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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This month on The Allender Calendar I talk to the fabulous writer Rose Ruane. Rose has published two novels, Birding (2024), which was longlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction, and This is Yesterday (2019). Rose writes brilliantly and insightfully about female relationships, the legacy of the 90s, and the ways in which we process trauma. If that all sounds a bit heavy, don't worry, she's also extremely funny and very engaging company. I particularly enjoyed our chat about the Manic Street Preachers and the ways in which their music has inspired her.

You can find out more about Rose in this interview:

https://leslietate.com/2023/05/29/rose-ruane-a-creative-life-story/

And you can follow her on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/regretteruane/?hl=en

And Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/regretteruane.bsky.social

Also, I briefly mention Rage Against the Machine's radical reading list; you can find that here:

https://radicalreads.com/rage-against-the-machine-favorite-books/

If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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On the month's episode of The Allender Calendar I talk to the fantastic comedian Jordan Brookes.

2019 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner

Bleed:

https://youtu.be/z5O3PI9whAo?si=K9WSnV8YrJftiliy

I've Got Nothing:

https://youtu.be/myOoRrMIyO8?si=YbwPZl5-Ei8348lD

Body of Work:

https://youtu.be/D_yQ9eHQq70?si=tBDyQ_9MRJ2G4Fua

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month on The Allender Calendar I talk to the novelist Rebecca Watson about her books little scratch (2021) and I Will Crash (2024). We discuss whether Rebecca is an 'experimental' writer, or if her unique fragmentary style is really just the most effective and immediate way of communicating first person consciousness. We talk about how both novels deal with trauma, and how the way she writes is suited to this subject. Sounds a bit heavy, but we also have a good laugh and chat about the merits of Sally Rooney's Intermezzo among other things.

Rebecca's website is here:

https://www.rebeccawatson.co.uk/

And you can find her on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/rebeccawhatsun/?hl=en

Great review of little scratch here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/31/little-scratch-by-rebecca-watson-review-a-daringly-experimental-debut

And I Will Crash here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/03/i-will-crash-by-rebecca-watson-review-a-unique-take-on-sibling-torment

All music featured in the podcast composed by me. You can listen here:

https://robinallender.bandcamp.com/

And if you want to support the podcast you can buy me a coffee here:

buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 2 of my chat with comedian Elis James about the brilliant Welsh psychedelic folk band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.

Check out Rhodri Viney's latest EP here:

https://ratatosk.bandcamp.com/album/1

And here are a few of my favourite Gorky's moments on YouTube:

The Banana film with all the early music videos:

https://youtu.be/nYt4KApiPMw?si=lJHHzfY9g5PsrsD2

Lucy's Hamper:

https://youtu.be/nYt4KApiPMw?si=lJHHzfY9g5PsrsD2

Tears in Disguise:

https://youtu.be/F7iFA71q-gY?si=uIneMkpCszOQWTkW

If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month on The Allender Calendar I had the great pleasure of talking to the comedian and broadcaster Elis James about our favourite band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Because Elis and I chatted for over two hours I've decided to release this episodes in two parts (both out today!). In Part 1, Elis and I talk about the beginnings of the group and how we first got into them. We then discuss how the band evolved to create the perfect blend of folk, psychedelia and rock on the brilliant run of EPs they released on Ankst between 1994 and 1996 (all collected on the highly recommended album 20). We also talk about what it was like for Elis growing up in Carmarthen (and attending the same school as Gorky's), and about Welsh language music in general.

The Gorky's Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/49120195877/

Gorky's Zygotic Archive on Instagram (run by Steve Tamburello):

https://www.instagram.com/gorkyszygoticarchive/

Gorky's and John Cale playing O, Caroline II:

https://youtu.be/jjgrw5oCs38?si=YcLWCOIDBgCS1uR0

If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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It's the 16th of June which can mean only one thing: it's Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses is set. To celebrate, I spoke to the amazing writer David Collard about his book Multiple Joyce: 100 Short Essays About James Joyce's Cultural Legacy. And, of course, we also discuss what makes Ulysses such a brilliant, difficult, beautiful, hilarious, humane, and endlessly fascinating novel.

You can buy Multiple Joyce here:

https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/multiple_joyce/

And you can buy David's new book, A Crumpled Swan: 50 Essays about Abigail Parry's 'In the Dream of the Cold Restaurant', here:

https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/a_crumpled_swan/

Follow David Collard on Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/davidcollard.bsky.social

And you can support the podcast here:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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This month on The Allender Calendar I talk to the incredible writer and council worker Evie King. Evie's book Ashes to Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer was published in 2023 and is a profound and moving account of her job. Also, for a book about death, it is very funny. Evie writes brilliantly about the bathos and inadvertent comedy of working on funerals alongside complaints about bins and noisy neighbours.

Content warning: we do obviously talk about death a lot in this episode, so I appreciate you may not want to listen on your morning commute! But I have to say, part of what makes Ashes to Admin so interesting is the way in which Evie is trying to make death less of a taboo; she hopes to make conversations around death easier, and her commitment to this, and to her job, is truly inspiring.

You can find out more about Evie King, including where to buy the book, here:

https://linktr.ee/eviekingwrites

And if you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.