This month on The Allender Calendar I'm talking to the writer and visual artist Anwen Crawford. I met Anwen when she guested on The Clientele Podcast a few years ago and we stayed in touch. Anwen has such a precise and vivid way of writing, mixing personal biography with critical analysis. Her latest book, Morvern Callar, published by Fireflies Press, is about the 2002 film Morvern Callar, Lynne Ramsay's second feature film, which stars Samantha Morton. The film is based on the 1995 novel Morvern Callar by Alan Warner. These doublings/triplings (note Morton/Morvern!) are perhaps appropriate for a film that, as Anwen notes, contains 'eerie, impeded doublings – Morvern and the viewer, Morvern and the boyfriend, Morvern and herself'. The plot of Morvern Callar is decidedly gruesome, and yet the film is strangely hypnotic, moving, and darkly funny; a cinematic style that Anwen calls 'lyric realism'.

We talk about how Anwen came to write the book, the differences between the film and the novel, and Samantha Morton's mesmeric performance as the title character.

Content note: the plot of Morvern Callar hinges on a suicide, and we discuss that in this episode.

You can buy the book from the Fireflies Press website here:

https://firefliespress.com/Morvern-Callar

Anwen's website:

https://demandspopular.net/

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'm delighted to be joined by the music journalist Simon Reynolds to discuss his new book Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994. Simon has previously written about music's obsession with the past (Retromania) and the future (Futuromania), as well as publishing acclaimed volumes on post-punk (the essential Rip it Up), glam rock and rave. Still in a Dream is different from Simon's other books in some ways because it's less about a specific genre or musical impulse, and more about a particular moment in musical history, when bands sought to reimagine guitar music and challenge and intoxicate listeners with ravishing sounds and pure noise, offering an escape from grim reality into a narcotic dream. And Simon, as a writer for Melody Maker, was there on the frontline, in a team of young journalists working symbiotically with the artists they put on the cover.

You can get hold of Still in a Dream here:

https://store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/products/still-in-a-dream

Simon's blog:

https://blissout.blogspot.com/

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

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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In part two of my interview with William Doyle about Cass McCombs's Wit's End, we go through the album song-by-song. We even get the guitars out to play along.

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, it's a two-part special as I (Robin Allender) talk to the musician William Doyle about Cass McCombs's beautifully morbid 2011 album, Wit's End. In the first part, we discuss Cass's extraordinary lyrics, what makes him such a unique (and underrated) songwrite, and where we were when we first heard the album.

Interview with Cass McCombs from around the time of Wit's End:

https://www.thefader.com/2011/12/05/cass-mccombs-scorpio-rising

Also in The Fader, this is my favourite interview with Cass from 2022:

https://www.thefader.com/2022/08/17/cass-mccombs-heartmind-interview-new-album-2022

Never Ending Stories podcast interview with Cass McCombs:

https://shows.acast.com/never-ending-stories-pod/episodes/nes-068-the-cass-mccombs-interview

We briefly mention Cass's song Bradley Manning which was recorded before Chelsea Manning transitioned.

William Doyle's Bandcamp page:

https://williamdoyle.bandcamp.com/

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

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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Happy Bloomsday! This month I'm delighted to welcome back writer and top-tier Joycean David Collard to celebrate the publication (on 16 June, no less) of Guillermo Stitch's dazzling new novel The Coast of Everything.

Guillermo Stitch's Substack:

https://guillermostitch.substack.com/

Support the podcast:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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This month on The Allender Calendar I’m talking to comedian, broadcaster, and very good friend John Robins about his book Thirst: Twelve Drinks That Changed My Life. It's a beautifully written account of alcoholism and recovery – candid, profound and very funny. I’m positive it will help a lot of people. I’m extremely proud of John for writing this book, and for getting to the place he’s at now. It was great to talk to him about the writing process, and about addiction, spirituality and much more. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation!

You can get hold of a copy of Thirst here:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/465247/thirst-by-robins-john/9780241740040

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.

This month on the pod I'm joined by London-based Cardiff-born musician Simon Love! Simon is a superb songwriter with excellent pop smarts, an innate feeling for hooks, and a gift for Ray Davies-esque scene-setting. His lyrics are often very funny (in particular the bridge-burning bitterness of 'Green Man Blues'), but there's a noticeable air of melancholy to his new album The One True Prince of Wales (in exile after abdication), which contains songs about grief, nostalgia, exile and childhood.

Simon's album was released on 3 April by Hurrah Musica, and you can buy it here (it's also on the streamers):

https://hurrahmusica.bandcamp.com/album/the-one-true-prince-of-wales

And you can find out more about Simon's previous records here:

http://simonlove.org/

Follow Simon on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/simonloverules/

If you want to support the pod, 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'm talking to the fantastic stand-up comedian Celya AB about Crushing, the 2019 album by Julia Jacklin. We had a great chat about music in general, and vulnerability in performance, specifically relating to Celya's last show Of All People.

Through the course of our conversation we ask the big questions like: Are people adicted to vulnerability cigarettes? Should we move Christmas? And what's the best brown noise playlist to listen to on a plane?

Celya is taking her new show We Must Stop Meeting Like This on tour around the UK later this year. Dates are on her website:

https://www.celya-ab.com/

'Body' by Julia Jacklin:

https://youtu.be/ktvJ2PiBgtQ?si=oZI51zwoF-c721M8

I play an Allender Band tune at the end of the show which you can stream/download here:

https://robinallender.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-grip-of-light

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

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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This month on The Allender Calendar I chat to the Northern Irish writer Wendy Erskine about her 2025 novel The Benefactors.

The novel's central incident is the sexual assault of a teenage girl, Misty, at a party. The novel follows Misty, the boys involved in the assault, and their families – and also expands out to include countless other voices, some of whom are linked to the story and some who aren't. This polyphonic approach both deepens our understanding of the central characters and captures how gossip spreads through the community.

The Benefactors is Wendy's first novel. She has previously published two outstanding collections of short stories: Sweet Home (2018) and Dance Move (2022).

Wendy also guested on Your Own Personal Beatles back in 2021:

https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/wendy-erskines-personal-beatles/id1523996711?i=1000542363739

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'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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