On this episode, we were joined by Francesca Wade to discuss her groundbreaking new biography, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife.

This book paints a dual portrait of Gertrude Stein by dividing her story into two parts: her life and her afterlife. Doing this not only brings her partner, Alice B. Toklas, into clearer view, but also separates Stein’s work and its lasting impact from her larger-than-life personality. 

Francesca takes us behind the scenes of her exhaustive research—from exploring the Yale archives, which hold over 75 years of manuscripts, personal letters, and photographs, to visiting the French countryside where Stein and Toklas lived during the German occupation. 

We also discuss how Toklas, left behind after Stein’s death, devoted herself to preserving Stein’s legacy, even as she struggled with legal battles and near-poverty while living surrounded by Picassos she couldn’t bring herself to sell.

Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Olivia Robinson.

On this episode, we're joined by legendary magazine editor Graydon Carter to discuss his memoir, When the Going Was Good, an intoxicating portrait of his 25-year reign as editor of Vanity Fair, and an extraordinary life shaped by curiosity, conflict and impeccable taste.

We begin at Spy, the satirical magazine he co-founded, which targeted New York’s cultural establishment with reckless abandon, coining the infamous "small hands" insult for Donald Trump.

Later, he reflects on his turbulent start at Vanity Fair, where he was initially hated by staff, the close working relationship he developed with photographer Annie Leibovitz, and the founding of the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, now a more coveted invitation in Hollywood than the ceremony itself.

Throughout our conversation, Carter shares countless juicy anecdotes — from receiving a Scientology plaque from Tom Cruise to helping Fran Lebowitz find the perfect suit — and explores how magazine journalism has lost its lustre in the digital age.

On this episode, we're joined by author and international human rights barrister Philippe Sands to talk about his latest book, 38 Londres Street, a gripping exploration of justice, memory, and impunity through the intertwining stories of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Nazi fugitive Walter Rauff who spent decades in Chile avoiding extradition.

We consider the groundbreaking legal concept of universal jurisdiction through the lens of Pinochet's dramatic 1998 arrest in London—a defining moment that transformed international justice—and what it means for the complex geopolitics of today. 

Drawing inspiration from literary figures like Roberto Bolaño, Bruce Chatwin, and Ariel Dorfman, Sands blends detective-style nonfiction with profound moral complexity, tracing the ominous echoes among Nazi Germany, fascism, and the Cold War. He also tells us about the book's sensational reception in Chile, where the effects of his reporting have reignited long-suppressed debates about accountability and national memory. 

In typical fashion, we also cover everything from Pinochet's visit to Hatchards a few days before his arrest—where he reportedly bought every book he could find on Napoleon—to his compulsive viewing of Star Wars films while awaiting trial.

On this episode, we’re joined by writer and fashion critic Charlie Porter to discuss our Fiction Book of the Month, Nova Scotia House—a powerful love story that summons a lost generation, set against the backdrop of the UK AIDS crisis and its aftermath throughout the 1980s and ’90s.

Our discussion of the novel’s vivid characters and cultural history offers a fascinating window into queer life in London at the close of the 20th century—and into Charlie’s own personal journey toward living without fear.

In true form, we also cover everything from Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group to the feud over “punk” between British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman and fashion icon Vivienne Westwood. Charlie also shares his love of Proust and 19th-century literature, despite his improbable hatred of Madame Bovary.

Finally, we discuss the resurrection of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt—consisting of 42 twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot panels—which Porter has helped present at Tate Modern in London this summer.

Signed copies of the book are available in-store and on our website. Listeners of The Hatchards Podcast can receive 15% off at checkout with the code “NOVA15.”

Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Olivia Robinson.

On this episode, we were joined by Lola Kirke, the British-American actress and musician known for Mozart in the Jungle, Mistress America, and Gone Girl, who has written Wild West Village—a witty and moving essay collection described by Booklist as the “Andy Warhol Diaries for rich New York City art kids of the new millennium.”

The book follows Kirke’s famous family—including her father, Simon (drummer for Free and Bad Company), and her sister, Jemima (of HBO’s Girls)—from West London to the West Village, as Lola navigates life in a family of larger-than-life personalities who party hard, exude effortless cool, and embody talent, beauty, and sophistication.

On this episode, we were joined by Laurent Binet, the Prix Goncourt-winning author of HHHH, to discuss his new novel, Perspectives—a murder mystery set in Renaissance Florence, where Giorgio Vasari (possibly the world’s first art critic) is tasked with finding the killer of one of the city’s most prominent painters.

Like much of Binet’s previous work, the novel is a historical counterfactual: the period’s mise-en-scène is precisely rendered, but the story he tells is playful and inventive.

"Playful" is also a word that can be used to describe Binet himself. As a guest, he’s funny, laid-back, and happy to go down the rabbit hole with us as we discuss everything from Proust to Philip Marlowe, Simenon to Stanley Kubrick.

On this episode, we were joined by Oscar-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross, director and co-writer of Nickel Boys, the new screen adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Rated five stars by The Times and The Guardian, hailed as a "masterpiece" by The Independent, and recently named Best Film of 2024 by the National Society of Film Critics, Ross' film is a transformative adaptation of Whitehead's novel, employing a first-person POV that faithfully translates the book's prose experience into the language of cinema.

RaMell spoke to us about the daunting task of adapting the work of a literary icon, his unique journey from potential NBA prospect to artist, his love of J.D. Salinger, and whether genre-oriented books make for the most successful screen adaptations.

On this episode, we were joined by Lili Anolik, contributing editor at Vanity Fair, and author of Didion & Babitz, a provocatively entertaining account of the feud between two key countercultural voices of the 1960s and '70s – the iconic Joan Didion and the lesser-known Eve Babitz.
 
Lili spoke us to about her decade's long obsession with Eve Babitz, her scepticism of the Didion mystique, Pauline Kael, and the crucial role that Los Angeles played in the development of these two literary titans.

Covering everyone from Charles Manson to Marcel Duchamp, Lili takes us headlong into two tumultuous decades, demonstrating why Eve Babitz considered Los Angeles in the 1970s to be the Moveable Feast that Hemingway and Fitzgerald experienced in the Paris of the '20s. 

Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Matt Hennessey. Produced by Lily Woods.

In this episode, we were joined by Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of one of the key literary phenomenons of the 2010s, My Struggle, to discuss his latest novel, The Third Realm, the latest instalment in the riveting Morning Star series.

Karl Ove spoke to us about his journey toward becoming more at ease in literary interviews, his relationship with his work in translation, and how music informs one’s sense of identity—contrasting, for instance, his youthful love of punk and R.E.M. with his daughter’s of Ariana Grande. We also discuss “artistic preciousness” and how he has evolved from seeing writing as “sacrosanct” to being able to work at the kitchen table despite constant interruptions.

Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Matt Hennessey. Produced by Lily Woods.

On this episode, we were joined by the iconic actor, writer, and filmmaker Richard Ayoade to discuss his latest comic novel, The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, a fictional accounting of his quest to canonise the most significant British playwright of the 20th century (who also happens to be entirely made up). 

Richard spoke to us about the figures that influenced the invention of Hughes–among them Harold Pinter and Orson Welles–and the ill-fated film Hughes authored, "O Bedlam, O Bedlam", which stopped the prolific playwright from ever writing again. 

He expressed scepticism about the myths and exaggerations that create "great lost works" and literary recluses and discussed why it is important to approach comic writing from the inside out rather than trying to make fun of your characters. 

For good measure, we also discuss his deep love of "Spinal Tap", Joan Didion, and the time he spent acting in Wes Anderson's "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar."