The TLS Podcast

This week, Elizabeth Dearnley hunts for the hags, fairies and wandering women of the pagan past; and Ruth Scurr on a thrilling final book from the celebrated journalist Janet Malcolm.

‘Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses In Christian Europe’ by Ronald Hutton

‘Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory’ by Janet Malcolm

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Nessa Carey explores how recent scientific breakthroughs allow experimentation with the DNA of all living species.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-genetic-age-matthew-cobb-book-review-nessa-carey/

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Richard Smyth remembers the equanimity and attentiveness of Ronald Blythe; and Mary Flannery on the enduring appeal of Alison, the Wife of Bath.

‘Next to Nature: A Lifetime in the English Countryside’ by Ronald Blythe

‘The Wife of Bath: A Biography’ by Marion Turner

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Kirsty Gunn considers Katherine Mansfield’s place in the literary canon.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/all-sorts-of-lives-katherine-mansfield-claire-harman-book-review-kirsty-gunn/

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This week, Gabriel Roberts explores the past, present and - we very much hope - the future of bioabundance in animal species; and novelist Gwendoline Riley takes us into the affecting and brutally funny world of Michael Bracewell’s return to fiction after 21 years.

Species loss and bioabundance, by Gabriel Roberts

‘Unfinished Business’ by Michael Bracewell

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Christy Edwall reflects on a meditations on Keats’s poems, and a new account of his last days.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/a-greeting-of-the-spirit-susan-wolfson-written-in-water-alessandro-gallenzi-keats-book-review-christy-edwall/

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Olivia Laing secrets and lies in the life and work of Kathy Acker.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/eat-your-mind-kathy-acker-jason-mcbride-book-review-olivia-laing/

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This week, Lucy Lethbridge explains what a curate's eye is, and how ideas of British cooking range from Aga fantasies to bacon butties; and J. S. Barnes takes us to the dark side of the festive season, via Dickens and M. R. James....

'The British Cookbook: Authentic home cooking recipes from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland' by Ben Mervis

'To Be Read At Dusk: Dickens, ghosts and the supernatural', Charles Dickens Museum, London, until March 5, 2023 

'The Witch Farm', BBC Radio 4 and Sounds 

'The Treasure of Abbot Thomas', Nunkie Theatre Company, December 24, live online  

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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

This week, we hear how the music-hall star Josephine Baker became a secret agent; and we talk to Simon McBurney of Complicité theatre company, about their haunting audio production of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising.

'The Flame of Resistance' by Damien Lewis

'The Dark Is Rising' by Susan Cooper, BBC World Service, December 20

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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