Freedom, Books, Flowers & The Moon

Searching for the Good LifeSkye Clery on how to cope with the fear of death and other anxieties https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/life-is-short-dean-rickles-life-is-hard-kieran-setiya-book-review-skye-cleary/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lamorna Ash joins us to talk about Shy, Max Porter’s tale of teenage angst; and Jonathan Taylor on an illuminating survey of the uses and abuses of storytelling.’Shy’ by Max Porter’Seduced by Story: The Use and Abuse of Narrative’ by Peter BrooksProducer :Lucy Dichmont Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mother Knows BestMichele Pridmore-Brown considers recent insights into parenthood from neuroscience, archaeology and social policyhttps://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/mother-brain-chelsea-conaboy-what-makes-a-person-mark-hanson-lucy-green-growing-up-human-brenna-hassett-book-review-michele-pridmore-brown/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we go in search of the meaning of life, death and the universe, in the capable hands of Nat Segnit and Skye Cleary.‘The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery’ by Adam Gopnik‘Life is Short: An Appropriately Brief Guide to Making It More Meaningful’ by Dean Rickles‘Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way’ by Kieran SetiyaProduced by Lucy Dichmont Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Irina Dumitrescu considers what psoriasis tells us about social outcasts.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/skin-sergio-del-molino-book-review-irina-dumitrescu/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Margarette Lincoln on the secret life of Daniel Defoe, government agent; and Claire Lowdon transports herself back to the teenage turmoil of Martin Amis’s debut novel, fifty years on. ‘The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Daniel Defoe’ edited by Nicholas Seager‘The Rachel Papers’ by Martin AmisProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Helen Bynum enjoins us to consider the secret lives of plants; and Jacqueline Banerjee on love and marriage in the world of George Eliot.‘Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence’ by Paco Calvo with Natalie Lawrence‘The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life’ by Clare CarlisleProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft considers how the First World War triggered a wave of xenophobia and a Red Scare.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/american-midnight-adam-hochschild-book-review-geoffrey-wheatcroft/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Flora Willson explores the struggle of four women composers to have their work heard, and Biancamaria Fontana on the late David Graeber’s survey of Madagascan pirate kingdoms.‘Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World’ by Leah Broad‘Pirate Enlightenment: Or the Real Libertalia’ by David GraeberProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our first instalment, we talk to novelist Dame Margaret Drabble and her son, gardener and TV presenter Joe Swift. Their wide-ranging conversation includes a disagreement over pelargoniums, Joe’s childhood insistence on playing football in his mother’s cottage garden, the joys of irregular hedges and fashions in fiction and foliage alike.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Mazower asks: did the Ottomans preserve the Parthenon and Elgin wreck it?https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/who-saved-the-parthenon-william-st-clair-book-review-mark-mazower/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Margaret Drabble and Joe Swift talk about the relationship between literature and gardening; and a new short-story collection from Margaret Atwood.‘Turning Leaves’, a new podcast from the TLS team‘Old Babes in the Wood’ by Margaret AtwoodProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ferdinand Mount considers how the English upper classes appropriated fair play from the lower orders.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/an-english-tradition-jonathan-duke-evans-book-review-ferdinand-mount/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we hear about the pursuit of the perfect library, and celebrate the brilliance of crime writer Josephine Tey. Irina Dumitrescu on the bibliophile’s life‘The Franchise Affair’, ‘To Love and Be Wise’ and ‘The Daughter of Time’ by Josephine TeyProduced by Charlotte Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Godfrey-Smith on two books about living like a deer and learning from the birds.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/deer-man-geoffroy-delorme-the-parrot-in-the-mirror-antone-martinho-truswell-book-review-peter-godfrey-smith/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we examine the highs and very many lows of the writing life. Tom Seymour Evans explores a disquieting biography of crime writer James Ellroy, and Stephen Marche shines a light into the abyss of literary failure in his new book.‘Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy’ by Steven Powell‘On Writing and Failure’ by Stephen MarcheProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In an extract from Lawcraft, published by TLS Books last month, Geoffrey Robertson explains how Russian oligarchs use British courts to close down investigative journalism.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/lawfare-geoffrey-robertson-extract-russia-free-speech/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Richard Norton-Taylor braves the terrifying world of cyberattacks and their brutal cost; and Lucasta Miller on an intriguing collection of 19th-century commonplace books.'Pegasus: The Story of the World’s Most Dangerous Spyware’ by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud‘Striking Back: The End of Peace in Cyberspace - and How to Restore It’ by Lucas KelloThe work of scholar and collector William St ClairProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

N. J. Enfield considers how software engineers became social engineers in our democracies.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/freedom-to-think-susie-alegre-the-digital-republic-jamie-susskind-book-review-n-j-enfield/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 MalcolmProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.