A statement on my having left Unbound/Boundless.

New episode up now. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend, with guest Nina Stibbe @ninastibbe.bsky.social in conversation with @johnmitchinson.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social and @birchos.bsky.social. Just my luck! www.backlisted.fm/episodes/240...

Tuesday 27th May. Lined up new episode of Backlisted for my commute. It was bloody brilliant! I thought Secret Diary of A. Mole 13¾ was just funny but intellectuals like @ninastibbe.bsky.social have convinced me it is actually searing critique of Mrs Thatcher etc. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/240...

A new @backlisted.bsky.social in which we discover why guest @ninastibbe.bsky.social refused to review her fave book The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 at the time... with @iammilliam.bsky.social and @birchos.bsky.social‬ (who has never laughed so much)... www.backlisted.fm/episodes/240...

A short report on an event at Mostly Books in Abingdon on Friday: The lovely Joe Dunthorne in conversation with @johnmitchinson.bsky.social, on his new Jewish family memoir Children of Radium. annabookbel.net/an-evening-w...

This is a literary event. Order it, read it

The bliss of going rogue. A wonderful interview with Patrick McCabe in the @irishtimes.com on the publication of GOLDENGROVE by @unboundsocials.bsky.social www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

I'm very pleased and not a little relieved that this fine book is published today by @unboundsocials.bsky.social . It's GOLDENGROVE the fourteenth novel by the great Patrick McCabe. uk.bookshop.org/a/2773/97818...

"So this is my England and a part of yours too – so different from the English Defence League versions of bigotry or the white Etonian dream of exclusion and superiority"

"Somehow, I found myself elected to the infamous Bullingdon Club – surely the only state school-educated candidate ever to have been so embarrassed. I should have rejected it with contempt but I was curious"

New @backlisted.bsky.social episode! The Image of Her (Les Belles Images) by Simone de Beauvoir, with Lauren Elkin @laurenelkin.bsky.social @johnmitchinson.bsky.social @birchos.bsky.social and me. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/239...

A reminder that @backlisted.bsky.social has its own Backlisted Bookshop on @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social where you can buy all the books mentioned in today's episode (and all the 238 previous ones). Buying there supports the podcast & indie bookshops uk.bookshop.org/lists/episod...

New episode up now. Les Belles Images (The Image of Her) by Simone de Beauvoir, with translator Lauren Elkin @laurenelkin.bsky.social in conversation with @iammilliam.bsky.social and @johnmitchinson.bsky.social. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/239...

On today's @backlisted.bsky.social we discuss a book with the penetrating clarity of May sunshine - Lauren Elkin @laurenelkin.bsky.social joins @iammilliam.bsky.social & me to discuss her new translation of Les Belle Images (The Image of Her) by Simone de Beauvoir. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/239...

Dugin, Surkov, Rykov - the Trio at the Head of the Trojan Horse A new opening to this epic saga starts at the Olgino Troll farm in St Petersberg circa 2012 open.substack.com/pub/pdjukes/...

Bursting with pride (like may blossom from a hedgerow) at the publication of this beautifully written, important book, WORDS FROM THE HEDGE. Hail to the hedgelaying word-hewer Richard Negus @troopersnooks.bsky.social! Out now from: @unboundsocials.bsky.social unbound.com/products/wor...

Oh Jane Gardam has died. I number several of her novels amongst my favourites - A Long Way from Verona, Crusoe’s Daughter, The Queen of the Tambourine - and I was fortunate enough to spend an afternoon with her not so long ago. A great writer who was invested in the literary life to the end. RIP. 🙏

The story of Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy & Tripitaka is transformed by Julia Lovell's 'witty and charismatic' translation, according to ace @backlisted.bsky.social guest Kaliane Bradley, whose bestselling debut The Ministry of Truth shares these qualities. @sceptrebooks.bsky.social @mariagluc.bsky.social

THE SPIRIT OF BACKLISTED WAS IRREPRESSIBLE.

New episode of @backlisted.bsky.social! Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, with Pigsy, Sandy, Tripitaka, author Kaliane Bradley, @johnmitchinson.bsky.social @birchos.bsky.social and me. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/238...

Just over a week to go before my SOLD OUT event at @goldenharebooks.bsky.social with @annehamilton.bsky.social. Can't wait. My author copies of #lovelaydown have got lost in the post so it will be the first time that I see a physical copy of my memoir. Will try not to cry 😁

New episode up now. Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, with Kaliane Bradley in conversation with @johnmitchinson.bsky.social and @iammilliam.bsky.social. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/238...

The book that spawned 'the punkiest monkey that ever popped' now has its own @backlisted.bsky.social. Join debut novelist and Penguin Classics editor Kaliane Bradley, @iammilliam.bsky.social, Nicky Birch and me for an hour of Monkey Magic. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/238...

"When suburbia features in British fiction, if it features at all, it is usually as somewhere that isn’t the countryside and isn’t the city, a location which only exists to be escaped from." @iammilliam.bsky.social www.boundlessmagazine.com/p/millions-u...

"JG Ballard referred to the residents of suburbia as ‘dormant people … docile cattle’ in his novel Kingdom Come (2006), though presumably he didn’t do this to their faces e.g., when borrowing a neighbour’s lawnmower." @iammilliam.bsky.social on fine form. www.boundlessmagazine.com/p/millions-u...

The first UK edition of Lore Segal’s 1985 novel Her First American, out in July from Sort Of Books. Cover art by Bill Bragg (channelling Edward Hopper?).

Line up our new episode on Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled for the journey by tram to the childhood home you recognise only as you pass your stop, before being recognised by a stranger who begs you to make good on a promise you cannot recall. #relateable www.backlisted.fm/episodes/237

New episode up now. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, with guest Chris Chibnall @chrischibnall.bsky.social in conversation with @iammilliam.bsky.social and @johnmitchinson.bsky.social. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/237

Today's @backlisted.bsky.social offers a masterpiece of mounting anxiety and misdirection. Join guest Chris Chibnall with @iammilliam.bsky.social, @birchos.bsky.social and me as we get lost and found in the middle-European maze of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/237

New @backlisted.bsky.social episode! The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, with guest Chris Chibnall @chrischibnall.bsky.social @johnmitchinson.bsky.social @birchos.bsky.social and me. 🎹https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/237

Thank you for all your kind words and amazing feedback on our new episode on Hannah Arendt. It was a privilege to spend an hour discussing her life and work with Elif Shafak and Lyndsey Stonebridge. 🙏

So enjoyed this rich conversation. Elif's remarks about writing in a second language because your first has been appropriated by authoritarianism echoing very loudly this week.

All the books discussed on the new @backlisted.bsky.social (and all the other 235 episodes) are available from the Backlisted bookshop on @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social Buying there helps support the Backlisted and indie bookshops in general. uk.bookshop.org/lists/episod...

A huge privilege to welcome Elif Shafak & Prof Lyndsey Stonebridge @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social on the new @backlisted.bsky.social to discuss the poetry of Hannah Arendt (with @iammilliam.bsky.social and @birchos.bsky.social). Her work is needed now more than ever. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/236...

New @backlisted.bsky.social episode! A Compass Error by Sybille Bedford, with Francesca Reece @mistinguettecat.bsky.social @johnmitchinson.bsky.social @birchos.bsky.social and me. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/235...

Spring falters; dark clouds gather. @backlisted.bsky.social visits the late 20s via Sybille Bedford's 1968 coming-of-age novel A Compass Error with Francesca Reece, Prof. Krista Cowman @mistinguettecat.bsky.social, @iammilliam.bsky.social & @birchos.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/235...

Listening to Donald Trump and reading Riddley Walker: "O what we ben! And what we come to ..." @backlisted.bsky.social @johnmitchinson.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social

“No good deed goes unpunished but no bad one is entirely without merit.” New @backlisted.bsky.social episode on Elia Kazan’s memoirs, with guest John Lahr joining me, @johnmitchinson.bsky.social and @birchos.bsky.social. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/234...

New episode up now. A Life by Elia Kazan, with guest John Lahr joining @johnmitchinson.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social and @birchos.bsky.social. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/234...

In which we welcome one of @backlisted.bsky.social's heroes, the writer and critic, John Lahr. Join me, @iammilliam.bsky.social, and Nicky Birch as we explore the huge (in every sense) A Life by Elia Kazan, a book as gutsy, bruising & brilliant as the man himself. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/234...

This evening at 6.30pm. We talked about Base Notes on the Winter Reading episode of @backlisted.bsky.social. @johnmitchinson.bsky.social and I both love the book so it's a pleasure to find out more about it from Adelle herself. A few tickets left: bit.ly/3Q3RNu8

🌹💝 ARE YOU A ROMANCE HEROINE??? 💝🌹 @alicefraser.bsky.social reveals all at the launch of @unbounders.bsky.social #APassionforPassion at London's Bill Murray comedy club. Alice shares the stage with producer @podchris.bsky.social and co-host @zaltzcricket.bsky.social. @johnmitchinson.bsky.social

Laura Thompson’s discussion of memoir and biography with @johnmitchinson.bsky.social is also available to watch on YouTube. Jean Rhys, Elizabeth Jane Howard, P.D. James and more! youtu.be/mI2k6l-NH9U?...

Somewhat terrifyingly we filmed the Biography and Memoir @backlisted.bsky.social special. If you fancy watching two people amusing one another while discussing Nancy Mitford, Roger Lewis, Elizabeth Jane Howard, P.D. James and - say what? - Jean Rhys, then this is for you. youtu.be/mI2k6l-NH9U?...

It's possible that some of you BlueSky cats don't know that @backlisted.bsky.social has its own bookshop on @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social where you can buy all the books mentioned on each epsiode. Buying there helps support the Backlisted and indie bookshops = win-win. uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlis...

This is going to be a cracker (craic-er even). The cost of a pint and half of Guinness in a London pub. Join us by signing up below...

The bat-eared amongst you will detect that I’m not on the new @backlisted.bsky.social, worse luck. But on Saturday you can hear a Locklisted special with additional thoughts on biography and memoir (based in part on my own humble contributions to the genre). Sign up below! www.patreon.com/backlisted

A five-books-in-one @backlisted.bsky.social special in which I interview biographer and memoirist Laura Thompson about her favourite biographies and memoirs. Books by Nancy Mitford, Roger Lewis, Elizabeth Jane Howard, P.D. James and Jean Rhys. Peak Backlisted. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/233...