Following a Christmas surge in downloads, the Secret life of books is now the most popular books/arts podcast in australia! And we are entirely independent. Grateful to all our supporters and subscribers who have made this happen. Please keep spreading the word! rephonic.com/charts/apple...

piece by me today in the Financial Review about new HSC English syllabus. Watch me pivot from kneejerk outrage at the banishment of Dickens to deep appreciation. The syllabus is richer, more diverse and challenging than before. I also talk about how exciting poetry is in Australia today.

up bright and early to go on ABC Sydney breakfast with Sophie Gee. Talking to Chris Taylor about... classic books, of course.

Amazing seeing Jack white at the Enmore last night. A quarter of a century into his career and hasn’t lost his edge - very loud, very hardcore.

in the studio with Sophie Gee and the amazing Charlotte Wood talking about Elizabeth Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton for SLoB. Charlotte talked about her love of Strout's work, how it inspired her brilliant Stone Yard Devotional, and reflected on her Booker experience this year. Thank you Charlotte!

Announced today: Secret Life of Books is joining the brilliant Roanna Gonsalves to form the NSW State Library Book Club in 2025. A big step for SLoB. Also, just a great program launch by Caroline Butler-Bowdon and the State Library. Libraries forever! www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-librar...

Are you a Scrooge or Tiny Tim when it comes to Xmas? Join us on Dec 17 for our first Secret Life of Books online book club to talk about Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Time: 7pm AEST (Sydney. 8am in UK. America - sorry. We'll make it up later) REGISTER HERE: www.secretlifeofbooks.org/event-detail...

loved going on Arts Tuesday 89.7fm Eastside with Sophie Gee to talk Secret life of Books earlier with wonderful hosts Suzi and Di. I was v distracted by Art Kane's A Great Day in Harlem on the wall - hence eyes in wrong direction. It's a dangerous picture - you can disappear into it for hours!

Latest episode of Secret Life of Books. Oliver Twist👇. So many puns to choose from: Twist and Shout, Let's Twist Again...

Oliver Twist for SLoB this week. forgotten that dickens - as well as fagin, dodger et al - gives us the 1st detective double act in blathers & duff a century before starsky & hutch. They even do good cop-bad cop and lay out the rules of procedural: 1) inspect the premises; 2) interview the suspects

A view from the crowd. Sophie gee and I going head to head over Shakespeare vs Austen at Sydney university this morning. The most anticipated bout since Paul vs Tyson. Amazed the streamers weren’t interested actually. No clear victor when we went to the polls, except - of course - literature itself

after a two hour recording session on Oliver Twist with Sophie Gee, nothing says relaxation like a 2025 business planning session. chemical equations in background not ours. fortunately.

limbering up for going head to head over Shakespeare vs Austen with Sophie Gee at University of Sydney Alumni Festival this Saturday. The hottest match since Paul vs Tyson. I'm in Shakespeare's camp. suggestions for knock out blows welcome!

Yay!

Latest Secret Life of Books episode available now. Mary Beard joins Sophie Gee and myself to discuss the Odyssey - and how it is basically an investigation of toxic masculinity a few millennia before Zeus put Andrew Tate into the world. As always with Mary - lots of laughs and revelations.

it's a philosophical question: can a grave stone be 'vandalised' if there is no grave beneath it? Either way, neither Scrooge nor his descendants will be paying for it. Sounds like humbug to me

Go Greek with Mary Beard as she joins SLoB for a special episode on The Odyssey.

finishing edit of Secret Life of Books episode on The Odyssey for tomorrow. Guest star: Mary Beard. Recorded last week and Mary spent an hour talking with us. There's so much going on Homer, but the acute investigation of toxic masculinity millennia before it was even a phrase took me by surprise.

edited and published Thursday night's Secret Life of Books launch event. Good fun and the closest to a mission statement we'll probably ever do secretlifeofbooks.buzzsprout.com/2382913/epis...

Sophie Gee and I had a ball launching the Secret Life of Books podcast at Gleebooks in Sydney last night. I even wore my fancy suit. Ann Mossop did a beautiful introduction. The Gleebooks team were amazing. Ended the evening in a karaoke booth.

One of the highlights of working for Red Room Poetry is the Poem Forest Awards. Today is that day. The finalist poems are here loom.ly/wkYRwdE Please read some - the talent of these young poets, the empathy they feel towards nature and the world, is truly inspiring.

meantime, reading Oliver Twist for next record. I knew Charles Dickens had to work in a blacking factory when he was twelve. Didn't realise the older boy who looked out for him there was actually called Fagin. In Oliver Twist, he turned childhood trauma into great art

Secret Life of Books launching publicly tonight at Gleebooks. Guest list at 107. Recording a special episode on the Secret Life of The Secret Life of Books. All will be revealed...

and this week's episode now available - on all good podcast providers. Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey - gothic thrills, romantic spills, and household bills (requiring a strategic marriage). www.buzzsprout.com/2382913/epis...

Hello Bluesky! I'm jumping on the bandwagon - in the search of a better world! Two more sleeps until the official launch of the Secret Life of Books podcast at Gleebooks in Sydney. spaces still available gleebooks.com.au/event/the-se...