Monocle on Culture

We review ‘Little Scratch’, the debut novel by Rebecca Watson, an experimental exploration of a day in the life of a young woman in London. Robert Bound is joined by critics Susannah Butter and Lucy Scholes.

When Susan Rogers started out as an audio technician she had no idea that she would eventually contribute to some of the biggest pop hits ever made. She is best known for being Prince’s sound engineer on seminal albums including ‘Purple Rain’, but she has also worked with the likes of David Byrne, KD Lang, Barenaked Ladies and Tricky as an engineer and producer. These days the Californian has turned to education. Rogers currently teaches at the famed Berklee College of Music where her interests lie particularly in psychoacoustics. Rogers tells us about her unexpected path into recording, some mind-blowing moments in the studio and, of course, a few tales about working with Prince.

We look to the year ahead in film, books and art with our critics: Anna Smith, John Mitchinson and Francesca Gavin.

Our critics Simran Hans, Will Hodgkinson and Fernando Augusto Pacheco reveal their top albums, films and television shows of the year.

Celebrate Christmas with us in a ‘Monocle on Culture’ first: an original piece of festive fiction written by Chloë Ashby.

Grammy-nominated jazz star Jamie Cullum tells us about the making of his first ever Christmas album, ‘The Pianoman at Christmas’. He discusses the keys and chords that make classic Christmas songs, the festive music he was brought up on and why this is also a time of year for the spooky and the melancholic.

We go for a wander around the outside of London’s Southbank Centre to see its new multimedia exhibition, ‘Winter Light’. Robert Bound is accompanied by curator Cliff Lauson and artist David Ogle.

This week we speak to musician, composer and artist Hannah Peel. Renowned for her work in electronica, sound design and scoring for the screen, Peel is also interested in the intersection of music and science. In her solo work she has explored ideas of memory, neurology and sound, as well as composing a seven-movement odyssey for analogue synths and brass orchestra. Her work for TV and film is Emmy-nominated and most recently she composed the soundtrack for Channel 5 thriller ‘The Deceived’. She talks to us about the role that sound has played in her life: whether that’s recording creaky old houses, the rush of a live concert or the way that sound can trigger some of our oldest memories, even in people whose minds are fading.

Novelist Jonathan Coe joins Robert Bound to discuss his new book, ‘Mr Wilder and Me’, a fictional depiction of a young woman who finds herself on a Greek island working for American film director Billy Wilder.

Award-winning sound recordist Chris Watson is one of the leading documenters of the natural world, having recorded wildlife across all continents. Watson is also a musician and was a founding member of experimental group Cabaret Voltaire in the early 1980s. His compositions can be heard across radio and TV, including in the HBO series ‘Chernobyl’ and David Attenborough’s ‘Life’ and ‘Frozen Planet’, and he has been exhibited in the National Gallery and The Louvre. In this episode he talks about where his passion for sound came from, and some of the experiences it has offered him, recording everything from blue whales in Baja to hedgehogs in his Northumberland garden. Plus: we hear recordings from his album ‘Stepping into the Dark’.

Robert Bound is joined by film critics Tim Robey and Karen Krizanovich to review David Fincher’s latest film, ‘Mank’, the story of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz as he battles for credit on the Oscar-winning ‘Citizen Kane’. Set during the golden age of Hollywood, it stars Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried.

We discuss the balance of stories, recipes and personality in cookery books through the lens of Nigella Lawson’s new volume, ‘Cook, Eat, Repeat’. Robert Bound is joined by food writers Felicity Cloake and Olivia Potts and we hear from Lawson herself about the sort of recipes she wanted to write about.

In this 2020 television bonanza, we discuss the streaming services eyeing up linear TV opportunities, whether the news has been the most popular TV show of the year and how well satirists are keeping up with the rolling headlines. Robert Bound is joined by guests Fernando Augusto Pacheco, Inkoo Kang and Scott Bryan.

Anna Smith and Lucy Scholes join Robert Bound to review ‘Shirley’, Josephine Decker’s new film starring Elisabeth Moss, based on the life of the US horror writer Shirley Jackson.

To recommend the best music, television programmes and books still to come this year, Robert Bound is joined by Sharmaine Lovegrove, publisher at Dialogue Books; Ammar Kalia, The Guardian’s assistant TV editor; and the writer and editor Liv Siddall.