The TLS Podcast

A recovering Alexander van Tulleken shares some thoughts on the British response to Covid-19; What cultural things are people doing to pass the time in isolation? We asked a selection of our writers, and Lucy Dallas joins us (from what sounds like a small tin box) to pluck at the results  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Samuel Graydon reviews two new albums, by the folk troubadour Sam Lee and indie rock band Cornershop, both of which offer innovative and intelligent musical perspectives on modern England; the TLS’s arts editor Lucy Dallas presents this month’s ‘Audio/Visual’, a monthly round-up of listening and watching; Josephine Livingstone grapples with the 'omnivore paradox' in the arts sector: why broader tastes in art have not led to wider participation Featured works Old Wow by Sam Lee England is a Garden by Cornershop Audio: ‘Reply All’, the podcast Visual: ‘Five Guys a Week’, Channel 4 Entitled: Discriminating tastes and the expansion of the arts by Jennifer C. Lena Steal as Much as You Can: How to win the culture wars in an age of austerity by Nathalie Olah Smashing It: Working class artists on life, art and making it happen, edited by Sabrina Mahfouz  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tim Parks talks us through the lockdown from Milan; A. N. Wilson explains the Prayer Book Controversy of the 1920s, and why it's a bit like Brexit; and Anna Girling looks back on the - failed - poetic and critical career of Richard Aldington Richard Aldington, Two volumes, by Vivien Whelpton  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Frances Wilson gets implausibly angry about the hypocrisy of Patrick O’Brian; Michèle Roberts makes the case for the forgotten author of the nineteenth century, George Sand; Miranda Seymour turns literary detective to identify a new work by Ada Lovelace. And Roz Dineen fails to be enticed by cakes. Romans 1 & 2 George Sand; Edited by José-Luis Diaz and Brigitte Diaz Patrick O’Brian – A very private life Nikolai Tolstoy  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Edmund Gordon discusses whether Hilary Mantel's final Cromwell novel lives up to its billing - and whether, at 900-odd pages, it is the right length; Muriel Zagha looks at the female gaze in French cinema, with respect to the new film Portrait of a Lady on Fire; Irina Dumitrescu talks about how to write well, and when to break the rules The Mirror & the Light, by Hilary Mantel Portrait of a Lady on Fire, by Céline Sciamma Why They Can't Write, by John Warner Writing to Persuade, by Trish Hall Every Day I Write the Book, by Amitava Kumar   First You Write a Sentence, by Joe Moran Meander, Spiral, Explode, by Jane Alison  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week the TLS is running an extract from The Mirror & the Light, the long-awaited third and final volume of Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell novels. In 1538 Thomas Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal, questions Geoffrey Pole, the youngest son of a great family. Pole is accused of conspiring against Henry VIII and attempting to bring back the old religion and reinstate the Pope as head of the Church. (The Mirror & the Light will be published on March 5 by Fourth Estate. The audio book is published by W F Howes and narrated by Ben Miles.)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

James Shapiro, the author of Shakespeare in a Divided America, discusses the history of West Side Story, the most popular and successful Shakespeare musical of all time, and Ivo van Hove's flawed Broadway adaptation; Toby Lichtig reviews Tom Stoppard's new play Leopoldstadt and talks us through a selection of Jewish-focused pieces in this week's issue of the TLS; David Horspool, the TLS's history editor and a keen consumer of audiobooks, tells us what he has been listening to this month West Side Story, directed by Ivo van Hove Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard, Wyndham's Theatre, London, until June 13  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rebecca Langlands on lessons learnt in the only known ancient Roman brothel; Caroline Moorehead reviews Elena Ferrante's latest novel; Rory Waterman reads a new poem, "Defences" ("'Crikey!' you say. 'It’s gorgeous!'...") Books:  The Brothel of Pompeii: Sex, class, and gender at the margins of Roman society, by Sarah Levin-Richardson  La vita bugiarda degli adulti, by Elena Ferrante  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is it the best of times or the worst of times to be a satirist? Madeleine Brettingham, a writer on the BBC's News Quiz, joins us to discuss; Toby Lichtig on a new production of Endgame and the constraints imposed on Samuel Beckett adaptations; founded in the 1960s, the Oulipo was – and remains – a group of writers and scientists striving for "potential literature". Anna Aslanyan considers the movement's legacy March of the Lemmings: Brexit in print and performance 2016–2019, by Stewart Lee The Joke is On Us: Political comedy in (late) neoliberal times, edited by Julie A. Webber Endgame / Rough For Theatre II, at the Old Vic theatre, London The Oulipo and Modern Thought, by Dennis Duncan All that is Evident is Suspect: Readings from the Oulipo 1963–2018, edited and translated by Daniel Levin Becker and Ian Monk  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Irish novelist reads an extract from her new novel, published in this week's TLS, in print, app and online   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One of Germany's most acclaimed novelists talks to Maren Meinhardt about his new novel, Tyll, a vivid account of a seventeenth-century trickster's journey through a Europe ravaged by the Thirty Years’ War.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Caryl Emerson on Tolstoy’s art, ideas and life, and the extent to which these came together; Benjamin Markovits returns to a treasured childhood book: The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook; Eve Babitz – a “fizzy”, “fabulous” chronicler of 1960s and 70s Los Angeles – is mid revival. Megan Marz fills us in. Lives and Deaths: Essential stories by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Boris Dralyuk Leo Tolstoy: A very short introduction by Liza Knapp Leo Tolstoy by Andrei Zorin The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook by Gary Gygax I Used To Be Charming: The rest of Eve Babitz, edited by Sara J. Kramer Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the secret history of L.A., by Lili Anolik  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lucy Dallas reports on theories, developments and disputes in the world of science fiction; Lawrence Douglas adds crucial historical context – stretching back to the Middle Ages, in fact – to the current US presidential impeachment; the poet Hannah Sullivan emerges from Princeton University Library with fresh insight into T. S. Eliot's love letters    The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Ursula Le Guin The Expanse, Volumes 1–8, by James S. A. Corey  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Did Byron have an eating disorder? Mummy issues? Daddy issues? Does it matter? Emily A. Bernhard Jackson joins us to discuss; Stanley Donwood, the artist and designer of Radiohead's record covers, makes the case for this most democratic of artforms; Keith Miller on the work of the designer and architect Charlotte Perriand, a high-minded high modernist whose life spanned the whole of the twentieth century The Private Life of Lord Byron by Antony Peattie Charlotte Perriand: Complete works, by Jacques Barsac  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Muriel Zagha reviews Marriage Story and considers a few other deserving/undeserving films either lauded or ignored by this year's awards panels; a clip from an interview with Francesca Wade, the author of Square Haunting: Five women, freedom and London between the wars (you'll find the full interview in your podcast feed); this month marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anne Brontë, the sister whose reputation has been slowest to blossom but who, according to Samantha Ellis, was the most radical and modern of them all  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.