London Review Bookshop Podcasts

To celebrate the publication of In Therapy: The Unfolding Story (Profile/Wellcome Collection), Susie Orbach was in conversation with Lisa Appignanesi. In this new updated edition, Orbach, who The New York Times called the 'most famous psychotherapist to have set up couch in Britain since Sigmund Freud' explores what goes on in the process of therapy through a series of dramatized case studies.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In an age of increasing individualism, we have never been more alone and miserable. But what if the true nature of happiness can only be found in others? In Radical Happiness, leading feminist thinker Lynne Segal argues that we have lost the art of radical happiness—the art of transformative, collective joy. Lynne Segal was at the shop to discuss Radical Happiness and the political and emotional potential of being together with writer and campaigner Melissa Benn.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Carol Mavor, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Manchester, reflects in her latest book Aurelia (Reaktion) on the very particular place that fairy tales hold in our culture and in the popular imagination. 'Aurelia is as strange, enigmatic, and full of magic as its subjects' writes the essayist Maggie Nelson. Mavor was in conversation with cultural critic, mythographer and historian of the folk tale Marina Warner.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

To celebrate the publication of the London Review Bookshop's beautiful limited edition of Peter Carey’s new novel 'A Long Way From Home', LRB publisher Nicholas Spice spoke to Carey about his deep family connections with cars, maps and stories, the question of race in Australia, and how all these things come together in the new work.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Acclaimed children's writer, poet, educationalist and broadcaster Michael Rosen was at the shop to present his latest book So They Call You Pisher! (Verso), a memoir of his childhood and early adulthood. Born into a Jewish Communist family in the East End of London in 1946, Rosen's early life was one of Party meetings, radical camping holidays, revolutionary hopes and disillusionments, and of political self-discovery. Warm and witty, his memoir gives a vivid account of growing up on the left in post-war Britain. Michael Rosen was in conversation with the medical writer and journalist Anne Karpf, author of, most recently, The School of Life's How to Age.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Professor Richard Sennett has spent an intellectual lifetime exploring how humans live in cities. In this pair of essays Richard Sennett explores displacement in the metropolis through two vibrant historical moments: mid-nineteenth-century Paris, with its community of political exiles, a place where ‘you look in the mirror and see someone who is not yourself’; and Renaissance Venice, where state-imposed restrictions on ‘outsider’ groups – including prostitutes as well as Jews – had some surprising cultural consequences. Richard Sennett discussed these ideas with Sewell Chan, international news editor at the New York Times.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Audre Lorde (1934-92) described herself as ‘Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet’. Born in New York, she had her first poem published while still at school and her last in the year of her death in 1992. Her extraordinary belief in the power of language – of speaking – to articulate selfhood, confront injustice and bring about change in the world remains as transformative today as it was then, and no less urgent. Your Silence Will Not Protect You (Silver Press) brings Lorde’s essential poetry, speeches and essays together in one volume for the first time, with a preface by Reni Eddo-Lodge and an introduction by Sara Ahmed. To celebrate the publication, Reni Eddo-Lodge, author of the acclaimed Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, discussed Lorde's work and legacy with Sarah Shin, co-founder of Silver Press.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My House of Sky (Little Toller) tells the hitherto largely unknown story of J.A. Baker, author of nature writing classic The Peregrine. Working with an archive of materials that only came to light in 2013, Hetty Saunders provides an invaluable insight into the life of the reclusive naturalist, whose work has influenced writers and artists as diverse as Richard Mabey and Werner Herzog. To celebrate the publication of this new biography, Hetty Saunders was joined by Robert Macfarlane, author of Landmarks, and conservationist and editor of Baker's Diaries, John Fanshawe. The evening was chaired by Gareth Evans.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The two parts of Mary Beard’s latest book were originally given as lectures in the LRB’s prestigious Winter Lecture series, and subsequently appeared as essays in the magazine itself. In each part of the book, Mary Beard deals with the history and politics of women in public life, and draws on personal experience, family history and an unrivalled knowledge of the Classics. On November 21st at 7pm Mary Beard was at St George’s Bloomsbury where she spoke about her latest book *Women & Power* and about her position as one of Britain’s most prominent public intellectuals. Mary Beard was joined by Professor Sarah Churchwell, professorial fellow in American literature and chair of public understanding of the humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Marx’s Das Kapital, published in three volumes between 1867 and 1883, exercised a profound influence on the history and politics of the 20th century, and, despite the expectations of many, continues to resonate through the 21st. In Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason (Profile), David Harvey, Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York Graduate School and the author of many highly acclaimed books on Marx and Marxism, explains in clear and concise language just what it is that makes Marx’s analysis so powerful, and what it still continues to offer us for the future. Harvey was in the bookshop in conversation with architectural critic and journalist Owen Hatherley, author of, most recently, The Ministry of Nostalgia and Landscapes of Communism.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What do we think about when we think about football? Football is about so many things: memory, history, place, social class, gender, family identity, tribal identity, national identity, the nature of groups. It is essentially collaborative, even socialist, yet it exists in a sump of greed, corruption, capitalism and autocracy. At our event in the Bookshop on 2 November, Philosopher Simon Critchley attempted to make sense of it all with writer, critic and Norwich City fan Juliet Jacques.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Following her Man Booker shortlisted Autumn, Ali Smith was at the shop to present its sequel Winter, (Hamish Hamilton), the second in a quartet of novels reflecting and embedded in the shifting seasons. A book full of truths for the post-truth era, Winter confronts and contrasts this bleakest of seasons with the evergreen qualities of love, memory, art and laughter. Smith was in conversation with Olivia Laing, writer and critic, and author of, most recently, The Lonely City (Canongate).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Iain Sinclair has been writing about London for most of his adult life, and if any of us can even begin to understand this peculiar sort of city that we sort of call a sort of home, then it's with Sinclair that we begin. The Last London (Oneworld) is the culmination of Iain's London project, although 'project' is far too determined a word to describe a body of work so many-layered, so prodigiously polyvalent. At our event at St. George's, Bloomsbury, he talked about the book and the city with comedian, writer and film director Stewart Lee, another Londoner from elsewhere.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Twenty years after Kathy Acker's untimely death, Chris Kraus has provided the first full biography of the avant-garde artist, writer and counter-cultural heroine. Sheila Heti writes of After Kathy Acker (Allen Lane) 'This is a gossipy, anti-mythic artist biography which feels like it's being told in one long rush of a monologue over late-night drinks by someone who was there.' On the 25th September, Chris Kraus, the author of amongst many other books I Love Dick ('the most important book about men and women written in the last century.' according to Emily Gould in the Guardian) was joined in conversation about Acker by writer Juliet Jacques, the author of Trans: A Memoir (Verso).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A very special evening at the Bookshop poet, playwright and translator Anne Carson. With Robert Currie and Ben Whishaw, Anne performed Lecture On The History Of Skywriting, a piece originally commissioned by Laurie Anderson for New York Live Ideas.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Four of the most interesting poets working today read at the bookshop, to mark the publication of Cambridge Literary Review 10: Vahni Capildeo, Drew Milne, Luke Roberts and Eley Williams.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

'Americans don’t actually believe in death.' Siri Hustvedt and Lisa Appignanesi were in conversation in the bookshop. Hustvedt's latest collection of essays on art, sex and psychology, A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women, is published by Sceptre; Prospect magazine, reviewing the volume, called her 'a writer of blazing intelligence and curiosity'. Lisa Appignanesi's Trials of Passion: Crimes in the Name of Love and Madness was published in 2014.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Horacio Castellanos Moya was in conversation at the Bookshop with Rory O'Bryen. Best known in the UK for novels such as Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador and The Dream of My Return, Castellanos Moya is a writer who, in the words of Natasha Wimmer, 'has turned anxiety into an art-form and an act of rebellion, and redeemed paranoia as a positive indicator of rot'. This event took place in association with Cervantes Institute London and the Embassy of El Salvador.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Anna Minton, Reader in Architecture at the University of East London and author of Ground Control, asks, in her latest book Big Capital (Penguin), a very big question: 'Who is London For?' As the cost of housing spirals upwards, putting this most essential of all necessities beyond the financial reach of the majority of Londoners, Minton draws on original research to bring us the stories of those in the frontline of the struggle to keep a roof over their heads, to analyse how we got into this mess, and to suggest some practical policies for how we might start to get out of it. Anna was in conversation with Oliver Wainwright, the architecture and design critic for the Guardian.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Philip Hoare, who won the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2009 for his magnificent Leviathan, continues his exploration of our watery world with RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR (Fourth Estate). In searching the past and present for stories encapsulating the human fascination with the sea, Hoare mixes natural history with travel writing, autobiography and literary criticism to create an invigorating portrait of the oceans, and of their often fatal allure. He was in conversation with Olivia Laing, author of The Lonely City, The Trip to Echo Spring and To the River.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.