London Review Bookshop Podcast

In 1958 the 18-year-old Liliane Lijn left New York for Paris, determined to become an artist. Her captivating memoir Liquid Reflections (Hamish Hamilton) tells the story of her meetings with poets, painters, philosophers and revolutionaries and of the development of her groundbreaking artistic practice, pioneering the interaction of art, science, technology, eastern philosophy and feminine mythology. Now resident in London, Lijn was in conversation about her life and work with Jennifer Higgie, former editor of the art magazine frieze and author of The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World.

Twenty years ago Kathryn Scanlan (Kick the Latch, The Dominant Animal) acquired a diary at a public estate auction. It was kept by Cora E. Lacy, an eighty-six-year-old woman living in a small Illinois town, from 1968 to 1972. Scanlan began to compulsively read and reread the stranger’s diary. In the years following she edited, arranged and rearranged the diarist’s words into the composition that is Aug 9 – Fog. Scanlan was joined by Emily LaBarge, whose book Dog Days was published in autumn 2025. More from the Bookshop: Discover our author of the month, book of the week and more: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/bkshppod⁠⁠ From the LRB: Subscribe to the LRB: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/subsbkshppod⁠ Close Readings podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/crbkshppod⁠ LRB Audiobooks: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/audiobooksbkshppod⁠ Bags, binders and more at the LRB Store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/storebkshppod⁠ Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

Jeremy Atherton Lin’s Deep House (Allen Lane) is an unexpected romantic comedy haunted by centuries of gay ghosts. It’s 1996, and Jeremy, a young American, has met the British boy of his dreams – just as, amid a media frenzy, US Congress prepares the Defense of Marriage Act, denying same-sex couples rights including immigration. Via forests and deserts, London fashion shows and East Village hotel rooms, they eventually shack up illicitly among unlikely allies in San Francisco. Combining cultural history with radically intimate memoir, Deep House is a journey through the queer archives and the innermost tale of two boyfriends who made a home in the shadows of a turbulent civil rights battle. Atherton Lin is in conversation with Diarmuid Hester, author of Nothing Ever Just Disappears (Allen Lane). More from the Bookshop: Discover our author of the month, book of the week and more: ⁠https://lrb.me/bkshppod⁠ From the LRB: Subscribe to the LRB: ⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/subsbkshppod Close Readings podcast: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/crbkshppod LRB Audiobooks: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/audiobooksbkshppod Bags, binders and more at the LRB Store: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/storebkshppod Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

Anouchka Grose, psychoanalyst and writer, brings psychoanalytic curiosity. Akshi Singh, scholar and author of In Defence of Leisure, explores Marion Milner’s experiments in rest and creativity. They discuss discovering true likes through diaries and practice. Conversations cover rest, play, creativity, bodily attention, desire versus liking, and a gentle manifesto for disruptive leisure.

Geoff Dyer, a prolific British writer known for his inventive essays and fiction, reads from and reflects on his memoir Homework. He explores memory, class and postwar life in provincial England. Conversations range across childhood scenes, the 11-plus, education and family dynamics. The talk touches on photography, narrative limits and how social change reshaped opportunity.

Francesca Wade, a biographer acclaimed for her detailed literary investigations, chats with Lara Pawson, author of Spent Light. They dive into the enigmatic world of Gertrude Stein, exploring her complex personality, quirky archiving habits, and the mystery behind her fame. Wade discusses the challenges of reading Stein's experimental prose, her influential Parisian life, and the nuanced dynamics within her household. The conversation touches on race, identity, and the politics surrounding Stein, showcasing the rich contradictions in her legacy.

Amy Key, a poet known for her food imagery, explores cravings as a language of desire in her essay. Waithera Sebatindira, an East African lawyer, discusses the Eucharist as a meal with profound political and communal meanings. Robin Craig shares personal reflections on food’s role in hospice care, highlighting dignity and intimacy. The conversation delves into the complexities of food writing, critiquing celebratory narratives and examining food as a gateway to vulnerability, desire, and societal connection.

Zarina Muhammad, a writer and researcher deeply engaged with art and social movements, and Lola Olufemi, a writer and critic known for her sharp analyses of feminism and culture, dive into bell hooks’s impactful work. They explore visual politics, the burdens faced by Black artists, and the importance of everyday aesthetics. The conversation also touches on the struggles against institutional frameworks, emphasizing the need for community-based art and the significance of personal narratives in understanding art's deeper meanings.

If the first quarter of the 21st Century has been rich in one thing, it is anxiety. Pandemics, asteroids, climate change, global instability, the cost of living, tsunamis, migration – the list of things to be worried about seems to grow longer every day. We should thank our lucky stars then for Oxford Professor of Geography Danny Dorling. In ⁠The Next Crisis⁠ (Verso), he delves into the data with characteristic diligence and level-headedness to discover what we’re worried about, what we shouldn’t be worried about, what we should be worried about and what we should do about it. Dorling was joined by writer and philosopher Arianne Shahvisi. More from the Bookshop: Discover our author of the month, book of the week and more: ⁠https://lrb.me/bkshppod⁠ From the LRB: Subscribe to the LRB: ⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/subsbkshppod Close Readings podcast: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/crbkshppod LRB Audiobooks: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/audiobooksbkshppod Bags, binders and more at the LRB Store: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/storebkshppod Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

In Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever (Bloomsbury) Lamorna Ash, author of the coming-of-age memoir cum anthropological study of the Cornish fishing industry Dark, Salt, Clear, visits Evangelical youth festivals, Quaker meetings, a silent Jesuit retreat along the Welsh coastline and a monastic community in the Inner Hebrides to investigate, through interviews and personal reflections, what drives young people in the twenty-first century to embrace Christianity. Poet Seán Hewitt writes ‘Humane, curious and unexpectedly moving, Lamorna Ash’s book is as much an account of the human condition as it is an investigation of faith. Quietly radical in its empathy, this is a book I have waited years and years to read, without even knowing it.’ Lamorna Ash was in conversation with James Butler, contributing editor at the London Review of Books.