The TLS Podcast

In 1405, Christine de Pisan took up the pen in defense of her maligned sex, imagining a 'City of Ladies' in which the most virtuous female leaders of history might be preserved from the distortions of misogyny. Six hundred years later, with Cleopatra, Lucrezia Borgia and Catherine the Great as her guides, the novelist and historian Lisa Hilton revisits the City to shake the foundations of the way we write about power Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Throughout August, we are revisiting our books roundups from previous years, and today we’re returning to last year’s suggestions. In 2019, our contributor Diana Darke said in the paper: "A lot of things need saving this summer – tangible things like bees, Notre-Dame, water … and intangible things like democracy, humanitarian ideals, community". Among the many subjects under discussion here are Oulipo, impeachment, and climate change. We’ll be back with new weekly episodes from September 10th. Until then, head to the website – the-tls.co.uk – to keep up with the weekly magazine.    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Throughout August, we are revisiting our books roundups from previous years, to give you a chance to catch up on books you might have missed. Today we are sauntering back to the summer of 2018, and an episode in which we learnt which books our contributors – including Bernardine Evaristo, Claire Lowdon and Carlo Rovelli – were looking forward to. We’ll be back with new weekly episodes from September 10th. Until then, head to the website – the-tls.co.uk – to keep up with the weekly magazine.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Throughout August, we are revisiting books roundups from previous years, to give you a chance once again to hear recommendations from our writers and editors, on subjects like Marcel Proust’s letters, tech-ensnared science fiction and Euripides. In this episode, from 2017, there is also an interview with that year’s Man Booker International Prize Winner, David Grossman, and his translator Jessica Cohen. We’ll be back with new weekly episodes from September 10th. Until then, head to the website – the-tls.co.uk – to keep up with the weekly magazine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Throughout August, we are revisiting books roundups from previous years, to give you a chance to catch up on all that good stuff. Today we’re skipping back to 2016’s books of the year recommendations. We’ll be back with new weekly episodes from September 10th. Until then, head to the website – the-tls.co.uk – to keep up with the weekly magazine.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gabrielle Walker talks us through three unhelpful attitudes to global warming, as exemplified in the Michael Moore-produced film Planet of the Humans; Sudhir Hazareesingh discusses the complex relationship between charisma and celebrity in the age of Revolution (spoiler: it helps to have a horse)Planet of the Humans - YouTubeMen on Horseback by David Bell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What style of life did an ancient Roman emperor lead? How did he actually spend his time? Mary Beard fills us in; Frances Wilson on literary couples (and their pet names) and what they can, and can’t, tell us about marriage; Mika Ross-Southall on how gentrification works and who it works for The Emperor in the Roman World by Fergus MillarLiterary Couples and 20th-Century Life Writing: Narrative and intimacy by Janine UtellParallel Lives: Five Victorian marriages by Phyllis RoseNewcomers: Gentrification and its discontents by Matthew L. SchuermanUs Versus Them: Race, crime, and gentrification in Chicago neighborhoods by Jan DoeringThe Aesthetics of Neighborhood Change, edited by Lisa Berglund and Siobhan GregoryAlpha City: How London was captured by the super-rich, by Rowland Atkinson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geoff Dyer on why Larry McMurtry’s novel Lonesome Dove was one of the most memorable reading experiences of his life (a taster from his essay: “There was no book and no reader. There was just this world, this huge landscape and its magnificently peopled emptiness”); In April 1939, the black contralto Marian Anderson stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and performed to a crowd of 75,000 people. Carol J. Oja sheds light on the twists and turns behind a moment when the history of Civil Rights intersected with that of classical music. Read more at the-tls.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Min Wild on recent attempts to get to grips with that most slippery of beasts, the history of the novel (expect a lively cast, including Frances Burney, Daniel Defoe, Laurence Sterne and Jane Porter); Declan Ryan on where writing overlaps with boxing and the story of the eighteenth-century boxer Daniel Mendoza, known as The Fighting Jew, who made of the sport an art form BooksWithout the Novel: Romance and the history of prose fiction by Scott BlackRevising the Eighteenth-Century Novel: Authorship from manuscript to print by Hilary HavensPublic Vows: Fictions of marriage in the English Enlightenment by Melissa J. GanzBorn Yesterday: Inexperience and the early realist novel by Stephanie Insley HershinowCaptain Singleton by Daniel Defoe, edited by Manushag PowellTristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, edited by Judith HawleyThaddeus Of Warsaw by Jane Porter, edited by Thomas McLean and Ruth Knezevich Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lynsey Hanley on the Pet Shop Boys and how a music duo that has always refused to play the pop game just keeps winning; The TLS’s history editor David Horspool talks us through a selection of articles on medieval history, including a compelling account of Henry III, a pious and peculiar king, who, against the odds, reigned for more than half a century ‘Pet Shop Boys, Literally’ and ‘Pet Shop Boys Versus America’, both by Chris Heath Blood Royal: Dynastic politics in medieval Europe by Robert Bartlett Henry III 1207–1258: The rise to power and personal rule by David Carpenter Westminster Abbey: A church in history, edited by David Cannadine Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.