The Inheritors by William Golding

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1. 

   11 May 2026 · 1 hr 18 min

   Springs of Affection by Maeve Brennan - rerun

   There can be few writers more deserving of Backlisted’s attention than the Irish writer, Maeve Brennan. An adopted New Yorker, Brennan died there in 1993 and was by that time so thoroughly forgotten in her native land, that she received no obituaries in any Irish papers. We are joined by the writers Sinéad Gleason and David Hayden to discuss her collection, The Springs of Affection – subtitled ‘stories of Dublin’ – which was first published posthumously by Houghton Mifflin in 1997, although all but one of these first appeared in the New Yorker, where Brennan was a staff writer for…

2. 

   27 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 21 min

   De Profundis by Oscar Wilde

   Back in 2022, our guest was Stephen Fry, writer, actor and polymath, who joined John and Andy to discuss Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, the essay addressed to Lord Alfred Douglas in 1897 'from the depths' of Wilde's incarceration in Reading Gaol. It has been described by Colm Tóibín as 'one of the greatest love letters ever written'; it is also Wilde's most powerful testament of the sacred duty of the artist as he conceived it. We discuss the work's convoluted publication history, Wilde's posthumous reputation and his ongoing relevance in the 21st century.This feels like a good time to promote…

3. 

   14 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 11 min

   Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald - rerun

   In this episode from March 2019, Andy and John are joined by Georgina Morley who was then the Non-Fiction Editorial Director at Picador, and Lucy Scholes, the Senior Editor at McNally Editions. The book under discussion is Penelope Fitzgerald’s Human Voices, her fourth novel, set in the BBC's Broadcasting House during the Second World War. Before that, John extols the virtues of The Good Immigrant (USA) edited by Nikesh Shukla & Chimene Suleyman and Andy is impressed by Sarah Moss’s Ghost Wall. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at…

4. 

   31 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

   Alma Cogan by Gordon Burn - Rerun

   In a special edition recorded earlier this year live at the Durham Book Festival, John and Andy are joined by writers Adele Stripe and Ben Myers to discuss Gordon Burn's debut novel Alma Cogan. The 'What Have We Been Reading?' slots are occupied by Pevsner's guide to Durham and The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. *If you'd like to support the show, join in with the book chat, listen without adverts,…

5. 

   17 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

   Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry - Rerun

   Recorded back in 2017, John and Andy were joined by poet, radio presenter, playwright and genuine tyke Ian McMillan to discuss Malcolm Lowry's 1947 masterwork, Under The Volcano. Also, The Factory of Light by Michael Jacobs, and more Rosemary Tonks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6. 

   10 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

   Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

   Dr Rowan Williams, theologian, poet and former Archbishop of Canterbury, joins Andy and John for a thoughtful and moving discussion of Till We Have Faces (1956), the last novel by C.S. Lewis. This episode was recorded in London in June 2025. Although not as well-reviewed as his previous work, C.S. Lewis believed Till We Have Faces to be "far and away my best book". Over the 70 years since publication, critical opinion has risen in line with the author's estimation. The book shows a more troubled, less dogmatic side to Lewis that that displayed in The Case for Christianity or, for that…

7. 

   27 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

   The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch

   Ian Patterson, author of Books: A Manifesto , returns to Backlisted for a joyful discussion of Iris Murdoch and her sixteenth novel The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974), the winner of the Whitbread literary award for fiction. For reasons that will be obvious, the talk soon turns to other novels by Murdoch, including The Bell (1958), The Black Prince (1973), The Sea, the Sea (1978) and The Green Knight (1993), plus the film adaptations of A Severed Head (1961) and the unknown book that spawned erotic thriller Love Standing Up (1985). We listen to interview clips from the archive and…

8. 

   13 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

   Jake Thackray: The Unsung Writer by Paul Thompson

   Biographer and singer-songwriter Paul Thompson joins us for a new episode of Backlisted devoted to the life and work of Jake Thackray, the so-called 'Yorkshire chansonnier' who died in 2002. Thackray was a man of many talents, as demonstrated by Jake Thackray: The Unsung Writer, a new anthology of his prose and poetry. We invited our friend and fellow fan Andrew Male to join us for a discussion of the teacher from Leeds who lionised Georges Brassens when few outside the French-speaking world had heard of him, and who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s for his numerous TV appearances on…

9. 

   25 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 12 min

   Asterix and the Roman Agent by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo

   Merry Christmas! Join Andy and Una, plus authors Louie Stowell and Robert Shearman, for a post-solstice celebration of Asterix and the Roman Agent (1972) by René Goscinny (words) and Albert Uderzo (pictures), first published in France in 1970 as La Zizanie, and freely translated into English by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge. Christmas was a festival unknown to the residents of the little Gaulish village, whose adventures took place circa 50 BC. Few childhood Christmases of the 1970s and 80s were complete, however, without one or more Asterix adventures under the tree, so we do our best to…

10. 

    9 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 35 min

    Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild - rerun

    A timely revisit of our 2022 Christmas special which celebrates Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, a classic of children’s literature and the childhood favourite of our producer, Nicky Birch. We are joined by the writer Una McCormack and Tanya Kirk, the Lead Curator of Printed Heritage Collections (1601-1900) at the British Library, who are both lifetime Streatfeild fans. Ballet Shoes was an immediate bestseller upon publication and the runner-up for the inaugural Carnegie Medal. It has never been out of print and was the first in a series of ‘Shoes’ books by Streatfeild. It has been adapted…