Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
Writer and critic Matthew De Abaitua joins Andy, Una and Nicky to discuss Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future (1930), the astounding first novel by Olaf Stapledon. The book is one o...
25 Nov 20251h 22min
Transit and the Outline Trilogy by Rachel Cusk
Something a little different this week. Andy, Una and Nicky discuss the novel Transit by Rachel Cusk, the second part of her award-winning Outline trilogy. Outline, the first volume was published in 2...
11 Nov 20251h 18min
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
For this year's Halloween episode, we take a windswept walk across the Yorkshire moors with Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights — not as a tale of doomed romance, but as a novel steeped in gothic horror,...
28 Okt 20251h 13min
Imogen by Jilly Cooper - Revisit
To honour the life of Jilly Cooper, we are replaying this joyous episode from 2019 with a new introduction. Joining Andy and John in this episode are Daisy Buchanan, writer, feminist, host of the bri...
13 Okt 20251h 12min
All The Devils Are Here by David Seabrook part 2
Writer Jason Hazeley joins Andy, Una and Nicky for a celebratory investigation - or investigative celebration - of All the Devils Are Here, the ungovernable literary brainchild of the late David Seabr...
29 Sep 20251h 13min
The Eye Of the Beholder by Marc Behm
Emmy Award-winning writer David Quantick (Veep, The Thick of It) joins Andy and Una for a discussion of Marc Behm's surreal thriller The Eye of the Beholder (1980). David last appeared on Backlisted a...
15 Sep 20251h 9min
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan (1971), the second Earthsea novel, is the subject of this episode. Joining Una and Andy is writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce, current Children’s Laureate. We look at h...
1 Sep 20251h 11min
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Leonora Carrington's charming and surreal novel The Hearing Trumpet (1976, probably) is the subject of this episode. Joining Una, Andy and Nicky is author and lecturer Dr Paul March-Russell, who offer...
18 Aug 20251h 17min
