London Review Bookshop Podcast

Andrew Durbin’s The Wonderful World That Almost Was unravels, for the first time, the intertwined stories and work of two boundary burning, paradigm-tilting, never more relevant American artists, Peter Hujar and Paul Thek. Weaving together deft art criticism with moving portraits of both men's inner lives, and assembled with exhaustive research, Durbin’s book is an ode to a lost but still-living world—and two men who defined it.

You can buy a copy of The Wonderful World That Almost Was from the London Review Bookshop.
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Michelle Tea’s queer autofictional classic Valencia, which Torrey Peters described as ‘one of the few truly life changing books I've encountered’, is a quarter of a century old; to celebrate, her UK publisher Serpent’s Tail have released a 25-year anniversary special edition, with a new introduction by Maggie Nelson. Tea was in conversation with Lamorna Ash, author of Dark, Salt, Clear and Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever.

You can buy a copy of Valencia from the London Review Bookshop.
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While recuperating in hospital in Mexico, Flora meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman with pneumonia, who collects pre-cinema toys and instruments. The two of them embark on a series of dream-like conversations in the hospital corridors. Wilhelmina puts on a magic lantern show for Flora, leaving her spellbound. Then things take an unexpected turn…

Ardijis was reading from The Shadow of the Object and in conversation with Jennifer Higgie, editor of Frieze magazine, whose most recent book was The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World.

You can buy a copy of The Shadow of the Object from the London Review Bookshop.
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To celebrate the publication of their respective new books, So Mayer (Bad Language) and Sarah Schulman (The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity) discussed the radical affinities between their work in exposing the power structures underpinning both the ways in which we communicate, and the language we use to do so.

You can buy Bad Language and The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity from the London Review Bookshop.
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Margaret Drabble’s new collection, The Great Good Places, is an omnium gatherum of essays, stories and memoir, drawing on a lifetime’s worth of insight and wisdom. ‘Generous, perceptive, and good-humoured, Margaret Drabble is always a delight to read’, wrote Joan Bakewell; The Great Good Places has all these qualities in evidence. Drabble was in conversation with Tessa Hadley, whose most recent novel is The Party (Vintage).

You can buy a copy of The Great Good Places from the London Review Bookshop.
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