Book Shambles

Recorded at the Blue Dot Festival at Jodrell Bank, Robin chatted with various people about the great works of science and science fiction. And also some Mills and Boons. Robin and Josie kick things off and then our guests include physicist and professional pointer at wondrous things, Professor Brian Cox, Rosetta project scientist Dr Matt Taylor, space scientist Professor Monica Grady and actor, co...

Stand Up, actor and writer Isy Suttie joins Robin and Josie this week to talk about her new book, The Actual One. As usual, the conversation meanders through all sorts of stuff from stand up to Jane Eyre to poo to Sue Townsend. They also establish a new comedic cliche to replace the differences between men and women; The differences between Bronte fans and Austen fans. It’s bound to catch on.

Comedian Sarah Kendall joins Robin and Josie to talk about her upcoming Edinburgh show and Radio 4 series as well as bringing in a big bag of her favourite books. There’s Jeffrey Eugenides, Kurt Vonnegut, David Mitchell, Ben Moor, Marta Hillers and plenty of others. Also Josie reads us her favourite poem. Content Warning- The following episode contains a discussion about sexual violence.

Direct from day one of the Latitude Festival it’s Robin’s Book Shambles. Because Josie is still on route. Robin chats with comic book creators Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, poet Luke Wright and writer and comedian Shappi Khorsandi.

Saturday night at Latitude, around midnight, Robin and Josie hosted a Book Shambles Live Horror Special to coincide with the launch of Dead Funny Encore from Salt Publishing. This special podcast includes highlights from the live show as week as backstage chats with some of the guests including Reece Shearsmith, Suzi Gage, Anna Savory and Rufus Hound.

Robin and Josie introduce the live panel held on Friday night at the 2016 Latitude where we asked the question, is art a spell? David Bowie's final work, visually and aurally, was some of the most potent of his career, made all the more so by his death three days after the release of Blackstar. His favourite books contained many on art, the occult and magick - so are the great creators shamanic… T...

On the 100th anniversary of The Battle of the Somme on July 1st, Robin and Josie chatted with the acclaimed writer of 'The Missing of the Somme', Geoff Dyer about that plus his entire body of work including his new book, 'White Sands'. All that and jazz, Tarkovsky, Brexit, Jean Rhys, sitcoms and more.

Acclaimed writer Nikesh Shukla joins Josie and Robin this week to talk about his own work including the upcoming collection of essays, The Good Immigrant, plus everything from Spiderman comics to the dirty short stories of Philip Larkin...

Author and host of 'All in the Mind', Claudia Hammond joins Robin and Josie this week to talk about her new book, psychology, Primo Levi, George Saunders and her own teenage book diary..

Actor and Beckett performer extraordinaire Lisa Dwan joins Robin and Josie this week ahead of her upcoming World Premiere of No’s Knife at The Old Vic later this year. There’s obviously plenty of Samuel Beckett’s work to discuss as well as everyone’s favourite short story authors, Dante and the best music to read Mills and Boons by.

Season 3 of Book Shambles kicks off with Robin and Josie joined by mathematician, author and Pelé biographer, Alex Bellos with talk of football, Feynman, Euclid, reader offers in 1970s comic books and a whole lot more.

Quest For Wonder Launch Special - With the Cosmic Genome site buzzing this week with the launch of our new series, The Quest For Wonder, we thought we'd celebrate with a Book Shambles special. Author Jon Ronson joins Robin and Josie to talk about the influences on his own work, Hunter S Thompson, Albert Camus and a whole lot more.

Season 2 - Episode 6 - In the season two finale of Book Shambles, Robin and Josie are joined by the comedian and actor Eddie Izzard. Along with discussions of theories of the universe and improv, they get into the work of John Higgs, Monty Python and Charlie Chaplin.

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Writer, performer, broadcaster and Man Booker Prize judge Natalie Haynes is in the studio with Robin and Josie this week to talk about reading two books a day for a year, Greek classics and an excess of novels set in WWII.

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Taking a break from trying on wigs for the new series of 'Inside No. 9', Reece Shearsmith joins Robin and Josie to talk all things horror. There's talk of books of horror movie history, Stephen King, talking mongooses called Gef and everything else horrific in between.

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Award winning writer and comic A.L. Kennedy joins Robin and Josie this week to talk about her own work plus that of Robert Louis Stevenson, Philip Ridley and secret books of magic... Please note that this episode contains a discussion about suicide.

Season 2 - Episode 2 - In this week’s episode Robin and Josie are joined by singer-songwriter Charlotte Church to talk of books to read to your children, books that make you cry, quantum physics and get into why Charlotte hasn’t read the entire works of Plato.

Season 2 - Episode 1 - In the Season 2 premiere of Book Shambles, Josie and Robin are joined by neuroscientist and author of the popular Brainflapping blog as well as new book The Idiot Brain, Dr Dean Burnett to talk psychology, science fiction, Spike Milligan and horse punching...

Season 1 - Christmas Special - With special Christmas episodes of both Sherlock and Doctor Who due on screens this holiday season, who better to join Josie and Robin for the Book Shambles Christmas Special than Mark Gatiss?! Expect musings on Sherlock and Doctor Who, naturally, as well as Dickens, The League of Gentlemen, Dennis Wheatley and a surprisingly in-depth discussion about wigs.

Season 1 - Episode 6 - On the day that Brit Tim Peake begins his journey to the International Space Station, the Book Shambles crew wondered what sort of books he might want to read while he’s up there and what sort of books might inspire an astronaut. So who better to ask than Chris Hadfield, author, musician and former Commander of the ISS. Chris joins Josie and Robin for the final episode of Bo...

Season 1 - Episode 5 - It’s poetry week on Book Shambles as Robin and Josie are joined by poet Salena Godden to talk about everything from Lenny Bruce and Elizabeth Smart to the virtues of writing in your books. In pen.

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Political books are the starting point for this week's episode as Josie and Robin are joined by author and political activist Owen Jones to talk of everything from Naomi Klein and Ronnie Barker to Howard Zinn and the poetry of Louise Mensch.

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Author and performance poet Laura Dockrill joins Robin and Josie for episode 3 of the series for a shambolic ramble through the world of children’s books via Roald Dahl, Maurice Sendak, Michael Rosen and more.

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Josie and Robin are joined by Sara Pascoe to talk of Margaret Atwood, Aldous Huxley, the aquatic ape theory and a whole lot more.

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Stewart Lee joins Robin and Josie for a chat about Grayson Perry, Ray Bradbury, Alan Bennett and dog muck.