Book Shambles

Robin is currently on a world tour with Brian Cox and that means there's a whole world of secondhand bookshops to explore. Those adventures form a big part of his brand new podcast, Taking the Universe Around the World. So on Book Shambles this week we're sharing the first episode of that new series. Three episodes out already and a new episode each work. All the subscribe links at cosmicshambles....

We spend a lot of time at Shambles talking about science, so on today's episode of Book Shambles we're going to talk about how the media should and shouldn't talk, and write, about science. Helen Czerski guest hosts once again and she chats with Fiona Fox from the Science Media Centre who has just released a fascinating book, Beyond the Hype: The Inside Story on Science's Biggest Media Controversi...

This week Helen Czerski takes the host chair once again to talk to zoologist, author and broadcaster Jules Howard about dogs. His new book, Wonderdog, looks at the evolving science of dogs. How has humankind's favourite pet defied science and changed the way we think about animals overall, particularly in the field of cognitive research. From early research (WARNING: Some of this is a bit grim and...

On today's episode Robin is joined by comedian Rachel Parris to talk about her new, and first, book, Advice from Strangers. She chats with Robin about writing the book, the pressure of remembering not everything has to be funny, Jane Austen, the difficulties of writing satire right now and the book on the music she really wants to write next. Hear an extended version, and get lots of other goodies...

This week Robin is joined by artist and author Lauren John Joseph to talk about their new novel, At Certain Points We Touch. They chat about the book, literary influences and places that inspire creativity, particularly in their home town of Liverpool. To hear and extended version, subscribe at patreon.com/bookshambles

Tonight the ever brilliant Inside No. 9 returns to our screens for series 7 and so it is that Reece Shearsmith returns to Book Shambles! He joins Robin to talk about the new series, favourite episodes, great horror short stories and more. They're also joined by horror writer and historian Johnny Mains who, together with Robin, will be editing the third volume of Dead Funny, horror stories by comed...

Our guest today is the author of one of the most lauded books of 2021, the superb Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe. One of the awards it garnered last year was the highly prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and one of the judges on the panel last year was our own Dr Helen Czerski, so this week we've handed over the solo reigns of the p...

Hayley Campbell is a writer and broadcaster you may best know for his book The Art of Neil Gaiman. Her latest book, All the Living and the Dead, looks at our relationship with death, and the people for whom death is their life. She joins Robin to talk about her fascination with death, seeing her first dead body, embalming and Jeremy Bentham's head. Extended version as ever for Patreon subscribers...

Veronica O'Keane is a Professor of Psychiatry and this week she joins Robin and Helen Czerski to talk about her book The Rag and Bone Shop which deals with her thirty year investigation into memory. One of the exciting things about Veronica's book, for Book Shambles fans, is how her book takes us on a journey through writers from Beckett to Yeats and beyond as she uncovers the mysteries of how our...

On today's episode Robin is joined by author and poet Kei Miller to talk about his new collection of essays, Things I Have Withheld. They chat about the fear of writing such an honest book, how criticism and expectations of self differs from country to country, favourite Jamaican poets and much more. Extended episode, and other goodies, available for Patreon subscribers. Sign up at patreon.com/boo...

You've probably encountered online what is often labeled 'Abandoned Places Porn'. Artistic photography of disused theme parks, factories and that sort of thing. Our guest on today's show is the author of widely acclaimed, and Baillie Gifford Prize shortlisted book, Islands of Abandonment, an in depth exploration into the places where nature is flourishing after humans have left. She talks to Robin...

On this week's show we have someone who was one of the writers, and performers, of the Cosmic Shambles and Book Shambles theme music. Oh, and he's also one of the world's leading experts on disgust and emotions and a Research Fellow at the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary University. And now Dr Richard Firth-Godbehere's first book has just been published, A Human History of Emotion...

This week's episode was recorded in January live at The Slapstick Festival in Bristol. Armando Iannucci, co-creator of The Thick Of It, Veep, Alan Partridge and so many other comedy icons, joins Robin to talk about the state of satire in 2022. Armando's latest book is Pandemonium : Some verses on the Current Predicament, an epic mock-heroic poem, written in response to the pandemic, but they don't...

On this week's episode Robin is joined by the Reverend Richard Coles to talk about his literary inspirations and loves growing up as a nerdy kid in Kettering, finding God, a love of diaries and how the process of writing about grief after the loss of his partner David, which would become the book The Madness of Grief. Subscribe to our Patreon to hear extended episodes and get all sorts of other go...

Julia Cooke is a writer and author whose work regularly appears in the likes of Salon, Smithsonian and The New York Times. Her latest book is the acclaimed Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am. She joins Robin to talk about how she found herself in the world of Pan Am and the Mad Men era, studying in Cuba and Pan Am's role in everything from Vietnam to Women's Liberation. E...

Man Booker Prize shortlisted novelist Ruth Ozeki joins us this week to talk about her latest novel The Book of Form and Emptiness which is out now. They chat about how the book took eight years to write, growing up learning to love books in a public library basement, listening to the voices that guide a novel and her past life working as an art director on low budget horror movies! Support the sho...

Ruarri Joseph is a singer-songwriter and frontman for the band William The Conqueror. He's just written his first novel, of the same name, (available for pre-order now) which is an 'auto fiction' or maybe a 'meta biography'. He chats to Robin about the challenges of writing a novel compared to a screenplay or a song, moving away from folk music, the inspiration of Kurt Vonnegut and George Saunders...

There's been a lot more interest in plants and trees in the UK recently thanks to David Attenborough's The Green Planet series, so this week we speak with nature writer James Canton about his recent book The Oak Papers which tells the story of an 800 year old oak tree, and our relationship with oak throughout the ages. He and Robin chat about great nature writing, notable underwear stores in Ealin...

This week's episode is a young readers special. Robin chats to author Louie Stowell about her new book for younger readers, Otherland and is also joined by high school librarian Julie Baugh. They chat about what kids and young adults are reading today, which classics are still popular, the importance of libraries, the wonderful Usborne series of books and a whole lot more. There's LOADS of recomme...

Last year Dara McAnulty, at just 16 years of age, won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. Coincidentally, that category was presented by us at The Cosmic Shambles Network, so today, as Dara’s second book, Wild Child, hits shelves he took time out from studying for his maths exam next week to come on the podcast to chat to Robin and Helen Czerski. They chat about nature, climat...

Our traditional end of year wrap up of the best things the Shambles crew read in 2021. The books don't have to have been released in 2021 of course, just read this year. With Josie on maternity leave Robin holds down the fort with loads of special guests including Chris Hadfield, Helen Czerski, Anil Seth, Isy Suttie, Steve Backshall, Helen Zaltzman and more. Please note that this episode was origi...

This week Robin chats to US author Jessica Nordell about her Royal Society Prize shortlisted book, The End of Bias. Back when Jessica was a journalist she struggled to get a particular, timely article published by any national print. Until she submitted it under the name J.D. Nordell, instead of Jessica, and it was accepted immediately. Thus began the research on society's unconscious bias that le...

Louis Barfe is an author and former journalist who has written some of the most lauded biographies of classic British comedians. He has written some of the definitive life stories of the likes of Les Dawson and Ken Dodd and in his latest book, Sunshine and Laughter, he tells the unique story of one Britain's most loved double acts, Morecambe and Wise. He joins Robin to talk about the book, classic...

Author Zena Barrie joins Book Shambles today to chat to Robin about her first novel, Your Friend Forever. They chat about what made the former theatre manager write her first book, how autobiographical it is and how in her youth she would write to loads of celebrities although the only people that ever replied was Kelloggs, the cereal company. There's also chat on Adrian Mole, Lemn Sissay, Scottis...

Robin's science book came out the same day last month as Adam Rutherford and Hannah's Fry first book together, Rutherford and Fry's Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything. The Cosmic Shambles Network is also looking after Robin's 100 Bookshop Tour and working with JSM Events' Rutherford and Fry tour so it just makes sense to bring it all together on an episode of Book Shambles. They chat about th...