Book Shambles

It's our Halloween special and sometimes co-host Bec Hill returns to Book Shambles today to talk to Robin about her new kids horror book, The Slime, the first in a 13 book series called Horror Heights! They talk about creating the series, creativity in lockdown, favourite fictional slime, the influence of RL Stine and Paul Jennings and the joy of growing up with a librarian for a Mum. Listen to an...

On today's episode Robin is joined by the writer, editor and broadcaster Liz Frazer to talk about her new book, and bestseller, Coming Clean: A True Story of Love, Addiction and Recovery. They chat about the different faces and perception of alcoholism in individuals and society, mental health, the importance of diaries and how recovery applies to both an addict and the partner of an addict. Pleas...

Our favourite Canadian returns to the podcast this week, it's astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield. Chris has just released his first ever work of fiction, a historical thriller titled The Apollo Murders. He joins Robin, and guest co-host Helen Czerski, to talk about his favourite thrillers, what it was like moving into the world of fiction, making sure the space science was accurate and the future...

Robin Ince's brand new book The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity is out TODAY! Go grab a signed copy from our bookshop now at cosmicshambles.com/bookshop. To celebrate we did a livestream launch event early this week with Robin talking about the book with our Shambles chum, musician, composer and comedian Tim Minchin. So we've made that conversation available on t...

Francesca Stavrakopoulou was a guest on the first series of Tips for Existence and now that her first book, God: An Anatomy, has just been released we'd excited to have her on Book Shambles with Robin and Josie to talk about it. They chat about how Francesca had to write the book she wished existed when she was in university, why examining God upsets people and whether God went to the toilet or no...

On this week’s episode our guest is Kathryn Mannix, a palliative care doctor and author. Kathryn self proclaims that her Mastermind subject would be death, and in her new book Listen she uses her years of experience to deconstruct our difficulty with difficult conversations. This conversation, on the podcast, isn’t difficult but why is it so hard to talk about death, coming out or even answering h...

This week our guest couldn't make the interview at the very last minute. Which was unfortunate because obviously we wanted to talk to them and also it meant we didn't have an episode for this week. So since Robin and Josie were already on the Zoom call, they just interviewed each other for half an hour. Hope you enjoy. Normal service will resume next week. Support the show at patreon.com/bookshamb...

James Baldwin is one of the most recommended and discussed authors on this podcast so this week's guest is someone who literally wrote the book on Baldwin. Eddie Glaude is a Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and his latest book is Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own. he talks to Robin about Baldwin, race in America and what society ne...

Anil Seth has been researching consciousness for over twenty years and now he's released his first book on the subject, Being You. He joins Robin and Josie to talk about the book and what we do and don't know about consciousness. Are trees consciousness? What is panpsychism? Are there levels of consciousness? Why do some people see the letter B as purple? And now that he's finished writing a book...

As part of The Cosmic Shambles Network's takeover of The Speakeasy at this year's Latitude Festival, Dr Helen Czerski was joined by Professor Dan Davis for a live Book Shambles / Science Shambles crossover show. They chat about Dan's new book The Secret Body: How the New Science of the Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live, glowing jellyfish, doing science without a hypothesis, how immune cells a...

Isy Suttie was one of our first guests on the podcast many years ago now and as her first ever novel, Jane is Trying, hits shelves this month she returns to talk about with Robin and Josie. They chat about the experience of not writing a novel to sound like a novel, not letting Isy's mum read it, being concerned that coffee granules could be cancerous moles and a whole lot more! Extended edition f...

This week on Book Shambles Josie and Robin are joined by the Swedish journalist Katrine Marçal to talk about her new book Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men. They chat about how this means we had a man on the moon before we had suitcases with wheels and how electric cars are 'just for girls'. Extended edition for Patreons as ever. Subscribe at patreon.com/b...

You might recognise journalist Rachel England's voice from the Brain Yapping podcast that she co-hosts with Dean Burnett on The Cosmic Shambles Network but today she's a guest on Book Shambles as her first book has just been released. Everyday Activism: How to Change the World in Five Minutes, One Hour or a Day is full of ideas for people who want to make things better, but aren't sure where to st...

Rupert Thomson is the author of thirteen highly acclaimed novels and an award winning memoir. He has spent timing living all around the world and his latest novel, Barcelona Dreaming, comes from the six years he spent living in the Spanish city. He talks to Robin and Josie about the book, the city and what it's like finding out one of your novels was on David Bowie's 100 Greatest Books of All Time...

Professor Karl Deisseroth is an emergency psychiatry physician. He's been responsible for some breakthrough scientific discoveries in optogenetics in which he developed ways to allow turning specific brain cells on or off, with light. This week he joins Robin to talk about that process and his new book on mental health and human empathy, Connections.  Please note due to a couple of technical hitch...

John Robb is a musician from bands like The Membranes but also one of the UK's most respected music journalists. This week he joins Robin and Josie to talk the re-release of his book Death to Trad Rock all about the explosion of the niche post-punk scene and why it never broke through into the mainstream. They also chat about the bands of today that reflect the bands of that period like Idles, mus...

Pragya Agarwal is a behavioural scientist who’s written a number of excellent books on the subject but her most recent book, (M)otherhood: On the choices of being a woman, is her most personal book yet as it examines how we as a society look at motherhood. She joins Robin and Josie this week to chat about the book, how each new book consumes her, childbirth, menopause and much more. As ever, Patre...

Recorded live online as part of the More Than Words Literary Festival, Robin and Josie are joined by comedian and writer Michael Spicer who you probably best know as the 'Room Next Door' guy. They chat about his recently released first book, The Secret Political Advisor, creating comedy during the pandemic, the state of satire and a whole lot more. To hear an extended version you an subscribe at p...

Comedian, actor, writer and podcaster Jessie Cave joins Robin and Josie this week to talk about her debut novel Sunset which is out now. They talk about why she chose to write about grief, hating being on stage, working with her family and worrying that whatever the book ended up being it'd just be labelled as 'Harry Potter chick lit'. A warning as well that this episode contains some talk about s...

Neuroscientist and best selling author Dean Burnett is a regular contributor to the Cosmic Shambles Network and this week he returns to the Book Shambles podcast to chat to Robin and Josie about his latest book Psycho-Logical, the problems surrounding mental health care in the UK, dealing with grief in the pandemic and some of the continuing misconceptions of mental health issues. On the extended...

On today's episode Josie and Robin chat to the writer Lauren Oyler. A prolific writer of articles for publications like Harper's and the New Yorker, as well as having ghostwritten for many people, her first novel is Fake Accounts about a a woman who discovers her boyfriend is an anonymous internet conspiracy theorist. They chat about the challenges of writing a novel instead of feature articles, t...

Geoff Dyer returns to the podcast to talk to Robin and Josie (who is late arriving because her daughter broke the TV...) about his new book See/Saw: Looking at Photographs, which is out now. They talk about photography, favourite photographers, writing about niche topics for a wide audience and humour in photography. To hear an extended edition of this episode with 15 bonus minutes subscribe to Pa...

On today's episode Robin and Josie are joined by Annie Macmanus (who you may better know as Annie Mac from Radio1) to talk about her debut novel Mother Mother. They chat about her fears of moving into an entirely different creative arena, how the literary and music worlds compare and creating playlists for books. Bonus chat as always for Patreon supporters. Subscribe at patreon.com/bookshambles

Musa Okwonga is a writer, poet, podcaster and author about everything from politics to football. His new book is a memoir titled One of Them, about his time at Eton college as a young black man and delves into the effect these sorts of institutions have had on Britain's political life. He talks to Robin and Josie about why he had to write the book, what his school friends from the time think about...

This week Robin and Josie are joined by author Yasmin Khan to talk about her knew book Ripe Figs which is part cookbook, part travel book that traces recipes from the Mediterranean from the time of Ottoman rule to the influence of recent refugee communities. They chat about the inspiration for the book, favourite recipes, first cookbooks, best cookbooks and the best food from around the world. To...