Breakfast in the Ruins

From the North he came, to seek knowledge and fortune. Cast out by his tribe for offending Ulfr, God of the Wastes, he is driven by mirth, restrained by melancholy.  One day he will return to make offerings to the Bear Druids, particularly Mewler the Claw. She thinks he’s an idiot but owes him a debt. Memories of Krangg, The Iron Bear Clarky is back in Derry and Toms to talk Conan knock-offs, and...

New traveller Liam Jones  drops by Derry & Toms to discuss one of his favourite things... Victorian Invasion literature... as we tackle the Moorcock-edited anthology Before Armageddon, a collection of Victorian and Edwardian imaginative fiction. Liam also teaches me about the Parisian dandy criminals, the Apaches! (Who I must now write into my next game...) Very cool! At some point we'll take...

Dave is back in Derry & Toms to talk about some stories that were as formative for him as they were for me back in our teens... The Robert E Howard Conan stories, The Phoenix on the Sword and The Scarlet Citadel. Dave also gives us an update on the latest SÖNUS  news and we delve into some of the murkier aspects of the pulp of the time. But mostly we enjoy the head smashing and the surprisingl...

Pig-bombs, priests in daisy dukes, dressing down the Theocrat of Pan Tang and getting torn apart by dogs are just some of the highlights as I’m joined in D&Ts once again by Steve Round to talk Stormbringer gaming and this time he’s brought the whole damn party. The wandering beer table returns and, as a reward to the gang, we debut an all-new lazily assembled table of rubbish demon-bound quest...

Miles is back to carry on our deep dive into Mike's Who/Multiverse mash-up and also talk about Ncuti's first run, the Timeless Child arc, writing Who fiction, engaged Tom vs couldn't give a hoot Tom and loads of other stuff no doubt. Join us! And be sure to check out the Casual Trek Podcast  too.

Allister Thompson  returns to Derry and Toms as we hurtle back to 1918 and brave the cold waters of the Atlantic to take a look at The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs, subject of Michael Moorcock's sole filmed movie script (along with James Cawthron of course). Expect discussions about mysterious island tropes, personal propensities to cannibalism, dodgy theories of race and C Thomas...

FINALLY! After all this dancing around the subject of Michael Moorcock writing for the iconic Doctor Who IP and talking Alien and Quatermass and Blake's 7, Miles  joins me in the Cloister Room as we just about get to The Coming of the Terraphiles... Just about... But with our tendency to go off on tangents AND 61 years of Doctor Who to consider perhaps it was inevitable that this would be a multi-...

Join my co-conspirator John and me as we board the Civil Administration ship London where our brutally oppressive crew sets the speed to Time Distort 5  and makes for Cygnus Alpha  where we will all suffer for our crimes! En route, we'll have plenty of time (between beatings and summary executions) to discuss Trevor Hoyle 's novelisation of the first four episodes of Terry Nation's Blake's 7 and t...

Andy Darby is back in Derry and Toms to talk about his all-new novel, The Blade in the Angel's Shadow ! Enochian madness, brutal sieges, swordplay and the machinations of the Elizabethan court all combine to give our heroine a hard time, some gnarly powers and a profound ethical dilemma. It's available from all good stockists now...

Andrew Nette returns to Derry and Toms as we continue to muse over some formative telly, novelisations and other stuff but on this occasion to talk about Nigel Kneale's enduring and iconic character Professor Bernard Quatermass (and a load of other digressions, naturally, including brief musings on a favourite mercenary war flick). We roam around the original Hammer films, the impact of Quatermass...

In our continued deliberations about tackling Michael Moorcock's Doctor Who novel The Coming of the Terraphiles, several questions about the pitfalls of writing for established IPs have arisen, and a pressing one is: What happens when Trumpton and British politics intrude upon the Alien universe? We investigated so you don't have to, so join Miles Reid-Lobatto (writer and co-host of the Casual Tre...

Loz returns to Derry & Toms to talk about the remaining tales we haven't covered that complete Michael Moorcock's The Weird of the White Wolf.   Elric tests some early chat-up lines in While the Gods Laugh, Moonglum finally shows up in The Singing Citadel and Loz bares all (though not his nipple) in a grievance-filled tirade against neopolitan ice cream.   JOIN US!

Oliver Brackenbury returns to Derry & Toms to talk about the next phase of his excellent mag New Edge Sword and Sorcery. Moorcock talk, uncovering and unleashing a golden age hero anew and copious amounts of caffeine and lemsip dominate. JOIN US. Be sure to check out the Backerkit link for New Edge Sword and Sorcery issues 3 and 4 and Oliver's podcast So I'm Writing a Novel...   The conversati...

Derek AKA Imrryr returns to Derry and Toms to talk about fellow New Yorker Robert Sheckley, the late master of SF satire and absurdist parables, and his rather unusual and wigged-out 1975 opus... Options.   Spoiler... it's out there... AND I LOVE IT!   All of the Imrryr catalogue is available via Bandcamp , including merch , and when I get the links for the upcoming physical releases I'll add them...

So it turns out there's a 'Britain is Fucked' novel about Hawkwind tonning around in a van fighting ghosts and squares with guns that shoot their music AND that happens to feature Moorcock as a tertiary character with a saucy house computer. WHO KNEW??? Well, some of you did obviously... but I didn't until my mate Yarks sent me a copy for my birthday a few years ago. It turns out that I was dimly...

Clarky the Cruel returns to Derry and Toms to revive the One-Shit Book (books that could potentially be read on one visit to the throne) format as we look at SNOWCASTLES by Duncan McGeary. We consider wizard contracting standards, when barbarians aren't barbarians and just what the hell is under Greylock's fur...? We don't read the sequel but we do wonder why those people look like they're out of...

In this Birthday Special double-bill of salutations, Joe Monti (editorial Director at SAGA Press) drops by D&Ts to engage in day-drinking, Moorcock talk and chew the fat about editing amazing fantasy and various other bits n' bobs. Also, Joe gets Crabs.   Then Phil and Loz join me for a serious* roundtable. Whilst we drink mucky booze and engage in a hastily and lazily bashed together but clos...

Simon Perrins (artist, graphic designer and co-host of Can I Pod With Madness ) returns to Derry and Toms so we can finally conclude our re-read of the second Corum adventure, The Queen of the Swords. Between wading gods, crackles from beyond the veil and other interventions from the old gods of chaos, we managed to get through books two and three of this adventure intact. So join us for small tal...

Power up your voxcaster, recite a litany of protection and light a lho stick as beer lover, wargamer and death metal LEGEND Karl Willetts braves the Immaterium to warp over to Derry and Toms and discuss Memoriam , Bolt Thrower, Warhammer and his three rules of beer… Memoriam's latest release is Rise to Power and it and their back catalogue are available at all good stockists . I also wistfully rec...

Miles and Phil brave nuclear Armageddon, mutant rats, zoom meltdowns and horrific rabies treatment to join me in Derry & Toms and check out our patron-selected Halloween double-bill of James Herbert's Domain and Bruno Mattei's Rats: Night of Terror. So paint your windows white, lock the dogs and cats outside, get safely ensconced in your inner sanctum and JOIN US! ... and listen to the Casual...

In this, the second blow of that one-two punch of GNS brain matter, Graham and I welcome Tara Paulsson to Derry and Toms to talk about her Dad and his work. Tara will be at Tamworth Castle's Tales From the Darkside Week on Saturday 28th October and you can find details about 'An Ode to Guy Newman Smith's, 1970's Pulp Fiction Horror' and how to book at www.tamworthcastle.co.uk/darkside   You can fi...

Graham and Phil return to Derry and Toms to tackle our third adventure in the company of the mighty Professor Cliff Davenport in the first of a one-two punch of GNS-related early Halloween action. Disturbing violence, saucy language and copious amounts of pus await the unwary traveller. Be sure to check out Graham and the Duck Pond Sailors ' latest release Urban Navigators . There's much more to s...

Phil returns to Derry & Toms to tackle the second Erekosë volume - Pheonix in Obsidian, also known as The Silver Warriors in the USA. Misery, perversion and very metal methods of conveyance abound in this tale of an Earth in its final ebbs of existence. JOIN US!

Chris (AKA Dirk the Dice) returns to Derry and  Toms to discuss Michael Moorcock's sort-of-memoir of his time in LA and wider California in Letters From Hollywood. Along the way we drink fusty northern beer, console one another about Pernod-soaked catastrophes in our salad days, wistfully recall the Moorcock/Tolkien Weekender and muse on what form it could take in the future (Dannus/Lud-in-the-Mis...

Andy Darby shakes off the Monkey for an evening and drops by D and Ts to take a look at one of Moorcock's 60s SF tales, The Fireclown (later retitled The Winds of Limbo but I'm sticking with the original title for vaguely defined reasons related to being old and finnicky). Strap in for a political thriller laced with astute observations on the natures of media and personality politics, the odd spr...