Field Ramble

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, Ben Markovitz talks to us about his latest novel The Rest of Our Lives . Starting in the midst of a failing relationship, the story follows Tom Layward, a man on the cusp of a life changing decision. Having lived for years in the shadow of a brief affair that his wife Amy pursued, Tom resolves to leave, following their own adult children out into the world. What f...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode Ellen E. Jones speaks to us about Screen Deep, How Film and TV can Solve Racism and Save the World . Many of you will know Ellen from Radio 4’s Screen Shot, in which, alongside her co-host Mark Kermode, she enters the various worlds of Doris Day, jobbing hitmen and the longest running video shop in the world.  Screen Deep is written with the same insight, encyclopa...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we speak to Adelle Stripe about her incredible memoir Base Notes . Published by White Rabbit and described perfectly by Wendy Erskine as ‘a marvel of specificity,’ it is everything you’d expect if you’ve read any of Adelle’s previous work. Open, kind and often very funny, it is a deeply humane book and one written with the clear economy of a poet.  There are small...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we meet novelist Omar El Akkad to discuss One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This . Published by Canongate (27.02 - UK) it is a powerful meditation on what it means to live in the heart of an empire, an indictment of Western complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians and an exploration of the hypocrisies on which we build our lives. Drawing fro...

Send us Fan Mail We catch up with Elaine Garvey to discuss her wonderful debut novel The Wardrobe Department . Set in the early 2000s and written with a disarming first hand delivery, it is the story of Mairéad, a young Irish theatre professional who’s come to London in a bid to pursue a career backstage. Caught between an acute homesickness for the Ireland of her imagination and a gruelling work...

Send us Fan Mail First published in Italian three years ago Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection is brought to an English speaking readership for the first time by Fitzcarraldo who publish Sophie Hughes’ exceptional translation on February 13th. Taking inspiration from George Perec’s - Things, A Story of The Sixties,   Perfection is the story of Anna and Tom, an Italian couple living a carefully curate...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we speak to Orlando Reade about What in Me is Dark; his exploration of the radical life of Paradise Lost . Within it, the author considers the relationship between the poem and some of the writers and revolutionaries who have drawn inspiration from it over the centuries since its writing. From Mary Shelley to Malcolm X the influence of Milton’s epic is as far reach...

Send us Fan Mail Another gem from the mighty Rough Trade Books on this episode. This time round we hear from the wonderful Jen Calleja on her latest book Goblinhood , a compelling patchwork of pop culture, family histories and poetics that sets out Jen’s theory of ‘goblin’ as a mode.  What at first appears a dizzying and at times disparate array of references soon emerge as a map of behaviours; th...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we hear from Rebecca Smith about Rural ; her account of the lives of the working class countryside. Weaving in her own family’s history as foresters, miners, millworkers and more, Rural sees Rebecca explore stories of the countryside that are often overlooked. The role of tied housing, the precarious nature of farming and the destructive power of Airbnb all feature...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we speak to Alejandro Zambra about his latest book, Childish Literature; a chronicle of early fatherhood. Written in a 'state of attachment', it is a beautiful collection of roaming essays, poetry and short stories - that show how the birth and growth of a child changes not only the present and the future but also reshapes our perceptions of the past.  We...

Send us Fan Mail Two suitably spooky novels on this episode. First up, Erin E. Adams and her debut, Jackal . Published in the UK by Dead Ink Books and set in  contemporary Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Jackal is the story of one woman’s determination to uncover the truth around the disappearance of a number of young black girls. A taught, psychological thriller, Erin’s skill is undoubtedly in underscor...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we speak to poet Raymond Antrobus about his recently published collection Signs, Music. Comprised of two extended sequences Signs, Music centres on both the imminence and the realisation of a new and overwhelming love. At times compulsive, at others reflective it captures the trepidation and courage of early parenthood. But, more than that, Signs, Music asks us to...

Send us Fan Mail As the film adaptation of Starve Acre is released we speak to Andrew Michael Hurley about the origins and evolving life of his much loved novel.  Set in the seventies, in the deceptive and unforgiving northern landscapes that fill Andrew’s work, Starve Acre is the story of a family with a bitter inheritance. Sudden tragedy leads to costly obsession and primeval forces are unearthe...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we catch up with Rachelle Atalla to hear more about her latest novel The Salt Flats . A tale of many threads, it centres around Martha and Finn a couple who have come to find  themselves at the end of their relationship. In a bid to save what’s left between them they travel to a mysterious retreat on the Bolivian salt flats as part of a group of privileged tourists...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we meet Mateo García Elizondo to hear more about his debut novel Last Date in El Zapotal . First published in Mexico in 2019 it won the City of Barcelona Literature Award that year but has had to wait until 2024 to be published in English by Charco Press .  At first glance Last Date is the story of a man who’s given up on life. Already almost a ghost, he arrives in...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we meet the wonderful Evie Wyld to find out more about her latest novel, The Echoes. As with Evie’s previous books, The Echoes is bold in its use of time and space, spanning generations and moving from one side of the world to the other. It’s a book filled with thrilling misdirections - so no spoilers here friends. We can tell you that - The Echoes is deeply moving...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we speak to Ella Frears about her incredible fictional memoir Good Lord . Taking the form of a single 30,000 word email it is a genre-defying, stream of consciousness address directed toward Ava, an unsuspecting estate agent.  Ella’s writing is both fearless and full of energy, ranging widely across the common spaces of our lives to take in the wild precarity of th...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we sit down with Noreen Masud to hear more about her incredible memoir A Flat Place . Shortlisted this year for both the Women’s Prize for Non Fiction and the Jhalak Prize, it is an exploration of both the flat landscapes Noreen loves and ‘the flat place’ she identifies within herself. Taking in the Fens, the Orkneys, Morecombe Bay and more Noreen writes on the con...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we’re joined by Katie Hale to discuss her upcoming novel The Edge of Solitude. Set on a lone ship that's slowly drifting toward the heart of the Antarctic,  it's a book which asks us to consider the risks of the planet’s future being left in the hands of a few insanely wealthy individuals.   The Edge of Solitude is a story of ambition, principle and above...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we meet Lara Haworth to discuss her wonderful new novel Monumenta . It tells the story of Olha Pavic whose house has been requisitioned by Belgrade city council. They aim to bulldoze it and build a monument to an unspecified massacre in its place.  Three architects pay Olga a visit in turn pitching their ideas for the monument that will replace her family home. The...

Send us Fan Mail To mark the publication of its paperback edition, this episode is a discussion with Octavia Bright around her wonderful memoir, This Ragged Grace . Published last year, many of you will already know it as an unsparing yet hopeful navigation of unravelling and recovery. It is a deeply human piece of work that asks us to consider the value of ambivalence and the acceptance we can of...

Send us Fan Mail Two wonderful books on this episode. First up we hear from Elizabeth O' Connor about her incredible debut novel Whalefall . Set on a remote island off the coast of Wales in the run up to World War Two it is a story that maps the tension between home and the hope that exists in a young heart for a life of their own. We loved this book, the island is as wild & windswept as...

Send us Fan Mail On this  episode we meet Will Burns to hear about his latest poetry collection Natural Burial Ground. Many of you will know Will from his fantastic (lockdown set) novel The Paper Lantern , a portrait of a transforming social & physical landscape during the strangest of years. It is a book flooded with new found time unlike Natural Burial Ground . Instead there, Will’s voice is...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we meet up Vida Adamczewski and Catherine Prasifka. First up, Vida to discuss Amphibian her vividly inventive short story collection. It is provocative storytelling infused with a radical compassion that finds voice in new places and reimagines the body as a territory, a swamp we are invited to wallow in by the cover.  Amphibian is published by the wonderful Toothg...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Ramble we meet Richard Norris to hear about his memoir of a lifetime in music, Strange Things Are Happening. The book spans the entirety of Richard’s career from an early pivotal meeting with John Peel, via the birth of Acid House to Californian adventures with Joe Strummer.  But Strange Things Are Happening is much more than a series of anecdotes.  At its h...