The Hatchards Podcast

The latest installment of the Hatchards Podcast is a global affair, recorded variously in Los Angeles, Paris, and North London and featuring our guest Tess Gunty, author of the phenomenal debut novel, The Rabbit Hutch. Set over three sweltering July days in the fictional town of Vacca Vale in the American rust belt, the novel revolves around the residents of ‘The Rabbit Hutch’, a dilapidated housi...

In this episode, we spoke to the inimitable Geoff Dyer, author of books including Out of Sheer Rage, Zona, But Beautiful, The Ongoing Moment, and Broadsword Calling Danny Boy. His new book, The Last Days of Roger Federer and Other Endings, was published by Canongate earlier this month. Ingeniously structured – separated into three sections of sixty chapters, with its 86,400 words representing each...

Dear listener, we strongly recommend that you pour yourself a tall glass of Bordeaux before you listen to the latest episode of The Hatchards Podcast, lest you want to feel like the only sober person in the room. As 'Waiter in Paris' memoirist Edward Chisholm is a trained expert in what he describes as the holy trinity of French cuisine - bread, cheese, and wine - Matt and Ryan considered it the p...

In this episode, 'This is Shakespeare' author Emma Smith joins us to discuss her latest book, 'Portable Magic,' an iconoclastic new story of the book in human hands, exploring when, why, and how it acquired its particular hold over us. Gathering together a millennium's worth of pivotal encounters with volumes big and small, Smith reveals that, as much as their contents, it is books' physical form...

In this episode, we spoke to debut novelist Ben Hinshaw about his new book, "Exactly What You Mean," a series of 11 interconnected short stories revolving around the island of Guernsey. Characters appear and reappear throughout the book, ricocheting through each other's lives in ways that can be either funny or tragic and altogether unexpected. In this way, Hinshaw reminds us of the ways that we a...

What is a butler? In his new book "Butler to the World," Oliver Bullough describes a butler as a person that was educated at all the right schools, cultivated all the right connections, and relies on centuries of learned experience in the service of wealthy individuals. Sound familiar? Through its offshore territories, endless loopholes, and hands-off approach to its financial sector, Bullough pow...

In this episode, Matt and Ryan were afforded the immense pleasure of speaking to one of the greatest living novelists of our time, Colm Tóibín. Tóibín joined us on the occasion of his latest novel, 'The Magician', being released in paperback. The novel traces the life of 20th-century German writer Thomas Mann, author of 'The Magic Mountain', 'Death in Venice', and 'Buddenbrooks.' Thomas lived a li...

In this episode, we're taking listeners back to the Cold War, covering everything from '80s pop culture to perestroika. We were joined from Berlin by The Guardian's bureau chief, Philip Oltermann, to discuss his fascinating new book, 'The Stasi Poetry Circle.' This unique Cold War story charts the history of East Germany's brutal secret police through their unlikely monthly poetry club. What sound...

There is something of a Francis Bacon season going on here at Hatchards, with 'Bacon in Moscow' chosen as our non-fiction Book of the Month, multiple new releases across various genres covering the artist's work, and a new exhibition entitled 'Man and Beast' across the road at the Royal Academy. In this episode, we invited author Max Porter ('Lanny,' 'Grief is the Thing With Feathers') and the aut...

On this episode, we were joined via Zoom by the delightful Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of the acclaimed debut novel "Open Water." In this conversation, Caleb spoke to us about his unique background, his inspirations, his love of music and photography, and his cultural touchstones like Zadie Smith and the 2016 feature film, Moonlight. He also waxes lyrical about the myriad pleasures of deepest Sout...

In this episode, we spoke to Roger Katz, the former manager of Hatchards, about selling his library of over 500 signed first editions, as well as working in the book trade throughout the 1990s, an era that he dubs the "Golden Age of Bookselling." He relates to us some brilliant stories about his encounters with artists and celebrities such as Steve Martin, Cher, and Arthur Miller, and makes a comp...

On this episode, we were joined by Natasha Brown, author of the breakout debut novel of 2021, Assembly. Brown spoke to us about her journey towards becoming an author and developing a prose style to match the icy, transactional nature of the novel's universe. She provided insights into pitching a debut novel in the publishing world, and how the book's reception has influenced her understanding of...

In this special Advent Calendar mini-episode, we were joined by two veritable icons of British entertainment, Joanna Lumley and Gyles Brandreth. Both authors (and longtime friends) have published new books on the royal family, A Queen for All Seasons and Philip respectively, which attempt to shed new light on Queen Elizabeth II and her beloved late husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Additi...

In this special Advent Calendar mini-episode, we were joined by Dominic Sandbrook to discuss his new series of Children's History books entitled "Adventures in Time." The first four books in this ongoing series covers Alexander the Great, Henry VIII and the Wives of Windsor, as well as the two World Wars. Sandbrook spoke to us about the challenges of adapting these complex, wide-ranging histories...

In this special Advent Calendar mini-episode, we were joined by Henry Eliot, author of The Penguin Modern Classics Book, a beautifully detailed history of this iconic collection of modern literature, where names like Woolf and Proust stand alongside rediscovered gems and rarities. Eliot spoke to us about assembling this era-defining companion and why it makes such an ideal Christmas present. We al...

In this special Advent Calendar mini-episode, we were joined by William Sieghart, author of the bestselling series, The Poetry Pharmacy. Sieghart spoke to us about adapting 100 poems from this collection into a new illustrated book for children entitled, Everyone Sang: A Poem for Every Feeling. The book is part of his decades-long effort to make poetry more accessible to a wider range of individua...

In this special Advent Calendar mini-episode, we were joined by Clare Jackson, author of Devil Land, an epic chronicle of England during its bloody 17th century, perhaps the most turbulent time in its history. Jackson spoke to us gleefully about the negative perceptions of England held throughout the world during this period, and whether parallels could be drawn between this country in the 17th ce...

In this special Advent Calendar mini-episode, we were joined by the art historian Philip Hook, who has spent much of his career as an impressionist and modern art expert at Sotheby's. Hook has sold many of the major paintings from that period including Edvard Munch's The Scream. His new book, ART OF THE EXTREME, takes place in the years running up to the First World War, where all of the major "-i...

In this episode, we were visited by one of Britain's greatest living novelists, William Boyd. Boyd's latest book "Trio" follows three characters on the set of a swinging sixties film set in Brighton in 1968. This zany film and its wafer-thin premise are rendered instantly obsolete by the spirit of the times. Boyd spoke to us about his retrospective feelings regarding the 60s, his career as a scree...

We were delighted to welcome icon of British comedy, John Cleese, as our guest on the inaugural Hatchards Podcast. He discussed his recent book Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide – a brisk, insightful challenge to the idea that creativity is an inherent trait that cannot be learned or finessed. Drawing on personal experience from his long and illustrious career, and peppered with anecdotes abo...