Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are...

As January draws to a close, we take a look back through some of the conversations we have had so far in 2026. First, publisher Alessandro Gallenzi joined us to reveal how he turned literary detective and uncovered Dylan Thomas's youthful plagiarism, then Joanna Kavenna explains ...  Show more

This week, Maria Scott on recently discovered photographs of Jeanne Duval, muse and lover of Charles Baudelaire; and Pratinav Anil weighs up the case for and against reparations.'Reparations: Slavery and the tyranny of imaginary guilt', by Nigel Biggar'The big payback: The case f ...  Show more

Daniel Soar talks to Tom about Ian McEwan’s latest novel, Lessons – how it fits with his earlier fiction, the relationship between world events and private histories, and McEwan’s addiction to ‘moments of maximum thrill’. Find further reading, and listen ad-free, on the episode p ...  Show more

Stories tell us who we are and help us understand others. They also suggest who we can be, if we overcome the ongoing divides in this country. In this podcast episode, Professor Brian Lowery sits down with American journalist and publishing executive Dana Canedy, dubbed by the Ne ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, Andrew Thompson shares another slice from his ultimate guide to understanding these baffling mini mysteries of the English language. Marilyn Komechak, author of Deborah Sampson: The Girl Who Went to War, tells us the story of Deborah Samps ...  Show more

Miranda Carter joins Tom to talk about the life and historical fiction of Mary Renault, whose popular and ingenious retellings of stories from Ancient Greece have never been out of print. They discuss her eventful life, which took her from Edwardian East London to apartheid South ...  Show more