Shows
Spark Something NewEpisode 71: Unmasking Yourself | Shame, Identity, and the First Step Toward Being Fully Seen with John Patrick HenryEpisode Snapshot:We all wear masks—some to belong, some to protect, and some to survive. On this episode, Dr. Katie and John Patrick Henry explore what it means to take off the masks and learn to remove shame, find safety, and be fully seen.Summary:This episode explores how the "masks we live in” represent curated versions of ourselves that we wear to fit in, stay safe, earn approval, or avoid what we feel inside. John reflects on how his earliest masks showed up as a child and late...
2026-03-0241 min
John Sandoe BooksJane Rogoyska: Hotel ExileOur first podcast for 2026 is with Jane Rogoyska, the author of Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War. Divided into three parts, it tells the story of the influx of mostly German refugees into Paris following the rise of the Nazis, and how the Hotel Lutetia, a grand hotel on the Left Bank, became a focus for them in organizing some kind of resistance to the regime at home. After the German Occupation, the same hotel became the headquarters of Military Intelligence, the Abwehr; and then, after the Liberation, the hotel mutated into a reception centre for deportees...
2026-02-2740 min
John Sandoe BooksJuliet Nicolson: The Book of Revelations
We are delighted to have Juliet back on our podcast. Her books have been regular bestsellers at Sandoe’s: The Perfect Summer, A House Full of Daughters, Frostquake, which she spoke about on the podcast in 2020. Her new book looks at the dynamics of corrosive secrets that women have been obliged to keep, how those secrets fit into a broader social context and how exposing them has been a release for many. Her own family is the starting point for her investigation; numerous case studies follow.
Interviewed by Johnny de Falbe
Edited by Magnus Rena
2025-11-0340 min
John Sandoe BooksCharles Darwent: Monsieur Ozenfant's AcademyA mentor to Le Corbusier, Ozenfant was an artist and critic who ran art schools in Paris and London in the 1920s and ’30s. Highly regarded, he knew everyone; Leonora Carrington was a student, Henry Moore worked for him, Paolozzi admired him. Despite his connections, energy and talent, his star dimmed and he passed into obscurity. This short, beautifully written book is a superb resuscitation of a fascinating individual whose influence was – and is – far-reaching. Johnny speaks to its author, Charles Darwent — art critic and reviewer.
Photo: Ozenfant (left) and Le Corbusier launching their new magazine, L'Esprit nouveau...
2025-09-2841 min
John Sandoe BooksJonas Hassen Khemiri: The SistersWe are delighted to bring you a new episode of our podcast: a conversation with Jonas Hassen Khemiri. He is a Swedish novelist and playwright, a teacher on the creative writing course at NYU and a finalist for the National Book Award. His writing is warm and playful, often concerned with his own Swedish-Tunisian heritage and with the joys and exasperations of being a writer, a father and a partner — rarely in that order. The Sisters is his latest novel, and his first to be written originally in English. It’s a wonderful, expansive book set between Tunis, Stockholm, Pari...
2025-09-0341 min
John Sandoe BooksHoratio Clare: We Came By Sea
Horatio is an outstanding writer of literary non-fiction. He’s written before about life on a container ship and on an icebreaker, three memoirs, two important books on acute mental crisis, a glorious book on Bach, a book on curlews and swallows, three delightful books for young children and a couple more on Welsh myths — all in addition to regular journalism.
With the small boats crisis as its focus, We Came By Sea is an exemplary work of reportage, motivated by curiosity and a suspicion of prevailing narratives.
This short book began ‘with a feeling of dee...
2025-06-0132 min
John Sandoe BooksTim Bouverie: Allies at War
Bouverie's first book, Appeasing Hitler, was a tremendous success. His second — a history of the alliance that won the war — is once again fascinating and beautifully written. He spoke to Johnny about the destruction of the French fleet by the British (they had been allies months earlier), the betrayal of Poland, and the significance of public opinion for democracies at war; offensives that would stir a sense of patriotism back home were as important as those which were strategically necessary.
Interviewed by John de Falbe
Edited by Magnus Rena
2025-04-1750 min
Curious ReadersEp 5: Our Favourite New York/London NovelsJoin either side of the Atlantic as we dive into our favourite London/New York novels. It’s an episode full of stiff upper lips, demonic possessions, sociopaths, bedsits, alcoholic dollmakers, sassy parrots, and white asparagus. Plus we talk about our must visit NY-LON bookshops and reading spots, and we look ahead to new releases set in and around the Big Smoke and the Big Apple we can’t wait to read. Recent readsUniversality by Natasha BrownHunchback by Saou Ichikawa (translated by Polly Barton)
2025-03-1252 min
John Sandoe BooksChloe Dalton: Raising Hare
Dalton, who has worked for over a decade as a parliamentary and Foreign Office policy advisor and speech-writer, found herself raising a leveret in lockdown. Her approach was to intervene as little as possible and allow the animal to remain wild – yet it still comes to snooze in her house, and has now raised leverets that treat Dalton’s small converted barn as their own. She spoke to Arabella about this improbable experience, about swapping the city for the country, and writing her first book – which has just been shortlisted for the Hatchards First Biography Prize.
Interviewed by Arab...
2025-01-1554 min
John Sandoe BooksLucy Hughes-Hallett: The Scapegoat
The scapegoat in question is the Duke of Buckingham: favourite and lover of James I and beloved friend of his son; husband, father, art collector, tireless statesman… The cost of his pearl-spilling outfit when he went to meet Henrietta Maria would have paid the mercenary army for four months. He was hated so fiercely by the time of his stabbing in a Portsmouth inn that his murderer was cheered en route to London. This biography of the fabulously handsome skimbleshanks is a scintillating portrait of a complex man and his tumultuous times.
Interviewed by Johnny de Falbe
2024-11-2058 min
John Sandoe BooksMother State: Helen Charman in Conversation with Kate Briggs'motherhood is frequently politicised, but rarely acknowledged in all its fullness to be political'
We were delighted that Helen Charman, a Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge, whose writing has been published in The Guardian, The White Review, Another Gaze and The Stinging Fly, came to the shop to speak about her new book, Mother State. The impetus behind the book — a history of motherhood in the UK and Ireland — is that motherhood is an inherently political state of being, and should be considered in terms of collective responsibilities as well as individual. The communities that she is intereste...
2024-11-2055 min
Spark Something NewEpisode 4: Understanding Boundaries with Jessica UlmerIn this episode of the Spark Something New podcast, Katie chats with Jessica Ulmer, founder of Crossing Paths Counseling, about the intricate world of setting and maintaining boundaries. Jessica, with years of experience in healthcare and counseling, highlights the importance of understanding boundaries, their misconceptions, and how they help individuals maintain a sense of self in relationships. The discussion includes steps for identifying, communicating, and evaluating boundaries in personal and professional contexts and tackles common challenges faced when boundaries are violated. Practical examples, insightful advice, and recommended resources further illuminate the path to healthier relationships....
2024-10-1447 min
John Sandoe BooksWilliam Dalrymple: The Golden Road
Five years - almost to the day - since the first episode of the Sandoe's podcast, we welcome back the very first author to have graced our airwaves: William Dalrymple. In September 2019 he came to discuss The Anarchy; he returns, on our 80th episode, for The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. He traces the rise and spread of Buddhism from its roots, showing the dominance of Indian culture in the ancient and early medieval worlds. WD's customary grace, zest and elegance render unfamiliar names and ideas both accessible and compelling. There's a limited number of signed c...
2024-09-1058 min
John Sandoe BooksRupert Thomson: How to Make a BombRupert Thomson has attracted the kind of critical acclaim which would flatter any rockstar, let alone writer. He's been compared to Dickens, Kafka and Grace Jones; The Insult was chosen by David Bowie as one of his 100 favourite novels of all time; and his first novel, Dreams of Leaving - one of the earliest books to be published by Bloomsbury soon after it was established in 1986 - found fans in everyone from the drummer of Souxsie and the Banshees to the New Statesman, who said, “When someone writes as well as Thomson does, it's a wonder other people bother”.
2024-08-2335 min
John Sandoe BooksGiles Milton: The Stalin AffairAcclaimed historian Giles Milton (Checkmate in Berlin, Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Paradise Lost) talks to Johnny about his new book on the US and Britain's diplomatic mission to brace Stalin against the Germans and bring him into WW2 as an ally.
Edited by Magnus Rena
2024-07-1533 min
John Sandoe BooksEs Devlin on the Art of Set DesignEs Devlin's name will be familiar to some; many will have seen her work without realising it. Winner of three Olivier awards, her work ranges from small theatres to vast stadiums, from Adele to Don Giovanni and Sir John Soane. She designed the set for Sam Mendes’s ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ at the National Theatre; she’s collaborated with the physicist Carlo Rovelli; has worked with Complicité, Florence + the Machine, Beyoncé, U2; designed installations at Tate Modern, the Serpentine, the V&A, Trafalgar Square, the Imperial War Museum and the UN General Assembly; sets for the ROH, the Met and La Sca...
2024-04-2950 min
John Sandoe BooksRoland Philipps on Roger CasementCasement was one of the first to expose the horrors of the Belgian Congo and the Peruvian rubber industry. In 1911 he was knighted; five years later he would be executed in Pentonville Prison for conspiring with the Germans to provide arms for the Easter Rising. His fraught life — as a humanitarian, a closeted queer man and an Irish Nationalist — is the subject of Roland Philipps' fantastic new biography, Broken Archangel. We are delighted that he has returned to the podcast for a second time (after Victoire in 2021) to speak to Johnny about the book.
Interviewed by Johnny de F...
2024-04-1252 min
John Sandoe BooksAnna Reid: A Nasty Little WarA conversation with Anna Reid. Many will know her from Borderland, a brilliant history of Ukraine. Her new book, A Nasty Little War, is a fascinating, grisly and often witty account of the Allied intervention in Revolutionary Russia. After the Armistice in 1918, the Allies’ support for anyone contra-German mutated into anti-Bolshevik Intervention. Forces were deployed in Archangel, the Caucasus, the Far East and elsewhere.
Interviewed by Johnny de Falbe
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: The Song of the Stakhanovite Unit
2024-02-1652 min
John Sandoe BooksThomas Harding on George WeidenfeldThe Maverick: George Weidenfeld and the Golden Age of Publishing is a brilliant biography of a complicated man. It's not a cradle-to-grave doorstopper, but the story of the publisher's life through twelve books, including his mother's diary and Lolita.
Interviewed by Johnny de Falbe
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Kleine Dreigroschenmusik: II. Die Moritat von Mackie Messer
2023-09-201h 04
John Sandoe BooksAnn Wroe: LifescapesJohnny interviews Ann Wroe, obituaries editor of the Economist since 2003, about her new book, Lifescapes: A Biographer's Search for the Soul. It is a characteristically distinctive and subtle account of the process that the veteran obituarist and biographer describes as the process of ‘catching souls’.
Interviewed by Johnny de Falbe
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Nick Drake, When the Day Is Done
2023-09-2041 min
John Sandoe BooksLaura Freeman on Jim Ede & Kettle’s YardMarina spoke with Laura Freeman about her new book, Ways of Life: Jim Ede and the Kettle’s Yard Artists. Remarkably, this is the first biography of Jim Ede ever to appear. It’s a marvellous book — already a shop favourite this summer — studded with anecdotes: Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth arguing over who first put a hole in their sculpture; studio visits to Brancusi and Picasso; a hypochondriac David Jones; the Tate flood; etc.
Interviewed by Marina Scholtz
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: César Franck, Prélude, FWV 21
Photo credit: Paul A
2023-06-2134 min
John Sandoe BooksMiguel Flores-Vianna: Haute Bohemians: GreeceMiguel Flores-Vianna is a modern Midas of interior design photography; everything his lens touches turns to gold. Haute Bohemians, his first book, was an eye-watering collection of houses and gardens from Tangier to Milan and the Dolomites… each scene a private space: tasteful, indulgent, never grandiose. Now the great aesthete has turned his eye to the Aegean with Haute Bohemians: Greece: Interiors, Architecture, and Landscapes. It is, of course, sumptuous.
We are delighted that Miguel has recorded a podcast with us to mark the book’s publication and - another delight - that his interviewer is Sofka Zinov...
2023-05-1832 min
John Sandoe BooksMargaret Jull Costa on Javier MaríasIt’s a few months since we’ve given a new podcast but we’re delighted to break the silence with a conversation with Margaret Jull Costa, the distinguished translator from Spanish and Portuguese, about the Spanish writer Javier Marías.
Javier was a client at John Sandoe’s from the mid-1990s, soon after his work first started appearing in English with the Harvill Press. Although he rarely came to the UK, we continued to send him books in Madrid regularly until his death last year. His work is deeply engaged with England, MI6, Oxford, detective stories...
2023-05-1034 min
John Sandoe BooksChristopher de Hamel: The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club
The title could pass off as a short story by M.R. James or as one of the exploits of Robert Louis Stevenson’s little-known, rather Ruritanian sleuth called Prince Florizel. It is in fact a discursive and extraordinarily erudite book on an abstruse but delightful subject: those who collect, hoard, deal or care for astonishing manuscripts and illuminated books. His cast includes a Greek forger, a French priest, a rabbi, and indeed a prince… De Hamel is tremendously engaging and often funny.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Joachim Held, Das Ander Buch. Ein New Küns...
2022-12-071h 02
John Sandoe BooksJennifer Homans: Mr B.George Balanchine’s life cut the twentieth century in two. He was a choreographer who trained in Tsarist St Petersburg and reached the peak of his career in New York during the Cold War. Mr B.: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century is more than a biography, and more than a book about ballet. It’s about a changing century and a revolutionary approach to art. Magnus talks to Jennifer Homans – ballet critic for The New Yorker – about her brilliant, intense and wonderfully readable book.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music, in order of appearance:
Igor Stravinsky, C...
2022-12-0435 min
John Sandoe BooksEdward Wilson Lee: A History of WaterA History of Water is a riddling title but the subtitle, Being an Account of a Murder, an Epic and Two Visions of Global History, points towards its rich cultural and historical context.
Edward Wilson-Lee is a Cambridge academic who specialises in making big stories out of archival minutiae. His superb new book follows the paths of two men in sixteenth-century Portugal. One, a humane and intellectually curious archivist to the King, was found dead in 1574 after falling foul of the Inquisition. The other was a rogue who become the Portuguese national poet. Beyond its intrigue as a m...
2022-09-2143 min
John Sandoe BooksKarina Urbach: Alice’s BookWe are delighted to bring you a new podcast with Karina Urbach, author of Alice’s Book: How the Nazis Stole My Grandmother’s Cookbook. It tells the remarkable story of her Jewish grandmother, whose bestselling Viennese cookbook was expropriated by the Nazis after the Anschluss in 1938 and republished – for decades - under a false Aryan name. Dr. Urbach is an historian at the University of London; her book is expertly researched, using international archives, family papers, interviews, etc and has an extraordinary range – from Shanghai in the 1930s to Dachau, Vienna to Lake Windermere, the Kindertransport, the US intellig...
2022-08-2427 min
John Sandoe BooksLaura Beatty: Looking for TheophrastusLaura Beatty could turn straw into gold. In Looking for Theophrastus: Travels in Search of a Lost Philosopher, she describes chancing across the writings of a rather obscure Greek philosopher, and the wonders and illuminations that followed. She speaks to Johnny about her pursuit of this forgotten figure, through markets and cobbled streets, via Chaucer and George Eliot...
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Mikis Theodorakis and Thanasis Vasilas, Galazio Taximi
2022-05-1030 min
John Sandoe BooksVashti Bunyan: WaywardVashti speaks to Magnus about her new memoir, Wayward: Just Another Life to Live. From London in the Swinging Sixties to a hippie retreat in the Outer Hebrides: she and her partner travelled – slowly – by horse and wagon. She gave up music, disillusioned with the pop industry, until her 1970 album was rediscovered thirty years later.
This podcast is particularly exciting for us because, as we discovered while recording it, Vashti once worked in (what is now) John Sandoe's. The art room on the ground floor used to be a veterinary clinic; she worked there after leaving her recor...
2022-04-2942 min
John Sandoe BooksEileen Atkins: Will She Do?Dame Eileen is joined by the novelist Salley Vickers to talk about Will She Do?: Act One of a Life on Stage. It is a marvellous memoir, beginning with her youth in Tottenham and ending when her theatrical career takes off. Forthright, transparent, dry, funny... there is nothing remotely precious about Dame Eileen’s account of herself. It is a delight!
Please email, telephone (+44 (0)20 7589 9473) or order online if you would like a copy.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Dusty Springfield, Don't Let Me Lose This Dream
2022-04-221h 25
John Sandoe BooksRobert Edric: My Own Worst EnemyJohnny once wrote of Robert Edric that 'his was the most significant body of work from a novelist in a generation.' He has written over twenty novels; My Own Worst Enemy is his first memoir. He spoke to Johnny about growing up in Sheffield in the 60s, as well as books, food, friendships, and what it's like to write about your own family.
Please email, telephone (+44 (0)20 7589 9473) or order online if you would like a copy.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Leo Kottke, Machine No. 2
2022-02-2335 min
Roots and All - Gardening PodcastEpisode 174: Painting the Georgian GardenI'm speaking to Dr Cathryn Spence this week, about Thomas Robins, a painter who documented the country estates of the Georgian gentry in all their Rococo splendour. Robins captured images of this flamboyant age of outdoor design where gardens were laden with symbolism and crammed full of Chinoiserie, follies ruins and the latest imports of exotic animals and plants. Follow the story of Robins as he moves from jobbing fan painter to star of his own paintings, the development of the floral borders around his canvases, for which he's famed, and the evolution of the Georgian garden and what...
2022-02-0731 min
John Sandoe BooksSalley Vickers: The GardenerSalley Vickers wrote her latest novel in a Wiltshire cottage during lockdown. She talks to Johnny about the importance of gardening while writing, Shropshire's historic pagan landscapes, and the complications of family relationships.
Click here to order a copy of The Gardener; choose to collect from Sandoe's or have us post it to you.
Two sisters buy a rambling house in the Welsh Marches. One decides to bring the neglected garden back to life with the help of an Albanian migrant living in the nearby village. The work allows her space to contemplate her complex re...
2022-01-1930 min
John Sandoe BooksThe Great Carp Ferdinand: A Wintry Tale by Eva IbbotsonIn anticipation of Christmas and the excitement of the coming weeks, we are thrilled to present a reading of one of Eva Ibbotson’s short stories. Some of our most obliging customers will already know her as an author of unparalleled charm and humour. Who else could combine an immense fish, a blunderbuss, love, moustaches and a vast, rose-sprigged chamberpot? A feast of Central European sensibility that will make you long to sip coffee and drift away all afternoon on a Biedermeier sofa... We have the right to post this magnificent piece of transporting bliss until the end of Ja...
2021-12-0137 min
Travels Through TimeTracy Borman: Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada (1588)Historians often refer to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I as being England’s Golden Age. And of all the forty-five years in which she was the monarch, the year 1588 stands out as the most dramatic. It was a year of peril, a year of valour and a year of heartbreak.
In this episode bestselling historian and novelist Tracy Borman takes us back to the anxiety-ridden days of 1588. We watch on as the queen makes a speech that will pass into legend. We hover close by as one of her most famous portraits is painted. And we se...
2021-11-1648 minTravels Through TimeRobert Lyman: A War of Empires (1944)On this Remembrance Day the eminent historian Robert Lyman takes us to Burma, a country that was the crucible of action for a range of competing powers in the Second World War. In Burma the invading Japanese confronted the British, India, Chinese and Americans in a story that really became, as Lyman makes plain, ‘a war of empires.’
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For thirty years Robert Lyman has been studying the war in the Far East. While not as well-known as the conflict with the Nazis in Europe, events in south east Asia were crucial. The fortunes of the alli...
2021-11-1157 min
John Sandoe BooksMark Mazower: The Greek Revolution2021 marks 200 years since the Greek Revolution and Mark Mazower's new book - The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe - is as timely as it is thrilling, expertly researched and vividly told. He spoke to Johnny de Falbe about this first 'romantic' European revolution.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Marika Ninou, Soúroupo Me Sinnephiá
2021-11-0952 minTravels Through TimeRobert Sackville-West: The Missing of the First World War (1915)The Armistice in 1918 might have brought an end to the violence. But for many families it did not mean the end of the story. In 1918 the whereabouts of more than half a million British soldiers alone remained unknown. These were often very young people, drawn from all walks of life, right across Britain.
They were people who had simply vanished into the battlefields.
In this episode Robert Sackville-West takes us back to the desperate days of the First World War a century ago. He shows us how Britons – from Rudyard Kipling to E.M. Forster – conf...
2021-11-0957 minTravels Through TimeJames Clark: The Dissolution of the Monasteries (1540)Long into the sixteenth century monasteries remained a familiar and vital part of English society. Wherever you were in the kingdom – Yorkshire, Cornwall, London, the Lakes – it was almost certain that there was a monastery just a short walk away.
And yet within a few short years in the 1530s, 850 of these institutions vanished for good. The dissolution of the monasteries really was, today's guest, James Clark argues, ‘the great drama of Henry VIII’s Reformation’. It was the process that had 'the most immediate impact on the largest number of people.'
In this episode Cla...
2021-11-021h 03Travels Through TimeMalcolm Gaskill: An Execution and a Witch (1649)On a cold midwinter’s day in 1649, King Charles I stepped onto a platform in Whitehall. He knelt down and said a prayer. Then he stretched his arms forward to signal that he was ready to die. As the axe swung down, the crowd that had gathered emitted a sound that was later recalled as a ‘collective groan.’
The killing of a king, an unheard of act, brought a shocking end to a destructive decade of civil war in England. In this episode of the historian Malcolm Gaskill explains how that act was seen in its own time a...
2021-10-291h 07
John Sandoe BooksColin Thubron: The Amur River
Some may have supposed that Thubron had done his last Big Journey (he is now 82), but this is arguably his biggest yet, and most arduous. Indomitable, venerable, he follows this immense river from its source in remote Mongolian bogs to where it emerges in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East. It is a complicated journey, much of it surrounded by poverty, desolation, wrecked environments, social collapse and historical contortions in spite of the natural wonders of the landscapes through which he passes. CT is always fascinating and compelling, and this introduction to a world scarcely known...
2021-10-201h 06
John Sandoe BooksJohn Craxton: A Life of GiftsCraxton, that wonderful painter and funny, lovely man, could be in no better hands than Ian Collins’s… This biography is all that might be hoped for – thorough, loving, full of Craxton’s vitality and wit, with never a dull paragraph.
Music: Manos Hadjidakis, To Waltz Ton Hamenon Oneiron
Edited by Magnus Rena
2021-08-0435 min
John Sandoe BooksJames Marriott: Crude BritanniaJames Marriott and his co-author Terry Macalister have spent decades researching and writing about the oil industry. Their new book plunges us into the murky world of Britain's crude oil corporations. They frame the industry as a new kind of imperialism, with hidden pipelines as its polluting engine and anonymous firms as its operators. It has the pace and intrigue of a well-plotted thriller.
Edited by Magnus Rena.
Music: PJ Harvey, Last Living Rose
2021-07-2652 min
John Sandoe BooksCharles Saumarez Smith: The Art Museum in Modern TimesThe former head of the National Gallery, NPG and Royal Academy talks openly about the art museum's place in society today.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: David Bowie, Andy Warhol
2021-07-2652 min
John Sandoe BooksOlivia Laing: EverybodyOL talks to Magnus Rena about her new book, Everybody: A Book about Freedom. It's a sweeping, collective biography of a dozen glamorous but stifled figures: Susan Sontag, Christopher Isherwood, Nina Simone, Wilhelm Reich, Malcom X, Marquis de Sade, Ana Mendieta, etc. What they all share is an urge to break through various inherited constraints and seek out that strange and slippery thing called freedom.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Cover image: Ana Mendieta, Imágen de Yágul, 1973
2021-06-1145 min
John Sandoe BooksEmily Mayhew: The Four HorsemenThe horsemen of the title are those of the Apocalypse, the terrifying outriders of war, pestilence, famine and death. Dr Mayhew considers developments in several fields to argue that we are pushing back successfully these dreadful tides. It's a gripping, lively narrative that is surprisingly uplifting. We wish we could take credit for the inspired choice of introductory music for this podcast but, in this case, those laurels must go to Emily herself.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Denis King, Black Beauty Theme (Galloping Home)
2021-06-0132 min
John Sandoe BooksHelena Attlee: Lev's ViolinHelena's citrusy history of Italy, The Land Where Lemons Grow, sold by the armful when it came out in 2014. Her new book tells the story of one fragile instrument and its journey across Europe, from Wales to Cremona to Russia. We still have some signed copies (at the time of uploading); please get in touch by email or telephone to reserve a copy.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Broen Ensemble with Greg Lawson, Shaloka (trad. Armenian)
2021-05-0643 min
John Sandoe BooksRoss King: The Bookseller of FlorenceIn medieval Europe, literacy rates among adult males was only 25% in cities, dwindling to 1% in villages. At the same time in Florence it was 70%. So what made this city the literary hub of Renaissance Europe? After his bestselling Brunelleschi's Dome, Ross King returns to Florence to follow the life of Vespasiano da Bisticci, the first bookseller of modern Europe.
Edited by Magnus Rena
2021-05-0659 min
John Sandoe BooksEdmund de Waal: Letters to CamondoNot so much a sequel to ‘The Hare with Amber Eyes’, this short, superb and immensely powerful book is nevertheless complementary to his earlier book. Read it, give it, think about it; read it again.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Claude Debussy, Deux Arabesques, performed by Alain Planès
2021-04-2045 min
John Sandoe BooksRoland Philipps: VictoireRoland Philipps' new book, Victoire, is a gripping story of espionage, seduction and double-crossing. It follows Mathilde Carré, a spy in the intelligence networks of Occupied France. To discuss the book, Roland is joined by Daniel Lee, author of The SS Officer's Armchair which came out last year.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Le Quartette Swing Émile Carrara, Le Charmeur des Serpents
2021-04-1443 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 6: Arabella Friesen & Johnny de Falbe, John Sandoe Books (London, UK)Located in Chelsea, London, John Sandoe Books has books on every available surface and nook over three floors and three shops. The 18th-century Georgian premises have been home to this beloved bookshop since 1957. A former newsagent and tobacconist, John Sandoe Books locked the spirit of the 50s inside and remained faithful to its ethos and passionate dedication to great books. A testament to the quality of the spread is its clientele, from Elton John and Mick Jagger to Edna O’Brien and William Boyd.
Our guests today are Arabella Friesen and Johnny de Falbe, partners both in li...
2021-04-0841 min
John Sandoe BooksHoratio Clare: Heavy Light... A Journey through Madness, Mania and Healing. Horatio talks to Arabella von Friesen about what he refers to as "one of the stranger journeys of a travelling life". Please email, telephone or order online to reserve a copy.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: John Martyn, Go Down Easy
2021-03-0634 min
John Sandoe BooksHenry 'Chips' Channon: The DiariesSimon Heffer, distinguished historian and editor of the diaries (the first volume of which is published today), is joined by Tim Bouverie.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Jack Hylton & His Orchestra, Why Can't You
2021-03-0440 min
John Sandoe BooksA Cuckoo Press Publication: Gaia Servadio's A Wartime ChildhoodA short, powerful memoir of a Jewish family’s flight from the Gestapo in Italy, 1943. Read by Arabella von Friesen.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Ernesto Bonino, Strolling About
2021-02-1955 min
John Sandoe BooksJuliet Nicolson: Frostquake... The Frozen Winter of 1962 and How Britain Emerged a Different Country... with moving parallels to our current situation. You can order a copy through a website here.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Helen Shapiro, Walkin' Back to Happiness.
2021-02-0429 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays: Jeeves and the Leap of Faith 2Episode two of Ben Schott's spiffing homage.
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-11-2525 min
John Sandoe BooksSelina Hastings: Sybille BedfordThe first biography of this much loved author, bonne vivante, European, and John Sandoe customer, mentored by Aldous Huxley. Hastings’ earlier biographical subjects include Somerset Maugham, Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford and Rosamond Lehmann.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Horn Concerto No. 3 in E Flat major
2020-11-181h 04
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays: Jeeves and the Leap of FaithAnother lockdown, another double-bill of Wodehouse Wednesdays - but not quite as you know it. John de Falbe reads from Ben Schott's latest homage to Plum: Jeeves and the Leap of Faith.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-11-1115 min
John Sandoe BooksHermione Lee: Tom StoppardJohnny interviews Sir Tom, while Dame Hermione - a leading literary biographer - gives a short introduction to her new book.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: William Bolcom, Graceful Ghost Rag
2020-10-2926 min
John Sandoe BooksWilliam Boyd: TrioBrighton, 1968: a film producer, a novelist and an actress find their private lives encroaching into their public worlds. Pressures build on the trio… Click here to order a copy of Will Boyd's latest novel
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cream, Badges
2020-10-0524 min
John Sandoe BooksMartin Latham: The Bookseller's TaleDo you write in the margins? Have you lied about reading War and Peace? Which books are your 'comfort reads'?
Martin Latham muses with Johnny on a life spent around books.
Edited by Magnus Rena
2020-09-1350 min
John Sandoe BooksJudith Herrin: RavennaJohnny chats to the illustrious academic about her dazzling new book, Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe.
Edited by Magnus Rena
2020-09-061h 07
John Sandoe BooksLoyd Grossman: An Elephant in RomeTo accompany the publication of his new book, Loyd (an old friend of the shop) talks about Baroque Rome... in all its rich papal splendour.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Federico Maria Sardelli, Fuga Prima
2020-08-1317 min
John Sandoe BooksDavid Mitchell: Utopia AvenueDavid chats to Johnny about his latest novel: a gorgeous, rich, magnificent imagining of a 1960s pop group...
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Fairport Convention, Who Knows Where The Time Goes
2020-07-2235 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 10.2: Pining for PongoFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Uncle Dynamite.
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-06-0325 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 10.1: Next Stop, AshendenFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Uncle Dynamite.
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-06-0323 min
The BroScience PodcastEpisode 13: John Meadows/Rich Piana - Health Issues in BodybuildingWe managed to record an episode with only a small part of it being focused on Covid-19! We took considerable time to discuss John Meadows' recent heart attack, the death of Rich Piana 3 years ago from health complications, and the recent death of Luke Sandoe. We also got into the controversy surrounding Adele's recent weight loss transformation. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
2020-05-271h 02
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 9.3: Good Old BlackmailFrom P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-2725 minJohn Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 9.2: You’re Being Watched, WoosterFrom P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-2717 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 9.1: The Cow CreamerFrom P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-2713 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 8.3: Everything Goes Tickety-booFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-2015 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 8.2: 'Well, Sir'From P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-2017 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 8.1: Dressed as MephistophelesFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-2016 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 7.3: Without the OptionFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-1318 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 7.2: Clustering Around Young BingoFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-1315 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 7.1: Jeeves Takes ChargeFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-1311 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 6.3: Roly-Poly PuddingFrom P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-0615 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 6.2: The Empress's SlumberFrom P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-0615 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 6.1: Connie's BackFrom P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-05-0617 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 5.3: The ChaseFrom P.G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-2920 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 5.2: A Sea of AuntsFrom P.G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-2912 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 5.1: Short on ChirpinessFrom P.G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-2912 min
John Sandoe BooksAlexandra Shulman: Clothes... and other things that matterThe former Editor of British Vogue remembers her very first party, a glamorous weekend in Paris sans parents, and the many sartorial adventures that inspired her new book. Anecdotes interspersed with music: Patti Smith, Gloria: In Excelsis Deo; Bobby Gentry, Ode to Billy Joe; Leonard Cohen, Suzanne; Emmylou Harris, White Shoes; Peter Noone & The Herman’s Hermits, Lady Barbara.
Edited by Magnus Rena
2020-04-2537 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 4.3: Bertie's BanjoleleFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-2209 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 4.2: A Wooster Is Always DebonairFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-2216 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 4.1: Jeeves Gives NoticeFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-2213 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 3.3: FeetFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-1516 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 3.2: Emsworth's LunchFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-1513 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 3.1: The Adventure of the Wand of DeathFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-1515 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 2.3: The Onion Soup BarFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-0815 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 2.2: The Brain ChapFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-0813 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 2.1: Uncle Fred in the SpringtimeFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.
2020-04-0814 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 1.3: FlowerpotsFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Leave it to Psmith
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-0108 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 1.2: The Name is PsmithFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Leave it to Psmith
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-0114 min
John Sandoe BooksWodehouse Wednesdays 1.1: Blind as a BatFrom P.G. Wodehouse, Leave it to Psmith
Read by John de Falbe, edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher
2020-04-0111 min
John Sandoe BooksHisham Matar: A Month in SienaThe Pulitzer Prize-winning author ponders the paintings of Siena. Recorded from an event at the bookshop to launch his new book.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Giacomo Puccini, Crisantemi
2020-02-2955 min
John Sandoe BooksCaroline Moorehead: A House in the MountainsAlex Preston talks to Caroline about her new book on the women of the Italian Resistance.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Fonola Band, Bella Ciao
2020-01-2653 min
John Sandoe BooksPhilip Mansel: Louis XIV, King of the WorldThe eminent historian on France and the Levant is joined in conversation by Barnaby Rogerson. Philip's new book on the Sun King's excesses, both courtly and murderous, political and personal, is out now.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Jean-Baptiste Lully, Te Deum
2019-12-091h 02
John Sandoe BooksSofia Tolstoy: A CentenaryTolstoy biographer and translator Rosamund Bartlett in conversation with academic and writer Sophie Ratcliffe.
Edited by Magnus Rena
Music: Nikolai Romanovich Bakaleinikov, Sorrow
2019-11-2055 min
John Sandoe BooksWilliam Dalrymple: The Anarchy, The Relentless Rise of The East India CompanyThe celebrated author (and old friend of the shop) spoke upstairs about his latest book.
Music: Ravi Shankar, Dhun
2019-09-171h 07