Shows
Men: An Explanation PodcastDeath and the MasterIn this episode, Tom and Tim discuss, in depth, caring for elderly men whose purpose and faculties have essentially left them. What are we learning as caregivers in this experience? What materiality are we feeding? What purpose is there to this ritual and situation? Welcome listeners! - For fascinating stories and insights about serving the end of life.TIMESTAMPS for you all00:45 Two eventful weeks1:00 What are we talking about2:00 Tom’s mother in law passing, tom taking care of father in law5:50 Tom on Team Guy dy...
2025-12-191h 26
Big Design AdventureEpisode 10 – Mid Century Modern HollywoodHooray for Mid Century Modern Hollywood! Tim and Kev are joined by Julie Berghoff, the Emmy Award–winning Production Designer for the hit Seth Rogen series The Studio. How did she manage to secure those iconic homes as locations? How did Julie create a set that feels like a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece? And will you stick around for Tim and Kev’s Seth Rogen impersonations at the end? It’s a Mid Century Modern bonanza! You can find pictures and videos on our Instagram page - @big_design_adventure And be sure to...
2025-10-1448 min
Neuverse MediaThe Original Man of Steel (Audio Drama)
THE ORIGINAL MAN OF STEEL
In this audio drama, we bring to life a script outline rumored to be an early draft of Man of Steel. While the authenticity of the script is doubtful, we couldn’t resist imagining what Zack Snyder's vision might have been in this alternate take. Join us as we explore this intriguing "what if" scenario in audio form!
CAST
Simon Mitchell - Narrator
Russ King - Clark Kent / Superman
Austin Garner - General Zod
Jess Lipinski - Lois Lane
Jacob Lloyd - Jonathan Kent
Angela Hoeffler - Martha Kent
Jacob Tombs - Jor-El
Franklin Sc...
2024-10-2334 min
Armchair Explorer: Travel and Adventure InspirationPowwows, Harleys, and Frank Lloyd Wright: Here's to Those Who Wisconsin!Here’s to those who Wisconsin … that’s what they say in this part of the world. Becausetraveling here is not so much about exploring a place as discovering a mindset. In this two-part documentary series, recorded on location, we’ll be searching for that Wisconsinstate of mind. Today we’ll be looking for it through the lens of its music, architecture, theater -and motorbikes. It’s a story about how art can connect us more deeply with the land, and howthe land inspires i...
2024-09-3044 min
Neuverse MediaThe Original Man of Steel
THE ORIGINAL MAN OF STEEL
In this audio drama, we bring to life a script outline rumored to be an early draft of Man of Steel. While the authenticity of the script is doubtful, we couldn’t resist imagining what Zack Snyder's vision might have been in this alternate take. Join us as we explore this intriguing "what if" scenario in audio form!
CHAPTERS
Intro 00:00
Prologue 01:19
1 - The Fall of Krypton 03:54
2 - Rising from the Ashes 08:22
3 - The Dawn of a Hero 14:16
4 - The Battle for Hope 20:45
Credits/Theme Music 31:31
CAST
Simon Mitchell - Narrator
Russ King - Clark Ke...
2024-09-2034 min
Conspiracy Dad PodcastWright and Wrong: Uncovering Secrets from Taleisin to Tulsa - EP 28Dante and Dave step into their upgraded studio, buzzing with excitement as they delve into the enigmatic world of Frank Lloyd Wright. Known for his architectural prowess, Wright's legacy takes a darker turn with the Massacre at Taleisin. Join the Conspiracy Dads as they unravel the mysterious events surrounding this infamous incident, questioning the truths hidden in the shadows of architectural brilliance.
But that's not all. Dante drops a bombshell theory that could rewrite history books: a potential link between the Taleisin tragedy and the harrowing Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Could there be a deeper connection, or...
2024-07-111h 14Conspiracy Dad PodcastWright and Wrong: Uncovering Secrets from Taleisin to Tulsa - EP 28Dante and Dave step into their upgraded studio, buzzing with excitement as they delve into the enigmatic world of Frank Lloyd Wright. Known for his architectural prowess, Wright's legacy takes a darker turn with the Massacre at Taleisin. Join the Conspiracy Dads as they unravel the mysterious events surrounding this infamous incident, questioning the truths hidden in the shadows of architectural brilliance.
But that's not all. Dante drops a bombshell theory that could rewrite history books: a potential link between the Taleisin tragedy and the harrowing Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Could there be a deeper connection, or...
2024-07-111h 14
Raising DaughtersHow Mentors Inspire Success In Young PeopleMentors have keen eyes to see anyone’s potential that no one would notice at first glance. Those eyes are the keys to helping mentors unlock someone’s highest potential. In this episode, Dr. Tim Jordan shares real-life stories of how mentors inspire success in young people. Mentors offer the ability to see young people in their highest light before they can see it in themselves. Stories about Jane Goodall, Quincy Jones, Frank Lloyd Wright, President Jimmy Carter, and many others proved the impact mentorship had in store for everyone. Be the catalyst for your children’s success and the mentor...
2024-02-2227 min
Biblical Time MachinePseudepigraphy: Forgery or Fan Fiction?Ancient authors had no problem writing texts in other people's names, and that includes plenty of biblical writers. If Paul only wrote 7 of the 13 Pauline epistles, for example, who wrote the other 6, and why did they stamp Paul's name on them? The practice is called pseudepigraphy — from the Greek for "false inscription" — and a lot of biblical scholars will tell you it's straight-up forgery. But were ancient authors really trying to deceive their readers? Or were they using a standard literary practice in the ancient world of writing in the name of beloved figures (Paul, Peter, Moses, Enoc...
2024-01-2239 min
Raising DaughtersIn Search of Character and CallingShow Notes: The book, The Soul’s Code, offers a way to see thru children’s misbehaviors for the deeper meaning behind them, i.e., see the oak tree when all you have in front of you is an acorn. Too many kids get mislabeled & misdiagnosed because our lens is so short-term oriented; also the medical & psychological communities are so pathology & negative & deficit focused. Children’s behaviors reveal something positive about the child, instead of seeing developmental problems, look for the beauty & meaning in what you see and then love and accept your kids for who they are. Dr. Jordan shares...
2023-09-1448 min
Voice of Reason RadioVOR Rewind - Winsome and Nuanced: A Godly Stratagem or a Coward’s Retreat?This week, we revisit Chris and Rich taking on the ever-present argument that Christians need to be winsome and nuanced on social issues lest we offend the lost. Is this biblically true or are the pitfalls Christians need to be aware of?
Show Links:
Just Thinking - A Nuanced Gospel
Martyn Lloyd-Jones - Man and Sin
Martyn Lloyd-Jones - Ungodliness
James R. Wood - How I Evolved on Tim Keller
James R. Wood - This Article is Not About Tim Keller
David French - A...
2023-08-262h 02
The Curiously Specific Book ClubJohn Buchan’s THE 39 STEPS Part 2: hit the beach at North Foreland, Kent, in search of dastardly German spiesIn Part Two of our Buchan-based adventure we switch from Scotland to the Kent coast. We’re in search of the eponymous 39 steps. But first we need to locate Trafalgar House where German secret agents are hiding out. We end up at North Foreland, between the homes of a German-hating lord and a German-loving marquess. And, yes, we did find some steps! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-07-3151 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubJohn Buchan’s THE 39 STEPS Part 1: experience the thrill of a chase through Dumfries & Galloway, ScotlandIt’s an iconic moment in British literature – John Buchan’s hero Richard Hannay running across a moor with police, secret agents and an airplane all trying to hunt him down. But is it based on any kind of reality? We head for the Scottish Lowlands to find out, taking in abandoned train lines, the site of a car crash and a very remote farmhouse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-07-2451 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubMargot Bennett’s THE WIDOW OF BATH Part Two: a North Foreland discoveryWe return to Ramsgate in Kent with Margot Bennett’s brilliant thriller THE WIDOW OF BATH as our only guide. The book was published in 1952, the same year as rock and roll had its birthday. We’re looking for a hat shop and a suspicous employment agency and we’re pretty confident we’ve found both.We date the book’s action to 1951 with some of our usual close reading, before visiting our final location. The house of the deceased, Judge Bath, is described by Bennett as being five miles from the location of the book, on a cliff...
2023-07-1758 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubMargot Bennett’s THE WIDOW OF BATH Part One: Shady goings-on in RamsgateA young man with a questionable background is sitting in a small hotel by an unnamed harbour in England. He is ostensibly writing a review. Behind him he hears a party of unseen people come into the hotel restaurant. He knows their voices. They are people from his past. One of them, he had a love affair with. She is now married to a judge. The judge’s name is Bath.So begins Margot Bennett’s perfectly calibrated 1952 thriller THE WIDOW OF BATH. But where is this strange hotel? All Bennett tells us directly is that this...
2023-07-1048 min
Last WordLord Kerslake, Dame Ann Leslie, Diane Rowe, Tim BlackmoreMatthew Bannister onDame Ann Leslie, the journalist who reported on some of the most significant events of recent times.Lord Kerslake, who was Head of the Civil Service under the coalition government.Diane Rowe, the table tennis champion who won the world doubles title with her twin sister Rosalind.Tim Blackmore, the radio executive who produced the first Radio 1 breakfast show and pioneered independent production in the industry. Interviewee: Lindsey Hilsum
Interviewee: Lord O’Donnell
Interviewee: Mary Wright
Interviewee: Tony Blackburn
Interviewee: Simon Cole Producer: Gareth Ne...
2023-07-0727 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubGeoffrey Household’s ROGUE MALE Part 2: pursuit across Dorset – tracking down a secret holloway-hideawayIn Part Two we get out of town and attempt to bury ourselves in the Dorset countryside. We start at Dorchester, track down the narrator’s fake hideaway in the Sydling valley and then search for the famous ‘holloway’ where our hero tries to evade his pursuers. Is it a real place? Listen now to find out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-07-0351 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubGeoffrey Household’s ROGUE MALE Part 1: pursuit across London – Hurlingham steps to the Aldwych tubeWe take the classic 1939 thriller out for ride, starting precisely where the book’s hard-boiled narrator makes land in London at Hurlingham. We track down his hotel off the Cromwell Road and then re-enact a tense chase around Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Holborn, ending in a (fictional) death at a defunct London Underground station. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-06-2649 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubAA Milne’s WHEN WE WE VERY YOUNG Part 2: the ghost of a golf course, and a swan called PoohIt’s the second part of our adventure with AA Milne’s astonishingly popular book of verse for children, WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG. And, like Milne himself often was, we’re back on a golf course – or at least, we’re in where an Addington golf course used to be, and we’re wondering if Milne played there. We also visit somewhere rather special – Decoy Cottage in Sussex, where Christopher Robin spent his first handful of summers, and where there was a swan on the pond called Pooh. All of which is guiding us towards the inevitable – the birthplace of Winnie the Po...
2023-06-1949 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubAA Milne’s WHEN WE VERY YOUNG Part 1: down to Buckingham Palace with AliceAA Milne’s book of poetry for children, WHEN WE VERY YOUNG, was stupefyingly successful – it may be the most successful volume of poetry ever published. In the first part of our adventure, we discover bears everywhere: waiting for us to step on cracks in the pavement outside the Chelsea home where AA Milne lived with his wife Daphne and, of course, his son Christopher Robin; bearskins on guards outside Buckingham Palace; and Winnie the bear herself, a Canadian visitor to London Zoo, whose name inspired a smaller, more fictional bear. We end the episode by asking, quite seriously: when Moth...
2023-06-1252 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubAlice Oswald’s DART Part 2: from Buckfast Abbey to the Mew Stone via a derelict dairy and a boatyardIn Part Two of our adventures along the River Dart, we wonder whether the poet Alice Oswald genuinely walked the whole of the river from source to sea, thus producing her magnificent 2002 work ‘Dart’. We definitely believe she sat by the Totnes weir and probably saw seals on the Mew Stone. But did she really note down the names of all those boats in the many mooring sites along the way? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-06-0552 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubAlice Oswald’s DART Part 1: Dartmoor to Buckfastleigh on foot, in a car – and on a steam train!Alice Oswald’s long poem ‘Dart’ provides a journey in verse from the source of the River Dart all the way to the sea. We take the same journey using the poem as our guide. We hope to unlock our inner poets and verify all the locations mentioned in ‘Dart’. We certainly had a lovely day out - on the moor and on a steam train! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-05-2945 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubEdward Thomas’s IN PURSUIT OF SPRING Part Two: From Rudge to the QuantocksWe’re back with the second part of our journey with Edward Thomas’s IN PURSUIT OF SPRING, the book which turned this frustrated critic and essayist into a major poet, with the advice and assistance of his great friend Robert Frost. In this episode we continue our journey into Somerset, following the exact route that Thomas took. On the way we visit Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s house in Nether Stowey, look out over the Bristol Channel at Kilve, and take in the immensity of the views from Cothelstone Hill, where Thomas himself finished his journey. Hosted on Acast. See aca...
2023-05-2254 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubEdward Thomas’s IN PURSUIT OF SPRING Part One: From Clapham to SalisburyIn 1913, Edward Thomas had not yet written a line of poetry, but on Good Friday he set off on a bicycle journey from his parents’ home in south London to the Quantock Hills of Somerset. He intended to write a book, the kind of ‘country notes’ affair he had turned his hand to before, but what resulted was something extraordinary – a book-length piece of prose which, at times, reads like verse. We follow the route he took, beginning in Clapham and discovering how much some of the places he rode through have changed, and how little others. On the way, we read...
2023-05-1553 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubNell Dunn’s UP THE JUNCTION Part 2: drill rap, sweets and trains on the Winstanley Estate, BatterseaWe’re using Nell Dunn’s ‘Up The Junction’ to guide us through the notorious York & Winstanley estate in Battersea. We’re hoping to locate an old sweet factory and Nell Dunn’s house – and then make it safely out to the train station. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-05-0846 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubNell Dunn’s UP THE JUNCTION Part 1: from glamorous Chelsea to industrial BatterseaIn 1959, Nell Dunn gave up her privileged lifestyle to live in smelly, poverty-stricken North Battersea. We use her book ‘Up The Junction’ to navigate our way into her world and through the Battersea of today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-05-0150 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubHanif Kureishi’s THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA Part Two: Go West, Young ManFor part two of our adventure with Hanif Kureishi’s 1990 masterpiece THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA we leave South London behind us and head for more exotic climes – viz, West Kensington and Hammersmith in the west of the city. We find the flat where Karim, his father the Buddha, and Eva move into a flat above Thin Lizzy’s tour manager, just round the corner from where Karim sees a certain punk band with a red-haired singer in 1976. Following Karim’s career in experimental theatre we take ourself to Riverside Studios, haunt of Daleks and challenging dramatists. We find the autobiographical isn’t fa...
2023-04-2449 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubHanif Kureishi’s THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA Part One: From Bromley to PengeFor the second of our trilogy of episodes featuring books that came up from the depths of South London, we’re taking a walk with Hanif Kureishi’s 1990 masterpiece THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA. We begin in Bromley, birthplace and home of the book’s hero Karim (aka Creamy) and his father, the eponymous Buddha – and also the childhood home of none other than David Bowie, whose life weaves in and out of the plot as we head north to Beckenham, where Karim has his first sexual encounter and Bowie played his first festival. Then it’s north again, to Penge, where Kari...
2023-04-1753 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubAngela Carter’s WISE CHILDREN Part 2: drinking, dancing & writing in Clapham, LondonIn Part Two, we continue to map out the South London world of ‘Wise Children’’s fictional characters. We find a haberdashers on Clapham High Street, above which Dora and Nora might have learned to dance. We stop in at the Coach and Horses pub on Acre Lane - Dora’s local. And we visit Angela Carter’s house in Clapham where this magnificent tale of 20th century show business folk was dreamed up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-04-1045 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubAngela Carter’s WISE CHILDREN Part 1: the lost theatres, music halls & cinemas of South LondonThis magical novel about two ageing ‘hoofers’ of London SW2 is a great excuse to get out into Lambeth, South London and hunt down the location of amazing old theatres like the massive Kennington Theatre and the Brixton Empress.We start at one of the great homes of Shakespeare performance in South London – The Old Vic. And end up in a terraced street off Brixton Hill, where dozens of actors, entertainers, comedians and acrobats would have lived back in the day. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-04-0349 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubRuth Rendell’s FROM DOON WITH DEATH Part Two: The body in the woodsIn part two, we persist in our search for Midhurst locations that match the events in Ruth Rendell’s first novel, FROM DOON WITH DEATH. We become increasingly bogged down, unable to make the book match the real world. So we try another approach. Could Kingsmarkham actually be somewhere else? Is Rendell playing games with us? Could she actually be thinking about somewhere a lot closer to home?But having almost given up hope of finding any authentic locations, we go hunting for the wood in which the body of Mrs Parsons is dumped. Here, things ar...
2023-03-2746 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubRuth Rendell’s FROM DOON WITH DEATH Part One: Searching for KingsmarkhamWe’re off on our next adventure, and this time our guide is Ruth Rendell, the grandest of literary detective dames and inventor of the town of Kingsmarkham, and its watchful Chief Inspector Wexford. We start where Rendell started – with her very first book, FROM DOON WITH DEATH, published in 1964. We’re introduced to Wexford and a cast of local characters in the Sussex town of Kingsmarkham. And we take Rendell’s word on trust because she herself tells us, in the afterword to the book, that Kingsmarkham is ‘based on’ Midhurst. But when we get to Midhurst...
2023-03-2051 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubDorothy L Sayers’s THE NINE TAILORS Part 2: inspecting drains and viewing sluices in the soggy FensIn Part Two of our adventure in the Fens, we’re using a classic Lord Peter Wimsey novel to navigate our way around the fiendishly complex network of drains and sluices that prevent this part of the UK from being permanently underwater.We visit the town of Ramsey – once an island – and take in the ancient Forty Foot Drain. We admire the great wonder of engineering that is the Denver Sluice, but fail to understand how it works. Instead, we repair to March for one final church visit. Hosted on Acast. See ac...
2023-03-1348 min
Shaping OpinionEncore: Frank Lloyd Wright’s FallingwaterLong-time Director of Fallingwater Lynda S. Waggoner joins Tim to discuss the lasting impact Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece at Bear Run has had on how the nation continues to perceive house and home. This episode was originally released April 30, 2018.https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Encore_-_Fallingwater.mp3Frank Lloyd Wright was born right after the American Civil War in Wisconsin. He started his career in 1887 and was a well-known architect well into the 20th Century. He was the originator of the organic approach to modern architectural design and construction. By...
2023-03-1329 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubDorothy L Sayers’s THE NINE TAILORS Part 1: motoring across the Fens in search of bellringersWe’re taking a classic Lord Peter Wimsey murder mystery novel for a drive out onto the Great Level. We’re looking for the fictional village of Fenchurch St Paul, with its enormous church tower and gang of dedicated bell-ringers. You’ll find us at Bluntisham, Upwell and Christchurch in Cambridgeshire, seeking out a suitable church, preferably with a host of wooden angels in the ceiling (as in the book). All this plus a potted history of bell-ringing - and a car crash too. Hell’s bells! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...
2023-03-0643 min
Embrace The Full Audiobook Everyone Is Talking About — So Heart-Pounding!All the Knowledge in the World by Simon GarfieldPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/2/audible/20233to listen full audiobooks.
Title: All the Knowledge in the World
Author: Simon Garfield
Narrator: Tim Bentinck
Format: mp3
Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
Release date: 02-28-23
Ratings: 4 out of 5 stars, 10 ratings
Genres: Writing & Publishing
Publisher's Summary:
The encyclopedia once shaped our understanding of the world. Created by thousands of scholars and the most obsessive of editors, a good set conveyed a sense of absolute wisdom on its reader. Contributions from Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Orville Wright, Alfred Hitchcock, Marie Curie and Indira Gandhi helped millions of children with their homework. Adults cleared their...
2023-02-2811h 54
The Curiously Specific Book ClubAgatha Christie’s THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD Part Two – a young writer’s imaginationFor part two of our adventure with Agatha Christie’s sixth novel THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD we hunt out her sister’s home in Cheadle, the rather grand Abney Hall. Was it the model for Roger Ackroyd’s Fernly Park? Is there a pond and can you hear people talking from the path above it? And where might a doctor hide a murder suspect? We’ve got answers to all these questions, and if you’re a Christie fan you might be surprised at what we found – not least by our discovery of a book which claims that the biggest myst...
2023-02-2746 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubAgatha Christie’s THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD Part One – Poirot’s house and Poirot’s marrowsWe’re taking the bestselling novelist in the world EVER out for a walk. In Agatha Christie’s sixth novel THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD her Belgian hero has retired (what?) to the town of King’s Abbot, near the fictional town of Cranchester. What can Christie have had in mind as the model for Poirot’s bolthole? We think we know, and we make the case that Hercule Poirot was growing marrows in the town of Cheadle in Cheshire. We even think we’ve found his house! But how can he have retired so early in Christie’s career? Hosted o...
2023-02-2050 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubBen Aaronovitch‘s RIVERS OF LONDON Part 2: from Mister Punch at Covent Garden to Old Mother Thames at WappingIn Part Two of our riverine excursion guided by the first book in Ben Aaronovitch’s cult series, we start away from the river at Covent Garden, where the hero of the novel – Peter Grant – meets his first ghost and performs a necromantic ritual. We hang out at the ‘Actor’s Church’ then go in search of a gastropub. We’re also on a quest to find the home of English magic – the Folly – in Russell Square – and also Mama Thames’s house in Wapping. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-02-1349 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubBen Aaronovitch‘s RIVERS OF LONDON Part 1: following the Thames from source to outer LondonWe’re using the first novel in this cult series to navigate a route along the Thames tracking down various locations where detective Peter Grant encounters river nymphs, trolls and Old Father Thames. We start at the alleged source of the Thames, take in an ancient and important site at Runnymede, fail to swim in the Oxley River and end up at the Hammerton Ferry – an unusual place for fictional river spirits to decide to have a massive fight. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-02-0649 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubPeter Ackroyd’s HAWKSMOOR Part TwoIn part two of our adventure with Peter Ackroyd’s HAWKSMOOR, we finish our circuit of Nicholas Hawksmoor’s churches, completing a sigil on the face of London which, according to Tim’s design, will force Lloyd to reveal his real Satanic nature. We also discover the likely location for the fictional church of St Hugh’s, which now holds the dark evils of high international finance. We discuss Iain Sinclair and psychogeography, and the history of Satanism. We finish at St Alfege’s in Greenwich, where a black cat crosses our path and demons, disappointingly, fail to be summoned! Hosted...
2023-01-3056 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubPeter Ackroyd’s HAWKSMOOR Part OneAfter NEVERWHERE by Neil Gaiman, we’re back with another book that manifests London in mysterious and unsettling ways. Peter Ackroyd’s HAWKSMOOR tells the tale of Nicholas Dyer, a fictional architect of the early 18th century who has been charged with building seven new churches but has his own sinister, not to say Satanic purposes. In Part One we begin at Scotland Yard in Whitehall, scene of Nicholas Dyer’s studio and the original home of the Metropolitan Police. From there we take in three of the real Nicholas Hawksmoor’s churches, while discussing the lives of Peter Ackroyd and Hawk...
2023-01-2348 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubNeil Gaiman's Neverwhere Part Two: discovering an ancient wall in the Barbican, plus many other London underground secretsIn Neil Gaiman’s ‘Neverwhere’, a key character – the Marquis de Carabas – lies dead atop London Wall. But where is London Wall? We not only find it, but we find a second bit of it, unknown to most people, in an underground car park. We have a grim talk about suicide and masonic murder at Blackfriars tube station, and then head back to Soho in search of the last portal mentioned in the book – a blank brick wall off Great Windmill Street. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-01-1647 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubNeil Gaiman's Neverwhere Part One: wandering across London – from Albert Bridge to Soho – in search of portals to the underworldNeil Gaiman’s famous London fantasy novel provides us with an unusual route across London. We start at Albert Bridge, the supposed entrance to the mythical ‘Knight’s Bridge’. We grab a coffee at Harrods, home of a Neverwhere market. Tim surprises Lloyd with the Down Street underground station – and Tim surprises himself by discovering that his 1990s workplace was actually a portal to Neverwhere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2023-01-0949 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubNow That's Curiously Specific Part Two: Lloyd's Festive FiveIt's Lloyd's turn to pick his five best moments from Series 1 and 2 of the Curiously Specific Book Club podcast. His picks take us deep into Mick Herron's commute to work in SLOW HORSES; the disappearing landscapes of Barry Hines's A KESTREL FOR A KNAVE; Nazis parachuting onto a Norfolk beach (and possibly drowning in the high tide!) in THE EAGLE HAS LANDED; and finally, and in Lloyd's case most memorably, the extraordinary discovery of Oldway Lane in THE DARK IS RISING. These are our special Christmas episodes to mark the end of our second series. Join...
2022-12-0545 minRaising DaughtersHow to Raise a Spirited ChildShow Notes: Raising a spirited, powerful child is challenging; these stories offer ways to support them without crushing their spirit. James Hillman’s book, The Soul’s Code, describes how powerful, spirited children have an unconscious knowing of what life will bring them. Behaviors they exhibit in childhood are often labelled as abnormal vs. understanding what it might mean for them in the long-term. Dr. Jordan shares many stories of eminent people to illustrate the importance of parents seeing the oak tree in their children when all they have in front of them is an acorn. Enjoy stories about Gandhi, Pete...
2022-12-0135 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubNow That’s Curiously Specific Part One: Tim’s Festive FiveA very merry and curiously specific Christmas to one and all! May it happen as it should, on the 25th December and with everyone gathered in exactly the right place. Talking of which, here is Tim’s festive selection of excerpts from Series 1 and 2 – key moments when we managed to be curiously specific about a location or a date or both. Here you can get a strong sense of what our book-related outdoor adventures are all about. Excerpts include a trespass across a posh Kent golf course in search of Stig’s...
2022-11-2848 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubMayor of Casterbridge Part Two: A skimmity ride beyond the city wallsIn part two of our adventure with The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy we walk out of Dorchester over two bridges and down to a weir, where Michael Henchard can be found considering ending it all and seeing what appears to be a body floating down the Frome. Behind him and up on a hill we can imagine his creator looking down on to the marshy fields beyond Dorchester, because this is where Hardy built his home, called Max Gate, where he wrote the Mayor of Casterbridge and where, some forty years later, he died. We tell the extraordinary...
2022-11-2153 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubMayor of Casterbridge Part One: Is it Casterbridge? Or is it Dorchester?We’ve reached the 15th book of our second series of The Curiously Specific Book Club, and it’s one of the most famous books in English publishing history: Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge. Set in the fictional town of Casterbridge in the just-as-fictional county of Wessex, it’s a finely-wrought depiction of real people in real places; country-folk at the dawn of modernity in the Dorset county town of Dorchester, about to undergo wild expansion with the arrival of the railways and the professional classes. What’s more, the town has gone through a second change, because right on i...
2022-11-1452 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubRebecca Part Two: completing a sunny circular walk around Manderley/MenabillyWe’re halfway through a walk around the edge of the Menabilly estate in Cornwall, where Daphne Du Maurier lived for many years. We’re trying to work out how closely Menabilly aligns with the fictional house of Manderley, as featured in ‘Rebecca’We find a gatehouse and driveway on the west side, then repair to the local pub to consider how reliable Daphne Du M might be as a narrator. Finally we walk into the woods of Menabilly to the north and come across a lovely surprise – a little bit of the Manderley dreamspace surviving in the rea...
2022-11-0749 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubRebecca Part One: we’re off to Fowey in Cornwall in search of Manderley“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…” We’re off to Cornwall to see if the dream-house of Manderley, as featured in Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’, could ever be a real place. We start off in Lostwithiel, a town where we think Rebecca’s inquest could’ve taken place. We move to Fowey, the nearest village to the grand house of Menabilly, Daphne du M’s home for many years. From there we start a hike along the Coastal Path ending up at Polridmouth Bay where Rebecca meets her end. Hosted on Acast...
2022-10-3148 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubThe Remains of the Day Part Two: what the hell are we doing on Dartmoor?In part two of our adventure with Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, we have some questions, and make an apology. Our questions include: what the hell are we doing on Dartmoor? And what happened to Day Five? Our apology follows a discovery made thanks to Ship's Dog. We end on the remains of a pier at the remains of the day, pondering on the book's closing pages, and wondering what really happened to Stevens the butler as his melancholy journey came to an end. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-10-2451 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubThe Remains of the Day Part One: a repressed butler drives to the WestWe’re taking our first Nobel prize winner out for a walk! Actually, it’s more of a drive, as Kazuo Ishiguro’s unforgettable creation, the butler Stevens, drives his boss’s Ford down the backroads from Oxfordshire to Cornwall. In part one we ask where exactly Oxfordshire ends and Berkshire begins (clue: it isn’t where Ishiguro thinks it is); discover another epic bench; spend a night in Salisbury; and hang out at a pond near Mere. But why no Stonehenge, Mr Stevens? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-10-1745 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubLife After Life Part Two: swanky Kensington pads and WW2 Soho drinking densWe start Part Two in one of the ritziest parts of London – Holland Park – where both Ursula and her charismatic aunt Izzie from Kate Atkinson’s ‘Life After Life’ are meant to live (alongside Michael Powell and Michael Winner it seems). We scurry off quickly to Soho in search of pubs and clubs featured in the novel, trying to avoid getting drunk or falling downstairs.This is the free version of the podcast. If you want to hear all episodes as soon as they're available, and without ads, check us out on Patreon....
2022-10-1048 min
Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All AgesFrank Lloyd Wright | Falling WaterFrank Lloyd Wright is one of America's most celebrated architects. He developed his distinctive prairie style emphasizing the horizontal planes of the landscape because he wanted his buildings to be in harmony with nature and fit in with their surroundings. While Wright was a highly respected and influential architect in the early 20th century, by the 1930s, he was seen by many as past his prime. Falling Water was a comeback piece for him demonstrating that decades into his career he could still innovate and leave people awestruck. Part of what sets this house apart from the average home...
2022-10-1039 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubLife After Life Part One: exploring the Buckinghamshire stockbroker beltWe’re off in search of Fox Corner, the family home of the Todds, as featured heavily in Kate Atkinson’s time-twisting bestseller ‘Life After Life’. Is Fox Corner a real place or just made up? Or could it be a bit of both? If you want get hear all episodes as soon as they're available, and without ads, check us out on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-10-0347 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubThe Night Watch Part Two: a walk through a City of London air raidWe’re back with part two of our adventure with The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters, an extraordinary novel of romantic accident and passionate love against the backdrop of the Blitz and Baby Blitz in Second World War London. In this episode we follow the extraordinary walk taken by two of the book’s protagonists, Julia and Helen, as they walk across the City of London during an air raid. It’s a landscape of doomed churches and hidden alleyways, now loomed over by gargantuan office blocks. We doff our caps to the intelligence and diligence of Sarah Waters, whose...
2022-09-2657 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubThe Night Watch Part One: ‘conchies’, air raids and hidden loveWe’re back, with our second novel set in the Second World War. This time, it’s The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, a passionate and intricate story of doomed love affairs among the falling bombs of the Blitz and the Baby Blitz. In part one we visit Lavender Hill, Wormwood Scrubs and the tall Georgian manor houses of Marylebone, as we make our way to a bombed-out mews off Rathbone Place. Along the way we discover the difficult history of conscientious objection, and the odd decision to allow model aeroplanes to fly near the walls of Wormwood Scrubs pris...
2022-09-1947 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubCrooked Heart Part Two: a wartime wander in North LondonWe’ve come down the Thameslink trainline from St Albans, got off at Kentish Town and made our way to Hampstead Heath. We’re attempting to track down all the key places mentioned in Lissa Evans’s popular WW2 novel. But she is proving to be tricky.Yes, the Vale of Health is a real place and, thanks to Lloyd’s excellent sleuthing, we find where a bomb dropped on the fictional Mafeking Road. But there’s a big question mark around where the author thinks Hornsey might begin and end. Does she qualify as a bona fide...
2022-09-1246 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubCrooked Heart Part One: join us on an evacuation to St AlbansPack up your suitcase, write your name on a label and tie it to your coat – we’re all being evacuated to St Albans to take Lissa Evans’s popular WW2 novel for a walk. We’re looking for the house where the main characters live, said to be near a local scrapyard. Quite why we end up sitting in an pre-Tudor nunnery and talking about a nudist colony is anyone’s guess. If you want to listen without ads, and get all new episodes as soon as they're ready, search 'Curiously Specific Book Club' on...
2022-09-0548 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubGet Carter Part Two: The quarry and the HumberIn part two of our Get Carter adventure, we discover another Scunthorpe – green, pleasant, well-heeled – as try and locate Kinnear’s Casino and the quarry where Jack’s brother died. Then we head 10 miles north to the abandoned brickyards of the Humber estuary, where Jack finally runs his quarry to ground. In the shadow of the bridge we wonder: where are the bodies? Are they perhaps still there? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-08-1555 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubGet Carter Part One: Welcome to ScunthorpeWe’re taking a book out into the wild which you might know better by its film version: Get Carter, by Ted Lewis. Originally published as Jack’s Return Home, this tight, dirty, hard and mean book is as sharp as a switchblade and as cold as the dirty winter streets of Lincolnshire. We travel to Scunthorpe, the book’s location, and find a town on its knees, the great steelworks which made its fortune a fraction of their former size, but still pumping out steam and smoke over the crumbling streets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...
2022-08-0843 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubA Kestrel for a Knave Part Two: getting lostIn Part Two of our attempt to use ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’ as our guide through the real world, we track down the school where a lot of the book’s action takes place. We talk warmly about Brian Glover, the man who steals the famous football scene in the movie ‘Kes’. We also find a fish and chip shop and the abandoned cinema Billy breaks into near the end of the book. But tracking down specifically where Billy might have lived proves to be a mighty challenge that sends both Lloyd and Tim slightly mad (in diff...
2022-08-0149 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubA Kestrel for a Knave Part One: to Barnsley and Hoyland CommonForget the film ‘Kes’ (hard to do we know). Let’s take the book that inspired the movie out for a walk. We’re off to Hoyland Common, near Barnsley in Yorkshire, in search of locations from the novel ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’. In Part One, we enquire about books on falconry at Barnsley Library. We seek out Monastery Farm where Billy Casper finds (aka steals) his kestrel. But then we start to get lost, thanks chiefly to the massive Hoyland redevelopment plan that is turning the world of ‘Kes’ into one almighty building site. And not a coal mi...
2022-07-2548 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubCold Water Part Two: a walk in search of Manchester (and Salford) barsTaking Gwendoline Riley’s exquisitely concise novel for a walk around Manchester, we’re drawn across Piccadilly Gardens, through the Arndale Centre, across to a Salford pub and then back and round to the Central Library and the canal. We marvel at how rapidly Manchester keeps changing – old buildings demolished, new ones thrown up in their place. We lament the passing of all of George Best’s many pubs and clubs. We celebrate our own memories of 90s Madchester and pay tribute to Riley’s acute snapshot of the Manchester of the next generation – dour, damp and semi-derelict, and yet resilien...
2022-07-1849 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubCold Water Part One: a drive from Macclesfield to central ManchesterThis small gem of novel is a great way to introduce yourself to the world of early-noughties Manchester. In Part One we journey from Ian Curtis’s Macclesfield memorial stone to a basement bar somewhere between Oxford Road and Manchester Piccadilly. For Lloyd this is a bit of a homecoming. For Tim it’s a chance to practise his John Copper Clark and Mark E Smith impressions. For both men, it’s a fantastic introduction to the writer Gwendoline Riley’s world of love and loss, clowns and bullies, drunks and troubadours. And endless rain.If you want...
2022-07-1148 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubThe Rats Part Two: Poplar and the Regent’s CanalIn part two of our adventure with James Herbert’s The Rats we discover how much the East End has changed, and how much it stays the same. The Regent’s Canal is a crumbling, abandoned ruin in Herbert’s book - today, it’s a polite playground for joggers and cyclists. But cheap tower blocks still loom over the pleasure seekers, and unchecked development has us asking: is this what Eastenders really want? And we find that rats have survived the changes. In fact, they are thriving. And their numbers are growing… If you want to hear our e...
2022-07-0449 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubThe Rats Part One: Whitechapel to StepneyFancy a trip into the dark heart of London’s East End? A place of racist killings, crumbling housing, and striking schoolchildren? We’ve got an unexpected guide for you: James Herbert’s 1974 splatterpunk debut, The Rats. Don’t worry - we won’t be reading the really gory parts. But we will be using the book to navigate the 1970s East End - and it turns out that Herbert’s book has as much social history as horror excess. Even if Herbert was not always aware of it. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they...
2022-06-2751 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubDracula Part Two: Gunpowder, graves and insanityThis is the second part of our adventure with Bram Stoker’s epic chiller Dracula. Having travelled south from Whitby, we find ourselves in Purfleet, Stoker’s imaginative location for the estate of Carfax and Jack Seward’s asylum. We then head to Piccadilly to pick a virtual fight with the online Stoker cognoscenti over the location of Dracula’s London pad. We end in a graveyard in Hampstead, discussing sunsets and decapitations under the eyes of owls and bats.If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’re available, subscribe to our Patreo...
2022-06-2052 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubDracula Part One: Sea and ships, graves and benchesWe’re taking on a book which is as much a myth as it is a novel: Bram Stoker’s 1897 chiller, Dracula. Like Stoker’s eponymous neck-botherer, we find ourselves washed up in Whitby, one of the most theatrical settings we’ve ever seen for a book. We hunt down the bench where the Count attacks poor Lucy Westenra, and stand on the beach where his ship crashes into the shore of England. We discuss goths and sleepwalking and wonder why it is, exactly, that anyone would ask where they could find Dracula’s grave?If you want to he...
2022-06-1346 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubWoman in Black Part Two: The flat landsThis is the second part of our adventure with Susan Hill’s classic chiller The Woman in Black. In our ongoing hunt for places which could have inspired the fictional locations of Crythin Gifford and Eel Marsh House we find ourselves in Lincolnshire, where the land merges into the sea seemingly without interruption, where old rock stars haunt interesting market towns, and where Marconi dreamed of talking to the dead. Tim tries to get Lloyd to walk through an abandoned railway tunnel, without success, and we salute Hill’s masterful messing with her readers’ heads.If you want t...
2022-06-0648 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubThe Woman in Black Part One: Yorkshire hauntingsWe’re taking Susan Hill’s classic chiller The Woman in Black out for an adventure. It isn’t easy, because the market town of Crythin Gifford and the scary old Eel Marsh House are not real places. But what if they were constructed from real memories, and reminiscent of real places? In part one of our latest episode we check out some likely spots in Yorkshire, and Tim tries to scare Lloyd with the tale of a Norman princess and the church she haunts. He is more successful than he planned for. If you want to hear our episodes withou...
2022-05-3047 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubDay of the Triffids Part Two: Escape to SussexIn part 2 of our Day of the Triffids adventure, we follow Bill Masen as he leaves London and heads down into Sussex, on the trail of the woman he finds himself in love with. We discover John Wyndham’s house in the countryside, and travel the Wyndham Way, our name for the road which winds along below the South Downs, with Wyndham’s school and home at one end, and Bill Masen’s refuge at the other. On the way we speculate as to when the book is set, and discover the dark history of 20th century seed manipulation. If you wa...
2022-05-2347 minVoice of Reason RadioWinsome and Nuanced: A Godly Stratagem or a Coward’s Retreat?This week Chris and Rich take on the ever-present argument that Christians need to be winsome and nuanced on social issues lest we offend the lost. Is this biblically true or are the pitfalls Christians need to be aware of?
Show Links:
Just Thinking - A Nuanced Gospel
Martyn Lloyd-Jones - Man and Sin
Martyn Lloyd-Jones - Ungodliness
James R. Wood - How I Evolved on Tim Keller
James R. Wood - This Article is Not About Tim Keller
David French - A Critique of...
2022-05-222h 02
The Curiously Specific Book ClubDay of the Triffids Part One: Darkness falls on London!We’re back in London, discovering the places and context for John Wyndham’s legendary dystopian tale The Day of the Triffids. Our hero, Bill Masen, has woken up in a London hospital to a world in which everything has changed - almost everyone has become blind overnight, and the plants which Bill helped to breed, the triffids, have begun to prey on the newly vulnerable humans. But where is the hospital Bill wakes up in? And where does he end up taking shelter in central London? And why do pubs play such an important role? If you want to hear...
2022-05-1644 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubRiddley Walker Part TwoIn part two of our Riddley Walker adventure, we follow Riddley down from How Fents to Widders Dump, and then along the line of the old railway to Rose and Power. On the way we learn about Russell Hoban’s interest in shamanism and the occult, and speculate on whether he ever met the French alchemist Fulcanelli. We finish in Fork Stoan, known to us today as Folkestone, and try and figure out just where the Power Place might have been that Riddley discovers on the outskirts of the town. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as so...
2022-05-0448 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubRiddley Walker Part OneWe’re heading back to Kent! This time we’re having an adventure with Russell Hoban’s magnificent dystopian fable Riddley Walker. Set two thousand years in the future and based entirely in north Kent, the novel tells the story of a 12 year old boy and his adventures wondering a strange post-nuclear landscape, where towns have odd new names that echo the past, and where language has shifted and morphed into extraordinary new shapes. But how close is the book to the landscapes it describes? If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’ve available, subscrib...
2022-04-2738 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubThe War of the Worlds Part TwoIn part two, we move down the Wey river and on to the Thames at Shepperton, the site of a destructive battle between the British Army and the Martians. The tower of Shepperton church is supposedly seen from the south bank of the river and is reduced to a pile of rubble. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’ve available, subscribe to our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-04-2047 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubThe War of the Worlds Part OneWe’re kicking off Series 2 with The War of the Worlds by H G Wells – the classic tale of Martian invasion that spawned radio shows, movies, musicals and even an ‘immersive’ experience. But where is the original book set? If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’ve available, subscribe to our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-04-1145 min
USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love#234/Wright's Fallingwater / Builders / Funding / Darth Vader HouseToday we are excited to introduce four really interesting design professionals who got on our radar over the last few months, including architectural historian Catherine Zipf on Frank Lloyd Wright, architect and author Bryan Toepfer on dealing with builders, preservation professional Tim Cannan on his new funding site, and the architect of one of the coolest concept houses in the world, the Darth Vader House in Houston TX, Lynn Spears.
2022-02-071h 19
Free Form Rock PodcastEpisode 312-Steely Dan-Katie Lied with Guest-Tim WirasnikSteely Dan - Katy Lied
On this episode, we are happy to have Tim Wirasnik as our guest co-host on an album which surprisingly had more interesting aspects to their lyrics than most people would have known. Our tracks of the week are Simon & Garfunkel’s “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright”, The Rolling Stones’ “Fiji Jim” and Judas Priest’s “ Riding The Wild Wind.” We finish with Lee’s song “Thank For You Being You.” Happy listening, everyone. Cheers!
#steelydan #katielied #classicrock
2021-12-182h 36
Wright on the NailSir Tim Rice: ‘Superstar’ lyricist and ‘Disney Legend’ - a stellar career of musical excellenceThis week is our ‘Special Guest’ episode, where host Chris Wright brings you intimate one-to-one interviews with key people in media, business, politics and beyond. In this episode, Chris is joined by award-winning lyricist and author, Sir Tim Rice.Tim is the winner of three Oscars, four Tony Awards, five Grammys, and an Emmy. He has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music.Beginning with his early career, Tim describes how he worked as a lawyer's cler...
2021-06-1851 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubTrack down Smiley's Circus in 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy': S1 Ep15Lloyd and Tim take on the 'holy scripture' of spy novels, John Le Carré's classic tale of 1970s Cold War intrigue and betrayal; the book that established George Smiley as one of the all-time great fictional characters - 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the b...
2021-04-3048 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubPractise being a spy in Noughties London in 'Slow Horses': S1 Ep14‘Lamb’s been banished. Where’ve they sent him? Somewhere awful? Bad as it gets. God, not Slough? Might as well be.’ In the middle of the third Covid-19 lockdown, Lloyd and Tim get together virtually for a Zoom around London’s Aldersgate Street and key points north and west of Slough House, the headquarters for Mick Herron’s titular Slow Horses. They spy on Slough House itself, uncovering countless off-the-shelf companies which might be fronts for unseen agents, but probably aren’t, not to mention watchful owls which might be hints of a conspiracy or might just be there...
2021-03-1949 min
Build Perspectives PodcastBeyond the Business of Design with Melissa GaltAs the great-granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright, Melissa Galt is design legacy. Being the daughter of Ann Baxter and goddaughter of Edith Head, also makes her Hollywood legacy. Listen in as Melissa walks us through the path to her zone of genius. An experienced, successful designer who found her zone of genius helping designers to level up their business and practice.
2020-09-1543 min
Dev Game ClubDGC Ep 225: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney (part three)Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we finish our series on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This week we talk about the final original case, particularly looking at the growing complexity of the story, and then turn to our takeaways and feedback. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Turnabout Goodbyes Podcast breakdown: 0:48 Phoenix Wright Case 4 59:57 Break 1:00:34 Takeaways and Feedback Issues covered: being novelistic and weaving through multiple narratives, intricate backstories coming together, wanting the macro...
2020-08-191h 33
The Curiously Specific Book ClubExplore swinging 60s Soho with 'The Ipcress File': S1 Ep13‘A plan to brain-wash the entire framework of the nation,’ said Jean, over the coffee and croissants. ‘It’s hardly credible.’ After a long hiatus, Tim and Lloyd are back with the (unlucky-for-some) 13th Curiously Specific Book Club podcast. They start with something that comes easy to them both – a leisurely stroll around Soho. Who knew Len Deighton’s classic 1962 spy novel The Ipcress File was the perfect excuse for a long lunch and a general loaf? Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiousl...
2020-06-2646 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubDiscover the seamier side of 1980s Brighton & Hove with 'Dirty Weekend': S1 Ep12“It began that summer, a hot and sticky summer that made the air shimmer and the walls melt.”We’re back in Brighton, for the third in our trilogy of books set in Southern England’s biggest seaside resort. The book we’re taking for a walk this time is a tale of bloody revenge set against a 1980s backdrop of shifting sexual politics and wrenching political change. Our guide is Bella, who woke up one morning and realised she’d had enough. She’s the heroine of Helen Zahavi’s controversial bestseller and literary tour de force Dirty W...
2019-07-2547 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubEnjoy the 1930s West London & Brighton drinking holes of 'Hangover Square': S1 Ep11"To those whom God has forsaken, is given a gas-fire in Earl’s Court” We’re joined in this, the 11th Curiously Specific Book Club podcast, by Andy (@DulwichRaider) from Deserter, who is our natural go-to mate for summoning up the spirit of alcoholic drift and under-employment that permeates ‘Hangover Square’ by Patrick Hamilton. We are forced to drink in all the pubs on or just off the Earl’s Court Road, until we find the one that is mostly likely to be ‘The Black Hart’, the drinking den around which much of the book’s events revolve. We...
2019-06-2850 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubFind out exactly where Pinkie lived & died in 'Brighton Rock': S1 Ep10“Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.” For the tenth instalment of the Curiously Specific Book Club podcast, we travel to the southern coast of England for Graham Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’. We discover the Brighton of the 1930s, a place of seedy glamour shoved up against repulsive poverty, a town of razor boys, prostitutes, gangsters and dodgy lawyers. We find the tunnel where Fred Hale is done in by Pinkie, Dallow and Cubitt, and take tea in the same cafe where the killers eat fish and chips and...
2019-05-1746 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubUsing Lovejoy novels to navigate 1970s Essex: S1 Ep9“Antiques and Women are my only interests. It sounds simple, but you just try putting them in the right order.” The third instalment of our East Anglian trilogy takes us to Essex. We immerse ourselves in the unreconstructed 1970s world of the UK’s favourite antiques dealer-cum-private eye - Lovejoy. We use Books 1 and 3 in the series - ‘The Judas Pair’ and ‘The Grail Tree’ - to explore Colchester and its environs and track down key locations, such the main antiques arcade where Lovejoy spends a lot of his time, the White Hart pub where all his deals get...
2019-03-2245 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubWalk across Suffolk with 'The Rings of Saturn' as your only guide: S1 Ep8“In August 1992, when the dog days were drawing to an end, I set off to walk the county of Suffolk, in the hope of dispelling the emptiness that takes hold of me whenever I have completed a long stint of work.” For the 8th 'CuSpec' Book Club podcast, and the second in our East Anglian trilogy, we’re in Suffolk, following in the footsteps of German writer W.G. ‘Max’ Sebald as he walked from the little town of Somerleyton to the bleak prospect of Orford Ness, taking in a spectacular sweep of European history (most of it awfu...
2019-02-1551 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubPlan your own 1943 invasion of Norfolk using 'The Eagle Has Landed': S1 Ep7“At precisely one o’clock on the morning of Saturday 6 November 1943, Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS and Chief of State Police, received a simple message… The Eagle Has Landed.” We’re in North Norfolk looking for the tiny village of Studley Constable, as described in Jack Higgins’s classic WW2 thriller about the attempted kidnap of Winston Churchill by a small band of German paratroopers. On the marshes of Stiffkey, amongst the remains of gun emplacements, pillboxes, tank traps and POW camp huts, we find a perfect place for Germans to sneak in and sneak out of...
2019-01-1144 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubA 1950s pub crawl through South London with 'The Ballad of Peckham Rye': S1 Ep6We take you on a merry tour of the magical land of Peckham in South London, courtesy of Muriel Spark and her superb (and remarkably short) novel 'The Ballad of Peckham Rye'. We start at the address in Camberwell where Muriel Spark lived and wrote the book. We then follow a number of lost - or perhaps completely mythical - pathways down the old Surrey Canal, past a number of long-gone pubs in Peckham & Nunhead, before emerging on to the ancient Rye - where Boadicea may or may not have popped her clogs. Tim gets very e...
2018-11-0946 min
The Curiously Specific Book Club1880s London West End erotica & beer-drinking with 'The Secret Agent': S1 Ep5Lloyd and Tim sink into the murky and topographically challenging world of Joseph Conrad’s imagined London, as described in the classic 1907 novel ‘The Secret Agent’. It’s a world of foreign agents, mysterious assassinations, international tensions and (alleged) Russian intrigue - so nothing like the world today, right? Our route through London takes in foreign embassies in Knightsbridge, dodgy book shops in Soho, underground beer halls on the Strand, plus the wide green spaces of Greenwich Park. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiousl...
2018-10-1242 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubTramp the Old Ways in 1970s Eton and Windsor with 'The Dark Is Rising': S1 Ep4Lloyd and Tim discover the hidden landscapes at the heart of Susan Cooper’s magnificent fantasy, The Dark Is Rising. We travel to deepest Buckinghamshire to find Cooper’s fictional village of Huntercombe, and the home of her hero Will Stanton, seventh son of a seventh son. Lloyd gets obsessed with the dates of Britain’s first motorway for reasons which will only become obvious if you listen, while Tim brings stories of the emerging counter-culture of the late 1960s. We look for Herne’s Oak in Windsor Great Park, and go digging around in churchyards for Celt...
2018-09-1444 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubLearn to drive down the A20 like Bond in 'Moonraker': S1 Ep3Lloyd and Tim take to the open road - or rather the somewhat congested A20. We're following the route taken by James Bond in Ian Fleming's 'Moonraker', travelling (at about half Bond's speed) between central London and Kingsdown, the supposed location of the Moonraker rocket base. We speed our way to the precise locations of two major car crashes in the book, puzzle over Fleming's (and Bond's) obsession with the Ashford Bypass, and end up at Fleming's not-so-glamourous 1950s beach-side residence where Katherine Hepburn - among others - was known to enjoy a swim. Our mission...
2018-07-1338 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubS1 Ep 2 Extra: Eccleshare on StigWhenever we can, we're going to chat to someone who actually knows what they're talking about when it comes to the books we cover in the main podcast. This time, distinguished childrens book expert Julia Eccleshare agreed to talk to us about 'Stig of the Dump'. She covers a load of interesting topics including kids roaming free in the countryside, Stig's lack of a voice, the absence of parents and the general culture of kids literature in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-07-0515 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubA tour of rural Kent in search of Stig of the Dump: S1 Ep2Lloyd and Tim go in search of the famous dump. We're using Clive King's classic childrens book 'Stig of the Dump' to navigate our way around rural Kent, with its heady mix of travellers, standing stones and luxury golf courses. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its...
2018-06-1434 min
The Curiously Specific Book ClubTravel to 1840s Rochester with 'Edwin Drood': S1 Ep1 (pilot)Lloyd and Tim travel from Wapping to Rochester via Cobham Park using 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' by Charles Dickens as our guide (with some help from 'All The Devils Are Here' by David Seabrook). Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author.For...
2018-05-1139 min