Shows
Radio SohemiaThe Summer of 1976John L. Williams and Travis Elborough discuss John’s new book, “Heatwave”, which chronicles the famously hot and eventful British summer of 1976, a summer remembered bot just for its intense heat but also for riots, inter-racial violence, and the emergence of punk music.2025-07-0650 minRadio SohemiaThe Scandalous History of Dolphin SquareJoin former M.P.-turned-author Simon Danczuk for an amusing conversation with the Sohemian Society co-founder Marc Glendening about the long and often downright weird history of Dolphin Square, an exclusive 1930s London housing development. Among the featured residents are the eccentric spymaster Maxwell Knight, the gay spy John Vassall, and the Labour Party politician/British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley. 2025-06-2242 minRadio SohemiaSoho's Golden Age of GlamourPublisher Yak El-Droubie talks to the lively and charming eighty-nine-year-old former nude model Jean Sporle about her life. Their conversation focuses on late 1950s and early 1960s Soho when she worked for Pamela Green and George Harrison Marks, creators of the groundbreaking magazine, Kamera, which brought artistic flair to so-called glamour photography. 2025-06-0836 minRadio SohemiaGhostland: In Search of a Haunted CountryEdward Parnell is in conversation with Paul Willetts about ghost stories and bereavement, twin preoccupations of Edward’s hit nonfiction debut. Published in 2019, “Ghostland” was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize for literary autobiography and received unanimously enthusiastic reviews.2025-05-2532 minRadio SohemiaThe Lives of Gay Men in Postwar LondonPeter Parker talks to Travis Elborough about “Some Men in London”, Peter’s recent, acclaimed and often witty two-volume collage of letters, diaries, and newspaper stories, chronicling gay male life between 1945 and 1968, the year when sex between consenting adult men was decriminalised. The discussion is punctuated by the actor Jon Glover’s readings from the diaries of Noël Coward and others. 2025-05-111h 37Radio SohemiaJumpin’ Jack FlashA conversation between the nonfiction writers Keiron Pim and Paul Willetts. They focus on Keiron’s debut biography, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, a portrait of David Litvinoff, the East End rebel who formed an improbable link between the Rolling Stones, Lucian Freud, and the Krays. Litvinoff is perhaps best-remembered as the inspiration for the cult 1970 movie, “Performance”, starring Mick Jagger and James Fox.2025-04-2737 minRadio SohemiaBohemian Women of Soho & FitzroviaA recording of a recent Sohemian Society event at which the painter/writer Darren Coffield and the art dealer/critic Clive Jennings discuss Darren’s most recent book, “Queens of Bohemia”. It charts the rackety lives of Nina Hamnett, Henrietta Moraes and other women who inhabited the mid-twentieth-century bohemian world that thrived in Soho and Fitzrovia/North Soho.2025-04-1347 minRadio SohemiaParis 1944Nonfiction writer Paul Willetts talks to the historian and former foreign correspondent Patrick Bishop about his latest book, “Paris ’44”, which provides a panoramic portrait of the Nazi occupation of the French capital and its subsequent liberation.2025-03-3034 minRadio SohemiaThe Life and Work of Nick DrakeA live recording of a Sohemian Society event at which Drake’s biographer Richard Morton Jack discussed his subject with the writer James Wilson, whose latest novel, The Pieces, features a Drake-inflected late 1960s folk singer. The discussion was chaired by the novelist and music writer Cathi Unsworth.2025-03-161h 21Radio SohemiaJonathan MeadesJonathan Meades is in conversation with his longstanding editor and friend, John Mitchinson. They’ll not only be looking back on Jonathan’s career as a journalist, documentary film-maker, and fiction writer but also talking about his new novel, the wonderfully titled Empty Wigs. 2025-03-0150 min