Page One

While Page One continues its ever-extending mid-season break, Charles Adrian has popped back onto the mic to let listeners know about a podcast he is making with Lisa Findley called The Rom Com Rewrite. Rom com fans everywhere can find it on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4D3CW2TnT1tIRorlbqp2kF) and Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rom-com-rewrite/id1551541870).   Incidentally, you can find a description of the seven major beats of rom com writing here: https://www.well-storied.com/blog/anatomy-of-a-romantic-comedy-seven-essential-story-beats   Also, while he’s here, Charles Adrian would like to recommend the beautiful, 4-part podcast The Fateful Tale Of Chesapeake Bay, which you can find on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-fateful-tale-of-chesapeake-bay/id1541527814 (and a quick google will take you to all the other places that you can find it). Also: Miriam Gould, who is one of the co-hosts, was previously a guest on Page One and you can find

Taking another break from revisiting the books that he has been given by guests on the podcast, Charles Adrian revisits instead what he said in the previous episode about Scottish Country Dancing and talks about three books that he has very much enjoyed.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/   Correction 1: This episode was recorded on the 15th December, 2020, and not the 14th December as Charles Adrian says.   Correction 2: Charles Adrian mistakenly pronounces Ivanhoe as Ivinghoe. The first is a novel by Sir Walter Scott; the second is a village in Buckinghamshire.   Correction 3: The novelist Charles Adrian refers to as JY Yang in this episode has been called Neon Yang since September 2020. You can read the announcement on their Twitter here: https://twitter.com/itsneonyang/status/1300790160301461507   The podcast will also be taking a break over festive season and will return with new episodes at some point in the new year.   Also mentioned in this episode

Marked as explicit because of strong language.   Speaking minutes after he had finished recording the previous episode of the podcast, Charles Adrian revisits the last books that were given to him by guests on the 4th season of the podcast.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   You can find information about London’s National Theatre here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/ and about Liverpool’s Empire Theatre here: https://www.liverpooltheatres.com/venue/liverpool-empire-theatre_liverpool   Also mentioned in this episode is Dracula by Bram Stoker   You can find Phoebe Judge’s podcast Phoebe Reads A Mystery, series 6 of which is a reading of Dracula by Bram Stoker, here: https://thisiscriminal.com/mystery   You can find out more about Charles Adrian’s alter-ego Ms Samantha Mann here: http://www.mssamanthamann.com/ and you can find her advice videos, which were filmed and edited by Polis Loizou, on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/mssamanthamann   Yo

Marked as explicit because of derogatory language.   Fleeing from hammering and drilling sounds coming through the wall, Charles Adrian talks about books that were given to him towards the end of the fourth season of his podcast.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   You can find a handy primer on the limitations of a first-past-the-post voting system, along with links to information about alternative systems, on the Electoral Reform Society’s website here: https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/first-past-the-post/   You can read about Caroline Lucas, who at time of recording this episode was the UK’s first and only Green Party MP, on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Lucas   Revolutionary Letters by Diane di Prima is also discussed in Page One 185.   Rebecca Solnit, mentioned briefly here, is discussed more fully in Page One 135.   The episode of the podcast Reply All that Charles Adrian mentions a

Taking the time to indulge in some discussion of both the Gunpowder Plot and the differences between climbing and bouldering, Charles Adrian starts off the UK’s second national lockdown with three more books from guests on the podcast.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   A description of the Gunpowder Plot and its aftermath can be found on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot and a round-up of the differences between climbing and bouldering can be found on the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/jul/19/healthandwellbeing. Arlie Adlington is featured in Page One 148, which you can listen to here: http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season5#/148-arlie-adlington/   Another book by Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, is discussed in Page One 16, which features Isbel’s sister Cat James, and in Page One 159, which doesn’t.   A Time Of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Furmor is discussed in Page One 32 and Page One 164.   Pale F

Marked as explicit because of strong language.   Still living in a Tier 2 city, Charles Adrian talks about three slim books, all of which feature characters who are children.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   You can read about The Good Immigrant on Nikesh Shukla’s website here: http://www.nikesh-shukla.com/the-good-immigrant. You can read Darren Chetty on the prevalence of white protagonists in Media Diversified here: https://mediadiversified.org/2013/12/07/you-cant-do-that-stories-have-to-be-about-white-people/ and you can download Beyond The Secret Garden by Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor here: https://www.academia.edu/37977267/Beyond_the_Secret_Garden_Black_Asian_and_Minority_Ethnic_Representations_in_Childrens_Literature   If you, like Charles Adrian, are confused about comic book terminology, there is an article about Trade paperbacks on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_paperback_(comics) If you are near Angoulême in

Talking about two books he remembers very little about and the only book he was given twice, Charles Adrian continues his journey through the books from Season 4 of his podcast and reminisces about a trip to Japan.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   Correction: Tier 3 of the new restrictions that came into force in the UK on the 14th of October, 2020, is the highest tier, described as “very high risk. Tier 2 is described as “high risk” with tier 1 being “medium risk”. You can find an explanation of the three-tier system on the BBC here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54533924   You can find some information about the setting-up of the Podcasters’ Support Group in London on Helen Zaltzman’s website here: https://helenzaltzman.wordpress.com/podcasters-support-group/   You can read about the spread of Anti-Vaxxer misinformation on social media during the 2020 pandemic in the Lancet here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30

Continuing to feed his own preoccupation with the poem Swimmer by Dennis Cooper, which he has already talked about in both Page One 185 and Page One 186, Charles Adrian hones in on the lines: “Monday Dave calls me/ at a party” and attempts to reconstruct their historical context.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   The Dream Police by Dennis Cooper was previously discussed in Page One 111 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season4#/111-griffyn-gilligan/) and Page One 185 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-6#/185-poir-28/)   Episode image is a detail from the cover of The Dream Police by Dennis Cooper, published by Grove Press in 1995; cover design by John Gall, cover art by Nayland Blake.   Extra recorded: 16th October, 2020.   Book listing: Swimmer from The Dream Police by Dennis Cooper

Marked as explicit because of extensive discussion of death and suicide.   Content note: there is a lot of talk of death and suicide in this episode. If you are in the UK and would like to talk to someone in confidence, you can reach Switchboard LGBT at https://switchboard.lgbt/ or by phone on 0300 330 0630, and you can reach the Samaritans at https://www.samaritans.org/ or by phone on 116 123.   Taking a very personal look at a poem that has been stuck in his head since the previous episode of this podcast, Charles Adrian talks about the poem Swimmer by Dennis Cooper and some of the things that it brings up for him.   Clarification: In the coda to this episode, Charles Adrian talks about queer sexualities having been criminalised only a generation or two ago. He is talking, of course, very parochially, about the situation in the UK, where he lives. In many parts of the world, queer expression in all its forms remains criminalised. You can find a map of countries that criminalise LGBT people here: https://ww

Marked as explicit because of sexual imagery.   Beginning with a brief cloudburst and a coda to the previous episode designed to calm Charles Adrian’s esprit d’escalier, the 28th Page One In Review goes on to look at the first five books from the fourth season of the podcast.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   The Bees by Laline Paull, Royal Flash by George MacDonald Fraser and Unless by Carol Shields were all discussed at more length in Page One 184. Revolutionary Letters by Diane Di Prima was previously discussed in Page One 122.   You can read an outline of the life of Mary Stewart, a.k.a. Mary Queen of Scots, on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Scots   You can read about Dungeons & Dragons on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons   You can read about Petrópolis, the Brazilian Imperial City, on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petr%C3%B3polis   Another book by Dennis Cooper, Gu

Talking bee-realism, female friendship and the intoxication of undeserved power and position, Charles Adrian revisits the three books he was given by guests at the end of the third season of the podcast.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   Correction: Contrary to what Charles Adrian says in this episode, The Bees by Laline Paull is not really a Sparticus story. Flora 717 is, in effect, an enslaved bee but she does not exactly gather an army to revolt against her hive and nor is she defeated ultimately. You can read about what is known of Sparticus in Live Science here: https://www.livescience.com/39730-spartacus.html and about Cape honey bees (who, while more likely to be parasites than slaves, display traits similar to Flora 717) on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_honey_bee. It is also possible that there is no type of bee that is, in fact, known to enslave other types of bee in the way that ants do. You can read about enslaved ants a

Not, as promised, a short episode that would have allowed listeners to head out into the apple orchards early, Charles Adrian talks this week about three books that he does not remember so very well.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   You can read about a day Jean Hannah Edelstein spent in Kreuzberg, Berlin, only two years before Charles Adrian’s conversation with SooJin Anjou in the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/nov/29/a-day-in-kreuzberg-berlin   Correction 1: Groucho Marx died in 1977, not 1972 as Charles Adrian says in this episode.   You can read about the life and work of Groucho Marx on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx   Correction 2: Natalia Ginzburg’s father, Giuseppe Levi, was an anatomist and histologist.   You can read the abstract on an article on Giuseppe Levi and his influence in the National Library of Medicine here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16997763/   You can read about London’s

Content note: There is some suicidal ideation described at around the 20 minute mark. This episode is marked as explicit on Apple Podcasts because of some derogatory language.   Returning to normal service after last week’s break from Page One In Review, Charles Adrian takes his time to talk through three of the biggest books he has been given by guests on the podcast.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   Amos Oz died on the 28th of December, 2018. You can find an article about him and his life-long entanglement with the developing Israeli state by Bernard Avishai in The New Yorker here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/what-israel-meant-to-amos-oz   You can find out more about Jackson’s Lane Theatre and what they are currently programming on their website here: https://www.jacksonslane.org.uk/whats-on   Correction: During the reading of Amos Oz’s A Tale Of Love And Darkness, Charles Adrian missed out the work ‘kind’ in the first description

Taking a few minutes away from recording Page One In Review episodes, Charles Adrian talks about a particular kind of convalescent literature.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   “Unlike wizards, who like nothing better than a complicated hierarchy, witches don’t go in much for the structured approach to career progression. It’s up to each individual witch to take on a girl to hand the area over to when she dies. Witches are not by nature gregarious, at least with other witches, and they certainly don’t have leaders./Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn’t have.” from Weird Sisters by Terry Pratchett.   You can read about Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld   The first Page One In Review episode, which is Page One 157, was recorded on the 18th of March, 2020.   Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith is discussed in Page One 76 and Page One 175, Germany by Neil MacGre

Getting his mind focused and in the right place, Charles Adrian talks about another ghost book and two books based on real life.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   In case you are interested, Charles Adrian talked about the hot weather in Page One 178 and about getting up early in the morning in Page One 172 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-6#/172-poir-16/).   You can read about The Ridgeway here: https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/the-ridgeway/ and about the reintroduction of Red Kites into the Chilterns here: https://www.chilternsaonb.org/about-chilterns/red-kites.html   Books discussed in this episode were previously discussed in Page One 93 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-3#/93-tom-bowtell/) and Page One 94 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-3#/94-colin-bartlett/).   Episode image is a detail from an image by Charles Adrian.   Episode recorded: 1st September, 2020.     Book listing:   How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barn

Marked as explicit because of strong language and discussion of sex   Having taken a short change is as good as a holiday, Charles Adrian returns to his wooden IKEA steps to talk about the first three books given to him by guests on the third season of the podcast.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   Correction: The word Charles Adrian was looking for in relation to the cover of The Clown by Heinrich Böll is ‘monochrome’. Also, it is, of course, Heinrich Böll who won the Nobel Prize in 1972 not this particular novel.   You can find out more about The Radio Collective here: http://theradiocollective.com/?LMCL=gdVMwA   You can find Phoebe Reads A Mystery here: https://thisiscriminal.com/mystery/   Here is Varna in case you would like to explore the area yourself: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Varna,+Bulgaria/@43.2049449,27.872869,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x40a4538baaf3d7a1:0x5727941c71a58b7c!8m2!3d43.2140504!4d27.9147333?hl=en Galatz, which is th

During a very hot spell in West London, with a glass of water at his side and a towel draped over his shoulder, Charles Adrian revisits the last three books given to him by guests during the second season of the podcast.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   Books discussed here were previously discussed in Page One 87 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-2#/87-alan-cunningham/), Page One 88 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-2#/88-susannah-hewlett/) and Page One 89 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-2#/89-nick-field/).   The Cloudspotter’s Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, mentioned briefly here, is discussed more fully in Page One 27 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-1#/27-anna-sulan-masing/) and Page One 163 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-6#/163-poir-7/).   Also mentioned in this episode is Les Caves Du Vatican by André Gide.   The Guardian has a nicely out-dated article from 2014 about subtweeting and vaguebooking that entirely backs up C

On a lovely sunny day in West London, Charles Adrian talks about two ghost books, a book that never was and two other books, one of which he does not want to read from and one of which he does. Keep listening to the very end of the episode to hear the sound that is keeping Charles Adrian awake.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   You can find Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher’s crowdsourced art project Learning To Love You More online here: http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/index.php; Assignment #58 is this one: http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/reports/58/58.php. You can find the web page for the reading of The Swim Team from No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July on Radio 4 Extra here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069r3rg (at time of publishing, this programme is still not available to listen to)   You can, however, listen to The Iron Curtain, which is an episode from the Snap Judgement podcast about a woman called Ulrike Poppe wh

At what might be the half-way point and more opinionated than usual, Charles Adrian talks about three books he was given by friends in Athens.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   You can find out more about the Jacques Lecoq school in Paris on their homepage here: http://www.ecole-jacqueslecoq.com/en   There is a nice introduction to Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker on the British Library website here: https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-our-countrys-good   Correction: the last quadrant of Charles Adrian’s summary of Pascal’s Wager (at 18:22) should read: “If I don’t believe in God and God doesn’t exist…”   The discussion of Pascal’s Wager in this episode is, in any case, a little superficial. You can find a better summary on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager and a more extended analysis in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-w

Marked as explicit because of strong language   His hair longer, perhaps, than it has ever been in his life, Charles Adrian talks art, bad people and bookshops.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.   Correction: during this episode Charles Adrian calls the Bill Drummond book For Sale $20,000 because that is what is written on the cover but its title is in fact $20,000. You can read more about Bill Drummond on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Drummond and you can read about Duncan McLaren’s book Personal Delivery on his website here: http://www.duncanmclaren.co.uk/pages/david/index-david.html.   You can read all about the National Poetry Library – which is, in fact, on level 5 of the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre – on their home page here: https://www.nationalpoetrylibrary.org.uk/   Another book by Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr Ripley, is discussed in Page One 53.   You can hear Helen Fielding, the author of Bridget