Faber & Faber : The Faber Podcast

The Faber Podcast 29 (Part 2): Philip Oltermann on Keeping Up with the Germans

In our second interview this month George Miller speaks to Philip Oltermann about Keeping Up with the Germans: A History of Anglo-German Encounters. Philip came to the UK from his native Germany in his mid-teens and in the book turns his wry gaze on both countries and their history of mutual misunderstandings.

The Faber Podcast 29 (Part 1): James Palmer on The Death of Mao

In the first of 2012's author podcasts George Miller talks to James Palmer about the momentous year 1976, which saw the death of Chairman Mao and inevitable machinations to be his successor, as well as one of the worst natural disasters in human history, the Tangshan earthquake.

A Faber Podcast Special: Stewart Lee in Conversation with Ben Thompson

Stewart Lee's previous book How I Escaped My Certain Fate drew on three live shows to deconstruct the nature of stand-up comedy. With its heavy use of footnotes there was a nod in structure to T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. For his new book, the slimmer volume If You Prefer a Milder Comedian ..., Lee draws inspiration from The Specials' 1980 five-track EP The Special AKA Live!, live material surplus to any long player. This new book is based on just one stand-up show, in which Stewart Lee examines the mechanics of comedy and the stand-up's craft, as he explains in this interview with comedy critic and Resonance FM DJ Ben Thompson.

The Faber Podcast 28 (Part 1): Fiona MacCarthy on The Last Pre-Raphaelite

In her latest book Fiona MacCarthy, one of this country's most distinguished biographers (Byron, Eric Gill, William Morris) explores the life of Morris's lifelong friend, Edward Burne-Jones. One of the Victorian age's most celebrated painters, and also a designer of everything from stained glass to slippers, he was a living embodiment of the quality that MacCarthy refers to as a 'very Victorian hyper-energy'.

A Faber Podcast Special: P. D. James discusses Death Comes to Pemberley

It's 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been blissfully married for six years. But a murderer in their midst has other ideas ... Death Comes to Pemberley is a brilliant new 'sequel' to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - but one with a deadly twist. In this extended interview, P. D. James shares her appreciation for Austen, and discusses the challenge of taking such a beloved work of fiction in a wholly unexpected direction ...

A Faber Podcast Special: Sebastian Barry discusses On Canaan's Side

Recorded at Topping's in Bath, shortly before a packed event, author Sebastian Barry discussed his latest novel, On Canaan's Side, with interviewer George Miller. It's a riveting, 30-minute conversation covering the shadow of events from Sebastian's own family's past in his fiction, and the repercussions of some quite extraordinary events.

The Faber Podcast 27 (Part 1): Tim Jeal on Explorers of the Nile

In the first part of Faber's October podcast interviewer George Miller talks to biographer and historian Tim Jeal about Explorers of the Nile, his account of the extraordinary quest by a small band of Victorian explorers who underwent almost unimaginable privations in order to be the first Westerner to reach the source of the White Nile.

The Faber Podcast 27 (Part 2): Nicholas Rankin on Ian Fleming's Commandos

In the second part of October's Faber Podcast, Nicholas Rankin discusses his new book, Ian Fleming’s Commandos, a gripping account of 30 Assault Unit, which was set up by the future author of James Bond when he worked in naval intelligence during World War Two. This hush-hush band of never more than 300 men amounted to a private army that was never quite approved of by the top brass. In the interview Nicholas talks about how they came to be formed, what their brief was and discusses some of their greatest successes.

A Faber Podcast Special: Michael Frayn on My Father's Fortune

In this extended interview, Michael Frayn talks about his childhood in leafy Surrey during the war and his relationship with his father, so memorably and movingly portrayed in his memoir, My Father’s Fortune. He also talks about the impact of the loss of his mother when he was twelve and his early ambitions to be a writer.

The Faber Podcast 26: Matthew Hollis & Richard T. Kelly

In our August podcast George Miller discusses gothic fiction with Richard T. Kelly, author of the spine-chilling The Possessions of Doctor Forrest. He also talks to Matthew Hollis about his new book, Now All Roads Lead to France, in which he gives us the final years in the life of war poet Edward Thomas, 'the man with the keys to the Paradise of English Poetry'.