Books Are Back

Norton Juster's Phantom Tolbooth is the gateway to a fantastical land filled with strange characters who provide the young hero with food for thought as he tries to  rescue the Princesses Rhyme and Reason. 

Eve Garnett's classic stories about The Family from One End Street broke new ground when they were published in 1937. In this episode you can listen to us discuss the strong contrast with modern parenting and hear Catherine's horror as Ursula fantasises about stowing away on a cargo ship. 

Ursula and Catherine reverse their usual roles for a discussion of Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens, a stone cold classic in the modern children's murder mystery genre.  

Joan Aiken's stories remind Ursula and Catherine of fairy tales, and they also look closely at Jan Pienkowski's incredible illustrations. 

We compare a Nancy Drew book to modern detective stories and solve the mystery of the identity of Carolyn Keene. 

Disguises! Secret messages! Tracking the enemy! Ursula, Catherine and their special guest learnt all these and more from this Usborne favourite. 

T H White's retelling of the Arthurian Legends began here, in the book from which Catherine learnt more about falconry than she ever knew she knew. 

Ann Scott-Moncrieff's novel was originally rejected as "too Scottish and too irresponsible." Neither Catherine nor Ursula let this put them off. 

The first book in C S Lewis's Narnia Chronicles was a better read for Ursula than it was for Catherine. We discuss why, and also whether it is in fact the first book in the series.  

Ursula and Catherine enjoyed different aspects of Thomas Rockwell's story, which is about exactly what it says on the cover. This episode features discussion on censorship and also gastronomy, obviously. 

Ursula and Catherine discuss sci-fi classic Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien, bemoaning the fact that their copy seems to have the ugliest cover of any edition so far published.

In episode eight Catherine and Ursula discuss art, anamorphic projection and also   The Ultimate Alphabet by Mike Wilks. Check @BooksAreBack1 on Twitter or @booksarebackpod on Instagram for some pictures to help make sense of this astonishing book 

Catherine rakes her recollection for details of a beautiful blue dress while Ursula fills her in on every detail but that one of Pamela Brown's classic about a theatre company founded by seven children. 

In this episode, Catherine discovers that author J.B.S. Haldane was "astonishingly interesting", but can Ursula say the same about his only creation for children, the magician Mr Leakey? 

Join Ursula and Catherine as they tackle the episodic style of Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic tales of her childhood, beginning in the Little House in the Big Woods.

Normal service is interrupted when Catherine and Ursula feel the need to get into the festive spirit, hurriedly reading Dylan Thomas's classic in time for Christmas. 

Ursula and Catherine are not the only members of the family to have read Help! I am a Prisoner in a Toothpaste Factory by John Antrobus. So this episode features a special guest appearance. 

Ursula and Catherine don't both find the humour in Ordinary Jack by Helen Cresswell. But can mother make daughter laugh by throwing in a couple of modest character voices when reading aloud?

In their first episode, Ursula and Catherine discuss Hugh Lofting's novel, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. Ursula read it last week. Catherine read it last century.  Luckily, they've both seen the film.