John Sandoe Books

We are delighted to bring you a new podcast with Karina Urbach, author of Alice's Book: How the Nazis Stole My Grandmother's Cookbook. It tells the remarkable story of her Jewish grandmother, whose bestselling Viennese cookbook was expropriated by the Nazis after the Anschluss in 1938 and republished – for decades - under a false Aryan name. Dr. Urbach is an historian at the University of London; her book is expertly researched, using international archives, family papers, interviews, etc and has an extraordinary range – from Shanghai in the 1930s to Dachau, Vienna to Lake Windermere, the Kindertransport, the US intelligences services, publishing protocols under the Nuremberg laws, emigration and the creation of new lives in new worlds. Interviewed by Arabella von Friesen Edited by Magnus Rena Music: Kurt Weill, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), Act II: Zuhälterballade performed by the Dreigroschenoper Band in 1928

Laura Beatty could turn straw into gold. In Looking for Theophrastus: Travels in Search of a Lost Philosopher, she describes chancing across the writings of a rather obscure Greek philosopher, and the wonders and illuminations that followed. She speaks to Johnny about her pursuit of this forgotten figure, through markets and cobbled streets, via Chaucer and George Eliot...  Edited by Magnus Rena  Music: Mikis Theodorakis and Thanasis Vasilas, Galazio Taximi  

Vashti speaks to Magnus about her new memoir, Wayward: Just Another Life to Live. From London in the Swinging Sixties to a hippie retreat in the Outer Hebrides: she and her partner travelled – slowly – by horse and wagon. She gave up music, disillusioned with the pop industry, until her 1970 album was rediscovered thirty years later.  This podcast is particularly exciting for us because, as we discovered while recording it, Vashti once worked in (what is now) John Sandoe's. The art room on the ground floor used to be a veterinary clinic; she worked there after leaving her record label in the 60s and leaving London altogether.  We have a number of signed copies so please telephone, email or order online if you would like one.  Edited by Magnus Rena  Music, in order:  Vashti Bunyan, I'd Like To Walk Around In Your Mind  Some Things Just Stick In your Mind  Train Song  Rainbow River  Rose Hip November  Just Another Diamond Day  Here Before  I'd Like To Walk Around In Your Mind 

Dame Eileen is joined by the novelist Salley Vickers to talk about Will She Do?: Act One of a Life on Stage. It is a marvellous memoir, beginning with her youth in Tottenham and ending when her theatrical career takes off. Forthright, transparent, dry, funny... there is nothing remotely precious about Dame Eileen's account of herself. It is a delight!  Please email, telephone (+44 (0)20 7589 9473) or order online if you would like a copy.  Edited by Magnus Rena  Music: Dusty Springfield, Don't Let Me Lose This Dream

Johnny once wrote of Robert Edric that 'his was the most significant body of work from a novelist in a generation.' He has written over twenty novels; My Own Worst Enemy is his first memoir. He spoke to Johnny about growing up in Sheffield in the 60s, as well as books, food, friendships, and what it's like to write about your own family. Please email, telephone (+44 (0)20 7589 9473) or order online if you would like a copy.  Edited by Magnus Rena Music: Leo Kottke, Machine No. 2   

Salley Vickers wrote her latest novel in a Wiltshire cottage during lockdown. She talks to Johnny about the importance of gardening while writing, Shropshire's historic pagan landscapes, and the complications of family relationships.  Click here to order a copy of The Gardener; choose to collect from Sandoe's or have us post it to you.  Two sisters buy a rambling house in the Welsh Marches. One decides to bring the neglected garden back to life with the help of an Albanian migrant living in the nearby village. The work allows her space to contemplate her complex relationship with her sister and their difficult upbringing. Characteristically evocative and perceptive.    Edited by Magnus Rena  Music: Nick Drake, Man In A Shed

In anticipation of Christmas and the excitement of the coming weeks, we are thrilled to present a reading of one of Eva Ibbotson's short stories. Some of our most obliging customers will already know her as an author of unparalleled charm and humour. Who else could combine an immense fish, a blunderbuss, love, moustaches and a vast, rose-sprigged chamberpot? A feast of Central European sensibility that will make you long to sip coffee and drift away all afternoon on a Biedermeier sofa... We have the right to post this magnificent piece of transporting bliss until the end of January, and we hope you enjoy it quite as much as we do.   Introduction by Arabella von Friesen, read by John de Falbe, and edited by Magnus Rena   Music: Johann Strauss II, Tales from the Vienna Woods piano version

2021 marks 200 years since the Greek Revolution and Mark Mazower's new book - The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe - is as timely as it is thrilling, expertly researched and vividly told. He spoke to Johnny de Falbe about this first 'romantic' European revolution.    Edited by Magnus Rena    Music: Marika Ninou, Soúroupo Me Sinnephiá

Some may have supposed that Thubron had done his last Big Journey (he is now 82), but this is arguably his biggest yet, and most arduous. Indomitable, venerable, he follows this immense river from its source in remote Mongolian bogs to where it emerges in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East. It is a complicated journey, much of it surrounded by poverty, desolation, wrecked environments, social collapse and historical contortions in spite of the natural wonders of the landscapes through which he passes. CT is always fascinating and compelling, and this introduction to a world scarcely known to the West is an astonishing feat.    We have a limited number of signed copies. Click here to order the book online, or get in touch by telephone or email to reserve a copy.    Edited by Magnus Rena    Music, in order: Orkiestra Moskva, Na sopkach Mandzurii Maxim Troshin, The Hills of Manchuria Nikolai Nazarov, Separate Exemplary Ochestra of USSR Defense Ministry, On the Hills of Manchuria Alexander Zlatovski, On the Hills of Manchuria

Craxton, that wonderful painter and funny, lovely man, could be in no better hands than Ian Collins's… This biography is all that might be hoped for – thorough, loving, full of Craxton's vitality and wit, with never a dull paragraph.    Music: Manos Hadjidakis, To Waltz Ton Hamenon Oneiron    Edited by Magnus Rena

James Marriott and his co-author Terry Macalister have spent decades researching and writing about the oil industry. Their new book plunges us into the murky world of Britain's crude oil corporations. They frame the industry as a new kind of imperialism, with hidden pipelines as its polluting engine and anonymous firms as its operators. It has the pace and intrigue of a well-plotted thriller.   Edited by Magnus Rena.   Music: PJ Harvey, Last Living Rose

The former head of the National Gallery, NPG and Royal Academy talks openly about the art museum's place in society today.   Edited by Magnus Rena   Music: David Bowie, Andy Warhol

OL talks to Magnus Rena about her new book, Everybody: A Book about Freedom. It's a sweeping, collective biography of a dozen glamorous but stifled figures: Susan Sontag, Christopher Isherwood, Nina Simone, Wilhelm Reich, Malcom X, Marquis de Sade, Ana Mendieta, etc. What they all share is an urge to break through various inherited constraints and seek out that strange and slippery thing called freedom.    Edited by Magnus Rena    Music: Nina Simone, Mood Indigo    Cover image: Ana Mendieta, Imágen de Yágul, 1973

The horsemen of the title are those of the Apocalypse, the terrifying outriders of war, pestilence, famine and death. Dr Mayhew considers developments in several fields to argue that we are pushing back successfully these dreadful tides. It's a gripping, lively narrative that is surprisingly uplifting. We wish we could take credit for the inspired choice of introductory music for this podcast but, in this case, those laurels must go to Emily herself.    Edited by Magnus Rena    Music: Denis King, Black Beauty Theme (Galloping Home)

Helena's citrusy history of Italy, The Land Where Lemons Grow, sold by the armful when it came out in 2014. Her new book tells the story of one fragile instrument and its journey across Europe, from Wales to Cremona to Russia. We still have some signed copies (at the time of uploading); please get in touch by email or telephone to reserve a copy.    Edited by Magnus Rena    Music: Broen Ensemble with Greg Lawson, Shaloka (trad. Armenian)

In medieval Europe, literacy rates among adult males was only 25% in cities, dwindling to 1% in villages. At the same time in Florence it was 70%. So what made this city the literary hub of Renaissance Europe? After his bestselling Brunelleschi's Dome, Ross King returns to Florence to follow the life of Vespasiano da Bisticci, the first bookseller of modern Europe.   Edited by Magnus Rena

Not so much a sequel to ‘The Hare with Amber Eyes’, this short, superb and immensely powerful book is nevertheless complementary to his earlier book. Read it, give it, think about it; read it again.    Edited by Magnus Rena    Music: Claude Debussy, Deux Arabesques, performed by Alain Planès

Roland Philipps' new book, Victoire, is a gripping story of espionage, seduction and double-crossing. It follows Mathilde Carré, a spy in the intelligence networks of Occupied France. To discuss the book, Roland is joined by Daniel Lee, author of The SS Officer's Armchair which came out last year.    Edited by Magnus Rena    Music: Le Quartette Swing Émile Carrara, Le Charmeur des Serpents

... A Journey through Madness, Mania and Healing. Horatio talks to Arabella von Friesen about what he refers to as "one of the stranger journeys of a travelling life". Please email, telephone or order online to reserve a copy.    Edited by Magnus Rena    Music: John Martyn, Go Down Easy 

Simon Heffer, distinguished historian and editor of the diaries (the first volume of which is published today), is joined by Tim Bouverie.   Music: Jack Hylton & His Orchestra, Why Can't You

A short, powerful memoir of a Jewish family’s flight from the Gestapo in Italy, 1943. Read by Arabella von Friesen.   Music: Ernesto Bonino, Strolling About

The Frozen Winter of 1962 and How Britain Emerged a Different Country... with moving parallels to our current situation. Music: Helen Shapiro, Walkin' Back to Happiness.

Episode two of Ben Schott's spiffing homage.Read by John de Falbe.Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher

The first biography of this much loved author, bonne vivante, European, and John Sandoe customer, mentored by Aldous Huxley. Hastings’ earlier biographical subjects include Somerset Maugham, Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford and Rosamond Lehmann. Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Horn Concerto No. 3 in E Flat major

Another lockdown, another double-bill of Wodehouse Wednesdays - but not quite as you know it. John de Falbe reads from Ben Schott's latest homage to Plum: Jeeves and the Leap of Faith.  Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher

Johnny interviews Sir Tom, while Dame Hermione - a leading literary biographer - gives a short introduction to her new book. Music: William Bolcom, Graceful Ghost Rag Thumbnail photograph by Marzena Pogorzaly

Brighton, 1968: a film producer, a novelist and an actress find their private lives encroaching into their public worlds. Pressures build on the trio… Music: Cream, Badges

Do you write in the margins? Have you lied about reading War and Peace? Which books are your 'comfort reads'?Martin Latham muses with Johnny on a life spent around books.

Johnny chats to the illustrious academic about her dazzling new book, Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe.

To accompany the publication of his new book, Loyd (an old friend of the shop) talks about Baroque Rome... in all its rich papal splendour. Music: Federico Maria Sardelli, Fuga Prima

David chats to Johnny about his latest novel: a gorgeous, rich, magnificent imagining of a 1960s pop group... Music: Fairport Convention, Who Knows Where The Time Goes

From P.G. Wodehouse, Uncle Dynamite. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.  

From P.G. Wodehouse, Uncle Dynamite. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

The former Editor of British Vogue remembers her very first party, a glamorous weekend in Paris (sans parents), and the many sartorial adventures that inspired her new book. Anecdotes interspersed with music: Patti Smith, Gloria: In Excelsis Deo; Bobby Gentry, Ode to Billy Joe; Leonard Cohen, Suzanne; Emmylou Harris, White Shoes; Peter Noone & The Herman’s Hermits, Lady Barbara.

From P.G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.

From P.G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves. Read by John de Falbe. Music: Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher.