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SCHEDULE JBS, 6-25-26.JUNE 1957The Fog of Diplomacy in the Strait of Hormuz. Guest: Colonel Jeff McCausland. McCausland discusses a memorandum of understanding with Iran regarding the Strait of Hormuz and nuclear weapons. He notes the Iranian requirement for reconstruction aid and the release of frozen assets. He also touches on the IDF's continued presence in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza despite regional negotiations. 1The Evolving Robotic Battlefield in Ukraine. Guest: Colonel Jeff McCausland. McCausland explains how drones have transformed the war in Ukraine, effectively cutting off Russian supply lines to Crimea. He discusses the massive casualty rates caused by drones and Ukraine's plan to deploy thousands of ground robots. Meanwhile, Russia faces severe manpower shortages and high casualty counts. 2Structural Fatigue and Leaks on the ISS Zvezda Module. Guest: Anatoly Zak. Zak details the critical role of the Zvezda module, which provides propulsion and life support for the International Space Station. He addresses growing concerns over air leaks and cracks in a transfer compartment. While currently manageable, the cracks reappear despite repeated sealing attempts. 3Almaz: The Secret Soviet Spy Station in Space. Guest: Anatoly Zak. Zak describes the top-secret Almaz program, military space stations camouflaged under the "Salyut" name for reconnaissance. These "spy satellites with men" took high-resolution photos of NATO bases. The program was eventually discontinued because robotic satellites proved more effective and less taxing on human crews. 4Emily Brontë's Dark Inspiration from the Family Vault. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz examines the profound impact of Emily Brontë's mother's death and the construction of the family burial vault beneath the church floor. She argues this underground space fueled Emily's literary obsession with dungeons and graves. Lutz also defends Patrick Brontë against historical claims of severity. 5The Influence of Aunt Branwell and Early Tragedy. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz highlights Aunt Elizabeth Branwell's sacrifice in moving to Haworth to raise the Brontë children, introducing them to cosmopolitan stories. The segment also details the tragic deaths of the eldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, from tuberculosis after a harrowing experience at a poorly managed boarding school. 6Imaginary Empires and the Fierce Loyalty of Keeper. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz describes the miniature books the Brontë children created to document their imaginary worlds, Angria and Gondal. The discussion shifts to Emily's domestic life in Haworth, where she balanced household chores with writing. Lutz also recounts Emily's intense bond with her massive, formidable mastiff-mix dog, Keeper. 7Brussels, Poetry, and the Birth of a Unique Voice. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz discusses Charlotte and Emily's education in Brussels, where Emily honed her concise writing style and piano skills. Following their aunt's death, the sisters returned to Haworth and used their inheritance to focus on writing. They compiled their poetry into a volume under male pseudonyms. 8The Bell Brothers and the Collaborative Creation of Novels. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz explains how the sisters published their poetry under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell to avoid gender bias. Despite selling only two copies, they immediately began collaborating on their first novels. Lutz also explores the troubled life of their brother, Branwell. 9The Reclusive Genius of Emily Brontë. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz describes Emily Brontë's writing habits in her small bedroom overlooking a graveyard. Despite her reclusive nature and strong-minded personality, she lived a life filled with "joy and contentment" while crafting Wuthering Heights. Lutz notes that her sisters initially found the dark, violent novel strange. 10The Experimental Haunting of Wuthering Heights. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz explores the Gothic structure and experimental narrative frames of Wuthering Heights. She suggests Heathcliff is an extension of Emily's own fierce imagination. The segment concludes with the tragic deaths of Branwell, Emily, and Anne from tuberculosis, leaving Patrick as the family's sole survivor. 11The Enduring Legacy of the Brontës in Haworth. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz reflects on the Brontës' lasting cultural impact and Haworth's transformation into a major tourist destination. She discusses the critical backlash the novel initially faced for its violence. Despite the tragedy surrounding their lives, the Brontës remain buried beneath the church they once inhabited. 12The FBI, Money Laundering, and the Russian Mob. Guest: Craig Unger. Unger interviews whistleblower Jonathan Buma, a former FBI agent, regarding investigations into Donald Trump's ties to Russian intelligence. He claims Trump Tower served as a "laundromat" for the Russian mafia to clean illicit funds through luxury real estate. Unger questions why the FBI failed to act. 13Political Interference and FBI Counter-Intelligence Failures. Guest: Craig Unger. Unger discusses how investigations into the 2020 election and Rudy Giuliani were allegedly stymied. He notes that Giuliani received payments from Russian oligarchs, potentially compromising the Trump campaign. Unger and Buma explore why major intelligence agencies and the Department of Justice have not pursued these leads. 14The Chronic Failures of the Cuban Regime. Guest: Mary Anastasia O'Grady. O'Grady analyzes Cuba's ongoing economic misery and electricity crises, which the government blames on the U.S. embargo. She references the failed 10-million-ton sugar harvest of 1970 as a symbol of the state's incompetence. The regime maintains power through bitter repression and control over food resources. 15The Distortions of Global Wealth Taxes. Guest: Veronique de Rugy. De Rugy discusses how the UK's tax system discourages international athletes from competing at Wimbledon by taxing their worldwide endorsements. She argues that oppressive global tax schemes, such as California's proposed billionaire tax, often result in reduced economic activity and lower wage growth for middle-class workers. 16One correction folded in: the guest is Mary Anastasia O'Grady (not "Anastasio") in file 15.
Preview for Later Today: Deborah Lutz. Deborah Lutz describes the Brontë siblings' childhood in the 1830s, where they created elaborate fantasy worlds like Angria and Gondal using toy soldiers. These imaginative role-playing games served as early rehearsals for their literary careers.1840 BRANWELL BRONTE
The Influence of Aunt Branwell and Early Tragedy. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz highlights Aunt Elizabeth Branwell's sacrifice in moving to Haworth to raise the Brontë children, introducing them to cosmopolitan stories. The segment also details the tragic deaths of the eldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, from tuberculosis after a harrowing experience at a poorly managed boarding school. 6CHARLOTTE BRONTE
Imaginary Empires and the Fierce Loyalty of Keeper. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz describes the miniature books the Brontë children created to document their imaginary worlds, Angria and Gondal. The discussion shifts to Emily's domestic life in Haworth, where she balanced household chores with writing. Lutz also recounts Emily's intense bond with her massive, formidable mastiff-mix dog, Keeper. 7EMILY BRONTE
The Enduring Legacy of the Brontës in Haworth. Guest: Deborah Lutz. Lutz reflects on the Brontës' lasting cultural impact and Haworth's transformation into a major tourist destination. She discusses the critical backlash the novel initially faced for its violence. Despite the tragedy surrounding their lives, the Brontës remain buried beneath the church they once inhabited. 121846 BRUSSELS
In a chamber of the Castle Eschatonica, filled with technology from another world, Veile, Caoimhe, Elena, and Brontë investigate the truth behind their mysterious gems (and the seemingly lost universes they were once connected to). Meanwhile, on the other side of the metaphysical fortress, Uncle Nicky, Jonathan, Antistrophe and their newly acquired Agonies encounter a brusque soldier from a war whose rules they can barely understand. This week on Perpetua: Escape the Rumbling Castle! 03 Perpetua Guide [In Progress v.06] Celestial Echoes [CECH] Imago [CEIM] While I haven't played the Imago games myself, from what I've read, it's a game about the power and cost of the creative spirit. And also demons, maybe? In any case, the way that this Echo shows up in the Castle Eschatonica is the Agonies, a special set of NPCs you can acquire who can grant even non-spell casters the ability to cast a few key spells! Melo (he/him) Traits: Relaxed, Friendly, Sleepy Status/Element: Slow/Air Description: A living statue of a little knee high elephant man, smoking a pipe. Ability: Trumpet Toss - 10 - Self - Instantaneous Melo wakes up and releases blasts of air from his trunk, sending you flying across the battlefield. You may immediately perform a free attack with a melee weapon you have equipped. This attack may target creatures that can only be targeted by ranged attacks. If you used a weapon belonging to the brawling or spear Category for this attack, it deals 5 extra damage. If you hit a flying target with this attack, you may force them to land immediately. Wan (he/him) Traits: Sickly, Curious, Hopeful Status/Element: Weak/Ice Description: A painting of a strange looking child in bed, under a blanket, covered in shadows. Ability: A Chill Air (attack) - 10 x T - Up to Three Targets - Instantaneous Wan coughs, and the temperature in the room drops low. The targets suffer【HR + 15】ice damage. Opportunity: Each target hit by this spell suffers Weak. Hezzi (they/them) Traits: Afraid, Tentative, Big Status/Element: (Shaken/Physical) Description: A ghostly, one-eyed ogre who quietly plays their piano until someone approaches. Ability: Intimidating Presence (attack) - 5 x T - Up to Three Creatures - Instantaneous Hezzi shows themself in fully material form, strikes an aggressive pose, and roars, giving every target Shaken. Miss Mephitic (she/her) Traits: Layered, Beautiful, Frightening Status/Element: (Poisoned/Poison) Description: A human-sized music box ballerina, from which vines, petals, and teeth emerge. Ability: Bloody Thorn (attack) - 20 - One Creature - Instantaneous Mephi's vines strike out at a target, doing 【HR + 15】poison damage and giving them the Poisoned status. Connie (she/they) Traits: Excitable, Mercurial, Confused Status/Element (Dazed/Bolt) Description: A fuzzy television on a wheeled cart which continually changes channels, occasionally landing on young woman with frizzy, dirty blonde hair . Ability: Surprise Shock (attack) - 20 - One creature - Instantaneous Connie slams into your foe and electrifies them. The target suffers【HR + 25】bolt damage. Damage is doubled against a target who is Dazed Ira (he/him) Traits: Irritable, Small, Loyal Status/Element: Enraged / Fire Description: A ceramic pot with a little angry red devil cherub on it—and the impish being itself. Ability: Devil's Breath (attack) - 10 × T - Up to three creatures - Instantaneous Ira unleashes a blast of fiery breath at your foes. Each target hit by this spell suffers【HR + 15】fire damage. Opportunity: Each target hit by this spell suffers enraged. Hosted by Austin Walker (austinwalker.bsky.social) Featuring Ali Acampora (ali-online.bsky.social), Art Martinez-Tebbel (amtebbel.bsky.social), Jack de Quidt (notquitereal.bsky.social), Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart), Sylvi Bullet (@sylvibullet), Keith J Carberry (@keithjcarberry) and Andrew Lee Swan (swandre3000.bsky.social) Produced by Ali Acampora Music by Jack de Quidt (available on bandcamp) Cover Art by Ben McEntee (https://linktr.ee/benmce.art) With thanks to Amelia Renee, Arthur B., Aster Maragos, Bill Kaszubski, Cassie Jones, Clark, DB, Daniel Laloggia, Diana Crowley, Edwin Adelsberger, Emrys, Greg Cobb, Ian O'Dea, Ian Urbina, Irina A., Jack Shirai, Jake Strang, Katie Diekhaus, Ken George, Konisforce, Kristina Harris Esq, L Tantivy, Lawson Coleman, Mark Conner, Mike & Ruby, Muna A, Nat Knight, Olive Perry, Quinn Pollock, Robert Lasica, Shawn Drape, Shawn Hall, Summer Rose, TeganEden, Thomas Whitney, Voi, chocoube, deepFlaw, fen, & weakmint This episode was made with support from listeners like you! To support us, you can go to friendsatthetable.cash.
It's a Listener Choice special as the team tackle three very different culinary favourites. Sam champions custard in all its forms, from medieval recipes to modern puddings. Allie investigates the mischievous history of Sicily's “Chancellor's Buttocks” pastry. And Neil celebrates the crumpet, exploring the history of those hole-filled griddle cakes that have become a staple of the British tea table.Sources/ Useful linksCustardThere's a very good overview of custard by Neil on the British Food History Podcast website along with a recipe for proper custard.The history of Birds Custard How to make pastry cream (Crème pâtissière)Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks by Thomas Austin (1888)Cooking and Dining in Medieval England by Peter Brears (2012)Dumas on Food (Translated by Alan and Jane Davidson) by Alexandre Dumas (1979)A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (1935)The Tale of the Custard Dragon by Ogden Nash (1936) - a cute poem about a cowardly dragon called custard.Laurel and Hardy - The Battle of the Century (1927) - The Pie FightDr Who ‘Fish Fingers and Custard' on YouTubeRhubarb and Custard (the 1970s cartoon) on YouTubeCustard Pie song by Led ZeppelinByron's letters, including references to custard and other food-related observations, can be accessed via Peter Cochran's edition of Byron's Correspondence.Allie's talk on Byron and baked rosewater custards, hosted with Sam Hirst, is available here.Chancellor's ButtocksSimeti, M.T. (1989) Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food. "Palermo's Secret Dessert Scene" (Saveur) – an introduction to Palermo's historic pastry culture, including fedde del cancelliere (Chancellor's Buttocks).Cavalli, Rita, “Fedde del monastero, il dolce delle monache di Palermo che si prendevano gioco del fondoschiena del Primo Ministro”, FIRSTonline (17 February 2024): FIRSTonline article on the Fedde del Cancelliere and Palermo's convent confectionery traditionsCrumpetsNeil's crumpets recipe from British Food: A HistoryNeil's muffins recipe with table of crumpet-muffin recipes showing the fluidity between the twoKnead to Know: A History of Baking by Neil Buttery (2024)English Bread & Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David (1977)The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse (1747)Crumpets with Potted Shrimps on FoodismWant to make the dripping crumpets of Rebecca? Pre-order Allie's A Gothic Cookbook, out this October, published by The History Press.Don't forget Allie will be exploring food and feasting in the works of the Brontë sisters and other classic gothic writers at an in-person event at the Brontë Parsonage Museum on 18 July 2026.Allie will also be presenting an online talk on Gothic feasts with Morbid Anatomy on 26 October 2026.Join Sam, Neil and Allie in person for a live recording of A is for Apple at Ludlow Food Festival on 11 September 2026.Allie will be appearing at the Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival on 11 October 2026, where she will be in conversation with author Kate Young.The Serve It Forth Food History Festival returns online on 18 October 2026. Keep an eye on social media for further announcements.This is the final episode of Season C of A is for Apple. Thank you to everyone who listened, shared episodes, and sent in suggestions for our Listener Choice special.We look forward to welcoming you back for Season D. Until then, happy cooking, happy reading, and thank you for joining us on this alphabetical adventure through food and drink culture.
How can horror writing help readers — and writers — work through psychological trauma? Why does cross-genre fiction take longer to find an audience, but pay off in the long run? Is running a direct sales store actually worth the inventory, postage, and learning curve? And how can SubStack work for fiction authors? With psychotherapist and award-winning author P.D. Alleva. In the intro, thoughts on why in-person conferences are still worth it, even when they are a challenge for sensitive introverts! and tips for making the best of conferences [Self-Publishing Show]. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital.com to get started. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn P.D. Alleva is the award-winning author of horror, sci-fi, thrillers, and fantasy books. He's also a psychotherapist. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Why horror puts the human condition on display better than any other genre Emotional trauma as the silent psychological killer most people overlook The pros and challenges of cross-genre writing and finding your audience Practical lessons from running a direct store, including integration and signed-copy fulfilment How a 3 a.m. writing routine keeps the writing separate from the marketing and admin Serialising fiction on Substack, multiple newsletters, and avoiding paid subscriber promotions Why Facebook groups, TikTok Lives, and the three-to-one rule are working right now You can find P.D. at PDAlleva.com or on Substack. Transcript of the interview with P.D. Alleva Jo: P.D. Alleva is the award-winning author of horror, sci-fi, thrillers, and fantasy books. He's also a psychotherapist. So welcome, Paul. PD: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. This is a great opportunity. I love doing interviews, and I love talking to great people. Jo: Oh, good. Well, first up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and being an indie author. PD: So I've been writing since I was a kid, at least second grade and more than likely even before that. I've always had that creative itch. Getting into indie author publishing, I published my first book in 2011. At the time I was also operating my own business, which took up about 24 hours of my time every single day. Then I kind of got through that and sold that in 2016, and I'm like, you know what? The time has come. I'd always written books, poetry, short stories, but never really did anything with them because I just didn't have the time. So in 2017, that's when I really came out and said, all right, the time is now. Indie publishing was doing great. The one good thing I do love about Amazon is they allowed us to come out there and start showing our craft to people. So in 2017, I just started—let's do this. Let's write full time. Let's put books out there. Let's be creative. Let's really get those juices flowing. Plus, I was getting a little bit old, and I was like, now is definitely the time to do this. Since then I've been publishing consistently, and most of my books are horror books, but I dabble. I have a sci-fi series, and I'm starting to get into psychological thrillers too. I've got a new psychological thriller that'll be published in early 2027 called Girl on a Mission. For the most part, I'm definitely into the horror genre—books, short stories, all that good fun stuff. Jo: Right, so a couple of follow-ups. You said you're a bit old. Can you give us what decade you're in at least? PD: Well, I'm 51, so born in 1971. Jo: Oh, there you go. Same age as me. PD: All right, good. See that? So we're going head-to-head there. Jo: I don't think that's old at all. Also, you mentioned you sold your business in 2016. So what was your business before? Because I think business experience is so important. PD: Agreed 100%. So I'm a psychotherapist, and I had owned a treatment centre for mental health and addiction. That was started in 2011, and in 2016 is when it sold. Since then, my wife and I started a private practice. So I still, even to this day—well, about a year and a half ago is when I stopped. I specialise in trauma, PTSD, and addiction. Trauma mostly. Most of my caseload has always been trauma, PTSD, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, war-type trauma. I was doing that mostly individually since 2016 in private practice, and I'll still go into treatment centres and see patients there too, specifically for trauma. About a year and a half ago is when I started wanting to do writing 100% full time. I thought about becoming a professor, maybe going to college, but then I wasn't sure if I wanted to get into that full time, as far as a caseload and school and everything like that. So I decided to just do group therapy, group facilitation, and I've been doing that consistently since then. It may be 15 hours a week. I do love to give back, and to me, it's more what I teach. I specialise in neuro-linguistic programming, bilateral stimulation or EMDR, hypnotherapy, science of mind concepts, psychopharmacology, biological bases of behaviour—which is pretty much how your brain works—ancient wisdom, quantum physics. I do this in a drug addiction treatment centre mostly, also mental health. And of course, just living an addictive lifestyle is traumatic, too, in and of itself. So pretty much I'm teaching them. Behaviour modification is a big part of what I'm teaching during that time. You'll see that, too, if you read my books. There's two things you can figure out from my books. You can figure out how to murder people and get away with it, and two, you can figure out how to overcome trauma as well. The whole “murder people and get away with it” comes from my upbringing. I have a very sorted past, let's put it that way. My upbringing was very different than what most people grow up in. Jo: Oh, can you give us any more than that? Now everyone's like, “Oh.” PD: “What's going on with this guy, right?” So I grew up, let's say, quote unquote, “in an Italian New York family.” Jo: Okay. All right. PD: That might give people ideas, right? Jo: That's going to give people a lot of ideas. PD: If you've ever seen the movie Goodfellas, I kind of grew up in that atmosphere, and with even some of those people too. My family had connections to those people in that movie, which I find very funny. If you watch that movie with me, you get a very different perspective on what's going on in the movie. Jo: Wow. So you're an interesting guy with an interesting background, with a very interesting backstory job as well. Some people are like, “Well, of course he's writing horror because horror is just awful and full of slasher gore and all that.” I often have to say to people who don't read horror, “Look, it's not like that.” Maybe some of it is, sure. But most of it isn't. Could you talk about how reading and writing horror can also be psychologically healthy? How do these worlds intertwine for you? PD: Well, sure. It 100% can be healthy. Especially over the last few years, there's a trend going on out there right now where people are taking their trauma and putting it into a creative process through poems, short stories, and even novels. They're taking their trauma and giving it a face, like a monster, where people are overcoming that monster within the creative process. I always say that horror is the genre that puts on display, better than any other genre out there, the human condition. Why is that? When people are in a terrifying situation, you really see who they are. You get to the heart of the matter of who that person is by putting them in these horrific but undefinable situations where it's like, what are they going to come out as? That real true personality needs to come out, and that courage comes out. That's huge in horror, and I think horror gets such a bad name. Now, I know there's the extreme horror and the splatterpunk, and that has its kind of role too in what I'm saying, but that's where horror is getting its bad reputation out there with the over-the-top type of gore. For the most part, that's a small part of the horror genre. It's a subgenre for a reason. It has its readership, and that's fine. Nothing wrong with it. I read it all the time. I find a lot of joy in it, a lot of excitement. However, for the most part, any horror novel that is not completely with the gore and stuff like splatterpunk can be seen as a psychological thriller, and a lot of psychological thrillers can be seen as a horror novel. Look at books like The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon. That's horrific as well, but if you read the novel, it's in there. It just gets that bad rap right now, and it's not all gore. Most horror novels that I read today are psychological horror. It's tame on the gore, and the psychological aspect is there. I always see that psychological aspect—it's like psychological trauma. Most people, even in my industry, when people are out there and you mention trauma, PTSD, they're thinking about sexual abuse, physical abuse, or war-type trauma. The silent psychological one—I once wrote an article called “Emotional Trauma: The Silent Psychological Killer.” The one that's out there is the psychological trauma, the emotional trauma that is widespread. Most people go through that, and it could even be from parent to child, and most people don't understand that that's a traumatic experience. It's like a distortion of reality that you're experiencing that then creates a belief system in your brain, and you're constantly acting out that belief system. That's where the psychological component of horror really comes out. People breaking through that psychological belief system that was created through a traumatic experience by reaching courage and coming out through a horrific situation. Jo: Yes, it really annoys me, because with romance, of course people understand that romance is a huge genre. Something like a small town sweet romance is a world away from the bully romantasy, dark, or mafia. Mafia romance is a really big thing with very dark themes. I'm like, well, how can you understand that romance is a huge genre with all these different subgenres, and not think that horror or thriller or fantasy or sci-fi all have so many different subgenres within them? I personally read a lot of supernatural horror, but rarely the slasher gore kind of stuff. So I'm really glad you said that, and hopefully more people will open up a bit more. I did also want to ask you about what you write. You write all these different things. You write standalone—I mean, often horror is standalone—but you also have some series. How do you balance it? What are the benefits of cross-genre writing, but also the challenges of it? PD: Okay. So obviously I love cross-genre writing. To me, I use fantasy to explain the supernatural elements. I blend mostly a tad of fantasy to help explain the supernatural components in my supernatural novels. When I write sci-fi, specifically sci-fi, that has the fantasy element in it too, but there's also a tad of horror in there as well. It's just who I am. When I grew up, I had a lot of different influences. I had Star Wars on one side, and then I'm watching B-rated '80s slasher films on the other side. Those two mixes just kind of followed me throughout my life, and that's why I like putting them into my novels. As I tell my patients, don't limit yourself. Never limit yourself. If you're just limiting yourself to one genre, you're missing out on so much more that's out there. So I love the blend of mixing genres. It just gets my goat each and every time. It is a challenge though. I remember when I first started getting into indie publishing, I was never big into Facebook and social media up until I started becoming an indie author. Before that, with my type of upbringing, you don't advertise yourself. You don't advertise where you're going. That's a big no-no. So I always had this aversion to social media. I'll tell you a funny story. It was the late 2000s, probably 2006. I was a full-time single father at that time, and I was living in Florida. My family—brothers and sisters-in-law—were living in New York, and my sister-in-law said, “Get a Facebook account so we can see pictures of the kids.” I said, “Oh.” I didn't want to do it, but I said, “Okay,” so I did it. And I'm thinking, looking at this Facebook thing, “How do I put pictures on here?” So I figured out how to put pictures in folders. Then I phone called her, and I'm like, “Okay, so they're on there.” And they're like, “Well, where are they?” I'm like, “I put them in these folders. You can go and look at them.” She's like, “No, you've got to post them.” That to me was like, “I'm not posting pictures of my kids.” That was a big no-no. It didn't click. When I got on there finally in 2016, 2017, I'm like, “Okay, so I need to figure out social media. As an indie author, I need to be on there, so I need to get through this aversion and get on there.” I started noticing how people are so particular with their genres. If they're reading a romance, it had to be very specific with that exact type of romance, and if you deviated from it, they're not going to like it. So that was the challenge. I was like, “All right, number one, I'm not going to dilute myself” and say, “All right, take things out of my writing or out of my novel just so I could cater to a certain type of audience.” I'm like, “I'm not going to do that.” I know with me, myself, as a reader, I'll read everything. I don't limit myself to a specific genre. I'll read psychological thrillers. I'll read romance. I've been doing that all my life. So I'm like, if there's a person like me out there—and look at this, I just met like four other people who also read cross genres—then I know that there's at least another 30,000 people, and I know that at least then there's 300,000, then there's three million people out there. So just write the books that you're writing and find your audience. Now, that takes longer. So you've got to chip away. Chip away. You're going to find readers here and there, and then that reader kind of tells a few people about you, and then you've got a few more readers. Then you keep going, and you go on these Facebook groups, and you do a whole bunch of different things, and then you gather a few more readers. Then they're telling some friends, and then you've got more. The process takes a lot longer, yes, 100% agreed, but I would say be true to yourself and you can never go wrong. Jo: Yes, I agree. I write cross-genre as well, and I've browsed your collection. Golem was the one I was like, “Ooh, yes, I like that one.” I haven't read it yet, it's on my list. I think when you're cross-genre, my people come to my store as well, and it's like, “Okay, I'm interested in lots of things, but this is the one by this author that I'm interested in.” Whereas with other authors who only write one type of thing, then I might not like any of their stuff. So I think there are definitely pros and cons and different ways into our world. I also wanted to ask you about the differences in business. Obviously you ran this treatment centre and there were physical humans on all sides, and now you've got a business as an author. So what have you learned in business from what you used to do and what you do now? PD: Okay. You're right. The treatment centre industry is very different from what I'm doing now, but it's still people. Treat those people right, have integrity. If you say you're going to do something, follow through with it. My word is my bond type of thing. That definitely has fed into the writing and publishing industry that I'm in now in a huge way. Just connecting with people is, to me, the biggest part of it. I mean, treatment centres, you've got to connect with people. When I would market the treatment centre, where would I go? I would go to hospitals, residential facilities, detoxes, and talk to them about my programme and why they should be referring clients there. It's the same thing here. Why should you be reading my books? You get there through interviews like what I'm doing here with you. Other podcasts. You get there by doing Facebook Lives, TikTok. I haven't started TikTok Lives yet, but I actually love that platform. I'm falling in love with it. IG Lives, anything like that where you're talking to people and you're making a connection with those people. Through that, I've gathered so many different types of readers who are like, “Yes, I'll give this book a shot.” And then they read it and they're like, “Hey, this is really good, and I'm going to read another book.” With my books, I have very different books. Golem is my psychological horror novel. It's my slow-burn psychological horror novel, heavily inspired by Frankenstein and the Pygmalion myth. It's my first true horror book that I published. Then there's Jigglyspot and the Zero Intellect, which is inspired by B-rated '80s horror movies and the old grindhouse movies of the '70s, and it's mind manipulation. It's just wild and bizarre. And then The Sleepy Hollow Incident is my Gothic tale—it's like a dark romance mixed in with Gothic horror. So I always try to put something for everyone that's out there. To me, when I'm writing, it's got to be about depth, psychological depth. I always refer to my books to be like peeling layers off a Texas-sized onion. The more you read, the more in-depth you get into not only the characters, but the story. It's just something that comes out of me. It's part of me. That's the way I always have to do it. I always have to put that depth in there. To me, that's good storytelling. When I grew up, I read a lot of classic literature. Yes, Edgar Allan Poe, but also Dante's Inferno, Milton's Paradise Lost, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Brontë sisters. Keep going. Ray Bradbury, Ayn Rand, Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson. Those to me are my books that I absolutely love. So there's a sweet science in today's fast-paced, social media type of world in marrying the depth of the old classic literature and the entertainment value that is required today for being an author. There's that sweet science behind it, and I love just hitting that nail on the head every time. Jo: So did you ever pitch traditional publishing, or have you thought about going that way? Because I also find that a lot of horror actually sits very close to literary. Like, I read a lot more literary horror than I do in some of the other genres. PD: Correct. So in the beginning, yes. Not in a long time. I maybe went to a couple of indie publishers, but as far as traditional, the Big Five publishers, I have an aversion to them for a big reason. I know people who have worked in that industry that have told me some pretty bad horror stories about those places. So I haven't sent anything to that type of place in a very, very long time. Maybe close to 20 years. Indie publishers, the small presses, yes, here and there, but even then, I'm always moving at a fast pace. So if I've got a book and I'm sending it out as a query letter, by the time that query letter is even read, I'm almost done publishing. I love that aspect of it. The control of my story, where I know where this character's going. And listen, I've got my beta readers, I've got my ARC readers. They're there to tell me, “Hey, maybe you should change this or change that.” Whether I take that advice or not, of course my editor too, is really up to me. I always put out the book that I know is the one I want to read. And to me, I haven't gone wrong in doing so. I know with traditional publishing, you sometimes get too many thoughts in the pot there. Let's put it that way. Jo: Okay, so coming back to being indie then. You mentioned Amazon earlier, but you have a store where you sell direct. Many authors are doing this now, but it can be a challenge. So what have you found are the pros and cons of your direct store? What's working? Any lessons there? PD: Okay. So I use a place called Big Cartel. They're the platform where the books are on. They're hosting my website, PDAlleva.com. The big challenge was actually just starting it. It was so overwhelming. How do I put this on there? At the time, I've got all these books, so how do I present them? I'm even going to be doing another revamp with it too, because I want better pictures—taking pictures of the books, stuff like that, instead of just having the covers on there. I also have a lot of shirts that I'm selling. So I think the biggest challenge is just getting on there and starting it. Then of course, you've got to learn a whole new platform, and the mechanics, and how people are going to be downloading, and how that's done on an e-book versus a print version of the book. So it's a huge learning curve that you've really got to put your focus on and give it time. What most people like in indie publishing is signed copies. It's a huge part of indie publishing, selling those signed copies. People love a signed copy, and that's primarily what my website is for. You can order signed copies from me. I also use a place called IngramSpark, and they're more like a distributor. They're used by everyone. They've been around for a very long time. Traditional publishing uses them too, and they're just distributing your novel. I'd say about a year ago, maybe two years ago, they started where you can sell your books on discount through them as well. So I have that on my website too, where you're just clicking on the book and you're pretty much going directly to their site and you're buying paperbacks and hardbacks at a discount. That's going well too. For the most part, people are definitely coming to my site because they want the signed copies. A good thing with indie publishing is limited editions, first print copies, special editions. That type of stuff really just takes off. People love to see that, especially in the indie community. You can sell them too. I go to a few different book conventions during the year, and the limited editions are there. Like I said, people love the signed copies. They love being a part of that and getting that signed copy. They treasure it, just like I treasure my books too. I'm not referring to my books that I've written, but books that I have as well. I love my e-reader, don't get me wrong, but I still prefer the physical copy—the paperback, and even more so than the paperback, the hardback. So people love those signed copies, and that's why I created the website, to sell on there for them. Jo: Yes, I mean, we're getting to a point now though where I think some people are questioning the pros and cons of it. For example, you doing the signed copies—I don't do that from my Shopify store because I don't want to hold stock and I don't want to deal with postage. So I only do it when I do a Kickstarter. I've just finished one recently, Bones of the Deep, and I'm going up to the printer, and I'm going to sign a couple of hundred copies and then they do the postage. That's the only way I'm willing to do it because of the pain of getting books to your house, signing them, getting them in the post. So how do you manage that practically? PD: Okay, so the inventory's there. I don't go and sign everything right away. I just keep the inventory. Once somebody buys the book, then I'll pull out the book, log it and all that good fun stuff, sign it, and then ship it out immediately. Here in my country, we get discounts at the United States Post Office because they're books. So they pass that shipping cost over to the reader too, so it's a little bit cheaper for shipping. I'll just take books once or twice a week over to the United States Postal Service and ship those books out. I don't sign them until I actually get that order. Jo: How many do you have in your house? It's the holding stock of all the backlist that is the problem. PD: Ooh, gotcha. All right. That's why I have a two-car garage. But here's the thing, I won't order 500 at a time. I'll order 20 at a time. Jo: Okay. Right. PD: When I see that inventory's getting low, I'll order another 20 at a time. Jo: And you get those from IngramSpark? PD: Correct. When the new one comes out, maybe at that time I'm just selling those, bringing those to conventions that I go to. Or maybe doing a sale on those books at that time to get rid of the inventory so it's not sitting around anymore. Jo: I think that's so important. Then like you mentioned, you do T-shirts or shirts. That is also really hard because of sizing. So is that all print on demand? PD: Yes. So I don't really hold the stock on the shirts. When I get an order, whatever the size is at that time, I go directly to the place and order it. I use a place called Sublimation Station that's here in Orlando. They do great all-over print T-shirts. They're fantastic. I just did one for The Sleepy Hollow Incident. So The Sleepy Hollow Incident is one long story, and it's broken up into four books. Each book has its own. The covers are fantastic. I use a lady named Cherie Foxley. She's a phenomenal cover designer. So the shirts are, like, book one is on the front of one shirt with book two on the back, and then the second shirt is book three on the cover and book four on the back. However, I can customise those. I just did a giveaway in my Facebook group and I let people know I could customise them, and she wanted book one and book four, so I just got that and sent it out to her. Now, if people go ahead and order that on the website, I can just order it right away from them, boom, and that place will get it shipped right then and there. Jo: Right, so they do the shipping. These are all sort of practical things that people need to answer because I feel like sometimes it's like, “Oh, yes, having a direct store is great,” but there's actually quite a lot of work that goes into it, isn't there? PD: There is. There's a lot of work. You're pretty much opening almost like your own brick-and-mortar store at that point. You just don't have walk-in traffic coming in—your traffic is all coming online. So there is a lot to it, but it's worth it. If you're a self-published author or even a small indie press, it's good to have. Because like I said, people love the signed copies. Jo: When you say it's worth it, is it worth it financially or just because you like to serve the customers in that way? PD: Both. Jo: Right. So it is financially worth it for you? PD: Yes. Jo: I was talking to a friend of mine and saying, are you valuing your time in terms of things like taking the books to the post office and stuff like that? Do you find it eats into your writing at all, or do you just manage it all separately? PD: No, I manage it separately. So I'm an early morning riser. I get up at 3:00 in the morning, and that's when I write my books or do editing or brainstorming. I'm about to write a new novella now called The Adam and Eve Story, which is actually based on a little-known CIA shelved book from the 1990s called The Adam and Eve Story as well. So I've been brainstorming that, and I was doing that this morning. I get up at 3:00 a.m. and I do my writing, and by the time the kids are up and by the time the wife is up, it's like 8:00 a.m. is rolling around and I'm pretty much done at that point. Then I have my days. Tuesday I'm completely working from home and I do my thing in the morning, and then the rest of the day is marketing, fulfilling orders, stuff like that. On the days when I'm going to do group facilitation, I'll of course still get up at 3:00 o'clock in the morning, and then I'll plan out the day. I've got an hour between this group and I can go ahead and do that, and I'm already there so it's not a problem. The post office is right around the corner. You kind of figure out all the logistics for yourself. There are some days, like on Monday, I don't facilitate groups until the afternoon, so I've got the whole morning to work on marketing and do other things, and fulfilment. Then of course Saturday's a big day for that too. Jo: Oh, that's good. I feel like people always need to know how to balance their time, but it sounds like you manage, because at 3:00 a.m., as you say, there's not much else to do other than write. You mentioned marketing, and you have a Substack, pdsalternativefiction.substack.com. Talk about that and serialising fiction and how Substack works. Because I feel like a load of people are jumping in but might not necessarily know how it works, especially for fiction. PD: Correct. It is becoming quite popular out there. I think the one before that was Patreon, and Patreon is pretty big for that too, kind of the same thing. I wanted to start something and just get the work out there. I was very interested when Amazon came out a few years ago with what was called Vella. They kind of started that. I was like, “This is kind of cool.” Couple chapters at a time. I'm writing the books anyway, so why don't we kick this off and see how it goes—a type of experiment. I had a lot of fun doing it. I started on October 4th, 2024. I've done four novels so far. One is still going, which is Volume 3 of my Dark Veil serie— that's a sci-fi series. I wrote three other novels. The Hypnotist, which is a thriller, heavy on the sci-fi and a tad of horror in there too. And then I wrote Girl on a Mission, which is my psychological thriller, and then Cat Fight, which is a horror novel—all within that time. I think I finished all three of those novels in January, and then the first week of February they were all pretty much done. Now what I'm doing is, I went paid recently on the Substack. It's like everything else that's out there—chip away, chip away. I fell into that hole where they say, “Hey, we can promote you and get people to sign up for your newsletter.” And I'll be honest with you, don't do it. It's not worth it. You spend money, and what happens is they're what I refer to as dead leads. They don't click. You wind up shuffling them off after three to six months, because they're just not clicking. Everybody gets a star rating, so you know—are they clicking, are they staying on, are they not? So I got rid of pretty much all of those people, and I'll never do that again. It's got to be done organically. That's why when you read my books, especially the new books, towards the end it'll say, “Sign up for my newsletter.” I do more with that newsletter too. If you're on the free tier, every month I do a monthly newsletter, which is just me talking about updates, things going on in the publishing industry, things going on with me. My daughter puts together a weekly Horror and Sci-Fi Chronicles newsletter, which gives what's going on in new releases in the industry—sci-fi, horror, books, movies, television. She does deep dives into industry tropes, historical tidbits, and a weekly quiz. I also do a monthly Terrors and Tales newsletter. I started this last year, and it was a quarterly newsletter. It's other authors who are new, upcoming, never been published before, looking to get published. It's a chance for them to be on the newsletter where they have a flash fiction story or poem or even a short story that I publish for them. It's called the Terrors and Tales newsletter. What happened is I would put out calls for submissions. And a place called Duotrope—I don't even know who these people are, but all of a sudden I got an email from them stating, “Hey, we found that you're looking for submissions, and we posted your link. We hope you don't mind.” I'm like, “No, of course I don't mind.” I got so many submissions from that one link. I'm like, “Okay.” Do I really want to deny people? I'm not like that. I want to help promote other authors. I know what it's like when you're new and upcoming, no matter what age you are, to say, “Hey, here's a platform for you to see your stuff in print.” Obviously, I read through them just to make sure they're up to a certain standard, but for the most part, if you submit, you're getting in there. With Duotrope, I'm like, I have enough here to put out one a month. So in May 2026, the first one goes out, and then I'll have one each month until December, and then who knows? In 2027 I might go back to quarterly. I might get enough submissions to just keep it going once a month. So that's the Terrors and Tales newsletter, and it usually comes out towards the end of the month—the last two weeks. I have nothing to do with it in terms of content. None of my stories are on there. None of my poems are on there. None of my flash fiction. It's all other authors, just for them to see their name in print, see their work in print, share it with their friends, and put something on their resume, and to encourage people to keep reading and keep the craft going. Jo: When you say in print, you don't mean in physical print? PD: Oh, I mean in the newsletter. I'm sorry. Jo: I think that's important, or you're going to get a lot more submissions, and you will need to do publishing contracts and all that kind of thing. I think that's the difficult thing with a Substack newsletter approach—it's difficult to know where to categorise it. Is it marketing? Is it publishing? It's all of these things, I suppose. A bit like this podcast, it's all kinds of things. In terms of Substack actually making money on its own or leading to book sales that make money, do you think it does serve that purpose? PD: I think I've gotten more book sales through it, and also ARC readers who are enjoying the books and giving reviews. As far as the paid tiers, that's kind of a little bit slow, and that's where I'm saying chip away at it. Keep it up there. Keep it going. Over time, you're going to build that type of audience where it's going to be like, “Hey, this is financially feasible for me to continue to do this.” That's the response that I'm getting out there. Jo: Yes. Before, you mentioned you were doing Facebook Lives and you're looking at TikTok, but— Is anything else working for you in book marketing? If people have a few books and they're like, “What is working for book marketing right now?”—what do you recommend? PD: Okay. For me, the thing that has made the most sense is making sure the reader knows the book is out there through some sort of social media. I've had really good success on TikTok since the beginning of this year especially. I started it about a year ago, year and a half ago, but then my father got sick and passed away, and it was a new venture and I put it off to the side. I really got the flavour going at the beginning of this year. February, March of this year. It seems to be going really well, and I've noticed an uptick in sales from just getting the videos out there and getting it in front of people's eyes. There's an event I'm going to in August called ShiverCon, which is a pretty big event. After that event, I'm going to look to see what type of inventory I have left over from the event, and I'm going to start doing TikTok Lives. I'm very comfortable being on camera. So I'm like, “Yeah, that seems like a good way to go.” I know there's a few other horror authors who are doing it and having good success with TikTok Lives as well. A guy named Jason Davis is doing really well with TikTok Lives, and a few other authors too. I'm like, “Yes, I could definitely do that.” I want to get up to a certain number of people, and I want these events. I'm going to one in July, and then ShiverCon in August. Once those are done, I'm going to have more time to do the TikTok Lives. As far as Facebook is concerned, what I've had really great success with on Facebook is being in the groups and meeting other authors. That's not always about my book per se, but whatever books I'm reading, I'm posting my reviews about those books in those groups and meeting readers. Then obviously, they always say the three-to-one rule. Post about three different books and then post about your own book, whether you're doing a sale or a new release or a re-release or whatever. I've found success through that just by interacting with readers. When they post a book, I'll comment, “Hey, I've read that book,” or, “Hey, that book looks really cool. I like the review.” Commenting on it so you start these relationships with people who are out there in these Facebook groups. I've recently started my own Facebook reader group. I kind of go with the same thing. Last night, we did a live reading for another author. I like other authors to be on there. I always like to think, what does the reader need? What do I want to see as a reader? I would love to hear live readings from authors. So I kind of learn about them, learn about the book, and get a live reading. To me, that's a good way to go. So I started that recently, and it seems to be going well. I've got a new folk horror coming out soon, and I put out a call for ARC readers and got a fantastic response from that. That kind of drives the sales anyway, because when you get those reviews, then people see it gives credibility to the book, and then other people see it, and then they're buying it too. So that comes from the groups. There's so many wheels to spin in this industry as an indie author when you're doing this, especially when you're doing 99% of it on your own. You've got to get out there. No one's going to know your book exists if you don't get out there and tell somebody about it. Jo: Brilliant. Well, tell us— Where can people find you and your books online? PD: All right. Perfect. So obviously I'm on Amazon like everyone. Most of my books are worldwide, so you'll find them in Barnes & Noble as well. And of course, if you want the signed copies or discount print books, I always lead people straight to my website, PDAlleva.com. Then, of course, if you go to my Substack, you'll get all the updates, and you'll get all the links to purchase or find out where they are on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and things like that too. Jo: Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for your time, Paul. That was great. PD: Thank you very much for having me. It was great chatting with you. The post Writing Cross-Genre, Selling Direct, And Serialising On SubStack With P.D. Alleva first appeared on The Creative Penn.
In this episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas is joined by Brendan Dowd — West Point graduate, Iraq War veteran, government consultant, and host of History Nerds United, one of the most respected history book podcasts in the business with over 220 episodes — for a pure, unfiltered book nerd conversation. Both hosts came with a stack of their favorite British history books and took turns sharing their picks, debating the merits, going gloriously off-topic about Darkest Hour, the new Wuthering Heights film, Bridgerton, and Dan Jones's upcoming castles book, and building what amounts to a British history reading list that will keep you busy for years. Between them, Jonathan and Brendan recommend over 20 books spanning Alfred the Great, the Tudors, the Regency, Victorian London, World War II, Thatcher, the Iranian Embassy Siege, and the hidden history of English wolves — plus a peek at what's sitting on each of their TBR piles right now. Links History Nerds United ~History Nerds United Podcast~ ~History Nerds United on YouTube~ ~Brendan's Top Episode: Helen Castor on Joan of Arc~ (update with direct episode link) ⠀Jonathan's Picks ~Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson~ ~The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson~ ~Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts~ ~My Early Life by Winston Churchill~ ~A Very English Scandal by John Preston~ ~London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd~ ~Citizens of London by Lynne Olson~ ~Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera~ ~Empireworld by Sathnam Sanghera~ ~The Iron Lady by John Campbell~ ~The Last Wolf by Robert Winder~ ~The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy by David Cannadine~ ~Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh~ ~The Regency Years by Robert Morrison~ ~Churchill's Citadel by Katherine Carter~ ⠀Brendan's Picks ~Alfred the Great by Justin Pollard~ ~The Six Loves of James I by Gareth Russell~ ~Battle for the Island Kingdom by Don Hollway~ ~Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII by Jane Marguerite Tippett~ ~The Greatest Knight by Thomas Asbridge~ ~Henry V by Dan Jones~ ~Thomas More: A Life by Joanne Paul~ ~The Stolen Crown by Tracy Borman~ ~The Crown's Silence by Brooke Newman~ ~The Eagle and the Hart by Helen Castor~ ~The Invention of Charlotte Brontë by Graham Watson~ ~London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe~ ~The Siege by Ben Macintyre~ ⠀Also Mentioned ~Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe~ ~Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe~ ~Secrets of Great British Castles with Dan Jones on Netflix~ ~Darkest Hour (2017)~ ~Young Winston (1972)~ ⠀Anglotopia ~101 Oxford Travel Tips and Tricks by Jonathan Thomas~ (update with direct product link) ~Anglotopia Guide to the World of Bridgerton~ (update with direct product link) ~Friends of Anglotopia Club~ (update with correct URL) ⠀ Takeaways Both Jonathan and Brendan started their podcasts for exactly the same reason — frustration at the quality of existing coverage in their field — and both were shocked to discover how generous, enthusiastic, and collegial the history author community turned out to be. Brendan's gateway into British history was Alfred the Great by Justin Pollard — a compact, accessible biography of the only English monarch to earn the title "the Great," which he recommends as the perfect gateway drug for readers who think history books are intimidating. Jonathan's most-reread British book is Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island — a definitive outsider's portrait of British culture from the early 1990s that remains beloved by British readers themselves, and the book that most shaped his vision for Anglotopia. Andrew Roberts's one-volume Churchill biography is both Jonathan and Brendan's recommended starting point for anyone wanting a modern, comprehensive, and myth-busting account of Churchill — and Roberts's Napoleon biography is equally essential. Helen Castor is independently named by Brendan as one of his very favorite history writers — her Eagle and the Hart on Richard II and Henry IV, and her Joan of Arc episode of his podcast, are both highlighted as exceptional examples of humanizing complex historical figures without sanitizing them. Both hosts agree that the best history books share a quality: they humanize their subjects — showing the positive and the negative — rather than either condemning or canonizing them. The books they admire most leave the reader to make their own moral judgments. Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera and The Crown's Silence by Brooke Newman both generated significant controversy — particularly in British publications — but both Jonathan and Brendan recommend them as essential, rigorously evidenced correctives to popular myths about the British Empire and the monarchy's role in the slave trade. Ben Macintyre's The Siege — on the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London that made the SAS famous — is Brendan's pick for best recent true British history read, praised for building unbearable tension over hundreds of pages before releasing it all in a single extended final chapter. The new Wuthering Heights film gets a thumbs-down from both hosts — "it looks beautiful but just didn't land" — while Darkest Hour generates a spirited debate about the Underground scene that ends with both agreeing it's historically wrong but emotionally right. Both hosts are currently working through books about the interwar period, Cold War espionage, and upcoming releases from Dan Jones and Thomas Asbridge — and both agree that the single greatest problem with loving history books is that the TBR pile never gets shorter. ⠀ Soundbites "I lost it. I said, there's gotta be a better way. I don't want to continually torture my family with all my rants about books. So I started the blog." — Brendan on the one-star Amazon review that launched History Nerds United. "I sent 10 emails on the first day thinking if I get one back I'll be ecstatic. I got eight back within three days. And I've now sat on a boat with Dan Jones having drinks, overlooking Omaha Beach. Nobody tell me it didn't happen." — Brendan on the unexpected magic of the history community. "I have yet to interview a jerk. Everyone has been unfailingly nice and so excited to be there and just so game to talk about whatever." — Brendan on 220+ episodes of History Nerds United. "My long-term goal is to be like Bill Bryson. I've actually met him. He's a very nice chap. I can only hope to be 10% as good as him one day." — Jonathan on Notes from a Small Island and his writing ambitions. *"If you want to understand why everything is happening in Downton Abbey, read *The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy. I read it as research for a novel I was writing in college and it has never left me." — Jonathan on David Cannadine's masterwork. "Churchill wouldn't have done that. He was not that type of person. But you put Churchill in a period tube carriage, surrounded by Londoners during the Blitz, and it captures the essence of what the story is trying to tell. Was it real? Heck no." — Jonathan and Brendan on the Underground scene in Darkest Hour. "Helen Castor is constantly teaching you, but you feel like you're just having a conversation within the book. At the end of it, you hear Helen get emotional talking about this teenager burned at the stake — how scared she must have been, even with all her faith. She makes her human instead of an icon." — Brendan on his favorite episode of History Nerds United. "The thesis is that because Britain hunted wolves to extinction, it unleashed the economic powerhouse of sheep farming and wool — and as a consequence of that led to so much of what we know as Britain. I read it and I wanted to read it all over again immediately." — Jonathan on The Last Wolf by Robert Winder. "She stayed laser focused on the Elizabethan succession and somehow it's still interesting all the way through. She mentions the Spanish Armada for about three sentences. I said in my review: this book has been written. We don't need any more on this subject." — Brendan on Tracy Borman's The Stolen Crown. "No author has ever made me feel more lazy than Catherine Grace Katz — she wrote *Daughters of Yalta* while she was in law school. If you told me that I would one day be sitting there with Marsha Clark from the OJ Simpson trial, I would have called you a liar. But that's what this world does." — Brendan on the surreal privilege of the history podcast community. ⠀ Chapters 00:00 Introduction — Jonathan sets up the book conversation episode and introduces Brendan Dowd 01:41 How a Tank Platoon Leader Got a 220-Episode History Podcast — Long commutes, bad Amazon reviews, and one unexpected email 05:58 The History Author Community — Why everybody wants you to win, and the generosity of historians 08:10 Dan Jones on a River Cruise — Brendan's honeymoon, Omaha Beach, and a surreal life moment 09:01 What History Nerds United Is — The format, the philosophy, and why Brendan calls himself the laziest podcaster 10:26 BOOK PICKS BEGIN 10:39 Brendan Pick #1: Alfred the Great by Justin Pollard — The George Washington of England and the perfect gateway drug 12:18 Jonathan Pick #1: Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson — The definitive outsider's portrait of British culture and Jonathan's most-reread book 14:28 Brendan Pick #2: The Six Loves of James I by Gareth Russell — A party animal king, Scottish trauma, and the most uncomfortable compliment Gareth ever received 16:58 Jonathan Pick #2: Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts — The one-volume biography that settles the argument 18:15 Andrew Roberts's Napoleon — A brief but enthusiastic detour to France 18:56 Brendan Pick #3: Battle for the Island Kingdom by Don Hollway — 1000 to 1066, the most disgusting assassination in history, and setting up everything 20:05 Jonathan Pick #3: My Early Life by Winston Churchill — The only autobiography, the Boer War escape, and the Gary Stiles connection 21:50 Darkest Hour Debate — The Underground scene: historically wrong, emotionally right, and why it works anyway 23:18 The Perfect WWII Double Bill — Darkest Hour followed by Dunkirk as a single evening 23:50 Brendan Pick #4: Henry V by Dan Jones — Present tense biography, the greatest medieval king, and writing something when you feel ready for it 25:29 Jonathan Pick #4: A Very English Scandal by John Preston — Jeremy Thorpe, a murder plot, a dead dog, and the British establishment 26:57 John Preston's Robert Maxwell Book — And a certain imprisoned daughter 27:26 Brendan Pick #5: Thomas More: A Life by Joanne Paul — Saints, hair shirts, comedy gold, and debunking 500-year-old myths 29:24 Jonathan Pick #5: London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd — The definitive history of London and the gateway to a great corpus 30:25 Brendan Pick #6: Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII by Jane Marguerite Tippett — He wasn't a Nazi, and the documentation proves it 32:03 Jonathan Pick #6: Citizens of London by Lynne Olson — Americans in London during the Blitz and how they helped save Britain 33:24 Brendan Pick #7: The Stolen Crown by Tracy Borman — The Elizabethan succession, new evidence, and calling Henry VIII a few four-letter words 34:56 Tracy Borman on Inside the Tower of London — And Dan Jones's upcoming Castles book 36:03 Jonathan Pick #7: Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera — Deconstructing myths of the British Empire and why the author quit social media 37:32 Brendan Pick #8: The Crown's Silence by Brooke Newman — The monarchy's direct financial involvement in the slave trade and British publications' predictable response 39:34 Jonathan Pick #8: The Iron Lady by John Campbell — The definitive Thatcher biography and why she's Churchill's true successor 41:45 Brendan Pick #9: The Greatest Knight by Thomas Asbridge — William Marshal, four kings, King John, and a life that reads like a Hollywood script 43:22 Jonathan Pick #9: The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy by David Cannadine — The book that explains Downton Abbey and everything behind it 44:29 Brendan Pick #10: The Eagle and the Hart by Helen Castor — Richard II, Henry IV, and why taking the crown makes you a marked man 46:48 Jonathan Pick #10: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh — Fiction that illuminates aristocratic decline and the companion read to Cannadine 48:18 Brendan Pick #11: The Invention of Charlotte Brontë by Graham Watson — Jane Eyre as a gateway, the weird genius of the Brontë family, and more autobiography than you realized 50:18 Wuthering Heights Film Discussion — Brendan defers, Jonathan gives a verdict: beautiful but it didn't land 51:43 Jonathan Pick #11: The Last Wolf by Robert Winder — No wolves, lots of sheep, and the surprising hidden springs of Englishness 53:10 Brendan Pick #12: London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe — A body off a balcony opposite MI5, true crime that leaves you profoundly uneasy 54:54 Jonathan buys London Falling at Barnes & Noble — And finds it in the fiction section 55:24 Jonathan Pick #12: The Regency Years by Robert Morrison — What Bridgerton gets wrong, what Jane Austen's world actually was, and the Anglotopia Bridgerton guide 56:23 Bridgerton vs. The Patriot — Two hosts agree: know your genre, leave accuracy at the door 58:15 Brendan Pick #13: The Siege by Ben Macintyre — The Iranian Embassy siege, the SAS, and a final chapter that takes an hour to read 1:00:06 Jonathan Pick #13: Churchill's Citadel by Katherine Carter — Chartwell as weapon, the wilderness years, and the best first book Jonathan has read in years 1:01:31 What's on the TBR Right Now — Ike and Winston, Three Weeks in July, A Shellshocked Nation, the Nord Stream conspiracy, Dan Jones's Castles, and more 1:07:37 The Book Neither Host Can Find Anyone to Write — Brendan's gap in the market involving Joan of Arc's most disturbing companion 1:10:24 The Book Jonathan Should Write — Brendan makes his pitch; Jonathan firmly declines 1:11:06 Jonathan's Gap in the Market — Churchill's second term as Prime Minister: underexplored, fascinating, partially covered by The Crown 1:12:29 John Lithgow as Churchill — Too tall, earned it on The Crown, also very scary in Dexter 1:12:36 Brendan's Proudest Episode — Helen Castor on Joan of Arc, two hours that felt like twenty minutes 1:16:52 Wrap-Up — Where to find History Nerds United, the full book list in the show notes, and promises of a return visit Video Version
As the northern edge of the Castle Eschatonica grows closer, the adventurers within begin to sense a change in the dungeon around them. While the Celestial Echoes that make up the hallways and rooms of the castle were once neatly separated, now it seems that the people and places from the various past Perpetuan worlds have begun to overlap and interact. In search of information, Brontë, Veile, Elena, and Caoimhe seek help from an otherworldly machine. Meanwhile, on the other side of the castle, a gang of otherworldly beings seeks help from the trio of Antistrophe, Jonathan, and Uncle Nicky. This Week on Perpetua: Escape the Rumbling Castle! 02 Perpetua Guide [In Progress v.06] Some Feedback [Page 64 of 65] Doom_Tree_Anne So, I HAVE to know… who is everyone's favorite Agony? Back in Imago 2: Ancestral Fault, I HATED Miss Mephitic, because I just thought compared to the other Agonies, she was a really boring design. Who cares about a bunch of vines!? But with the music box/ballerina re-design in this game… I think she might have jumped to the top of the list! I guess we have to wait and see if she keeps it going forward… TheUnforgivenIII My favorite is definitely Melo. That guy seems like he'd be cool to chill out with and listen to music with. Alukard83 Wow, color me surprised Unforgiven! I thought you'd be an Ira guy, through and through. TheUnforgivenIII Why the hell would I like that stupid little idiot baby? Alukard83 Well, now I think it might be a bad idea to tell you why. As for my favorite, this is the first time I'm really meeting them, but I gotta say, I really love Connie. I love it when something references something else, you know? And she's sort of a walking (well, rolling) reference machine! TheDiamondRanger What's An Agony? The strategy guide says they're like equipable spells but it sounds like they're NPCS too!? CarlsSr You're such a Wan. Hosted by Austin Walker (austinwalker.bsky.social) Featuring Ali Acampora (ali-online.bsky.social), Art Martinez-Tebbel (amtebbel.bsky.social), Jack de Quidt (notquitereal.bsky.social), Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart), Sylvi Bullet (@sylvibullet), Keith J Carberry (@keithjcarberry) and Andrew Lee Swan (swandre3000.bsky.social) Produced by Ali Acampora Music by Jack de Quidt (available on bandcamp) Cover Art by Ben McEntee (https://linktr.ee/benmce.art) With thanks to Amelia Renee, Arthur B., Aster Maragos, Bill Kaszubski, Cassie Jones, Clark, DB, Daniel Laloggia, Diana Crowley, Edwin Adelsberger, Emrys, Greg Cobb, Ian O'Dea, Ian Urbina, Irina A., Jack Shirai, Jake Strang, Katie Diekhaus, Ken George, Konisforce, Kristina Harris Esq, L Tantivy, Lawson Coleman, Mark Conner, Mike & Ruby, Muna A, Nat Knight, Olive Perry, Quinn Pollock, Robert Lasica, Shawn Drape, Shawn Hall, Summer Rose, TeganEden, Thomas Whitney, Voi, chocoube, deepFlaw, fen, & weakmint This episode was made with support from listeners like you! To support us, you can go to friendsatthetable.cash.
Cathi Unsworth was a teenage Goth, enthralled as much by Joy Division and the Banshees as by the Brontës, Bram Stoker and Aubrey Beardsley. We loved her book ‘Season of the Witch' and she's since put together a soundtrack album, ‘Dressed In Black', featuring the Goth divas she most admires and adores. And talks to us here about everything from murder ballads, the Industrial Revolution and Victorian literature to … … John Peel, Siouxsie, Joy Division and her teenage Goth conversion among the “hedge-goths” and “field-goths” of rural Norfolk … the phenomenal life, lyrics and mysterious disappearance of ‘Swamp-witch' Bobbie Gentry … has Goth eaten Punk? … why BBC banned Billie Holiday's “Gloomy Sunday” … the ‘death discs' of John Layton, the Shangri-Las and Twinkle … how Cabaret and Julie Driscoll coloured Siouxsie and the Banshees … Shirley Collins' Death And The Lady – “now that's what I call a pandemic!” … did Liz Fraser speak fluent Faerie? … Nico – “if I had a machine-gun I'd kill you all!” … and how Juliette Gréco looked the devil in the face. Order copies of ‘Dressed In Black: Goth Divas From The Dark Side' here: https://acerecords.co.uk/various-artists-dressed-in-blackHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cathi Unsworth was a teenage Goth, enthralled as much by Joy Division and the Banshees as by the Brontës, Bram Stoker and Aubrey Beardsley. We loved her book ‘Season of the Witch' and she's since put together a soundtrack album, ‘Dressed In Black', featuring the Goth divas she most admires and adores. And talks to us here about everything from murder ballads, the Industrial Revolution and Victorian literature to … … John Peel, Siouxsie, Joy Division and her teenage Goth conversion among the “hedge-goths” and “field-goths” of rural Norfolk … the phenomenal life, lyrics and mysterious disappearance of ‘Swamp-witch' Bobbie Gentry … has Goth eaten Punk? … why BBC banned Billie Holiday's “Gloomy Sunday” … the ‘death discs' of John Layton, the Shangri-Las and Twinkle … how Cabaret and Julie Driscoll coloured Siouxsie and the Banshees … Shirley Collins' Death And The Lady – “now that's what I call a pandemic!” … did Liz Fraser speak fluent Faerie? … Nico – “if I had a machine-gun I'd kill you all!” … and how Juliette Gréco looked the devil in the face. Order copies of ‘Dressed In Black: Goth Divas From The Dark Side' here: https://acerecords.co.uk/various-artists-dressed-in-blackHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cathi Unsworth was a teenage Goth, enthralled as much by Joy Division and the Banshees as by the Brontës, Bram Stoker and Aubrey Beardsley. We loved her book ‘Season of the Witch' and she's since put together a soundtrack album, ‘Dressed In Black', featuring the Goth divas she most admires and adores. And talks to us here about everything from murder ballads, the Industrial Revolution and Victorian literature to … … John Peel, Siouxsie, Joy Division and her teenage Goth conversion among the “hedge-goths” and “field-goths” of rural Norfolk … the phenomenal life, lyrics and mysterious disappearance of ‘Swamp-witch' Bobbie Gentry … has Goth eaten Punk? … why BBC banned Billie Holiday's “Gloomy Sunday” … the ‘death discs' of John Layton, the Shangri-Las and Twinkle … how Cabaret and Julie Driscoll coloured Siouxsie and the Banshees … Shirley Collins' Death And The Lady – “now that's what I call a pandemic!” … did Liz Fraser speak fluent Faerie? … Nico – “if I had a machine-gun I'd kill you all!” … and how Juliette Gréco looked the devil in the face. Order copies of ‘Dressed In Black: Goth Divas From The Dark Side' here: https://acerecords.co.uk/various-artists-dressed-in-blackHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Heyyy Tinies!Brontë King, our favourite ray of sunshine and founder of Gals Who, is back in the studio and we are sooo here for it.This week, the girls deep dive into the Jenner double date taking over our FYPs, the Fury wedding (Crocs under a wedding dress? ICONIC), and the X Factor Over 25s category officially making us feel ANCIENT.Brontë also fills us in on the DMs she's had from Tinies trying out Etsy Witch, from truth spells on boyfriends, to casting spells on exes…PLUS, One Tree Hill has well and truly taken over Melissa's life! Cue an obligatory Chad Michael Murray gush (broken nose era only, of course).And as always, the dilemmas are delivering. One Tiny is torn over whether to invite her in-laws to her hen do. Another Tiny got caught in an awkward 69 fail… but should she go back for round two??Enjoy the episode xGot a dilemma, some personal advice for a fellow Tiny, or a follow-up to a previous one? Send us a voice note or message on Insta @wednesdayspodcast, or drop us an email at wednesdays@jampotproductions.co.ukInstagram | https://www.instagram.com/wednesdayspodcast/TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@wednesdayspodcastEmail | wednesdays@jampotproductions.co.ukTHE CREDITSProducer: Magda Cassidy Assistant Producer: Issy Weeks-Hankins and Ceyda UzunVideo: Lizzie McCarthy Social: Amber HouriganSenior Producer: Helen Burke Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
When the Guardian drops a list of the 100 Greatest Novels in English it's time to drop everything to talk about it. Luckily pod-regular guest, journalist Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance, host of the Curious Readers podcast, also had views, and were willing to get together on a Sunday evening to share them. You'll hear our hits, our misses, how many we've read, whether we should have read more and much musing on whether a list like this is the way to get people excited about reading. We explore the joys of the sub-lists – the contributor lists – all squirrelled away on a sub-section of the Guardian's website, that arguably provide more excitement and inspiration than the fairly canonical top 100. Which is the best Brontë? Which is the best Austen? Do we age into certain books? If you've read all seven volumes of Proust shouldn't that count for more than one entry? All this and much, much more. Enjoy – this was an absolute delight to make and I hope it makes you smile as much as it did me.Have your say: get in touch on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com, or head to our website for full shownotes. What would be in your top-10?Check out the Patreon for all kinds of extras, from our monthly book club to extra shows and Kate's reading diaries. Find it at patreon.com/thebookclubreviewThe Guardian's List of the 100 Greatest Novels published in English, copied below for ease of reference.*underlined – the ones Kate has readMiddlemarchBelovedUlyssesTo the LighthouseIn Search of Lost TimeAnna KareninaWar and PeaceJane EyrePride and PrejudiceMadame BovaryThe Great GatsbyBleak HouseEmmaMrs DallowayMoby-DickNineteen Eighty-FourOne Hundred Years of SolitudePersuasionThe Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, GentlemanWuthering HeightsThe Portrait of a LadyThings Fall ApartMidnight's ChildrenThe Remains of the DayLolitaDon QuixoteThe TrialThe Brothers KaramazovPale FireFrankensteinThe Prime of Miss Jean BrodieThe God of Small ThingsDavid CopperfieldWolf HallGreat ExpectationsThe Handmaid's TaleInvisible ManThe Age of InnocenceTheir Eyes Were Watching GodSong of SolomonHeart of DarknessThe Magic MountainHousekeepingGiovanni's RoomThe Golden NotebookThe LeopardVanity FairThe MetamorphosisA Fine BalanceWide Sargasso SeaMy Brilliant FriendThe Golden BowlThe Transit of VenusOrlandoThe WavesMansfield ParkThe Sound and the FuryDisgraceNever Let Me GoHowards EndThe Rings of SaturnHalf of a Yellow SunWhite TeethThe Good SoldierThe Color PurpleThe Master and MargaritaThe Man Without QualitiesBlood MeridianCrime and PunishmentJude the ObscureKindredOur Mutual FriendAusterlitzNervous ConditionsThe Bluest EyeDraculaThe RainbowA House for Mr BiswasGo Tell It on the MountainRebeccaBuddenbrooksThe End of the AffairA Farewell to ArmsThe Talented Mr RipleyThe VegetarianThe Turn of the ScrewThe Line of BeautyRagtimeThe Left Hand of DarknessJacob's RoomLife and FateSentimental EducationInvisible CitiesThe Known WorldThe Return of the NativePedro PáramoCatch-22The RoadThe Go-BetweenMy ÁntoniaParticular books we touch on in the showThings Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeUlysses by James JoyceIn Search of Lost Time by Marcel ProustMy Brilliant Friend by Elena FerranteWuthering Heights by Emily BrontëAs I Lay Dying by William FaulknerVillette by Charlotte BrontëOrlando, The Waves and To the Lighthouse by Virginia WoolfOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezMiddlemarch by George EliotPedro Páramo by Juan RulfoRebecca by Daphne du MaurierThe Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di LampedusaNervous Conditions, The Book of Not and This Mournable Body by Tsitsi DangarembgaThe Transit of Venus by Shirley HazzardDon Quixote by Miguel de CervantesThe Magic Mountain by Thomas MannBuddenbrooks by Thomas MannLonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryBlood Meridian by Cormac McCarthyThe Memory Police by Yoko OgawaThe English Understand Wool by Helen DeWittA Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb SalihThe Princess of Clèves by Madame de LafayetteThe Cairo Trilogy by Naguib MahfouzThe Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō TanizakiThe Trial and Metamorphosis by Franz KafkaThe Go-Between by L. P. HartleyMoby-Dick by Herman MelvilleA House for Mr Biswas by V. S. NaipaulThe New Life by Tom CreweMiss Marjoribanks by Mrs OliphantThe Palliser novels by Anthony TrollopeThe Warden by Anthony TrollopeThe Man Without Qualities by Robert MusilThe Known World by Edward P. JonesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
PBS Hour returns with a double feature billing and first up is before prestige television became a streaming empire, PBS treated literature like sacred text.From Austen and Dickens to the Brontës and modern revivals like The Count of Monte Cristo, Episode 8 of PBS Hour explores how public television turned books into living, breathing emotional experiences.These weren't rushed adaptations.They lingered.They trusted us to feel.Corsets, class politics, longing, revenge, and women quietly dismantling entire systems with a single look across a ballroom.PBS didn't just adapt books. It opened the door to worlds many of us never thought belonged to us.New episode of PBS Hour streaming now via Livi's Corner.#PBSHour #BooksOnScreenAnd next in this double feature is Episode 9 as I dive into Independent Lens and POV the PBS documentary space.From criminal justice and labor to immigration, caregiving, and survival, these films didn't just document systems.They documented what it feels like to live inside them.Featuring: ▪️ Always in Season▪️ We Are the Radical MonarchsPBS Hour is a love letter to the stories that refused to disappear.#IndependentLens
In this episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas sits down with Spencer Murphy — Assistant Professor in Media and Communications at Coventry University, specialist in film theory and cross-cultural cinema, and founder of the Coventry East Asian Film Society — for a wide-ranging, enthusiastic, and genuinely entertaining conversation about British film. What is a British film, exactly? Is it about the money, the cast, the crew, the story, or the setting? How does class permeate almost every British film ever made, from Ealing comedies to Harry Potter? Why does the British landscape function as a character in its own right? And why do Americans connect so deeply with British cinema when its sensibility — restrained, ironic, self-deprecating — is so different from Hollywood's? Jonathan and Spencer also trade their top five British films each, debate the new Wuthering Heights adaptation (neither of them liked it), and discuss why British cinema's literary inheritance is both its greatest strength and, sometimes, its creative limitation. Links Spencer Murphy at Coventry University BFI Top 100 British Films Dead Man's Shoes (2004, Shane Meadows) The Full Monty (1997) The Remains of the Day (1993) Rebecca (1940, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) Tamara Drewe (2010, dir. Stephen Frears) Friends of Anglotopia Takeaways Defining what constitutes a British film is genuinely one of the hardest questions in film studies — it can't be reduced to funding source, shooting location, cast, or director alone. Both Jonathan and Spencer agree the most satisfying answer involves who is behind the artistic vision, but even that gets complicated fast. The "Mary Poppins test" is Spencer's shorthand for films that feel very British on the surface but aren't authentically so — the tourist's vision of Britain, the chocolate-box version that meets an expectation rather than reflecting a reality. British film has a deep and complicated two-way relationship with how Britain represents itself to tourists — Hollywood's vision of Britain shapes what visitors expect, and British places have increasingly adapted to meet those expectations, from Harry Potter shops in York's Shambles to the way villages brand themselves around filming locations. Class is the single most persistent thread running through British cinema across every decade and genre — from Ealing comedies to Downton Abbey to Trainspotting — and Spencer argues it's almost impossible to think of a major British film that isn't, consciously or not, about the class system. British cinema's literary inheritance — the endless cycle of Jane Austen, Brontë, and Robin Hood adaptations — is both a commercial lifeline and a creative constraint. Spencer sees it as potentially reducing the space for new voices and contemporary stories, though he acknowledges the money it generates can fund smaller, more singular films. The British landscape is not just a setting in British cinema — it functions as a character, carrying regional pride and identity in a way that Hollywood rarely matches. Spencer notes that British location managers and production designers feel a deep obligation to get place right in a way their American counterparts don't always have. Spencer's explanation for why Americans love British film comes down to one word: self-deprecation. British culture — and British cinema — is not afraid to ridicule itself, to see its own shortcomings, and to raise them with others in a way that doesn't quite offend. He sees this as the quality Hollywood fundamentally cannot replicate. The new Wuthering Heights adaptation was a near-universal disappointment for both Jonathan and Spencer — not for lack of visual quality, but for failing the fundamental question every film must answer: who is this for? Spencer's most unexpected recommendation is Dead Man's Shoes (2004) by Shane Meadows — a harrowing, masterful, deeply regional Midlands film that he shows students as one of the most authentic and powerful representations of working-class Britain ever put on screen. The incoming Harry Potter TV series — set explicitly in the 1990s with a period-appropriate visual aesthetic — is likely to have a bigger impact on British tourism than anything since the original films, and will once again reshape what visitors expect Britain to look and feel like when they arrive. Soundbites "When I grew up, I really loved Hong Kong movies — Bruce Lee. The thing that fascinated me was you had streets with Chinese signs, but then Royal Albert Street, buses that looked like London buses. I remember my dad saying, 'Oh, it's part of Britain.' And I was like, what? That can't be so." — Spencer on the connection between British colonialism and his career in film. "It's almost like a snake eating its tail. Britain adapts to meet the expectation that its own exported films have created. You go to the Shambles in York and every other shop sells Harry Potter things and tea — because that's what people want to see." — Spencer on cinema's two-way influence on British culture and tourism. "Class in the UK is not purely related to finance. You can be a very, very wealthy working class person. You could be a millionaire and you'll always be working class. That idea of class being embedded generationally — going back hundreds and hundreds of years — movies articulate that struggle." — Spencer on why class is the defining thread of British cinema. "I'm from the Black Country — a heavily industrial area. I moved into what people would call a very middle class job as a lecturer at university. But my accent, the way I speak, where I'm from — it's working class and it will never leave me." — Spencer on living the class story British cinema tells. "You could argue British cinema is trying, in the 1940s post-war period, to lay out the parameters of class once more — because the great leveller of class was the Second World War, when it really didn't matter who your parents were. People were dying at every rank." — Spencer on class and British cinema's post-war identity crisis. "I always think of it as the King Charles test. He gave that speech in Congress — understated, but deeply critical, undercutting the president in a way where nobody could quite call him out for it. That is quintessentially British. And I think British film does that too." — Spencer on why Americans love British cinema's self-deprecating wit. "You're never going to see a British version of Top Gun. It's just never going to happen. Hollywood can be very congratulatory. British cinema is not afraid to ridicule what it is to be British — and I think that appeals to American audiences enormously." — Spencer on the fundamental difference between British and American cinema. "Wuthering Heights — I watched it and I thought, I don't even know what it felt like, but it didn't feel British to me. I wasn't sure who it was made for. Is this made for 19 year olds? Because I don't get it." — Spencer on the Emerald Fennell adaptation. "Dead Man's Shoes is harrowing and awful, but it had a massive impact on me. It touches on class, on the 1980s, on the downtrodden. It's a film I've seen about three times. I show it to students because it's just masterful." — Spencer on his most unexpected British film recommendation. "When they replayed the Royal Wedding coverage in the pub, you know what came on after it on BBC One? Wallace and Gromit. The perfect chaser of all that Britishness." — Jonathan on the most quintessentially British television scheduling decision ever made. ⠀ Chapters 00:00 Introduction — Jonathan sets up the episode and introduces Spencer Murphy 01:50 Spencer's Journey into Film — VHS tapes, corner video stores, Hong Kong martial arts films, and an accidental PhD 04:36 Jonathan Meets His Wife at Film School — A brief Anglotopia origin story 05:13 Southeast Asian Cinema and the British Colonial Lens — How post-1997 Hong Kong shaped Spencer's thinking about national cinema 08:52 What Is a British Film? — The question neither host can fully answer, and why that's the right response 12:36 Jonathan's Working Definition — Setting, cast, and the authenticity test 13:37 The Merchant Ivory Problem — When a British story isn't quite a British film 14:32 The Mary Poppins Test — How to spot a tourist's version of Britain on screen 16:17 Harry Potter, Bond & Lawrence of Arabia — Are America's favourite "British" films actually British? 18:46 Cinema's Two-Way Effect on Britain — How films shape the places they portray 20:53 Harry Potter as Britain's Biggest Cultural Export — And the new TV series that will change tourism again 22:29 The Visual Identity of the Harry Potter TV Show — Why setting it in the 1990s is a smart move 24:28 British Film Genres — Social realism, heritage drama, comedy, Hammer Horror, and what each adds to the British identity 26:50 Class as British Cinema's Defining Thread — Why it runs through every genre from Ealing to Peaky Blinders 31:33 The Full Monty, Billy Elliot & Richard Curtis — Class in 1990s British film 33:36 Accents, Class & the Transatlantic Voice — From clipped 1930s RP to Trainspotting's Scots 38:45 British Cinema & Literary Adaptation — Strength or creative constraint? 42:49 The New Wuthering Heights — Two film lovers find they agree it didn't work, and debate why 47:36 Landscape as Character — How place functions in British cinema differently from Hollywood 52:08 Why Americans Love British Film — Self-deprecation, irony, and the King Charles Congressional speech 55:23 The Battle of Britain vs Top Gun — How British and American cinema represent heroism differently 55:50 Spencer's Top Five British Films — Rebecca, Dr. No, The Devil Rides Out, The Full Monty, Dead Man's Shoes 59:14 Jonathan's Top Five British Films — The Remains of the Day, Master and Commander, About Time, Tamara Drewe, That Hamilton Woman, Hot Fuzz, On Chesil Beach, and Wallace & Gromit 1:03:06 Wallace & Gromit After the Royal Wedding — The perfect end to any discussion of British culture 1:04:08 Wrap-Up — Spencer must dash, a second episode is promised, and a call to share your own favorite British films Video Version
If there's one film that set tongues (literally) wagging this year, it's the latest adaptation of Emily Brontë's masterpiece of gothic fiction, WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Directed by one of cinema's most de rigueur darlings, Emerald Fennell, WUTHERING HEIGHTS showcases Fennell's trademark maximalism, bold subversiveness, and canny eye for visual magic tricks. The formula should have been a perfect match of fiction and filmmaker. So why did it leave us feeling kind of… meh? SITC all-star guest star Cecilia Conti and special guest Josh Reinhold join Torie to hash out their feelings about Fennell's new take on Brontë's classic. And honestly, the film reads more like a smut fanfiction or two-hour music video than a true-to-text take on a venerable and deeply complex work of literature. Starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as doomed lovers Cathy and Heathcliff, Fennell's sex-ed up rendition is more style than substance. All the same, the candy-coated visuals are glorious, the metaphors are ripe, and the acting ain't half bad. The sex itself is decidedly PG-13, but it was enough to confirm that Jacob Elordi is very much most likely a damn good kisser.
In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Claire O'Callaghan for a rich and thought-provoking conversation on Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, a novel that continues to unsettle, challenge, and captivate readers across generations. Together, we explore the wild and untamed landscape of the moors, not just as a setting, but as a force that shapes the emotional and psychological terrain of the characters themselves. Even for those who haven't read the novel, the names Catherine and Heathcliff seem to exist out in the cultural ether, familiar and almost mythic. Many readers come to the book expecting a sweeping romance, shaped in part by film adaptations that present their story as one of enduring love. But this is not that kind of novel. Our discussion grapples with the book's deeply unhealthy and often destructive portrayals of love, relationships marked more by obsession and vengeance than tenderness or mutual care. Violence, both physical and psychological, looms large, and we consider how Brontë uses it not merely for shock, but as a lens into grief, trauma, and the human capacity for endurance. As we reflect on how the book changes depending on when and how it's read, we ask why Wuthering Heights feels so different at various stages of life, and how what once seemed romantic can later reveal itself as deeply tragic. We also explore the novel's ghostly supernatural elements and how the house itself seems haunted. And yet, despite its darkness, Wuthering Heights is not without hope. In the relationship between Cathy and Hareton, we see the possibility of renewal, a quiet but powerful redemption that hints at healing, growth, and a break from the destructive patterns of the previous generation. By the end of this conversation, you may find yourself not only reconsidering the novel, but also longing to step into its world, because if you haven't yet visited Haworth, home of the Brontë family, you'll likely want to now. And for those eager to go even deeper, be sure to explore more of Dr. O'Callaghan's work, including her recent contribution to the transcription of a long-lost manuscript by Charlotte Brontë, a discovery that continues to expand our understanding of one of literature's most remarkable families. https://claireocallaghan.com/
On The Literary Life Podcast with Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks this week, we will wrap up our discussion of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. After sharing their commonplace quote for this week, Thomas and Angelina jump right into recapping the important plot points of this last section of the book. They start with some contrasts between St. John and Rochester, then they talk about the journey of the soul and the image of marriage. They also consider the parallels of her return to Thornfield and the reversals in these scenes, as well as how Brontë fulfills the various fairy tale endings she set up earlier in the book. You can check out all the latest offerings of mini-classes and webinars, both upcoming and recorded in the past. Find everything at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, where you can also sign up for the HHL newsletter to stay in the loop about all the latest happenings! Join us back here next week for an introduction to Alexander Pope and the Neo-classical Poets, followed by an episode on Pope's "The Rape of the Lock". In May, we will have a special guest interview of Malcolm Guite all about his new book, Galahad and the Grail. You can check out the full version of our show notes for this episode at https://theliteray.life/324.
Publicado pela primeira vez em 1847, O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes permanece como um dos maiores clássicos da literatura inglesa. Escrita por Emily Brontë, a história não apenas resistiu ao tempo, mas assombrou gerações de leitores, acumulando incontáveis adaptações e reimaginações ao longo dos anos. Pegando carona na recém-lançada versão de 2026, estrelada por Margot Robbie e Jacob Elordi, nesta semana o RdM atravessa os ventos cortantes de Wuthering Heights para mergulhar em uma narrativa sobre vingança, obsessão e ciclos geracionais de trauma, onde o amor e a violência destroem e consomem tudo ao seu redor. Entre propriedades enigmáticas, discussões sobre classe e raça, personagens intensos e muito drama, nos acompanhe enquanto exploramos o romance de Brontë e algumas de suas adaptações mais marcantes. Mas, se algo começar a bater à sua janela durante esse episódio, talvez seja melhor não responder. Afinal de contas, nem todo chamado vem do mundo dos vivos. Pode ser o passado insistindo em voltar… ou, pior ainda, o fantasma de Catherine, esperando para finalmente entrar.O RdMCast é produzido e apresentado por: Gabi Larocca, Gabriel Braga e Thiago Natário.Apoie o RdM e receba recompensas exclusivas: https://apoia.se/rdmCITADOS NO PROGRAMA:O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (livro, 1847)O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (1939)Escravos do Rancor (1954)O Solar dos Ventos Uivantes (1970)O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (minissérie, 1978)O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes / Arashi ga oka (1988)O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (1992)O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (2003)O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (minissérie, 2009)O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (2011)“O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes” (2026)Citações off topic:Rebecca, a Mulher Inesquecível (1940)A outra volta do parafuso (livro, 1898)A Lista de Schindler (1993)Bela Vingança (2020)Saltburn (2023)Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights – Official Music Video – Version 1EPISÓDIOS CITADOS:RdMCast #243 – Especial Alfred HitchcockSiga o RdMYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Rep%C3%BAblicadoMedoInstagram: @republicadomedoTwitter: @RdmcastEntre em contato através do: contato@republicadomedo.com.brLoja do RdMConheça nossos produtos: https://lojaflutuante.com.br/?produto=RdmPODCAST EDITADO PORFelipe LourençoESTÚDIO GRIM – Design para conteúdo digitalPortfólio: https://estudiogrim.com.br/Instagram: @estudiogrimContato: contato@estudiogrim.com.br
Eleanor Houghton, in conversation with Duncan McCargo and Alexis Wolf Meet the real, thinking, feeling woman that was Charlotte Brontë, as told in this biography by the surviving witnesses to her life – the clothes that she once wore.These garments were present as she penned Jane Eyre, as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth, and as she stood with her fiancé at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies had remained unheard.Renowned Brontë scholar and dress historian Eleanor Houghton's innovative, richly illustrated biography, Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes (Bloomsbury 2026), finally gives voice to the gowns, bonnets, shawls, corsets, parasols and boots that make up the novelist's wardrobe.Secrets are revealed in their very fibres. Brontë's steel busked corset tells the story of corporate espionage and forbidden love, whilst her striped, silk dress shows how she coped with the new-found pressures of fame. When exposed to 21st century technology, a tiny sample of fabric from her 'Thackeray Dress' reveals important innovations of the Industrial Revolution going on around her and a black lace veil, worn after the deaths of her siblings, expresses how she dealt with repeated familial loss.These clothes, some of which still bear the imprint of her foot or the sweat from her pores, prove themselves to be far more than mere celebrity curios. When 'read' alongside letters, portraits, her novels and the recollections of those who knew her well, Charlotte emerges as a woman altogether braver, more vulnerable, less isolated, less provincial, more fashion conscious than anyone ever expected. Myths are shattered, preconceptions challenged, and, the real Charlotte Brontë, beyond the famous author, finally emerges. Eleanor Houghton is a Brontë scholar, writer and illustrator. She studied English at the University of Oxford before being awarded a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in History. In 2022, in collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, she curated a large-scale exhibition on the surviving wardrobe of Charlotte Brontë. An expert in 18th and 19th century clothing, literature and social history, she often works as consultant for film and TV, novelists and museums. Her detailed drawings are widely sold and exhibited. Duncan McCargo is President's Chair in Global Affairs and a Professor of English at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is a patron of the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton. Alexis Wolf is a researcher of women's literary history and a lecturer at Canterbury Christchurch University. She is the author of Transnational Women Writers in the Wilmot Coterie, 1798-1840: Beyond Borders & Boundaries, Boydell Press, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography
Eleanor Houghton, in conversation with Duncan McCargo and Alexis Wolf Meet the real, thinking, feeling woman that was Charlotte Brontë, as told in this biography by the surviving witnesses to her life – the clothes that she once wore.These garments were present as she penned Jane Eyre, as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth, and as she stood with her fiancé at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies had remained unheard.Renowned Brontë scholar and dress historian Eleanor Houghton's innovative, richly illustrated biography, Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes (Bloomsbury 2026), finally gives voice to the gowns, bonnets, shawls, corsets, parasols and boots that make up the novelist's wardrobe.Secrets are revealed in their very fibres. Brontë's steel busked corset tells the story of corporate espionage and forbidden love, whilst her striped, silk dress shows how she coped with the new-found pressures of fame. When exposed to 21st century technology, a tiny sample of fabric from her 'Thackeray Dress' reveals important innovations of the Industrial Revolution going on around her and a black lace veil, worn after the deaths of her siblings, expresses how she dealt with repeated familial loss.These clothes, some of which still bear the imprint of her foot or the sweat from her pores, prove themselves to be far more than mere celebrity curios. When 'read' alongside letters, portraits, her novels and the recollections of those who knew her well, Charlotte emerges as a woman altogether braver, more vulnerable, less isolated, less provincial, more fashion conscious than anyone ever expected. Myths are shattered, preconceptions challenged, and, the real Charlotte Brontë, beyond the famous author, finally emerges. Eleanor Houghton is a Brontë scholar, writer and illustrator. She studied English at the University of Oxford before being awarded a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in History. In 2022, in collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, she curated a large-scale exhibition on the surviving wardrobe of Charlotte Brontë. An expert in 18th and 19th century clothing, literature and social history, she often works as consultant for film and TV, novelists and museums. Her detailed drawings are widely sold and exhibited. Duncan McCargo is President's Chair in Global Affairs and a Professor of English at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is a patron of the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton. Alexis Wolf is a researcher of women's literary history and a lecturer at Canterbury Christchurch University. She is the author of Transnational Women Writers in the Wilmot Coterie, 1798-1840: Beyond Borders & Boundaries, Boydell Press, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Eleanor Houghton, in conversation with Duncan McCargo and Alexis Wolf Meet the real, thinking, feeling woman that was Charlotte Brontë, as told in this biography by the surviving witnesses to her life – the clothes that she once wore.These garments were present as she penned Jane Eyre, as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth, and as she stood with her fiancé at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies had remained unheard.Renowned Brontë scholar and dress historian Eleanor Houghton's innovative, richly illustrated biography, Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes (Bloomsbury 2026), finally gives voice to the gowns, bonnets, shawls, corsets, parasols and boots that make up the novelist's wardrobe.Secrets are revealed in their very fibres. Brontë's steel busked corset tells the story of corporate espionage and forbidden love, whilst her striped, silk dress shows how she coped with the new-found pressures of fame. When exposed to 21st century technology, a tiny sample of fabric from her 'Thackeray Dress' reveals important innovations of the Industrial Revolution going on around her and a black lace veil, worn after the deaths of her siblings, expresses how she dealt with repeated familial loss.These clothes, some of which still bear the imprint of her foot or the sweat from her pores, prove themselves to be far more than mere celebrity curios. When 'read' alongside letters, portraits, her novels and the recollections of those who knew her well, Charlotte emerges as a woman altogether braver, more vulnerable, less isolated, less provincial, more fashion conscious than anyone ever expected. Myths are shattered, preconceptions challenged, and, the real Charlotte Brontë, beyond the famous author, finally emerges. Eleanor Houghton is a Brontë scholar, writer and illustrator. She studied English at the University of Oxford before being awarded a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in History. In 2022, in collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, she curated a large-scale exhibition on the surviving wardrobe of Charlotte Brontë. An expert in 18th and 19th century clothing, literature and social history, she often works as consultant for film and TV, novelists and museums. Her detailed drawings are widely sold and exhibited. Duncan McCargo is President's Chair in Global Affairs and a Professor of English at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is a patron of the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton. Alexis Wolf is a researcher of women's literary history and a lecturer at Canterbury Christchurch University. She is the author of Transnational Women Writers in the Wilmot Coterie, 1798-1840: Beyond Borders & Boundaries, Boydell Press, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
Eleanor Houghton, in conversation with Duncan McCargo and Alexis Wolf Meet the real, thinking, feeling woman that was Charlotte Brontë, as told in this biography by the surviving witnesses to her life – the clothes that she once wore.These garments were present as she penned Jane Eyre, as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth, and as she stood with her fiancé at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies had remained unheard.Renowned Brontë scholar and dress historian Eleanor Houghton's innovative, richly illustrated biography, Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes (Bloomsbury 2026), finally gives voice to the gowns, bonnets, shawls, corsets, parasols and boots that make up the novelist's wardrobe.Secrets are revealed in their very fibres. Brontë's steel busked corset tells the story of corporate espionage and forbidden love, whilst her striped, silk dress shows how she coped with the new-found pressures of fame. When exposed to 21st century technology, a tiny sample of fabric from her 'Thackeray Dress' reveals important innovations of the Industrial Revolution going on around her and a black lace veil, worn after the deaths of her siblings, expresses how she dealt with repeated familial loss.These clothes, some of which still bear the imprint of her foot or the sweat from her pores, prove themselves to be far more than mere celebrity curios. When 'read' alongside letters, portraits, her novels and the recollections of those who knew her well, Charlotte emerges as a woman altogether braver, more vulnerable, less isolated, less provincial, more fashion conscious than anyone ever expected. Myths are shattered, preconceptions challenged, and, the real Charlotte Brontë, beyond the famous author, finally emerges. Eleanor Houghton is a Brontë scholar, writer and illustrator. She studied English at the University of Oxford before being awarded a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in History. In 2022, in collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, she curated a large-scale exhibition on the surviving wardrobe of Charlotte Brontë. An expert in 18th and 19th century clothing, literature and social history, she often works as consultant for film and TV, novelists and museums. Her detailed drawings are widely sold and exhibited. Duncan McCargo is President's Chair in Global Affairs and a Professor of English at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is a patron of the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton. Alexis Wolf is a researcher of women's literary history and a lecturer at Canterbury Christchurch University. She is the author of Transnational Women Writers in the Wilmot Coterie, 1798-1840: Beyond Borders & Boundaries, Boydell Press, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
Eleanor Houghton, in conversation with Duncan McCargo and Alexis Wolf Meet the real, thinking, feeling woman that was Charlotte Brontë, as told in this biography by the surviving witnesses to her life – the clothes that she once wore.These garments were present as she penned Jane Eyre, as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth, and as she stood with her fiancé at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies had remained unheard.Renowned Brontë scholar and dress historian Eleanor Houghton's innovative, richly illustrated biography, Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes (Bloomsbury 2026), finally gives voice to the gowns, bonnets, shawls, corsets, parasols and boots that make up the novelist's wardrobe.Secrets are revealed in their very fibres. Brontë's steel busked corset tells the story of corporate espionage and forbidden love, whilst her striped, silk dress shows how she coped with the new-found pressures of fame. When exposed to 21st century technology, a tiny sample of fabric from her 'Thackeray Dress' reveals important innovations of the Industrial Revolution going on around her and a black lace veil, worn after the deaths of her siblings, expresses how she dealt with repeated familial loss.These clothes, some of which still bear the imprint of her foot or the sweat from her pores, prove themselves to be far more than mere celebrity curios. When 'read' alongside letters, portraits, her novels and the recollections of those who knew her well, Charlotte emerges as a woman altogether braver, more vulnerable, less isolated, less provincial, more fashion conscious than anyone ever expected. Myths are shattered, preconceptions challenged, and, the real Charlotte Brontë, beyond the famous author, finally emerges. Eleanor Houghton is a Brontë scholar, writer and illustrator. She studied English at the University of Oxford before being awarded a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in History. In 2022, in collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, she curated a large-scale exhibition on the surviving wardrobe of Charlotte Brontë. An expert in 18th and 19th century clothing, literature and social history, she often works as consultant for film and TV, novelists and museums. Her detailed drawings are widely sold and exhibited. Duncan McCargo is President's Chair in Global Affairs and a Professor of English at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is a patron of the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton. Alexis Wolf is a researcher of women's literary history and a lecturer at Canterbury Christchurch University. She is the author of Transnational Women Writers in the Wilmot Coterie, 1798-1840: Beyond Borders & Boundaries, Boydell Press, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Eleanor Houghton, in conversation with Duncan McCargo and Alexis Wolf Meet the real, thinking, feeling woman that was Charlotte Brontë, as told in this biography by the surviving witnesses to her life – the clothes that she once wore.These garments were present as she penned Jane Eyre, as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth, and as she stood with her fiancé at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies had remained unheard.Renowned Brontë scholar and dress historian Eleanor Houghton's innovative, richly illustrated biography, Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes (Bloomsbury 2026), finally gives voice to the gowns, bonnets, shawls, corsets, parasols and boots that make up the novelist's wardrobe.Secrets are revealed in their very fibres. Brontë's steel busked corset tells the story of corporate espionage and forbidden love, whilst her striped, silk dress shows how she coped with the new-found pressures of fame. When exposed to 21st century technology, a tiny sample of fabric from her 'Thackeray Dress' reveals important innovations of the Industrial Revolution going on around her and a black lace veil, worn after the deaths of her siblings, expresses how she dealt with repeated familial loss.These clothes, some of which still bear the imprint of her foot or the sweat from her pores, prove themselves to be far more than mere celebrity curios. When 'read' alongside letters, portraits, her novels and the recollections of those who knew her well, Charlotte emerges as a woman altogether braver, more vulnerable, less isolated, less provincial, more fashion conscious than anyone ever expected. Myths are shattered, preconceptions challenged, and, the real Charlotte Brontë, beyond the famous author, finally emerges. Eleanor Houghton is a Brontë scholar, writer and illustrator. She studied English at the University of Oxford before being awarded a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in History. In 2022, in collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, she curated a large-scale exhibition on the surviving wardrobe of Charlotte Brontë. An expert in 18th and 19th century clothing, literature and social history, she often works as consultant for film and TV, novelists and museums. Her detailed drawings are widely sold and exhibited. Duncan McCargo is President's Chair in Global Affairs and a Professor of English at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is a patron of the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton. Alexis Wolf is a researcher of women's literary history and a lecturer at Canterbury Christchurch University. She is the author of Transnational Women Writers in the Wilmot Coterie, 1798-1840: Beyond Borders & Boundaries, Boydell Press, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture
durée : 00:58:23 - Le Souffle de la pensée - par : Géraldine Mosna-Savoye - La traductrice Josée Kamoun nous parle d'une histoire d'amour et de fantômes qui ne cesse de la hanter : "Les Hauts de Hurlevent" d'Emily Brontë. Et si ce roman qui explore les méandres de la passion, de la violence et de l'inconscient nous confrontait à la part la plus énigmatique de nous-mêmes ? - réalisation : Nicolas Berger - invités : Josée Kamoun Traductrice
Peter Parker: Spider-Man is back! But he is not in a good way as his personal life collapses, the exile #BenReilly returns. Causing him to retreat into an alter ego he calls ‘The Spider' as he attempts to bury Parker and his pain. Can the emergence of Ben's own alter ego #TheScarletSpider be enough to convince him to claw himself ‘Back From The Edge' or will he need a little help from an old friend who has recently been #BornAgain #Daredevil to remember the lesson he learned so long ago about 'Power & Responsibility.' Join myself, Tony Farina & Tony Holt Jr. as we discuss #JudasTraveller, a suicidal Brontë sister & how to pronounce Puma as #TheCloneSaga continues… #PrepareForPrattleThis podcast features these Clone Saga story arcs…Power & Responsibility - Prologue (Only Ben Reilly's Cameos from Web Of Spider-Man #114-116, Spider-Man #48-50, Spectacular Spider-Man #215-216 & Amazing Spider-Man #393)Power & Responsibility (Web Of Spider-Man #117, Amazing Spider-Man #394, Spider-Man #51 & Spectacular Spider-Man #217)The Exile Returns (Web Of Spider-Man #118-119, Spider-Man #52-53 & Spider-Man Unlimited #7)Back From The Edge (Amazing Spider-Man #395, Spectacular Spider-Man #218, Amazing Spider-Man #396, Spectacular Spider-Man #219)If you want a quick summary of LifeTheft & Pursuit you can find them here… https://tinyurl.com/mrhfseay & https://tinyurl.com/bdh3we7zCheck out Tony Holt Jr.'s Linktree https://linktr.ee/tonyholtjr & Tony Farina's website… https://www.arfarina.com/ We will be going through The Clone Saga in chronological order as opposed to release order as per Marvel's own suggested reading order on Marvel Unlimited where you can subscribe to read the individual digital issues… https://tinyurl.com/22mww353Or buy the five Complete Clone Saga Epic collections (still available physically or digitally.) Click on each individual collection to see the issues collected therein. https://tinyurl.com/2c2qra6gYou can also purchase the two newly reprinted omnibuses available both digitally & physically which collects all the previous mentioned collections. https://tinyurl.com/2y5g97twFor more details on the behind the scenes and what was occurring month to month during the saga check out The Life Of Reilly Blog! http://www.benreillytribute.x10host.c...Where to find the Spider-Dan & The Secret Bores Podcast…Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secretboresThreads:https://www.threads.net/@spiderdansecretboresTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dan_boresInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/spiderdansecretbores/?hl=enDiscord: https://discord.com/invite/CeVrdqdpjkIMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22023774/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/spiderdan_2006/Like, share, comment, subscribe etc. and don't forget to use the #PrepareForPrattle when you interact with us.If you want to #JoinThePrattalion and to be briefed in full on the #SecretBores head over to #PrattleWorld https://www.spiderdanandthesecretbores.com/
On The Literary Life Podcast this week, Angelina and Thomas cover chapters 13-19 of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Today's episode includes more discussion of the important symbols and images in these chapters. Angelina highlights the stories of Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, and Cupid and Psyche and their connections to this book. She and Thomas also talk about the trope of the "reformed rake" and how it relates to Brontë is setting up that possibility here. In these chapters we see more fire images, as well as several things that point to this story as a journey of the soul for both Jane and Mr. Rochester. You can check out all the latest offerings of mini-classes and webinars, both upcoming and recorded in the past. Find everything at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, where you can also sign up for the HHL newsletter to stay in the loop about all the latest happenings! Don't forget to visit https://theliterary.life/321 for the full show notes for this episode!
In this week's episode we're sharing our Spring Bucket List since it's officially the first week of Spring. It's still pretty cold where we live, so a lot of this is wishful thinking, but it's fun to plan things to look forward to. We're also sharing an extra hot Hot Take Debate about kids and iPads. Thank you to this week's sponsor: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com/abm Head to Wayfair dot com right now to shop all things home. Elsie: Get new hair & general glow up for the joy of it Read all the Brontë novels Start buying fresh flowers & practicing making little arrangements Paint all the time Finish our Mouse Mansion! Emma: Easter baskets Decorate entry way Refresh fairy garden Start walking outside again Wallpaper the kitchen You can support us by leaving us a couple of 5 star recipe reviews this week at abeautifulmess.com Have a topic idea for the podcast? Write in to us at podcast@abeautifulmess.com or leave us a voicemail at 417-893-0011.
In this episode: we hear from Dr Claire O'Callaghan, Senior Lecturer in English at Loughborough University and Editor-in-Chief of Brontë Studies, the official journal of the Brontë Society; Prof Melissa Fegan, Professor of Irish and Victorian Literature at the University of Chester; and Dr Sophie Franklin, Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin and author of ‘Violence and the Brontës: Language, Reception, Afterlives'. She is also an Associate Editor of the Brontë Studies journal.
Teri Bracken's career as Brontë Fall began almost accidentally. The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs had always been a music obsessive, dreaming of forming her own bands and playing on stages. While working as the “door girl” at an indie music venue in Chicago, a chance opportunity allowed her to book her first gig as an artist. She quickly came up with a band name (honoring her favorite writers, the Brontë sisters), compiled all the original songs she had, and never, ever looked back. Bracken's road to acclaimed songwriter began in childhood, when she picked up piano at age 7. Classical violin lessons soon followed, and eventually she was tapped as the singer/violinist in a college rock band with a group of nineties rock loving frat boys. After leaving the guys, she further pursued her passion for violin playing at Berklee, which is where she fell in love with songwriting once and for all. Bracken eventually made her way to Nashville—a dream come true considering it is a songwriter's mecca.Teri Bracken's new album as Brontë Fall, Not Done Yet is about resolve and spirit and ignoring anything in the way of dreaming — even yourself. Bracken wrestles with herself throughout the album. She almost quits, she pulls herself back; she laughs at those who told her to get a more sustainable career; she curses herself for not getting a more sustainable career. The album, defiant and beautiful and mournful and triumphant, is a chronicle of a life lived exactly as Bracken wants, compromising to no one in her quest to continue building a budding and supportive scene for alt-Americana around the country.https://www.brontefall.com/https://linktr.ee/brontefall?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4CGNhbGxzaXRlAjE1AAGnDw6Xr5SZcvarPqUSegemPi_U49RAUn0rrULQYte9wwxe-sJ5Wj_5fRz1ceA_aem_i0Syg85DVncZ8lqfU72o2wTheme song: “Hollywood Faded' by Luna Halo@treymitchellphotography @feeding_the_senses_unsensoredfacebook.com/profile.php?id=100074368084848www.threads.net/@treymitchellphotographyftsunashville@gmail.com
In this lively episode of Beyond the Shelves, the hosts dive deep into Wuthering Heights—the novel, the new film adaptation, and the passionate discourse surrounding both. After a quick roundup of upcoming author events and current reads, the conversation shifts to Emily Brontë's legacy, the novel's complicated publication history, and why this famously chaotic story continues to captivate readers nearly 200 years later. SHOW NOTES What We're Reading Evil Genius by Claire Ohshetsky (also mentioned Chouette by Claire Ohshetsky) Heap Earth Upon It by Chole Michele Howarth Tough Guy by Rachel Reid The Fine Print by Lauren Asher Shield of Sparrows by Deveny Perry To Be Read The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali The Stationary Shop by Marjan Kamali If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga You Better Believe I'm Gonna Talk About It by Lisa Rinna Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy Roots of Darkness by Demi Winters Dawn of the North by Demi Winters This Kingdom will not Kill me by Ilona Andrews Wuthering Heights Links: Emily Brontë in Her Smut Era: The Romance Rebranding of "Wuthering Heights" by Shawna Lipton Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is a Deranged, Half-Assed Bodice-Ripper That Entirely Misses the Point Book Bulletin Spotify Partners With Bookshop.org and Debuts Page Match Feature to Bridge Physical, E-book, and Audio Formats Can AI Chatbots Write Emotional Rich Romances? Nationwide Book Banning bill introduced Iowa Library Association Bill Tracker Man breaks up with woman due to library card American Girl, Samantha: The Next Chapter
Love Stinks! Month continues its march across the moors this week on We Drink & We Watch Things as we confront the year's most scandalous and polarizing adaptation: Emerald Fennell's 2026 reimagining of Wuthering Heights. This isn't your grandmother's Brontë; it's a hyper-stylized, anachronistic, and deeply provocative "bodice-ripper" that trades Victorian restraint for BDSM, heavy-metal corsetry, and a Charli XCX soundtrack. Pour yourself something dark and intoxicating - perhaps our cocktail take on Yearning - and join us as we discuss why this film has everyone from literary scholars to Barbie fans talking.This week, we analyze the relationship between Margot Robbie's fashion-doll Cathy and Jacob Elordi's long-haired, seething Heathcliff. We examine Fennell's decision to strip away the novel's second generation to focus entirely on the toxic, cyclical lust of its leads, and we talk through the film's shocking, "Saltburn-esque" flourishes - like the horse-bridle-and-shackle games that redefine Heathcliff's legendary cruelty. We also consider the controversy surrounding the casting and the film's unapologetic rejection of historical accuracy in favor of creating a "sensory experience" that feels like a teenage girl's fever dream of the 1840s.If you're a Brontë purist ready to clutch your pearls, a fan of Fennell's brand of "campy depravity," or just want to hear us debate whether a story about two people "driving each other mad" is a romance or a red flag, this is the episode you've been waiting for. We're blending our critique of its provocative choices with our biggest disagreement in recent memory, making this a truly wild second chapter in our month of Not-So-Love-Love-Stories. Be with us always - take any form - just don't miss this one!This episode VIDEO is live on YouTube AND Spotify!Follow us on Instagram to get ep sneak peaks and find out what's coming next. DM us what you want to hear about next or email us at wedrinkandwewatchthingspod@gmail.com.
DEFENDANT: Emily Brontë EVIDENCE: Goldschmidt Cabernet Sauvignon "Katherine" 2023 SCENE OF THE CRIME: The wild moors of Alexander Valley, Sonoma, CA -- Hey — settle in with a bowl of soup and a good glass, because this episode is equal parts wine tasting and literary sleuthing. We pop a bottle of Goldschmidt's “Catherine” from Stonemason Hill in Alexander Valley (Sonoma), sniff out garnet color, black cherry and red‑plum fruit, a blueberry peak of ripeness, and a lovely stone‑like minerality with velvety tannins. It's approachable, not pretentious, and sits in that sweet spot around $40 — perfect to bring to dinner or enjoy on a stormy night with friends (and a dog wedged between you). Then we tumble headfirst into Wuthering Heights: Emily Brontë's 1847 Gothic whirlwind of obsession, class friction, and moor‑bound drama. We talk about Emily's short, wild life, the Brontë family dynamics, the book's thorny questions (are Catherine and Heathcliff half‑siblings? are they in love or simply consumed by each other?), and why the novel is more morally complicated than the romantic myth that often gets pasted onto it. Finally, we air our grievances with Emerald Fennell's new film: gorgeous visuals, striking costumes, and some undeniably hot scenes — but also some big misses. Miscasting, whitewashing a character whose outsider status is crucial to the story, and a sleight-of-hand that ends up glamorizing an abusive, toxic relationship left us frustrated. If you love Wuthering Heights, don't be fooled: this adaptation is a visually lush reinterpretation, not a faithful or thoughtful translation of the novel's core themes. Short version: drink the Catherine (it's delightful), read the book (it's messy, brilliant, and not for the faint‑hearted), and watch the movie cautiously — especially if you're handing it to younger viewers who might mistake obsessive cruelty for tragic romance.
Emily Brontë's “Wuthering Heights” is a tale of star-crossed lovers: Catherine, the wild daughter of an aristocratic family, and Heathcliff, an orphan whom Catherine's father brings home unexpectedly. While Catherine's brother and mother denigrate Heathcliff, depriving him of an education and forcing him into a servant-like role, Catherine forms an intense, almost spiritual bond with her family's new charge. Despite their deep connection, however, she marries the scion of a nearby wealthy family — a decision that leaves Catherine yearning, Heathcliff bent on revenge and everybody in their orbit on a path to calamity. Brontë's classic has long been a favorite among readers, and the novel is back in the zeitgeist thanks to Emerald Fennell's recent film adaptation. On this week's episode, host MJ Franklin discusses “Wuthering Heights” with colleagues from the New York Times Book Review. Other works discussed: “Wuthering Heights,” the song by Kate Bush “Twilight,” by Stephenie Meyer “But Daddy I Love Him,” by Taylor Swift “Wuthering Heights,” the 2026 film directed by Emerald Fennell “The Safekeep,” by Yael van der Wouden “Mexican Gothic,” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia The “Wuthering Heights” comics in Kate Beaton's “Hark! A Vagrant” series “Villette,” by Charlotte Brontë “Rebecca,” by Daphne du Maurier “The Idiot,” by Elif Batuman “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Count of Monte Cristo,” by Alexandre Dumas Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
For decades, cinema has lied to us about Wuthering Heights—and I'm done letting adaptations sell you the wrong half of the story. In this episode, I'm auditing the entire novel (not the TikTok version): the framed narration (Lockwood and Nelly Dean), why unreliable storytelling matters, and the full family tree across Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. I break down what Hollywood keeps deleting—an entire second generation (Catherine Linton “Cathy,” Linton Heathcliff, and most criminally, Hareton Earnshaw)—and why that missing half is the moral of the book.I walk through the inheritance and property-law engine that drives the plot, how Heathcliff weaponizes debt, marriage, and the legal system to seize both estates, and why this is a revenge epic about power, humiliation, class, race/othering, and generational trauma—not a romance.Then I compare what the 1939 classic and the new 2026 adaptation keep, soften, or break: how 1939 preserves key first-half bones but ends too early, and how 2026 flattens the structural engine (including major character/function changes) while still cutting the second generation—removing the consequences and the repair. I end where Brontë ends: not with soulmates in the snow, but with restoration—literacy, inheritance corrected, and two young people choosing to break the cycle. If you've only seen the movies, this is the missing architecture.You can also watch this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qSzlQgSsIt4Get the family tree breakdown here: https://bibliolifestyle.com/wuthering-heights-family-tree-explained/
Henry is gone, and a gloom falls over the house. Sir Thomas suspects that Maria doesn't want to marry Rushworth, but she marries him anyway. Fanny and Miss Crawford start hanging out, and Fanny secures a dinner invitation. Topics discussed include Fanny's glow-up, how Fanny and the Bertrams feel about the slave trade, Maria's revenge plot, flirt-harping, the Brontës' use of the word "ejaculate," Fanny's love of nature, the Doge at the court of Louis XIV, and Edmund and Mary's fundamental incompatibility.Patron Study Questions this week come from Avi and Linnea. Topics discussed include Fanny's question about the slave trade and our characters wanting to change each other.Becca's Study Questions: Topics discussed include Fanny cozying up to Sir Thomas, the retiring of the WTF Maria Tracker, zeroing in on the love triangle, and Mary and Fanny's friendship.Funniest Quote: "It was a very proper wedding. The bride was elegantly dressed; the two bridesmaids were duly inferior; her father gave her away; her mother stood with salts in her hand, expecting to be agitated; her aunt tried to cry; and the service was impressively read by Dr. Grant."Questions moving forward: Is this the last we're seeing of the Bertram sisters? What will happen between Mary and Fanny?Who wins the chapters? Maria!Glossary of People, Places, and Things: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Heated Rivalry, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, the Doge at the court of Louis XIV, Schitt's CreekNext Episode: Mansfield Park Volume II Chapters 5-6Want an alternative to marrying rich? Try learning to invest your own money and grow your own wealth! Molly's partner Mel is teaching an online investing workshop for beginners on March 7. Tickets and details can be found at https://moneywithmelmarch7.eventbrite.com. And follow her on instagram at @money.with.mel. Our show art was created by Torrence Browne, and our audio is produced by Graham Cook. For bios and transcripts, check out our website at podandprejudice.com. Pod and Prejudice is transcribed by speechdocs.com. To support the show, check out our Patreon! Check out our merch at https://podandprejudice.dashery.com.Instagram: @podandprejudiceTwitter: @podandprejudiceFacebook: Pod and PrejudiceYoutube: Pod and PrejudiceMerch store: https://podandprejudice.dashery.com/
Is Wuthering Heights “the greatest love story of all time?” Or is it a tale of hate, violence, and vengeance? Or maybe a gothic satire? This hour we look at Emily Brontë’s novel and how it was received when it was published in 1847. Plus, a look at the highest-grossing movie of the year so far — Emerald Fennell’s loosely adapted “Wuthering Heights” — and how it stacks up against other retellings. GUESTS: Richard Brody: The movies editor for Goings On About Town at The New Yorker Claire O’Callaghan: Editor-in-chief of Brontë Studies and the author of Emily Brontë Reappraised Irene Papoulis: Taught writing for a long time at Trinity College MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Wuthering Heights – Cecile McLorin Salvant Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush I Am Stretched on Your Grave – Eithne Ni Uallachain Out of Myself – Charli xcx Chains of Love – Charli xcx As Time Goes By – Julie London The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Happy Thursday, you pop culture junkies. In this episode of Pop Culture Mondays on Thursdays, we're breaking our usual "no-politics" rule because the internet simply wouldn't let us look away. From viral memes to heavy hearts, here is everything moving the needle this week. • The Pam Bondi Meme-fication: Normally, we skip the Sunday shows, but the "50,000 memes" spawned by Pam Bondi's latest media appearances were too creative to ignore. We dive into how digital creators turned a political moment into a masterclass in internet humor. • Clavicular Goes Mainstream: Following up on last week's deep dive into the "looksmaxxing" trend, the movement's poster child, Clavicular, has officially hit the big leagues with a feature in The New York Times. We discuss whether this profile helps or hurts the community's controversial reputation. • Remembering James Van Der Beek: A somber look at the passing of a TV icon. We discuss the heartbreakingly intimate photos shared by his inner circle and address the growing online controversy surrounding the GoFundMe organized for his family. • Wisdom from Kuwait: On a lighter note, we're obsessed with the two young boys from Kuwait currently dropping life lessons and accidental philosophy across social media. It's the wholesome content we all needed. • Wuthering Heights Discourse: The internet has thoughts on the latest adaptation of the Brontë classic. Is it a cinematic triumph or a gothic miss? We round up the best (and snarkiest) takes. • The Watch List: Stick around for a quick-fire round of the new trailers, drops, and hidden gems you need to have on your radar for the weekend. NYT article on Clavicular: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/style/clavicular-looksmaxxing-braden-peters.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share This week's newsletter: https://popculturemondays.com/2026/02/16/but-50000/
Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is messy, heat, confrontational, and absolutely not interested in pleasing everyone. On this episode of Thumb War, we break down Fennell's bold interpretation of the Brontë classic — from erotic denial and cruelty-as-romance to audience backlash, Valentine's Day chaos, and why this movie feels designed to make people uncomfortable. Is it brilliant? Is it too much? Or is that the whole idea? Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts & Spotify Support the show on Patreon for ad-free episodes & bonus content : http://bit.ly/44Mo8xU Like & Subscribe Leave a 5-star review if you're enjoying Thumb War Email us: ThumbWarPod@gmail.com Full Thumb War episode out now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Only 9 episodes left, and this one is all corsets, cruelty, and complicated desire. Emily Suggs — our resident literary adaptation assassin — returns to the mic after publicly side-eyeing the marketing campaign for the new Wuthering Heights. The big question: did director Emerald Fennell deliver a fever-dream romance worthy of the Brontë chaos…or was this all perfume and no poison? To keep the seduction simmering, we pair it with Dangerous Liaisons, the gold standard of powdered-wig manipulation. If you like your romance weaponized and your flirtation fatal, this double feature is basically a lace glove hiding brass knuckles. On the beverage front, Emily zigzags expectations with two non-alcoholic canned mocktails from Athletic Brewing Company, proving you can keep your wits sharp even while discussing reckless passion. Meanwhile, David reaches deep into the magic bag and pulls out a 2017-bottled Oude Geuze from 3 Fonteinen — a spontaneously fermented, beautifully aged Belgian bruiser that's as complex and unpredictable as the characters on screen. It's bodice-ripping. It's sex-charged. It's literary. It's petty. It's Beer and a Movie at its most unhinged and articulate. Nine episodes left. Don't miss the scandal.
The Moors have never looked like this.
Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë in 1847, depicts a gothic world full of violence and passion, set against the wild Yorkshire Moors.So how did the daughter of a clergyman create such a story? How was it received at the time? And what darkness and intrigue happened in the Brontê's lives that could have influenced such stories?With a new Wuthering Heights film being released, Anthony and Maddy are exploring that world with you in today's episode.It's one of relentless death and tragedy, wild creativity, and supernatural belief, all to the backdrop of an industrial Victorian England.If you're interested to find out more, you can watch the documentary Death at the Parsonage: The Brontês, on HistoryHit.com.This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.You can now watch After Dark on Youtube! www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhitSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
President Trump has told the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that talks with Iran over its nuclear programme will continue. For the first time since demonstrations in January, the BBC is able to report from inside Iran and our Chief International correspondent Lyse Doucet has been speaking to people in the capital, Tehran. Also on the programme: the Winter Olympian balancing winning medals with her homework; and we hear from Brontë country in northern England - where a rather saucy new interpretation of Wuthering Heights has been filmed.(Trump meets Netanyahu in Washington, 11 February 2026. Credit:Getty Images)
The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life
After reading some of Charlotte Brontë's Tales of Angria (#682), John and Sophia go a-Brontë-ing again. They discuss Lucasta Miller's extraordinary survey of the Brontë cult and the durable, troubled legacy of their fiction.
Dead Funny History: The Brontës. Join historian Greg Jenner for a fast-paced, funny and fascinating journey through the lives of the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, three literary legends whose tragic family story inspired some of the greatest novels of the 19th century.This episode of Dead Funny History is packed with jokes, sketches and sound effects that bring the past to life for families and Key Stage 2 learners. From their Yorkshire parsonage to their tiny books written in doll-sized handwriting, the Brontës were bursting with creativity. But their lives were also filled with heartbreak, illness and rejection.Discover how the sisters used gender-neutral pen names to get published, how their brother Branwell tried (and mostly failed) to join in, and how their novels, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, were shaped by their real-life experiences as governesses, teachers and grieving siblings.Expect parodies, sketch comedy, and a quiz to test what you've learned. There's a mournful bell for every tragic twist and a goat who's surprisingly good at literary criticism. It's history with heart, humour and high production value. Perfect for curious kids, families, and fans of You're Dead To Me.Written by Jack Bernhardt, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch and Dr Emma Nagouse Host: Greg Jenner Performers: Mali Ann Rees and John-Luke Roberts Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse Associate Producer: Gabby Hutchinson Crouch Audio Producer: Emma Weatherill Researcher: Dr Emmie Rose Price Goodfellow Script Consultant: Dr Amber Regis Production Coordinator: Liz Tuohy Production Manager: Jo Kyle Studio Managers: Keith Graham and Andrew Garratt Sound Designer: Peregrine AndrewsA BBC Studios Production
A sudden confrontation! Having 'sniffed out' a lead, Antistrophe, Brontë, and Caoimhe have dug their way towards the truth. That truth rests in the underground archive of the Hexcloaks' regional headquarters in Cenn, City of Iron Chains. But such a basement does not go unguarded. To arms, Team ABC! This week on Perpetua: In Too Deep 03 Perpetua Guide [In Progress v.055] NPCs & Monsters [PNMS] Hortensius, Venomous Hexcloak [NMHR] Traits: Joyful, Experimental, Cruel Stats: DEX 6, INS 10, MIG 6, WLP 10 Attacks: Toxic Whip, Poison Cloud Special Abilities: Heal In-Game Description: A misanthropic hexcloak with a mastery of toxins, venoms, and other poisons. Hortensius may not seem like the most dangerous of the Cenn Hexcloak Trio, but his mastery of poisons means that he can really wear you down (or set you up for another of the trio to knock you out.) Unsurprisingly, he resists poison damage. Starter Tip: Poison Cloud can hit everyone, and it always hits. Get ready to use some tonics! Maxi, Earthen Hexcloak [NMMX] Traits: Tough, Direct, Snobbish Stats: DEX 10, INS 6, MIG 12, WLP 6 Attacks: Stone Maul Special Abilities: Status Immunity, Stoneshield In-Game Description: A Hexcloak soldier who combines expertise of earthen enchantment with finely honed martial prowess. Maxi is proof that sometimes all you need is a big stick. She doesn't have special attacks or active abilities, just a collection of strong defensive passives and a really high Might (which she tends to keep high because of her Status Immunity ability). Starter Tip: She resists both earth and, more importantly, physical damage. Spell damage is your best bet here! Mercurion, Voltaic Hexcloak [NMMR] Traits: Laconic, Rude, Mercurial Stats: DEX 10, INS 10, MIG 6, WLP 6 Attacks: Electrified Dagger, Hexipistol, Fulgur Special Abilities: Flying (Bugged?) In-Game Description: Impudent in speech. Electric in action. Mercurion seems to be the leader of the Cenn Hexcloak Trio, and for good reason. They can dish out big damage QUICK with their Fulgur ability (and it also has a low chance of making you dazed). Try to knock them down even quicker, or else Hortensius' heal will make them a real pain in your behind. Starter Tip: The game says they're flying, and they have a hovering animation, but some people have reported that Mercurion isn't actually flying in their boss fight. So don't worry if it seems broken, it's just a bug!
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