Podcasts about Epping

Hermione Lee is the renowned biographer of Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, Penelope Fitzgerald, and, most recently, Tom Stoppard. Stoppard died at the end of last year, so Hermione and I talked about the influence of Shaw and Eliot and Coward on his work, the recent production of The Invention of Love, the role of ideas in Stoppard's writing, his writing process, rehearsals, revivals, movies. We also talked about John Carey, Brian Moore, Virginia Woolf as a critic. Hermione is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. Her life of Anita Brookner will be released in September.TranscriptHenry Oliver: Today I have the great pleasure of talking to Professor Dame Hermione Lee. Hermione was the first woman to be appointed Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, and she is the most renowned and admired living English biographer. She wrote a seminal life of Virginia Woolf. She's written splendid books about people like Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, and my own favorite, Penelope Fitzgerald. And most recently she has been the biographer of Tom Stoppard, and I believe this year she has a new book coming out about Anita Brookner. Hermione, welcome.Hermione Lee: Thank you very much.Oliver: We're mostly going to talk about Tom Stoppard because he, sadly, just died. But I might have a few questions about your broader career at the end. So tell me first how Shavian is Stoppard's work?Lee: He would reply “very close Shavian,” when asked that question. I think there are similarities. There are obviously similarities in the delighting forceful intellectual play, and you see that very much in Jumpers where after all the central character is a philosopher, a bit of a bonkers philosopher, but still a very rational one.And you see it in someone like Henry, the playwright in The Real Thing, who always has an answer to every argument. He may be quite wrong, but he is full of the sort of zest of argument, the passion for argument. And I think that kind of delight in making things intellectually clear and the pleasure in argument is very Shavian.Where I think they differ and where I think is really more like Chekov, or more like Beckett or more in his early work, the dialogues in T. S. Elliot, and less like Shaw is in a kind of underlying strangeness or melancholy or sense of fate or sense of mortality that rings through almost all the plays, even the very, very funny ones. And I don't think I find that in Shaw. My prime reading time for Shaw was between 15 and 19, when I thought that Shaw was the most brilliant grownup that one could possibly be listening to, and I think now I feel less impressed by him and a bit more impatient with him.And I also think that Shaw is much more in the business of resolving moral dilemmas. So in something like Arms and the Man or Man and Superman, you will get a kind of resolution, you will get a sort of sense of this is what we're meant to be agreeing with.Whereas I think quite often one of the fascinating things about Stoppard is the way that he will give all sides of the question; he will embody all sides of the question. And I think his alter ego there is not Shaw, but the character of Turgenev in The Coast of Utopia, who is constantly being nagged by his radical political friends to make his mind up and to have a point of view and come down on one side or the other. And Turgenev says, I take every point of view.Oliver: I must confess, I find The Coast of Utopia a little dull compared to Stoppard's other work.Lee: It's long. Yes. I don't find it dull. But I think it may be a play to read possibly more than a play to see now. And you're never going to get it put on again anyway because the cast is too big. And who's going to put on a nine-hour free play, 50 people cast about 19th-century Russian revolutionaries? Nobody, I would think.But I find it very absorbing actually. And partly because I'm so interested in Isaiah Berlin, who is a very strong presence in the anti-utopianism of those plays. But that's a matter of opinion.Oliver: No. I like Berlin. One thing about Stoppard that's un-Shavian is that he says his plays begin as a noise or an image or a scene, and then we think of him as this very thinking writer. But is he really more of an intuitive writer?Lee: I think it's a terribly good question. I think it gets right at the heart of the matter, and I think it's both. Sorry, I sound like Turgenev, not making my mind up. But yes, there is an image or there is an idea, or there are often two ideas, as it were, the birth of quantum physics and 18th-century landscape gardening. Who else but Stoppard would put those two things in one play, Arcadia, and have you think about both at once.But the image and the play may well have been a dance between two periods of time together in one room. So I think he never knew what the next play was going to be until it would come at him, as it were. He often resisted the idea that if he chose a topic and then researched it, a play would come out of it. That wasn't what happened. Something would come at him and then he would start doing a great deal of research usually for every play.Oliver: What sort of influence did T. S. Elliot have on him? Did it change the dialogue or, was it something else?Lee: When I was working with him on my biography, he gave me a number of things. I had extraordinary access, and we can perhaps come back to that interesting fact. And most of these things were loans he gave them to me to work on. Then I gave them back to him.But he gave me as a present one thing, which was a black notebook that he had been keeping at the time he was writing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and also his first and only novel Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon, which is little known, which he thought was going to make his career. The book was published in the same week that Rosencrantz came up. He thought the novel was going to make his career and the play was going to sink without trace. Not so. In the notebook there are many quotations from T. S. Elliot, and particularly from Prufrock and the Wasteland, and you can see him working them into the novel and into the play.“I am not Prince Hamlet nor was meant to be.” And that sense of being a disconsolate outsider. Ill at ease with and neurotic about the world that is charging along almost without you, and you are having to hang on to the edge of the world. The person who feels themself to be in internal exile, not at one with the universe. I think that point of view recurs over and over again, right through the work, but also a kind of epigrammatical, slightly mysterious crypticness that Elliot has, certainly in Prufrock and in the Wasteland and in the early poems. He loved that tone.Oliver: Yes. When I read your paper about that I thought about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern quite differently. I've always disliked the idea that it's a sort of Beckett imitation play. It seems very Elliotic having read what you described.Lee: There is Beckett in there. You can't get away from it.Oliver: Surface level.Lee: Beckett's there, but I think the sense of people waiting around—Stoppard's favorite description of Rosencrantz was: “It's two journalists on a story that doesn't add up, which is very clever and funny.”Yes. And that sense of, Vladimir going, “What are we supposed to be doing and how are we going to pass the time?” That's profoundly influential on Stoppard. So I don't think it's just a superficial resemblance myself, but I agree that Elliot just fills the tone of that play and other things too.Oliver: In the article you wrote about Stoppard and Elliot, the title is about biographical questing, and you also described Arcadia as a quest. How important is the idea of the quest to the way you work and also to the way you read Stoppard?Lee: I took as the epigraph for my biography of Stoppard a line from Arcadia: “It's wanting to know that makes us matter, otherwise we're going out the way we came in.” So I think that's right at the heart of Stoppard's work, and it's right at the heart of any biographical work, whether or not it's mine or someone else's. If you can't know, in the sense of knowing the person, knowing what the person is like, and also knowing as much as possible about them from different kinds of sources, then you might as well give up.You can't do it through impressions. You've got to do it through knowledge. Of course, a certain amount of intuition may also come into play, though I'm not the kind of biographer that feels you can make things up. Working on a living person, this is the only time I've done that.It was, of course, a very different thing from working on a safely dead author. And I knew Penelope Fitzgerald a little bit, but I had no idea I was going to write her biography when I had conversations with her and she wouldn't have told me anything anyway. She was so wicked and evasive. But it was a set up thing; he asked me to do it. And we had a proper contract and we worked together over several years, during which time he became a friend, which was a wonderful piece of luck for me.I was doing four things, really. One was reading all the material that he produced, everything, and getting to know it as well as I could. And that's obviously the basic task. One was talking to him and listening to him talk about his life. And he was very generous with those interviews. I'm sure there were things he didn't tell me, but that's fine. One was talking to other people about him, which is a very interesting process. And with someone like him who knew everyone in the literary, theatrical, cultural world, you have to draw a halt at some point. You can't talk to a thousand people, or I'd have still been doing it, so you talk to particularly fellow playwrights, directors, actors who've worked with him often, as well as family and friends. And then you start pitting the versions against each other and seeing what stands up and what keeps being said.Repetition's very important in that process because when several people say the same thing to you, then you know that's right. And that quest also involves some actual footsteps, as Richard Holmes would say. Footsteps. Traveling to places he'd lived in and going to Darjeeling where he had been to school before he came to England, that kind of travel.And then the fourth, and to me, in a way, almost the most exciting, was the opportunity to watch him at work in rehearsal. So with the director's permissions, I was allowed to sit in on two or three processes like that, the 50th anniversary production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the Old Vic with David Lavoie. And Patrick Marber's wonderful production of Leopoldstadt and Nick Hytner's production of The Hard Problem at the National. So I was able to witness the very interesting negotiations going on between Tom and the director and the cast.And also the extraordinary fact that even with a play like Rosencrantz, which is on every school syllabus and has been for 50—however many years—he was still changing things in rehearsal. I can't get over that. And in his view, as he often said, theater is an event and not a text, and so one could see that actual process of things changing before one's very eyes, and that for a biographer, it's a pretty amazing privilege.Oliver: How much of the plays were written during rehearsal do you think?Lee: Oh, 99% of the plays were written with much labor, much precision, much correction alone at his desk. The text is there, the text is written, and everything changes when you go into the rehearsal room because you suddenly find that there isn't enough time with that speech for the person to get from the bed to the door. It's physics; you have to put another line in so that someone can make an entrance or an exit, that kind of thing.Or the actors will say quite often, because they were a bit in awe—by the time he became well known—the actors initially would be a bit in awe of the braininess and the brilliance. And quite often the actors will be saying, “I'm sorry, I don't understand. I don't understand this.” You'd often get, “I don't really understand.”And then he would never be dismissive. He would either say, “No, I think you've got to make it work.” I'm putting words into his mouth here. Or he would say, “Okay, let's put another sentence or something like that.”Oliver: Between what he wrote at his desk and the book that's available for purchase now, how much changed? Is it 10%, 50? You know what I mean?Lee: Yes. You should be talking to his editor at Faber, Dinah Wood. So Faber would print a relatively small number for the first edition before the rehearsal process and the final production. And then they would do a second edition, which would have some changes in it. So 2%. Okay. But crucial sometimes.Oliver: No, sure. Very important.Lee: And also some plays like Jumpers went through different additions with different endings, different solutions to plot problems. Travesties, he had a lot of trouble with the Lenins in Travesties because it's the play in which you've got Joyce and you've got Tristan Tzara and you've got the Lenins, and they're all these real people and he makes him talk.But he was a little bit nervous about the Lenin. So what he gave him to say were things that they had really said, that Lenin had really said. As opposed to the Tzara-Joyce stuff, which is all wonderfully made up. The bloody Lenins became a bit of a problem for him. And so that gets changed in later editions you'll find.Oliver: How closely do you think The Real Thing is based on Present Laughter by Noël Coward?Lee: Oh, I think there's a little bit of Coward in there. Yes, sure. I think he liked Coward, he liked Wilde, obviously. He likes brilliant, witty, playful entertainers. He wants to be an entertainer. But I think The Real Thing, he was proud of the fact that The Real Thing was one of the few examples of his plays at that time, which weren't based on something else. They weren't based on Hamlet. They weren't based on The Importance of Being Earnest. It's not based on a real person like Housman. I think The Real Thing came out of himself much more than out of literary models.Oliver: You don't think that Henry is a bit like the actor character in Present Laughter and it's all set in his flat and the couples moving around and the slight element of farce?The cricket bat speech is quite similar to when Gary Essendine—do you remember that very funny young man comes up on the train from Epping or somewhere and lectures him about the social value of art. And Gary Essendine says, “Get a job in a theater rep and write 20 plays. And if you can get one of them put on in a pub, you'll be damn lucky.” It's like a model for him, a loose model.Lee: Yes. Henry, I think you should write an article comparing these two plays.Oliver: Okay. Very good. What does Stoppardian mean?Lee: It means witty. It means brilliant with words. It means fizzing with verbal energy. It means intellectually dazzling. The word dazzling is the one that tends to get used. My own version of Stoppardian is a little bit different from, as it were, those standard received and perfectly acceptable accounts of Stoppardian.My own sense of Stoppardian has more to do with grief and mortality and a sense of not belonging and of puzzlement and bewilderment, within all that I said before, within the dazzling, playful astonishing zest and brio of language and the precision about language.Oliver: Because it's a funny word. It's hard to include Leopoldstadt under the typical use of Stoppardian, because it's an untypical Stoppard.Lee: One of the things about Leopoldstadt that I think is—let's get rid of that trope about Stoppardian—characteristic of him is the remarkable way it deals with time. Here's a play like Arcadia, all set in the same place, all set in the same room, in the same house, and it goes from a big hustling room, late 19th-century family play, just like the beginning of The Coast of Utopia, where you begin with a big family in Russia and then it moves through the '20s and then into the terrible appalling period of the Anschluss and the Holocaust.And then it ends up after the war with an empty room. This room, is like a different kind of theater, an empty room. Three characters, none of whom you know very well, speaking in three different kinds of English, reaching across vast spaces of incomprehension, and you've had these jumps through time.And then at the very end, the original family, all of whom have been destroyed, the original family reappears on the stage. I'm sorry to tell this for anyone who hasn't seen Leopoldstadt. Because when it happens on the stage, it's an absolutely astonishing moment. As if the time has gone round and as if the play, which I think it was for him, was an act of restitution to all those people.Oliver: How often did he use his charm to get his way with actors?Lee: A lot. And not just actors. People he worked with, film people, friends, companions. Charm is such an interesting thing, isn't it? Because we shouldn't deviate, but there's always a slightly sinister aspect to the word charm as in, a magic charm. And one tends to be a bit suspicious of charm. And he knew he had charm and he was physically very magnetic and good looking and very funny and very attentive to people.But I think the charm, in his case, he did use it to get the right results, and he did use it, as he would say, “to look after my plays.” He was always, “I want to look after my plays.” And that's why he went back to rehearsal when there were revivals and so on. But he wasn't always charming. Patrick Marber, who's a friend of his and who directed Leopoldstadt, is very good on how irritable Stoppard could be sometimes in rehearsal. And I've heard that from other directors too—Jack O'Brien, who did the American productions of things like The Invention of Love.If Stoppard felt it wasn't right, he could get quite cross. So this wasn't a sort of oleaginous character at all. It's not smooth, it's not a smooth charm at all. But yes, he knew his power and he used it, and I think in a good way. I think he was a benign character actually. And one of the things that was very fascinating to me, not only when he died and there was this great outpouring of tributes, very heartfelt tributes, I thought. But also when I was working on the biography, I was going around the world trying to find people to say bad things about him, because what I didn't want to do was write a hagiography. You don't want to do that; there would be no point. And it was genuinely quite hard.And I don't know the theater world; it's not my world. I got to know it a little bit then. But I have never necessarily thought of the theater world as being utterly loving and generous about everybody else. I'm sure there are lots of rivalries and spitefulness, as there is in academic life, all the rest of it. But it was very hard to find anyone with a bad word to say about him, even people who'd come up against the steeliness that there is in him.I had an interview with Steven Spielberg about him, with whom he worked a lot, and with whom he did Empire of the Sun. And I would ask my interviewees if they could come up with two or three adjectives or an adjective that would sum him up, that would sum Stoppard up to them. And when I asked Spielberg this question, he had a little think and then he said, intransigent. I thought, great. He must be the only person who ever stood up to him.Oliver: What was his best film script? Did he write a really great film.Lee: That one. I think partly the novel, I don't know if you know the Ballard novel, the Empire of the Sun, it's a marvelous novel. And Ballard was just a magical and amazing writer, a great hero of mine. But I think what Stoppard did with that was really clever and brilliant.I know people like Brazil, the Terry Gilliam sort of surrealist way. And there's some interesting early work. Most of his film work was not one script; it was little bits that he helped with. So there's famously the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he did most of the dialogue for Harrison Ford.But there are others like the One Hundred and One Dalmatians, where I think there's one line, anonymously Stoppardian in there. One of the things about the obituaries that slightly narked me was that there, I felt there was a bit too much about the films. Truly, I don't think the film work was—he wanted it to be right and he wanted to get it right—but it wasn't as close to his heart as the theater work. And indeed the work for radio, which I thought was generally underwritten about when he died. There was some terrific work there.Oliver: Yes. And there aren't that many canonical writers who've been great on the radio.Lee: Absolutely. He did everything. He did film, he did radio. He wrote some opera librettos. He really did everything. And on top of that, there was the great work for the public good, which I think is a very important part of his legacy, his history.Oliver: How much crossover influence is there between the different bits of his career? Does the screenwriting influence the theater writing and the radio and so on? Or is he just compartmentalized and able to do a lot of different things?Lee: That's such an interesting question. I don't think I've thought about it enough. I think there are very cinematic aspects to some of the plays, like Night and Day, for instance, the play about journalism. That could easily have been a film.And perhaps Hapgood as well, although it could be a kind of John le Carré type film thriller, though it's such a set of complicated interlocking boxes that I don't know that it would work as a film. It's not one of my favorite players, I must say. I struggle a little bit with Hapgood. But, yes, I'm sure that they fed into each other. Because he was so busy, he was often doing several things at once. So he was keeping things in boxes and opening the lid of that box. But mentally things must have overlapped, I'm sure.Oliver: He once joked that rather than having read Wittgenstein from cover to cover, he had only read the covers. How true is that? Because I know some people who would say he's very clever in everything, but he's not as clever as he looks. It's obviously not true that he only read the covers.Lee: I think there was a phase, wasn't there, after the early plays when people felt that he was—it's that English phrase, isn't it—too clever by half. Which you would never hear anyone in France saying of someone that they were too clever by half. So he was this kind of jazzy intellectual who put all his ideas out there, and he was this sort of self-educated savant who hadn't been to Oxford.There was quite a lot of that about in the earlier years, I think. And a sense that he was getting away with it, to which I would countermand with the story of the writing of The Invention of Love. So what attracted him to the figure of Housman initially was not the painful, suppressed homosexual love story, but the fact that here was this person who was divided into a very pernickety, savagely critical classical editor of Latin and a romantic lyric poet. In order to work out how to turn this into a play, he probably spent about six years taking Latin lessons, reading everything he could read on the history of classical literature. Obviously reading about Housman, engaging in conversation with classical scholars about Housman's, finer points of editorial precision about certain phrases. And what he used from that was the tip of the iceberg. But the iceberg was real.He really did that work and he often used to say that it was his favorite play because he'd so much enjoyed the work that went into it. I think he took what he needed from someone like Wittgenstein. I know you don't like The Coast of Utopia very much, but if you read his background to Coast of Utopia, what went into it, and if you compare what's in the plays, those three plays, with what's in the writing about those revolutionaries, he read everything. He may have magpied it, but he's certainly knows what he's talking about. So I defend him a bit against that, I think.Oliver: Good, good. Did you see the recent production at the Hamstead Theatre of The Invention of Love?Lee: I did, yes.Oliver: What did you think?Lee: I liked it. I thought it was rather beautifully done. I liked those boats rowing around that clicked together. I thought Simon Russell Beale was extremely good, particularly very moving. And very good in Housman's vindictiveness as a critic. He is not a nice person in that sense. And his scornfulness about the women students in his class, that kind of thing. And so there was a wonderful vitriol and scorn in Russell Beale's performance.I think when you see it now, some of the Oxford context is a little bit clunky, those scenes with Jowett and Pater and so on, it's like a bit of a caricature of the context of cultural life at the time, intellectual life at the time. But I think that the trope of the old and the young Housman meeting each other and talking to each other, which I still think is very moving. I thought it worked tremendously well.Oliver: What are Tom Stoppard's poems like?Lee: You see them in Indian Ink where he invents a poet, Flora Crewe, who is a poet who was died young, turn of the century, bold feminist associated with Bloomsbury and gets picked up much later as a kind of Sylvia Plath-type, HD type heroine. And when you look at Stoppard's manuscripts in the Harry Ransom Center in the University of Austin, in Texas, there is more ink spent on writing and rewriting those poems of Flora Crewe than anything else I saw in the manuscript. He wrote them and rewrote them.Early on he wrote some Elliot—they're very like Elliot—little poems for himself. I think there are probably quite a lot of love poems out there, which I never saw because they belong to the people for whom he wrote them. So I wouldn't know about those.Oliver: How consistently did Stoppard hold to a kind of liberal individualism in his politics?Lee: He was accused of being very right wing in the 1980s really, 1970s, 1980s, when the preponderant tendency for British drama was radicalism, Royal Court, left wing, all of that. And Stoppard seemed an outlier then, because he approved of Thatcher. He was a friend of Thatcher. He didn't like the print union. It was particularly about newspapers because he'd been a newspaper man in his youth. That was his alternative university education, working in Bristol on the newspapers. He had a romance heroic feeling about the value of the journalist to uphold democracy, and he hated the pressure of the print unions to what he thought at the time was stifling that.He changed his mind. I think a lot about that. He had been very idealistic and in love with English liberal values. And I think towards the end of his life he felt that those were being eroded. He voted lots of different ways. He voted conservative, voted green. He voted lib dem. I don't if he ever voted Labour.Oliver: But even though his personal politics shifted and the way he voted shifted, there is something quite continuous from the early plays through to Rock ‘n' Roll. Is there a sort of basic foundation that doesn't change, even though the response to events and the idea about the times changes?Lee: Yes, I think that's right, and I think it can be summed up in what Henry says in The Real Thing about politics, which is a version of what's often said in his plays, which is public postures have the configuration of private derangement. So that there's a deep suspicion of political rhetoric, especially when it tends towards the final solution type, the utopian type, the sense that individual lives can be sacrificed in the interest of an ultimate rationalized greater good.And then, he's worked in the '70s for the victims of Soviet communism. His work alongside in support of Havel and Charter 77. And he wrote on those themes such as Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Professional Foul. Those are absolutely at the heart of what he felt. And they come back again when he's very modest about this and kept it quiet. But he did an enormous amount of work for the Belarus exile, Belarus Free Theater collective, people in support of those trying to work against the regime in Belarus.And then the profound, heartfelt, intense feeling of horror about what happened to people in Leopoldstadt. That's all part of the same thing. I think he's a believer in individual freedom and in democracy and has a suspicion of political rhetoric.Oliver: How much were some of his great parts written for specific actors? Because I sometimes have a feeling when I watch one of his plays now, if I'd been here when Felicity Kendal was doing this, I would be getting the whole thing, but I'm getting most of it.Lee: I'm sure that's right. And he built up a team around him: Peter Wood, the director and John Wood who's such an extraordinary Henry Carr in in in Travesties. And Michael Hordern as George the philosopher in Jumpers. And he wrote a lot for Kendal, in the process of becoming life companions.But he'd obviously been writing and thinking of her very much, for instance, in Arcadia. And also I think very much, it's very touching now to see the production of Indian Ink that's running at Hampstead Theatre in which Felicity Kendal is playing the older woman, the surviving older sister of the poet Flora Crewe, where of course the part of Flora Crewe was written for her. And there's something very touching about seeing that now. And, in fact, the first night of that production was the day of Stoppard's funeral. And Kendal couldn't be at the funeral, of course, because she was in the first night of his play. That's a very touching thing.Oliver: Why did he think the revivals came too soon?Lee: I don't really know the answer to that. I think he thought a play had to hook up a lot of oxygen and attract a lot of attention. If you were lucky while it was on, people would remember the casting and the direction of that version of it, and it would have a kind of memory. You had to be there.But people who were there would remember it and talk about it. And if you had another production very soon after that, then maybe it would diminish or take away that effect. I think he had a sort of loyalty to first productions often. What do you think about that? I'm not quite sure of the answer to that.Oliver: I don't know. To me it seems to conflict a bit with his idea that it's a living thing and he's always rewriting it in the rehearsal room. But I think probably what you say is right, and he will have got it right in a certain way through all that rehearsing. You then need to wait for a new generation of people to make it fresh again, if you like.Lee: Or not a generation even, but give it five years.Oliver: Everyone new and this theater's working differently now. We can rework it in our own way. Can we have a few questions about your broader career before we finish?Lee: Depends what they are.Oliver: Your former colleague John Carey died at a similar time to Stoppard. What do you think was his best work?Lee: John Carey's best work? Oh. I thought the biography of Golding was pretty good. And I thought he wrote a very good book on Thackery. And I thought his work on Milton was good. I wasn't so keen on The Intellectuals and the Masses. He and I used to have vociferous arguments about that because he had cast Virginia Woolf with all the modernist fascists, as it were. He'd put her in a pile with Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound and so on. And actually, Virginia Woolf was a socialist feminist. And this didn't seem to have struck him because he was so keen to expose her frightful snobbery, which is what people in England reading Woolf, especially middle class blokes, were horrified by.And she is a snob, there's no doubt about it. But she knew that and she lacerated herself for it too. And I think he ignored all the other aspects of her. So I was angry about that. But he was the kind of person you could have a really good argument with. That was one of the really great things about John.Oliver: He seems to be someone else who was amenable and charming, but also very steely.Lee: Yes, I think he probably was I think he probably was. You can see that in his memoir, I think.Oliver: What was Carmen Callil like?Lee: Oh. She was a very important person in my life. It was she who got me involved in writing pieces for Virago. And it was she who asked me to write the life of Virginia Woolf for Chatto. And she was an enormous, inspiring encourager as she was to very many people. And I loved her.But I was also, as many people were, quite daunted by her. She was temperamental, she was angry. She was passionate. She was often quite difficult. Not a word I like to use about women because there's that trope of difficult women, but she could be. And she lost her temper in a very un-English way, which was quite a sight to behold. But I think of her as one of the most creative and influential publishers of the 20th century.Oliver: Will there be a biography of her?Lee: I don't know. Yes, it's a really interesting question, and I've been asking her executors whether they have any thoughts about that. Somebody said to me, oh, who wants a biography of a publisher? But, actually, publishers are really important people often, so I hope there would be. Yes. And it would need to be someone who understood the politics of feminism and who understood about coming from Australia and who understood about the Catholic background and who understood about her passion for France. And there are a whole lot of aspects to that life. It's a rich and complex life. Yes, I hope there will be someday.Oliver: Her papers are sitting there in the British Library.Lee: They are. And in fact—you kindly mentioned this to start with—I've just finished a biography of the art historian and novelist, Anita Brookner, who won the Booker prize in 1984 for a novel called Hotel du Lac.And Carmen and Anita were great buddies, surprisingly actually, because they were very different kinds of characters. And the year before she died, Carmen, who knew I was working on Anita, showed me all her diary entries and all the letters she'd kept from Anita. And that's the kind of generous person that she was.That material is now sitting in the British Library, along with huge reams of correspondence between Carmen and many other people. And it's an exciting archive.Oliver: She seems to have had a capacity to be friends with almost anyone.Lee: Yes, I think there were people she would not have wanted to be friends with. She was very disapproving of a lot of political figures and particularly right-wing figures, and there were people she would've simply spat at if she was in the room with them. But, yes, she an enormous range of friends, and she was, as I said, she was fantastically encouraging to younger women writers.And, also, another aspect of Carmen's life, which I greatly admired and was fascinated by: In Virago she would often be resuscitating the careers of elderly women writers who had been forgotten or neglected, including Antonia White and including Rosamund Lehmann. And part of Carmen's job at Virago, as she felt, was not just to republish these people, some of whom hadn't had a book published for decades, but also to look after them. And they were all quite elderly and often quite eccentric and often quite needy. And Carmen would be there, bringing them out and looking after them and going around to see them. And really marvelous, I think.Oliver: Yes, it is. Tell me about Brian Moore.Lee: Breean, as he called himself.Oliver: Oh, I'm sorry.Lee: No, it's all right. I think Brian became a friend because in the 1980s I had a book program on Channel 4, which was called Book Four. It had a very small audience, but had a wonderful time over several years interviewing lots and lots of writers who had new books out. We didn't have a budget; it was a table and two chairs and not the kind of book program you see on the television anymore. And I got to know Brian through that and through reviewing him a bit and doing interviews with him, and my husband and I would go out and visit him and his wife Jean.And I loved the work. I thought the work was such a brilliant mixture of popular cultural forms, like the thriller and historical novel and so on. And fascinating ideas about authority and religion and how to be free, how to break free of the bonds of what he'd grown up with in Ireland, in Northern Ireland, the bombs of religious autocracy, as it were. And very surreal in some ways as well. And he was also a very charming, funny, gregarious person who could be quite wicked about other writers.And, he was a wonderfully wicked and funny companion. What breaks my heart about Brian Moore is that while he was alive, he was writing a novel maybe every other year or every three years, and people would review them and they were talked about, and I don't think they were on academic syllabuses but they were really popular. And when he died and there were no more books, it just went. You can think of other writers like that who were tremendously well known in their time. And then when there weren't any more books, just went away. You ask people, now you go out and ask people, say, “What about The Temptation of Eileen Hughes or The Doctor's Wife or Black Robe? And they'll go, “Sorry?”Oliver: If anyone listening to this wants to try one of his novels, where do you say they should start?Lee: I think I would start with The Doctor's Wife and The Temptation of Eileen Hughes. And then if one liked those, one would get a taste for him. But there's plenty to choose from.Oliver: What about Catholics?Lee: Yes. Catholics is a wonderful book. Yes. Wonderful book. Bit like Muriel Spark's The Abbess of Crewe, I think.Oliver: How important is religion to Penelope Fitzgerald's work?Lee: She would say that she felt guilty about not having put her religious beliefs more explicitly into her fiction. I'm very glad that she didn't because I think it is deeply important and she believes in miracles and saints and angels and manifestations and providence, but she doesn't spell it out.And so when at the end of The Gate of Angels, for instance, there is a kind of miracle on the last page but it's much better not to have it spelt out as a miracle, in my view. And in The Blue Flower, which is not my favorite of her books, but it's the book of the greatest genius possibly. And I think she was a genius. There is a deep interest in Novalis's romantic philosophical ideas about a spiritual life, beyond the physical life, no more doctrinally than that. And she, of course, believes in that. I think she believed, in an almost Platonic way, that this life was a kind of cave of shadows and that there was something beyond that. And there are some very mysterious moments in her books, which, if they had been explained as religious experiences, I think would've been much less forceful and much less intense.Oliver: What is your favorite of her books?Lee: Oh, The Beginning of Spring. The Beginning of Spring is set in Moscow just before the revolution. And its concerns an Englishman who runs a print and publishing works. And it's based quite a lot on some factual narratives about people in Moscow at the time. And it's about the feeling of that place and that time, but it's also about being in love with two people at the same time.And, yes, and it's about cultural clashes and cultural misunderstanding, and it is an astonishingly evocative book. And when asked about this book, interviewers would say to Penelope, oh, she must have lived in Moscow for ages to know so much about it. And sometimes she would say, “Yes, I lived there for years.” And sometimes she would say, “No, I've never been there in my life.” And the fact was she'd had a week's book tour in Moscow with her daughter. And that was the only time she ever went to Russia, but she read. So it was a wonderful example of how she would be so wicked; she would lie.Oliver: Yes.Lee: Because she couldn't be bothered to tell the truth.Oliver: But wasn't she poking fun at their silly questions?Lee: Yes. It's not such a silly question. I would've asked her that question. It is an astonishing evocation of a place.Oliver: No, I would've asked it too, but I do feel like she had this sense of it's silly to be asked questions at all. It's silly to be interviewed.Lee: I interviewed her about three times—and it was fascinating. And she would deflect. She would deflect, deflect. When you asked her about her own work, she would deflect onto someone else's work or she would tell you a story. But she also got quite irritable.So for instance, there's a poltergeist in a novel called The Bookshop. And the poltergeist is a very frightening apparition and very strong chapter in the book. And I said to her in interview, “Look, lots of people think this is just superstition. There aren't poltergeists.” And she looked at me very crossly and said they just haven't been there. They don't know what they're talking about. Absolutely factual and matter of fact about the reality of a poltergeist.Oliver: What makes Virginia Woolf's literary criticism so good?Lee: Oh, I think it's a kind of empathy actually. That she has an extraordinary ability to try and inhabit the person that she's writing about. So she doesn't write from the point of view of, as it were, a dry, historical appreciation.She's got the facts and she's read the books, but she's trying to intimately evoke what it felt like to be that writer. I don't mean by dressing it up with personal anecdotes, but just she has an extraordinary way of describing what that person's writing is like, often in images by using images and metaphors, which makes you feel you are inside the story somehow.And she loves anecdotes. She's very good at telling anecdotes, I think. And also she's not soft, but she's not harshly judgmental. I think she will try and get the juice out of anything she's writing about. Most of these literary criticism pieces were written for money and against the clock and whilst doing other things.So if you read her on Dorothy Wordsworth or Mary Wollstonecraft or Henry James, there's a wonderful sense of, you feel your knowledge has been expanded. Knowledge in the sense of knowing the person; I don't mean in the sense of hard facts.Oliver: Sure. You've finished your Anita Brookner biography and that's coming this year.Lee: September the 10th this year, here and in the States.Oliver: What will you do next?Lee: Yes. That's a very good question, though a little soon, I feel.Oliver: Is there someone whose life you always wanted to write, but didn't?Lee: No. No, there isn't. Not at the moment. Who knows?Oliver: You are open to it. You are open.Lee: Who knows what will come up.Oliver: Yes. Hermione Lee, this was a real pleasure. Thank you very much.Lee: Thank you very much. It was a treat. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk

In this bonus episode, Ed West and I spoke about the mode of British governance that is simultaneously sinister and farcical, from the recent 'Prevent video game' to the police horses sent to re-education because they wouldn't walk over rainbow pedestrian crossings.Discussed in this episode: Conservatives are more accurate in describing the beliefs of liberals"Met police hired black child rapist to boost diversity""Met urges Epping migrant sex offender to hand himself in""The Birmingham Maccabi scandal proves multiculturalism has failed"Garrett Jones book on migration and culture"UAE cuts funds for students keen to study in UK ‘over fears campuses radicalised by Islamist groups'" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Hochberg kicks off this week's show with Janelle Iaccino of Rose Pest Solutions to discuss mothballs. Next, Center Guard Plumbing's Mike Epping joins the show to discuss winter plumbing maintenance. Then, Executive Green Carpet Cleaning's Office Manager Kelly Mickley reminds listeners of their unmatched trust, care, and top-tier cleaning technology. As always David takes calls from loyal listeners […]

The Queen of Westminster returns with unrelenting fury at BBC boss Tim Davie, who—hours after his shock resignation over the Panorama Trump speech scandal—rallied staff to "fight for our journalism" amid damning evidence of bias, including doctored footage falsely framing Trump as inciting the Capitol riot. As Trump threatens a $1bn lawsuit against the Beeb, Julia demands: is this defiance or denial? She also rips into Labour's latest capitulation, with a High Court ruling greenlighting illegal migrants housed at Epping's Bell Hotel despite furious local protests, a migrant sex assault scandal, and costs spiralling to £2.1bn a year. Joined by Spiked Online's Tom Slater and Baroness Kate Hoey (ex-Labour MP and Culture Minister), it's a no-holds-barred dissection of media rot and migrant madness. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the summer, Epping, a small town on the outskirts of London became the scene of mass protests. featuring hundreds of people. Noisy and occasionally violent, the demonstrations attracted crowds from around the country and plenty of media attention.But what really happened in Epping and what does it tell us about where the right in Britain is heading? To find out more about The Observer:Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content head to our website observer.co.uk Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalistsIf you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No one likes being unpopular, so you could forgive both of the UK's main political parties for wanting to look away when another damning poll dropped this week. Support for both parties has never been so low at the same time, the Green party is seeing record support and Reform UK continues to top the popularity contest. Does recent polling really suggest the end of the two-party hegemony? King of the pollsters John Curtice helps Politics Weekly UK read the runes. And, in the run-up to the budget next month, Keir Starmer has given the strongest indication yet that tax rises may be on the way, while immigration dominates headlines and the escaped sex offender whose case sparked protests at the Bell hotel in Epping is sent back to Ethiopia – with £500 in his back pocket. Pippa Crerar is joined by the Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff to discuss the government's game of immigration whack-a-mole and the consequences Labour could face if it breaks its manifesto pledge not to raise key taxes.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod

Deadly Hurricane Melissa makes a new landfall in Cuba amid major damage across Jamaica and Haiti, the Republic of Georgia's ruling party seeks to ban three opposition parties, Israeli strikes in Gaza kill over 100 Palestinians, President Trump says the U.S. and South Korea have sealed a $350B trade deal, the U.S. urges Americans to leave Mali amid jihadist blockades, the U.K. Home Office says the Epping sex offender has been deported to Ethiopia, the U.S. Senate votes to end Trump's Brazil tariff emergency, a judge orders daily reports on Border Patrol operations in Chicago, the Fed cuts rates below 4% for the first time since 2022, and Nvidia makes history as a first company to hit a $5 trillion valuation. Sources: www.verity.news

Margaret Thatcher finally opened London's first ring road - construction on which had begun in the 1970s - on 29th October, 1986, declaring: "I can't stand those who carp and criticise when they ought to be congratulating Britain on a magnificent achievement and beating the drum for Britain all over the world". A 58-page commemorative booklet was issued for enthusiasts, and coach trips were organised so that car-less punters could complete a circuit of the new motorway. But public enthusiasm for the project was short-lived when it lead to increased congestion and seemingly endless proposals for expansion. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly dig into the long history of plans for the capital's ring roads; explain why the M25 managed to bring Epping's combine harvesters to Parliament Square; and consider how Britain's most hated motorway remains an existential threat to London's ‘green belt' countryside…… This episode first aired in 2021 This episode first premiered in 2024, for members of

Why did the Home Office pay Hadush Kebatu £500 to leave the country?  Sky News has spoken to migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu hours after he was deported to Ethiopia. He claims he tried to hand himself in to police after he was released accidentally from prison last Friday but they ignored him.     Responding to Kebatu's claims, the Metropolitan Police told Sky News: "The Met is not aware of any evidence to support the claims that Kebatu approached officers on Saturday morning.  "The actions of officers who responded to the sighting of him on Sunday morning show how seriously they were taking the manhunt. Kebatu's actions on the morning of his arrest were more like those of someone trying to avoid officers, not trying to hand himself in."   Gareth Barlow speaks to home affairs journalist Danny Shaw and Sky News correspondent Ashna Hurynag - who has been in Epping, Essex, where Kebatu sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman.  Producers: Tom Gillespie and Araminta Parker Editor: Wendy Parker  

With the news that the Home Office has spent billions of taxpayers' money on asylum hotels – and following the accidental release of the Epping sex offender – Tim Shipman and James Heale discuss this most shambolic of government departments. Is it fit for purpose? Can Shabana Mahmood fix the cursed department? And, if not, who will voters turn to instead?Produced by Megan McElroy and Patrick Gibbons.Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.Contact us: podcast@spectator.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another week, another immigration crisis. A powerful parliamentary committee has accused the Home Office – for this government and the last – of squandering billions of pounds on asylum accommodation and overseeing a ‘failed, chaotic and expensive' system. The report came days after the barely believable revelation that the convicted sex offender whose case sparked protests at the Bell hotel in Epping was accidentally let out of prison on Friday instead of being deported. He is now back in custody. Pippa Crerar and Eleni Courea discuss the ongoing firefighting at the Home Office and its impact on the public consciousness. Plus, what now for Labour after a crushing defeat in Caerphilly and the election of its new deputy leader, Lucy Powell? Finally, we go back to the China spy row – will this be the week the mystery is cracked open? • Send your thoughts and questions to politicsweeklyuk@theguardian.com. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod

A weekend fiasco has thrown Britain's immigration and prison system into chaos after Hadush Kebatu, an asylum seeker jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Epping, was mistakenly released from Chelmsford prison. He was meant to be deported to Ethiopia but was freed in error, sparking a two-day manhunt before his recapture in North London. Justice Secretary David Lammy faced MPs over the blunder, unveiling new mandatory checks for every prison release, but governors warn it's unworkable. Meanwhile, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has also been forced to respond as frustration grows over the Government's handling of immigration and the spiralling cost of migrant hotels.Tim is joined by Assistant Comment Editor Poppy Coburn to discuss Labour's latest headache, the collapse of Labour's grooming gangs inquiry, and they're also joined by Reform UK's head of policy, Zia Yusuf, for his take on both the prison fiasco and the controversy surrounding his own party MP Sarah Pochin, after she said adverts “full of black and Asian people” drive her mad.We want to hear from you! Email us at thedailyt@telegraph.co.uk or find @dailytpodcast on TikTok, Instagram and X► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditorProducer: Georgia CoanSenior Producer: John CadiganVideo Producer: Will WaltersStudio Operator: Meghan SearleExecutive Producer: Charlotte SeligmanSocial Producer: Nada AggourEditor: Camilla Tominey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Epping migrant sex offender to be deported this week Lammy Reform MP Sarah Pochins comments about adverts were racist, Wes Streeting says Suspect video released after racially aggravated Walsall rape Food stamps US government says it will stop paying for food aid next week Football match abandoned after Dorchester FC player injured Two arrested over theft of jewels at Louvre, French media report Inside Syrias jail for IS suspects as officials say attacks by group are rising Boy thrown from Tate Modern can now run, swim and jump family say What went wrong with Pizza Hut Egypt and Red Cross join search for hostage bodies in Gaza

The bizarre accidental release of the Epping sex offender shows Britain's institutions are failing. Plus: British journalist Sami Hamdi, arrested by ICE for criticising Israel, Javier Milei wins in Argentina's midterm elections, and Reform MP's anger towards diversity in TV adverts. With: Michael Walker, Curtis Daly & Ernesto Seman.

Who do you blame for the prisons chaos over the weekend, which saw the Epping asylum seeker sex offender wrongly released?Joining Iain Dale on Cross Question are the Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper, Conservative Shadow Defence Minister Mark Francois, the LabourList website editor Emma Burnell and the entrepreneur and commentator Jamila Robertson.

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Reform MP Sarah Pochins comments about adverts were racist, Wes Streeting says Suspect video released after racially aggravated Walsall rape Epping migrant sex offender to be deported this week Lammy Two arrested over theft of jewels at Louvre, French media report What went wrong with Pizza Hut Inside Syrias jail for IS suspects as officials say attacks by group are rising Boy thrown from Tate Modern can now run, swim and jump family say Food stamps US government says it will stop paying for food aid next week Football match abandoned after Dorchester FC player injured Egypt and Red Cross join search for hostage bodies in Gaza

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Reform MP Sarah Pochins comments about adverts were racist, Wes Streeting says Epping migrant sex offender to be deported this week Lammy What went wrong with Pizza Hut Football match abandoned after Dorchester FC player injured Suspect video released after racially aggravated Walsall rape Inside Syrias jail for IS suspects as officials say attacks by group are rising Egypt and Red Cross join search for hostage bodies in Gaza Boy thrown from Tate Modern can now run, swim and jump family say Food stamps US government says it will stop paying for food aid next week Two arrested over theft of jewels at Louvre, French media report

Today, we look at the rearrest of migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu, and discuss what his mistaken release means for confidence in the government.Kebatu had been mistakenly released on Friday from HMP Chelmsford, where he was serving a 12-month sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex.We also discuss an apology from Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin, after she said: “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people”.Labour cabinet minister Wes Streeting has called the comment racist. Pochin says “My comments were phrased poorly and I apologise for any offence caused, which was not my intention.”And we look at Laura's interview with Former US Vice-President Kamala Harris, in which said said she was 'concerned' she did not ask Biden to quit the presidential race. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord Get in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480. New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenters were Paddy O'Connell and Laura Kuenssberg. It was made by Chris Flynn with Sophie Millward. The social producer was Darren Dutton. The technical producer was Frank McWeeny. The weekend series editor is Chris Flynn. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Brothers in the forest the fight to protect an isolated Amazon tribe What went wrong with Pizza Hut When should you turn the heating on Lotto jackpot draw halted by technical glitch Charity boss arrest in BBC sex for aid investigation gives women strength Met urges Epping migrant sex offender to hand himself Trump raises tariffs on Canadian goods in response to Reagan advert Catherine Connolly elected as president of Ireland You dont need 8 hours sleep Health tips from the BBCs twin doctors Tax rises could push food prices higher, warn supermarkets

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Britney Spears said she was used. Kevin Federline says she needs help Reeves should not cut cash ISA allowance, MPs say Donald Trump says he wants to meet Kim Jong Un on Asia trip What is driving the decision to learn in a manual or automatic car Manhunt continues for Epping hotel asylum seeker mistakenly released Strictly Come Dancing Icons Week goes ahead after Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman announce departure Magnesium Can this miracle mineral really help us sleep First UK illegal weight loss drug factory found in Northampton Over 1m spent on sending Scottish ferry staff to Turkey Who is new deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Reeves should not cut cash ISA allowance, MPs say Britney Spears said she was used. Kevin Federline says she needs help Donald Trump says he wants to meet Kim Jong Un on Asia trip Magnesium Can this miracle mineral really help us sleep What is driving the decision to learn in a manual or automatic car Over 1m spent on sending Scottish ferry staff to Turkey First UK illegal weight loss drug factory found in Northampton Strictly Come Dancing Icons Week goes ahead after Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman announce departure Who is new deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell Manhunt continues for Epping hotel asylum seeker mistakenly released

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Tax rises could push food prices higher, warn supermarkets Trump raises tariffs on Canadian goods in response to Reagan advert When should you turn the heating on You dont need 8 hours sleep Health tips from the BBCs twin doctors Brothers in the forest the fight to protect an isolated Amazon tribe Charity boss arrest in BBC sex for aid investigation gives women strength What went wrong with Pizza Hut Lotto jackpot draw halted by technical glitch Met urges Epping migrant sex offender to hand himself Catherine Connolly elected as president of Ireland

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Manhunt continues for Epping hotel asylum seeker mistakenly released Who is new deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell Britney Spears said she was used. Kevin Federline says she needs help Strictly Come Dancing Icons Week goes ahead after Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman announce departure Magnesium Can this miracle mineral really help us sleep What is driving the decision to learn in a manual or automatic car Donald Trump says he wants to meet Kim Jong Un on Asia trip First UK illegal weight loss drug factory found in Northampton Reeves should not cut cash ISA allowance, MPs say Over 1m spent on sending Scottish ferry staff to Turkey

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv You dont need 8 hours sleep Health tips from the BBCs twin doctors When should you turn the heating on Met urges Epping migrant sex offender to hand himself Brothers in the forest the fight to protect an isolated Amazon tribe Tax rises could push food prices higher, warn supermarkets Trump raises tariffs on Canadian goods in response to Reagan advert Lotto jackpot draw halted by technical glitch What went wrong with Pizza Hut Charity boss arrest in BBC sex for aid investigation gives women strength Catherine Connolly elected as president of Ireland

We thought when we organised this podcast that there would just be the newly announced deputy Labour leader to discuss – Lucy Powell beat Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson by 87,407 votes to 73,536. But instead we also have evidence the Prime Minister may have lied to Parliament over the collapse of the China spy case, and there is a manhunt under way to recapture a dangerous criminal released by mistake.Bad news clearly comes in threes for No. 10: Lucy Powell was not their pick for the job; lying to Parliament is the kind of thing that the ministerial code is quite clear on; and the criminal in question is the Epping migrant hotel sex offender.Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and the Sunday Times' Gabriel Pogrund.Produced by Oscar Edmondson.Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.Contact us: podcast@spectator.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

//The Wire//2300Z October 24, 2025////PRIORITY////BLUF: U.K. MISTAKENLY RELEASES MIGRANT THAT SPARKED THE EPPING RIOTS, MANHUNT UNDERWAY FOR THE FUGITIVE. BRITISH DIGITAL ID SCHEME TO TARGET CITIZENS FOR NONCOMPLIANCE. VEHICLE RAMMING ATTACK REPORTED AT COAST GUARD BASE IN CALIFORNIA. USA TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA TERMINATED AS CANADA LAUNCHES PROPAGANDA AD CAMPAIGN.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-United Kingdom: In an interview regarding the Digital ID scheme, PM Starmer revealed that the penalty for not getting and using a Digital ID will be a fee of £85 for every instance of financial transaction that would ordinarily require an ID under this new plan.This afternoon, a separate situation developed as a major police operation was declared in Essex after the Epping Hotel attacker was allegedly mistakenly released from prison. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was released by police this morning, rather than being deported. Currently a manhunt is underway, and local citizens are urged to be on the lookout for the violent criminal. Local police have not provided a description of Kebatu other than his mugshot, however a local citizen posted a video on social media after they spotted a man matching his description carrying his belongings in a clear trash bag. This footage was taken before the wanted notice went out, and the grey sweat/tracksuit he was wearing matches the description that court reporters visually saw him wearing earlier that day in court.Geolocation of this video evidence places Kebatu's last known location outside a cafe at Number 84 on the High Street in Chelmsford. The video cuts off before Kebatu's destination could be confirmed, but his last known azimuth places him traveling North up High Street, toward the bus station.Analyst Comment: Kebatu is an Ethiopian national who assaulted a child and a woman in Epping back in July, prompting the now-infamous Epping Riots. He had only been detained for roughly a month, and was supposed to be deported as a way of the British government showing that they do indeed deport violent criminals. However this shining example of good faith has been dashed, and the already dismal public sentiment on the issue is about to get a lot worse.To put it lightly, it is in Mr. Kebatu's very best interest for the *police* to find him as soon as possible. On the one hand, it is true that the British government let a violent criminal out of jail. But on the other hand that also means that he is no longer under police protection, he has no documentation, doesn't speak English, and no one knows where he is. Anyway, a few protests and demonstrations are well underway in Epping, and time is of the essence to find him, before the trail goes cold.Canada: The United States has suspended trade negotiations with Canada due to the discovery of a propaganda campaign targeting Americans. The government of Ontario ran a $75 million ad campaign featuring a speech by Ronald Reagan, in which he spoke negatively about the idea of tariffs. This speech, however, was a fabrication using clips and words selectively cut from Reagan's 1987 address in order to make it look like Reagan was not in favor of tariffs...when the actual uncut speech was actually in favor of tariffs.Analyst Comment: There's a saying in the world of psyops...a deception campaign can never fail. Even if discovered, the deception effort will cause doubt as to what's real, so there will always be some level of effectiveness. In this case, Canadian officials thought they were being cute by playing fast and loose, but this was not simply a harmless meme or something obviously fake. The content that was produced was fully intended to take the place of true information, and when carried out by a nationstate to manipulate the internal sentiment of a foreign nation, this a very serious charge. The sheer scale of this propaganda cam

It's been confirmed that an asylum seeker who was jailed last month for a year for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping has been released from prison by mistake. Also: Plaid Cymru celebrates a decisive victory in the Senedd by-election in Caerphilly, a stronghold for Labour for a century. And one of England's oldest football clubs, Sheffield Wednesday, goes into administration.

A former asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl was released from prison by mistake. Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was jailed for 12 months over the attack in Epping, Essex, last month.Also on the programme: The director of public prosecutions has said the China spy case collapsed because a top national security official could not say the country had been classed as an "enemy" when the Conservatives were in power. We speak to former Tory Defence Secretary Sir Grant Shapps.And art expert and host of the television series ‘Fake or Fortune?' Philip Mould on the discovery of millions of euros' worth of forged art claiming to be by Picasso, Rembrandt and Frida Kahlo.

We started this week's show by chatting with Founder and President of Perma-Seal Basement Systems, Roy Spencer, who joins the show to discuss the importance of W-2 employees. Next, Center Guard Plumbing's Mike Epping joins the show to discuss their water heater sale. Then, Lewis Shapiro of Redo Cabinets talks about the benefits of refacing your cabinets instead […]

With a summer of political turmoil over, and party conference season near an end, Andrea Catherwood talks to Chris Mason about how BBC audio coverage has reflected the key political players. The Feedback inbox has been receiving messages that question the amount of coverage given to Nigel Farage's Reform UK party. Chris responds to your questions and weighs in on what he says is a change in UK politics we haven't seen in decades.And our search for BBC audio's best interview of 2025 continues. One listener has nominated an interview conducted by presenter Evan Davies in a recent episode of PM. He spoke to an unnamed asylum seeker from Somalia, currently waiting on an asylum application in the Bell Hotel in Epping. What they discussed revealed a different side of a story that has seized the attention of the nation this year. Finally, we've heard from a listener who has thoughts about a recent episode of Desert Island Discs - in which Rolling Stone's guitarist Ronnie Wood seemed to request an endless array of luxury items for his island getaway.Presenter: Andrea Catherwood Producer: Pauline Moore Assistant Producer: Rebecca Guthrie Executive Producer: David PrestA Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

Send us a textThis week we're talking about the Epping Grass Drags, Race Into Winter. We break down some of the top social media posts from the week, catch up on the latest news in the powersports industry, and wrap things up with our Would We Run It segment, presented by DS Racing. 

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Trump peace plan ignores interests of Palestinian people, Hamas official tells BBC Human skin DNA fertilised to make embryo for first time Epping hotel asylum seeker jailed for attacks on staff in Essex Carpet poverty I cried when I saw our new home had bare floors David Lammy backtracks on Farage Hitler Youth claim Covid cases rising with new variants Nimbus and Stratus Glasgow student took his own life after tragic university error Hayes couple starved daughter, 3, to death, Old Bailey hears Nigel Farage doesnt believe in Britain, Starmer tells Labour conference Trump trusts Blair, others dont could he govern Gaza

October 2nd, 1925: four covered-top double-deckers debut on the Elephant to Epping route, drawing queues of curious Londoners. A century later, their descendants — 8,800 buses, 6,000 of them double-deckers — knit the capital together with 5 million journeys a day and 300 million miles a year. From four pioneers at the Elephant to a red fleet that could lap the Earth 12,000 times or reach the Sun in four months — London's buses aren't just transport. They're a solar-system-sized lifeline, a cosmic commute.

The three most based Lotus Eaters assemble so Dan, Beau and Harry can discuss how the Epping hotel protests were justified after all, how Fraser Nelson is the worst of us and how Trump casually truth Nukes the UN. Islander #4 is out! Buy it here

La viceprimera ministra del Reino Unido, Angela Rayner, dimitió este viernes tras admitir que había declarado mal a Hacienda la compra de una vivienda en la localidad costera de Hove, a más de 400 kilómetros de su circunscripción en el Gran Manchester. El error le reportó el beneficio de ahorrarse unos 46.000 euros en impuestos. El diario Daily Telegraph había publicado la exclusiva unos días antes y, tras una investigación en el seno del Gobierno, se concluyó que era cierto y a Rayner no le quedó otra salida que presentar su renuncia a Keir Starmer. Rayner pertenecía al círculo cercano de Starmer. Es de origen humilde y dedicó buena parte de su carrera a los sindicatos. Tras ello se convirtió en uno de los rostros más reconocibles del ala izquierda del partido Laborista. Rayner es, por ejemplo, una gran defensora de subir los impuestos, especialmente a las rentas altas, para aliviar los problemas de déficit que arrastra el Gobierno. Paradójicamente su dimisión ha tenido que ver con una cuestión fiscal por la compra de un apartamento de lujo que le costó más un millón de euros. Para Starmer la dimisión de su número dos es un golpe más que deberá encajar en un momento especialmente delicado para él y su Gobierno. El partido Laborista obtuvo una sólida mayoría en Westminster en las elecciones del año pasado. Prometieron un nuevo tiempo caracterizado por la estabilidad después de unos años marcados por los escándalos de los sucesivos gabinetes conservadores. De eso ha pasado poco más de un año y tanto Starmer como el laborismo se encuentran hundidos en los sondeos y con la popularidad en mínimos. La salida de Rayner se produce además después de un verano muy caliente, plagado de titulares de prensa sobre el fracaso del Gobierno para detener el flujo solicitantes de asilo que cruzan el canal de la Mancha en pateras. La cuestión migratoria se complicó poco después con la sentencia de un tribunal que ordenó cerrar un hotel en Epping, una ciudad al norte de Londres, que el Gobierno había contratado para alojar inmigrantes en espera de su resolución de asilo. Rayner daba al Gobierno cierta determinación y fervor ideológico. En un gabinete formado por gente anodina y gris, a la viceprimera ministra le gustaba fajarse con los conservadores, incluso teniéndolos ya en la oposición. Gracias a ella Starmer conseguía mantener bajo control a los más izquierdistas del partido, para quienes Rayner era su principal activo. Sin ella y tras tener que sofocar una rebelión de sus diputados más radicales hace unos meses por anunciar una serie de recortes en las prestaciones sociales, Starmer tendrá que apañárselas para evitar una revuelta a mucha mayor escala que podría llegar a costarle el puesto. Rayner podría de este modo recuperar protagonismo, pero esta vez como referente de la oposición a Starmer tanto en el partido como en el parlamento si, a sus ojos, sigue moviendo su Gobierno hacia la derecha para contrarrestar el auge de Nigel Farage y su partido, Reform UK, que se encuentra ya ocho puntos por encima de los laboristas según las encuestas de intención de voto. Para tratar este tema y sus muchas implicaciones, entre las que se encuentra la suerte política del propio Starmer, vuelve Paco Muñoz a La ContraCrónica, desde un estudio que hemos improvisado en Cambridge. · Canal de Telegram: https://t.me/lacontracronica · “Contra la Revolución Francesa”… https://amzn.to/4aF0LpZ · “Hispanos. Breve historia de los pueblos de habla hispana”… https://amzn.to/428js1G · “La ContraHistoria de España. Auge, caída y vuelta a empezar de un país en 28 episodios”… https://amzn.to/3kXcZ6i · “Lutero, Calvino y Trento, la Reforma que no fue”… https://amzn.to/3shKOlK · “La ContraHistoria del comunismo”… https://amzn.to/39QP2KE Apoya La Contra en: · Patreon... https://www.patreon.com/diazvillanueva · iVoox... https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-contracronica_sq_f1267769_1.html · Paypal... https://www.paypal.me/diazvillanueva Sígueme en: · Web... https://diazvillanueva.com · Twitter... https://twitter.com/diazvillanueva · Facebook... https://www.facebook.com/fernandodiazvillanueva1/ · Instagram... https://www.instagram.com/diazvillanueva · Linkedin… https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-d%C3%ADaz-villanueva-7303865/ · Flickr... https://www.flickr.com/photos/147276463@N05/?/ · Pinterest... https://www.pinterest.com/fernandodiazvillanueva Encuentra mis libros en: · Amazon... https://www.amazon.es/Fernando-Diaz-Villanueva/e/B00J2ASBXM #FernandoDiazVillanueva #keirstarmer #reinounido Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

C dans l'air l'invitée du 5 septembre 2025 avec Georgina Wright, spécialiste des questions européennes au German Marshall Fund, un think tank transatlantique.Depuis le mois de juillet et l'agression sexuelle présumée d'un demandeur d'asile sur une adolescente, l'accueil de réfugiés dans des hôtels suscite une grogne grandissante à travers le Royaume-Uni. Il s'agit du point de départ d'une vague de manifestations anti-immigration sans précédent outre-Manche. Plusieurs hôtels britanniques sont le théâtre de rassemblements contre l'accueil de réfugiés. Depuis 2022, c'est dans ces hôtels, sur initiative des conservateurs alors au pouvoir, que les demandeurs d'asile sont hébergés, faute de logements d'urgence suffisants. Ils sont aujourd'hui 32 000 à vivre dans 200 hôtels à travers le pays.Un ressentiment contre les immigrés qui pullule sur les réseaux sociaux et notamment entretenu par le coût pour l'État britannique de l'hébergement des réfugiés, estimé à plus de 4,7 milliards de livres sterling (5,4 milliards d'euros) par an. Sur le plan politique, le parti d'extrême droite Reform UK et son leader Nigel Farage - qui caracole en tête des enquêtes d'opinion - n'ont eu cesse de souffler sur les braises du mécontentement. Alors que les conservateurs emboîtent le pas de Reform, à l'image de Robert Jenrick, ancien ministre de l'Immigration de Rishi Sunak, qui s'est déplacé à Epping pour soutenir les manifestants, les travaillistes de Keir Starmer sont tiraillés entre fermeté anti-immigration et nécessité de répondre à la crise de la politique d'asile. Entre juin 2024 et juin 2025, 111 084 personnes ont demandé l'asile au Royaume-Uni, selon le Home Office (ministère de l'Intérieur) soit une hausse de 14 % sur un an. Georgina Wright analysera avec nous la portée de ces manifestations anti-migrants au Royaume-Uni, et ce qu'elles révèlent du sentiment d'une partie de la population d'une immigration incontrôlée. Elle reviendra aussi sur les propositions du parti Refom UK de Nigel Farage, et sur son influence sur la politique britannique. Elle nous donnera enfin son analyse de la montée des extrêmes-droites en Europe, et sur ce que ce phénomène révèle sur nos sociétés.

Shocking sex attacks — Epping protests right! DEPORT HIM. #BellHotel #Epping #MigrantVerdict #SexAttacks #ParentsProtests #Deportation #JonGaunt Breaking news from Epping: Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an asylum seeker who arrived illegally in the UK by small boat and was housed at the Bell Hotel, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman — just eight days after landing in the country! This shocking case was the catalyst for furious protests by local mums demanding action and answers. Today's guilty verdict proves their concerns were completely justified. With sentencing set for September 23, pressure is mounting for immediate deportation and for serious questions to be answered about how this was allowed to happen Join Jon Gaunt as he covers the court verdict, the parents' protests, and the political fallout from a case that has rocked the community — and the nation. HE MUST BE DEPORTED. #BellHotel #Epping #UKCrime #SexAttackVerdict #MigrantCrisis #ParentsProtest #AsylumUK #BreakingNews #Justice #CommunitySafety #DeportationDebate Bell Hotel, Epping, UK Crime, Sex Attack Verdict, Migrant Crisis, Parents Protest, Asylum UK, Breaking News, Justice, Community Safety, Deportation Debate This video is a politics blog and social commentary by award winning talk radio star, Jon Gaunt

Dixon Cox is back once again! Except this week Cox has pulled out, so the brilliant Will Kingston is in as supersub. This week: -Graham Linehan is arrested by armed police for tweeting -Will Angela Rayner be forced to resign over her stamp duty scandal? -Kemi misses a massive open goal at PMQs -Starmer considers bringing in ID cards -Migrants' rights trump those of Epping residents -Australia starts to protest immigration And lots more! The full version is only available to paid subscribers, so click here: https://www.nickdixon.net/p/the-free-speech-crisis-graham-linehan Get all full episodes with top guests, join Nick's private chat group, and of course support the podcast and help us save the West, all for just £5 by going to nickdixon.net Support us with a one-off donation here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/nickdixon Nick's links Substack: nickdixon.net YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nick_dixon X: https://x.com/njdixon Will's links X: http://x.com/willkingston   Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0rMetzM1k3tKAWueLAHF1b Substack: https://substack.com/@willrkingston?r=oqdq8&utm_medium=ios   

Original Show Title: Tariff Lies; Xi, Modi, Putin; Tourism; Chinese Visas; DC; Min Wage; UK Asylum | Yaron Brook Show | September 1, 2025Are tariffs “protecting” American jobs—or just ripping you off? Yaron tears apart the myths and exposes the real victims of tariff lies. From Xi's authoritarian grip to Modi's nationalist illusions and Putin's thuggery, the show dives into the strongmen shaping global politics.Yaron will also tackle the decline of tourism, the mess of Chinese visas, the swamp of DC politics, and the economic insanity of minimum wage hikes. Across the Atlantic, the UK asylum crisis reveals the moral collapse of Western immigration policies.Plus, a fiery Q&A on crime stats, Trump's tariff obsession, Rand's cultural impact, drones vs. tanks, why Americans have AC but Europeans don't—and the deeper question of whether fear of independence defines today's culture.Key Time Stamps:02:35 Florence Reflections04:55 Tariff Lies38:35 Xi39:35 Modi47:40 Tourism51:45 Chinese Visas56:30 DC1:02:45 Min Wage1:08:35 UK AsylumLive Questions:1:37:58 What are the most positive trends in the world today? What gives you greatest cause for optimism?1:44:52 What if somebody told Trump that his chances of getting the Nobel Prize would dramatically increase if he eliminated all tariffs?1:46:14  Will we see capitalism in our lifetime?1:46:51 Is looking at how many hours a person must work to afford an item a better way of looking at prices today, compared to prices in the past?1:50:56 Back to the issue of maturity, how do you explain the phenomenon of the degree of immaturity of the Trump administration?1:54:37 Rand diagnosed most people as having a fear of independence. Whatever one feels about being independent, one's metaphysical independence is a biological fact. Why would one form a fear of acknowledging that fact of nature?1:56:22 Are drones making armored fighting vehicles obsolete?1:59:09 Would you agree that to learn, an individual has to revise a previously held belief (accept that being wrong is a path to learning), and/or... accept being ignorant about some topic/information, and [honestly] learn from a position of ignorance?2:05:51 Is it really fair to say all the smart people are in Blue cities? Is it because of current Democrat policies or relics of times past?2:08:55 See pinned comment for timestamps of additional questions

Matt Trump fights through tech gremlins to deliver a powerful episode on the turmoil unfolding in England. From the migrant hotel battles in Epping to the haunting legacy of Rotherham's scandals, he traces how years of neglect and two-tier justice have fueled today's eruption of English patriotism. Revisiting the 2024 Southport stabbings and the government's heavy-handed crackdowns, Matt shows how frustration boiled over into riots, arrests, and now a peaceful wave of St. George's Cross flags spreading across the country. He connects these events to broader questions of national identity, sovereignty, and the deliberate humiliation of English heritage, weaving in history from the Battle of Agincourt to the cultural imprint of The Who. With reflections on faith, Shakespeare adaptations, and the genius of grassroots resistance, this episode captures the spirit of a nation rediscovering itself in defiance of its rulers.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that asylum seekers can remain at the Bell Hotel in Epping where protests have been held since July. Also: The UK government bars Israeli officials from an arms fair in London because of the war in Gaza. And British Cycling has apologised for accidentally censoring the name of a village in Powys on its website.

At least 19 people have been killed and dozens injured after a huge drone and missile attack by Russia on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, overnight. The Court of Appeal has been hearing legal argument from the Home Office and the owner of the Bell Hotel in Epping against a judge's decision to stop asylum seekers being housed there. Also: The Reform Party leader of Nottinghamshire County Council bans a local newspaper's reporters from speaking to him or to his councillors.

Nigel Farage has outlined plans to detain and deport every single migrant who arrives in the UK on a small boat, including women and children. The plans are dismissed by Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Also: the trial begins of an asylum seeker who's accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Epping. And the Met Office says this summer will "almost certainly" be the UK's warmest on record.

Ross Clark – author of Not Zero and Far From EUtopia – joins Tom Slater and Fraser Myers to discuss the childminder jailed for a tweet, the closure of the Epping migrant hotel, Operation Raise the Colours, and the grand folly of greenism. New episodes every Friday. Take your business to the next level with Shopify. Sign up now and get a £1-per-month trial period: https://shopify.co.uk/spiked Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, more councils across England say they could take legal action, after the High Court issued a temporary injunction to stop the government from housing asylum seekers at The Bell Hotel in Epping. Anti-migrant protests and counter protests have been taking place in Epping throughout the summer after an asylum seeker living at the hotel was charged with sexual assault.Adam is joined by Dominic Casciani, the BBC's home affairs correspondent, and Joe Pike, polticial correspondent, to discuss the fallout from the ruling, the response from Reform and Conservative politicians, and what it mean's for the government's ability to house asylum seekers. Plus, chief economics correspondent, Dharshini David joins Adam to talk about inflation, which rose to 3.8% in July. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhereGet in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a whatsapp on +44 0330 123 9480.New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Flynn with Kris Jalowiecki and Anna Harris. The social producers were Grace Braddock and Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Michael Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Another day, another Reform party press conference. Following political editor Tim Shipman's cover piece on how Reform hopes to win over women, this morning's event was led by the party's top female politicians: MP Sarah Pochin, Greater Lincolnshire Mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Westminster councillor Laila Cunningham, and Linden Kemkaran, the leader of Kent County Council. Nigel Farage was missing in action as Reform tried to make the case that they are not a one-man band or a ‘boys' club'. Has Farage solved his women problem?Elsewhere, Kemi Badenoch is in Epping as she tries to wrestle the agenda away from Farage when it comes to asylum seekers and migration. But has she got anything different to say?Donald Trump is also meeting Vladimir Putin today to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, and we are all eagerly awaiting a press conference later this afternoon. Will Trump's search for a deal come at the expense of Ukraine's freedom? How has Keir Starmer influenced peace talks?Lucy Dunn speaks to Tim Shipman and James Heale.Produced by Oscar Edmondson.Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.Contact us: podcast@spectator.co.uk

Carl and Dan discuss the dishonesty of police at Epping, how one dad had enough, and why I hate Pedro Pascal.

A year after Southport, what's driving the turmoil in Essex? Ben Quinn reports. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Carl, Luca and Beau discuss the escalation in Epping, the Japanese fightback against immigration, and the fall of the late night comedians.

Luca, Josh and Nick discuss the Battle of Epping, Britain allowing children to vote, and the man who pretended to be black.