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The Book Club

The Book Club

By: The Spectator
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Literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented weekly by Sam Leith.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Spectator Art Literary History & Criticism Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Celebrating 160 years of Beatrix Potter

    Celebrating 160 years of Beatrix Potter
    Jul 22 2026

    This week marks the 160th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s birth. In this week’s Book Club podcast, I’m joined by Penny Bradshaw, author of An A–Z of Beatrix Potter, and the historian and biographer Kathryn Hughes, whose books include Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World, George Eliot and The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton.

    We plunge into the Potterverse. Does Potter get her due as a literary writer? How animal are her animals? And what went wrong for Ginger and Pickles?

    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.
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    46 mins
  • Tim Whitmarsh: Augustus, Empire and the Making of Christianity

    Tim Whitmarsh: Augustus, Empire and the Making of Christianity
    Jul 14 2026

    My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is Tim Whitmarsh, Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge and author of Rome’s Age of Revolution: Augustus, Empire and the Making of Christianity. He tells me why, contrary to what we may have learnt at Sunday school, early Christianity flourished not despite the Roman empire, but because of it.

    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.
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    42 mins
  • Dave Eggers: Contrapposto

    Dave Eggers: Contrapposto
    Jul 8 2026

    My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the novelist Dave Eggers, talking about his new book Contrapposto. Dave tells me why, after years of writing tech-saturated satire, he returned to the world of art; how a novel 20 years in the making became a love story about talent, ambition and the mystery of making beauty; and why he thinks art ends when theory begins.

    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.
    Show More Show Less
    38 mins
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