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About This Podcast
Book In is a podcast in which brothers Rupert and Charlie Fordham discuss all things English Literature. From Chaucer to the present day, covering drama, novels and poetry, they cover all the classics and much more, from the UK, Ireland, the US, Europe and the rest of the world. Informative but lighthearted, Book In is suitable for all readers, and will be helpful for students doing GCSE, A-Level and university English degrees as well.
Both Rupert and Charlie have been keen readers all their lives and both studied English at university. For many years Charlie taught English at GCSE and A-level.
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Recent Episodes
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf - Part 1
At the age of 40 Virginia Woolf was a prominent figure in post first world war London. She had published several novels, and was a well known commentator and critic. She came from literary…
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy - Part 2
In the second part of Book In’s episode on Thomas Hardy’s great novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, Rupert and Charlie look at the character of Michael Henchard - the qualities which enabled him to…
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy - Part 1
Thomas Hardy lived an extraordinary life. He was born into poverty and obscurity in rural Dorset in 1840, yet when he died in 1928, he was rich and world famous. His funeral at Westminster Abbey was…
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Part 2
Rupert and Charlie continue their discussion of Great Expectations. They take a look at what was always one of Dickens' great preoccupations, the operation of the law in the book, and the brilliant…
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Part 1
Published at the height of his powers in 1860, Great Expectations is Charles Dickens’ penultimate novel, and one of his very greatest. Its characters are unforgettable - Miss Havisham,…
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Part 2
In the second of the episodes on Jane Eyre, Rupert and Charlie take a look at some of the main characters in the book. The behaviour of Mr Rochester is basically weird - he locks up his wife in the…
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Part 1
Jane Eyre is Charlotte Bronte's most famous book and one of the most celebrated, controversial and loved novels ever written. Millions who have never read it know about the mysterious Mr Rochester,…
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
In 1816, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was staying on the shores of Lake Geneva with his young wife Mary, and his friends Lord Byron and John Polidori. It was the year without a summer, and, confined…
Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
Small Things Like These is a short novel by the Irish writer Claire Keegan. It tells the story of Bill Furlong, a coal merchant in a small provincial town in the mid 1980s. As Christmas approaches,…
Christmas Poems
Charlie and Rupert look at three great poems associated with Christmas - In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti, a section from In Memoriam by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and The Magi by W.B.Yeats.…
Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol
The tale of the miserable Ebeneezer Scrooge, and how he came to find humanity, generosity and love, is probably the most famous Christmas story ever written outside the Bible. It is a ghost story and…
Poets: Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin wrote some of the greatest poetry in English in the second half of the twentieth century. Brilliant, famous and successful, he chose to live as a librarian in Hull, largely avoiding the…
Poets: Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American from a prosperous middle class background whose life was changed for ever when she met Ted Hughes at a party in London. He kissed her on the spot, and they were married…
The BIG Scale
Book In introduces the Books in Greatness Scale - or BIGS. Charlie has developed a method of ranking books according to their greatness, with each being awarded a score out of 10. He explains the…
Booker Prize Winners: Lincoln In The Bardo
In 1862, with the Civil War nearly a year old, Abraham Lincoln's son Willie died of TB aged 11. He was buried in West Oak Cemetery in Washington DC, and a grieving and devastated Lincoln went at…
The Traitors Special: Literature's Greatest Traitors!
As Celebrity Traitors reaches its climax on BBC1 this week, Rupert and Charlie count down the Top 10 greatest traitors in literature. Who are the literary equivalents of the TV show's camp and…
Booker Prize Winners: Milkman - Anna Burns
Milkman tells the story of an 18 year old girl living in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The novel is set in the late 1970s, at a time when large parts of the Catholic community were in effect…
Booker Prize Winners: Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel - Part 2
In part 2 of Wolf Hall, Rupert and Charlie look at the way Hilary Mantel writes about the seismic changes occurring in England in the early 1530s. Her London is filled with Europeans - traders,…
Booker Prize Winners: Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel - Part 1
Wolf Hall is Hilary Mantel's radical and profoundly original reimagining of the story of Thomas Cromwell. Born the son of a blacksmith, Cromwell rose to become Henry VIII's chief lieutenant and…
Booker Prize Winners: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida won the Booker Prize in 2022, the first and only time it has been won by a Sri Lankan author. Set in the late 1980s, in the chaos and brutality of the Sri Lankan…
Frequently Asked Questions
Book In has published 36 episodes since June 2025, covering topics in Arts, Books.
Book In is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 56m.
Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Book In, including email and social media links.
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