Episodes 118
Avg. Duration 25m
Activity Highly Active
Apple Rating 5.0 (1)
Since Aug 2008
Latest Episode Jun 2026

Publishing Details

Schedule
Monthly
Format
Episodic
Consistency
71%
Hosting
bookspodcast.com

Contact & Outreach

About This Podcast

An authoritative look at recent books that may or may not have shown up on your radar screen. Fiction and non-fiction. Biographies and comic books. Politics and the arts. And quite certainly, no gardening or cookery books. All presented with Tim Haigh’s passion for books and writing. Tim is a widely respected critic, reviewer and broadcaster. Expert without being stuffy, he is noted for the lively intelligence and irreverence he brings to the field.

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Recent Episodes

Gail Crowther – Marilyn and her Books – The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe

Jun 09, 2026 38m

The bookish Bombshell Marilyn Monroe would have been one hundred years old on 1st June this year. It is impossible to think of Marilyn old. She was just 36 when she died in LA in 1962. She is frozen…

Jeevan Vasagar – The Surge – The Race Against the Most Destructive Force in Nature

May 24, 2026 35m

The one with the comedy dog The Surge is a trenchant analysis of the destructive power of water, a clarion call for recognising imminent dangers, and a panoramic narrative of human catastrophe and…

Dr Geoff Andrews – Radicals: The Working Classes and the Making of Modern Britain

Apr 20, 2026 38m

Whither the Labour movement? One is struck by the heroic energy and fortitude of the working classes – working long and arduous hours, they found time and resources to educate themselves, to organise…

Anthony Gottlieb – Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes

Mar 14, 2026

Yes, but does it matter? There is an old joke: Why is it hard to move a philosophy department into a different building? Answer: because philosophers are reluctant to abandon their premises. [This is…

Anthony Gottlieb – Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes

Mar 12, 2026 40m

Yes, but does it matter? There is an old joke: Why is it hard to move a philosophy department into a different building? Answer: because philosophers are reluctant to abandon their premises. [This is…

Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush

Feb 22, 2026 45m

Is this what a “Pop icon” is? Kate Bush burst onto the scene in 1978 with Wuthering Heights, a wildly unlikely and ethereal single. The record industry and radio DJs were bemused, but the…

Alwyn Turner – A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars

Jan 27, 2026

Don’t mention the war! Alwyn Turner is our finest cultural and social historian. His focus is typically on the lived experience of the people, rather than the Sunday papers’ idea of culture or the…

Steve Richards – Tony Blair: The Prime Minsters Series

Jan 04, 2026

He was not arrogant enough! Tony Blair is one of the defining politicians of post-war Britain, but he failed to transform the country on the same scale as, say, Margaret Thatcher. For his enemies he…

Paul Davies – Quantum 2.0: The Past, Present and Future of Quantum Physics

Dec 17, 2025

Reality doesn’t exist … probably … “Quantum physics is, without doubt, the most disruptive technological transformation in history.” “Really?” you say, “And what has quantum physics done for us?”…

Peter Doggett – Surf’s Up – Brian Wilson And The Beach Boys

Nov 30, 2025

“There are dozens of Beach Boys!” Jack Reiley (Beach Boys manager 1970 to 1973) said: “The Beatles were focussed, strategic, professionally and well-led during the years of their mounting ascendency.…

Nicholas Wright – Warhead: How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain

Nov 11, 2025

War. Huh! (Dum dum dum!) What’s our brain good for? “Human brains were not built for comfortable lives”, writes Nicholas Wright. Which rather raises the question, what were they built for? Well,…

Tom Doyle – Ringo: A Fab Life

Oct 26, 2025 52m

In the 70’s, he was a happy drunk … by the 80’s, he was just miserable! It is 1962. Ritchie Starkey – better known by his stage name of Ringo Starr – is widely acknowledged as the best drummer in ……

Mark Blake – Shine On – The Definitive Oral History Of Pink Floyd

Oct 10, 2025 49m

Syd Barrett was probably not really an acid casualty! Peter Jenner (Floyd’s first manager): “Syd’s behaviour was avant-garde and I thought avant-garde was good. Of course in hindsight, we should have…

Thomas Levenson – So Very Small: How humans discovered germs, uncovered infectious diseases, and deluded themselves that we had conquered them

Jul 26, 2025 40m

“A gentleman’s hands are [always] clean” Infectious diseases caused by bacteria have killed well over half of all humans who have ever lived on Earth. Historically, bacterial infections have started…

Mike Jay – Free Radicals – How A Group of Romantic Experimenters Gave Birth to Psychedelic Science

Jul 04, 2025 43m

I mean, you’ve got’a laugh, aintcha! Nitrous Oxide made “a picaresque journey from laboratory to lecture hall, variety palace to dentist’s chair.” A substance that does not exist in nature, it fairly…

Peter Hogan – Resident Alien

Jun 18, 2025

They walk among us … possibly. When a book is turned into a film or, in this case, a comic into a television series, there are usually disagreements about which is better, ranging from polite…

John Cassidy – Capitalism and Its Critics: A Battle of Ideas in the Modern World

May 28, 2025

Capitalism and government go hand in hand – one feeding the other Some people think of economic history as a trifle dry, but how can you resist a book that includes quotes like these: “The love of…

Eleni Kyriacou – A Beautiful Way To Die

May 04, 2025

Would you kill to be famous? If we want impossible glamour and corruption we could do worse then 1950’s Hollywood. A Beautiful Way To Die is a romp of ambition and decadence in which everyone has an…

John Higgs – Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Doctor Who

Apr 10, 2025

Wot, no Daleks?!? If you had a time machine and could return to 1963 you would be surprised at the haphazard genesis of Dr Who. We think of it today as the eternal jewel in the BBC crown, but the ……

Ian Leslie – John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs

Mar 20, 2025

They created each other Does the world actually need another Beatles book? There are Mongolian peasants in one-yak villages far outside Ulan Bator who could tell you how John and Paul met at the…

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does BooksPodcast have?

BooksPodcast has published 118 episodes since August 2008, covering topics in Arts, Books.

Is BooksPodcast still active?

BooksPodcast is currently highly active with new episodes monthly. Average episode length is 25m.

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