The TLS Podcast

Live From the Hay Festival

May Highlights

The TLS Highlights revisits literary discussions from May, focusing on the complexities of historical figures and the physical spaces of creativity. Oscar Wilde’s turbulent relationship with Alfred Douglas serves as a case study in biographical scrutiny, highlighting the tension between public scandal and private reali...

Antidotes to doomscrolling

Personal paper trails—letters, diaries, and the physical environments of writers—offer profound, unpredictable insights into the human condition, providing a necessary counterpoint to the digital age's tendency toward doomscrolling. These documents reveal that even historical figures faced overwhelming challenges, fost...

Fabrications

Ursula K. Le Guin’s literary legacy and the material history of the Brontë sisters serve as the primary subjects of this literary discussion. David Streitfeld examines how Le Guin’s works, particularly A Wizard of Earthsea, offer a counter-narrative to modern AI by emphasizing human-centric creativity and the wisdom of...

Exclusive: Ed Vulliamy in Full

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

The discovery of correspondence between Gladys Hines and Ezra Pound illuminates a complex, fifty-year relationship rooted in the avant-garde circles of 1920s London. These letters reveal how Irish revolutionary politics, modernist aesthetics, and an underlying, often repulsive, anti-Semitic discourse permeated the live...

Looking at the Stars

The TLS Podcast examines the intersection of personal history and literary legacy. Fiction Editor Toby Lichtig reviews a diverse range of new novels, including Gwendoline Riley’s The Palm House, which offers a nuanced, outward-facing perspective on contemporary life, and Lucy Caldwell’s Devotions, a collection of short...

April Highlights

Trees function as active, interconnected participants in global ecosystems, constantly interacting with soil, water, and gases rather than serving as passive environmental wallpaper. Beyond these botanical insights, the human brain requires periods of idleness to activate its "default network," a state crucial for cogn...

Strike!

The French publishing sector faces unprecedented upheaval as over 260 writers protest the editorial influence of major shareholder Vincent Bolloré at Grasset, highlighting critical concerns over editorial independence. Simultaneously, Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, currently staged at the Royal Shak...

On the Road

The latest issue of The TLS features diverse literary and historical explorations, ranging from the archaeological discovery of d'Artagnan’s remains in Maastricht to the complex life of travel writer Jan Morris. Biographer Sara Wheeler details the process of uncovering Morris’s private archives, emphasizing the writer’...

Grief Work

Shakespearean scholarship and literary adaptation define the discourse, focusing on the emotional and intellectual stakes of historical research. Emma Smith examines the "grief" inherent in the absence of Shakespeare’s personal library, noting how scholars often treat the search for his books as a detective story rathe...

March Highlights

Reading habits often suffer from the perception of books as "virtuous" chores rather than enjoyable, transgressive activities, leading to a rise in the aesthetic staging of books as home decor. Beyond personal reading, the 1920s saw women’s magazines like Good Housekeeping transform into platforms for heavyweight intel...

Cool Your Jets!

That Old Chestnut

Food fights

Food, family, and home in Ukraine serve as central pillars of resistance against ongoing aggression, as documented in recent memoirs and accounts of wartime survival. Julian Evans highlights how Ukrainian citizens maintain their heritage through gardening and community-led food initiatives, such as mobile bakeries and ...

In Conversation with Michael Morpurgo

From trains to treaties

Revolutionary Roads

Full Interview with Francis Spufford

Escape Artists