This week on The Allender Calendar I talk to the journalist Dan Hancox about his new book Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World.

Dan's Substack:

https://danhancox.substack.com/

Buy the book from Verso here:

https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3176-multitudes?srsltid=AfmBOoqy2ieOOXaF3SOVrqp665ddddqoHLOSBCYkyOumLc4pJJxWtCBO

Townsville by The Necks:

https://thenecks2.bandcamp.com/album/townsville

'Some of My Best Friends Are Lizards' is on the album Get Your Hopes Down by Landslide Purist:

https://landslidepurist.bandcamp.com/album/get-your-hopes-down

Ill Spectre productions:

https://samwisternoff.wixsite.com/illspectreproduction

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On this month's episode I interview the author Frances Leviston. Frances has written two books of poetry – Public Dream (2007) and Disinformation (2015), both published by Picador. Her debut collection of short stories, The Voice in My Ear, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2020, and that's the focus of our chat. We talk about the differences between writing poetry and fiction, and the themes that bind the stories together in the The Voice in My Ear.

Frances's website:

https://francesleviston.com/

Here's a good review of The Voice in My Ear:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/14/the-voice-in-my-ear-frances-leviston-review-claire

This episode also features my new regular feature about what I've been listening to and reading.

Here's a great interview with ML Buch:

https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/step-inside-ml-buchs-digitized-art-pop-wilderness/

And I loved reading The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns. Here's a good Backlisted episode about it:

https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/14-barbara-comyns-the-vets-daughter

And here's the Backlisted episode about Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner:

https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/8-sylvia-townsend-warner-lolly-willowes

Azalea City Bandcamp page:

https://azaleacity.bandcamp.com/

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In the first episode of The Allender Calendar, Robin chats to folk musician Olivia Chaney. Olivia's latest album Circus of Desire was released in March 2024:

https://oliviachaney.bandcamp.com/album/circus-of-desire

Olivia recently performed at the Proms as part of an orchestral celebration of Nick Drake. Here's a video of here playing 'River Man' from 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDxUwFjux4c

Ian Lynch from Lankum's podcast is called Fire Draw Near; this is the episode about 'Willie o' Winsbury':

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/bonus-episode-willie-owinsbury/id1532286691?i=1000609272537

If you stick around until the end of the episode you'll hear what Robin has been reading and listening to recently in a brand new feature called 'what have you been listening to recently and what have you been reading recently'. Here's the Talking Scared podcast episode with Kate Summerscale:

https://www.everand.com/podcast/569927604/07-Kate-Summerscale-and-the-Shoplifting-Poltergeist

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