Riddley Walker Part One – The Curiously Specific Book Club
We’re heading back to Kent! This time we’re having an adventure with Russell Hoban’s magnificent dystopian fable Riddley Walker. Set two thousand years in the future and based entirely in north Kent, the novel tells the story of a 12 year old boy and his adventures wondering a strange post-nuclear landscape, where towns have odd new names that echo the past, and where language has shifted and morphed into extraordinary new shapes. But how close is the book to the landscapes it describes? If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’ve available, subscribe to our Patreon page. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In part two of our Riddley Walker adventure, we follow Riddley down from How Fents to Widders Dump, and then along the line of the old railway to Rose and Power. On the way we learn about Russell Hoban’s interest in shamanism and the occult, and speculate on whether he ever met the French alchemist Fulcanelli. We finish in Fork Stoan, known to us today as Folkestone, and try and figure out just where the Power Place might have been that Riddley discovers on the outskirts of the town. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’ve available, subscribe to our Patreon page.
The Curiously Specific Book Club 