Lloyd and Tim are back in Kent, scene of their adventures with Moonraker and Stig of the Dump. This time they’re retracting the footsteps of Riddley Walker, the eponymous star of Russell Hoban’s extraordinary 1980 novel. In the first episode they attempt to track down Riddley’s home in How Fents, and travel to Canterbury CathedralContinue reading “Riddley Walker Part One”
Author Archives: lloydshep
The War of the Worlds Part Two
In the second part of their War of the Worlds adventure, Lloyd and Tim travel to Weybridge, where the River Wey meets the River Thames, and where Martian tripods destroyed the church at Shepperton while studiouly ignoring D’Oyly Carte’s astonishing mansion built on an island in the Thames. They then head west to try andContinue reading “The War of the Worlds Part Two”
The War of the Worlds: Part One
Lloyd and Tim take on one of the most potent myths of the 20th century: HG Wells’s The War of the Worlds. In part one they take you to the site of the first Martian cylinder, heading next to the Narrator’s house (via the house Wells wrote the novel in), and then down to PyrfordContinue reading “The War of the Worlds: Part One”
The Ipcress File
‘A plan to brain-wash the entire framework of the nation,’ said Jean, over the coffee and croissants. ‘It’s hardly credible.’ After a long hiatus, Tim and Lloyd are back with the (unlucky-for-some) 13th Curiously Specific Book Club podcast. They start the new series with something that comes easy to them both – a leisurely strollContinue reading “The Ipcress File”
Dirty Weekend
“It began that summer, a hot and sticky summer that made the air shimmer and the walls melt.” We’re back in Brighton, for the third in our trilogy of books set in Southern England’s biggest seaside resort. The book we’re taking for a walk this time is a tale of bloody revenge set against aContinue reading “Dirty Weekend”
Hangover Square
Curiously Specific · Curiously Specific Book Club Podcast 11: Hangover Square “To those whom God has forsaken, is given a gas-fire in Earl’s Court” We’re joined in this, the 11th Curiously Specific Book Club podcast, by Andy (@DulwichRaider) from Deserter, who is our natural go-to mate for summoning up the spirit of alcoholic drift andContinue reading “Hangover Square”
Brighton Rock
“Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.” For the tenth instalment of the Curiously Specific Book Club podcast, we travel to the southern coast of England for Graham Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’. We discover the Brighton of the 1930s, a place of seedy glamour shoved up againstContinue reading “Brighton Rock”
Lovejoy: The Judas Pair & The Grail Tree
“Antiques and Women are my only interests. It sounds simple, but you just try putting them in the right order.” The third instalment of the CSB East Anglian trilogy takes us to Essex. We immerse ourselves in the unreconstructed 1970s world of the UK’s favourite antiques dealer-cum-private eye – Lovejoy. We use Books 1 andContinue reading “Lovejoy: The Judas Pair & The Grail Tree”
The Rings of Saturn
“In August 1992, when the dog days were drawing to an end, I set off to walk the county of Suffolk, in the hope of dispelling the emptiness that takes hold of me whenever I have completed a long stint of work.” For the 8th CSB podcast, and the second in our East Anglian trilogy,Continue reading “The Rings of Saturn”
The Eagle Has Landed
“At precisely one o’clock on the morning of Saturday 6 November 1943, Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS and Chief of State Police, received a simple message… The Eagle Has Landed.” For the 7th CSB podcast, we’re in North Norfolk looking for the tiny village of Studley Constable, as described in Jack Higgins’s classic WW2Continue reading “The Eagle Has Landed”