‘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”
Author Archives: lloydshep
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”
The Ballad of Peckham Rye
Curiously Specific · Curiously Specific Book Club Podcast 6: The Ballad of Peckham Rye Welcome to the 6th CSB podcast where we take you on a merry tour of the magical land of Peckham in South London, courtesy of Muriel Spark and her superb (and remarkably short) novel ‘The Ballad of Peckham Rye’. We startContinue reading “The Ballad of Peckham Rye”
The Secret Agent
Curiously Specific · Curiously Specific Book Club Podcast 5: The Secret Agent In this, the 5th CSB podcast, Lloyd and Tim sink into the murky and topographically challenging world of Joseph Conrad’s imagined London, as described in the classic 1907 novel ‘The Secret Agent’. It’s a world of foreign agents, mysterious assassinations, international tensions andContinue reading “The Secret Agent”
The Dark is Rising
Welcome to the fourth CSB podcast, in which Lloyd and Tim discover the hidden landscapes at the heart of Susan Cooper’s magnificent fantasy, The Dark Is Rising. We travel to deepest Buckinghamshire to find Cooper’s fictional village of Huntercombe, and the home of her hero Will Stanton, seventh son of a seventh son. Lloyd getsContinue reading “The Dark is Rising”
The Curiously Specific Book Club 