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”
Category Archives: Series 1
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”
Moonraker
Welcome to the third CSB podcast, in which Lloyd and Tim take to the open road – or rather the somewhat congested A20. We’re following the route taken by James Bond in Ian Fleming’s Moonraker, travelling (at about half Bond’s speed) between central London and Kingsdown, the supposed location of the Moonraker rocket base. WeContinue reading “Moonraker”
Stig of the Dump
Welcome to the second Curiously Specific Book Club podcast, where we go in search of a famous dump. We’re using Clive King’s classic childrens book Stig of the Dump to navigate our way around rural Kent, with its heady mix of travellers, standing stones and luxury golf courses. We start off in a pub carContinue reading “Stig of the Dump”
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Is Charles Dickens’s last unfinished novel curiously specific about dates and locations? Well… kinda. We start in Wapping at Princess Puffer’s opium den, and we end up in the Kent countryside at a pub that could be the model for The Tilted Wagon. In between, Lloyd uses his knowledge of trains and timetables to workContinue reading “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”
The end of the Unbound crowdfunding adventure: what happens now
We are very sorry to announce that we have failed to reach our financial target on the crowdfunding site Unbound in time for us to undertake the great ROTS Adventure in Sept/Oct this year. We’ve decided, therefore, not to try your patience any further, and are closing down this Unbound project. The money that many of youContinue reading “The end of the Unbound crowdfunding adventure: what happens now”
The 26th Adventure Podcast: Going Overboard in Ostmahorn
We’ve made it to the last day in the book – October 26. Our heroes, Carruthers and Davies, sail off into the sunset with the delightful Clara on board, and her dastardly dad Dollman overboard. In this podcast Lloyd notDavies plots out how to get back to Blighty via Ostmahorn, Holland. Tim notCarruthers, meanwhile, considersContinue reading “The 26th Adventure Podcast: Going Overboard in Ostmahorn”
‘an Englishman in disguise’
It turns out that Carruthers has a talent for disguise (as if, perhaps, he were some kind of real spy…). The rough marine garb he bought in a slop-shop in Amsterdam has served him well. Having successfully fooled a guesthouse owner in Esens and a drunk in Dornum that he’s some kind of German merchant sailor, he’sContinue reading “‘an Englishman in disguise’”
‘An armada of light-draught barges’
And so, as a stowaway in a ‘small tug’ in the evening of October 25th, or perhaps the early morning of the 26th, Carruthers discovers the Riddle at last. The secret plan is not defensive one, but offensive: To neglect obvious methods, to draw on the obscure resources of an obscure strip of coast, to improveContinue reading “‘An armada of light-draught barges’”
‘no simple Frisian, but an ill-looking rascal’
Is it me, or is Carruthers rather enjoying his sojourn on dry land after three weeks trapped on a small boat at sea with Davies? First, he heads off on the train for a night at luxury hotel in Amsterdam. The next day he returns to the region to breakfast in Esens, explore the BensertiefContinue reading “‘no simple Frisian, but an ill-looking rascal’”
The Curiously Specific Book Club 