Fantasy Book Swap

Episode 45: Rainy season at the Hotel Romero

Kylie Ding’s choice: The Rains of Eridan by H.M. Hoover

Ali’s choice: The Zombie Project by Alice Nuttall

1. M. Hoover on the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Alice Nuttall’s Linktree

The Hugo and Lodestar finalists

Other books for children with adult protagonists (off the top of my head!):

Professor Branestawm by Norman Hunter

Mrs Pepperpot by Alf Prøysen

Mr Benn by David McKee

Mrs Armitage on Wheels by Quentin Blake

George Romero’s The Night of the Living Dead- trailer

First Thursday fandom drinks in London

Ep 44: Horses and curses and home, but not at home

Meg’s choice: The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

Ali’s copy of the book

Ali’s choice: The Beginners Guide to Curses by Lari Don

More about Elizabeth Goudge

More about Lari Don

Heliotrope flowers

Lari Don on Rhianna Pratchett’s BBC radio show about British mythical creatures talking about kelpies

The legend of Gelert and Greyfriars Bobby

Kate Crackernuts

Whuppity Stoorie

Mairi Hedderwick

Katie Morag TV series

Glasgow Worldcon 2024 Presents on Youtube

LACon V: Worldcon 2026

Follow Meg on BlueSky

Ep 43: Uncontextual pineapple with Catriona Silvey

Recorded live at EasterCon in Belfast at 9:30am on Easter Sunday! Please forgive my wheeziness; I was coming down with a chest infection.

Catriona’s choice: The Silver Crown by Robert C. O’ Brien

Ali’s choice: Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick

We discuss Robert C. O’ Brien’s better-known books, Z for Zachariah and Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. You may like to listen to the episode The Anti- Reepicheep League with Ang Rosin about Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents here.

We also mention The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross; Russell Smith selected it as his Fantasy Book Swap choice.

Jennifer Killick was a guest on the fantastic podcast about children’s books, The Island of Brilliant.

I am not a shill for The Phoenix Comic, I promise.

Catch up with Catriona via her website, https://catrionasilvey.com/index.html

Join us at EasterCon next year in Birmingham!

Ep 42: Pirates and Mermaids and Witches with Ida Keogh

Ida’s choice: The Man whose Mother was a Pirate by Margaret Mahy

Ali’s choice: The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall. The sequel has just been published: The Siren, the Song and the Spy

Ida had a different edition from mine

Other books we mention in this episode:

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Sarah Baartman, the Khoekhoe woman whose birth name may have been Ssehura, displayed in Europe as the Hottentot Venus

Ida’s award-winning short story Infinite Tea in the Demerara Café is in the NewCon Press anthology London Centric

Her novella Fish!

 Ida has a story in the anthology Laughs in Space.

Follow Ida on Bluesky Facebook and @ida_Keogh on Instagram

Ep 41: Narnia Business with Katie Bruce

Katie’s choice: C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Ali’s choice: David A. Robertson’s The Barren Grounds

Katie is just back from FantasyCon! Next year Brighton hosts World FantasyCon 2025; come and join us!

Neil Gaiman’s short story is called ‘The Problem of Susan’ and is in the collection Fragile Things (it is of course entirely up to you whether or not you wish to support Gaiman’s work by buying it new or second hand.)

Katie couldn’t continue with Robin Hobb’s Soldiers Sons trilogy because the food descriptions brought on morning sickness

Fiona Moore’s blog, where she cooks from SFF cook books so we don’t have to!

Lovely Gili Bar-Hillel introduced me to this brilliant piece of fan fic where Anthony Bourdain reviews Narnian hospitality. Read it, it’s perfect! https://archiveofourown.org/works/137185

The BBC 1988 adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Leeds Playhouse’s adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe runs from 18^th November 2024- 25^th January 2025

Trailer for Greta Gerwig’s adaptation

Tilda Swinton’s White Witch tempts Edmund

I delivered a paper on orientalism in the Chronicles of Narnia at a Historical Fictions Network conference. You can read it here

David A. Robertson’s website

Scottish bannock recipe. Canadian First Nations Bannocks were adapted from Scottish recipes. I have not found a bison chili recipe; I assume that you first catch your bison.

The Little Bookshop, Leeds

City Books, Brighton

Find Katie online

AuthorAssist.co.uk

@Katiebruce.bsky.social on BlueSky

@Katiebrucecake on Instagram

I was a guest on Steve Vapour Trail’s radio show many moons ago with a selection of fantasy and science fiction-themed music. Enjoy the playlist here. Thank you to Danny for the idents, and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss.

 

 

 

Ep 40 Mansfield Park in Space with Una McCormack

In today's episode I'm joined by Una McCormack, New York Times best-selling author and member of Gold SF editorial board.

Una’s choice: Lucy M Boston’s The Children of Green Knowe . This is the Puffin edition Una has. The 70^th anniversary edition is available from Hemingford Grey shop.

The TV adaptation

Ali’s choice: Pádraig Kenny’s The Monsters of Rookhaven

Illustrations here and here

Una mentions Tom’s Midnight Garden. You can listen to Episode 25 with Tony Keen, where we discuss the book here.

Books mentioned in this episode:

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• The Spire by William Golding
• Red Shift by Alan Garner
• The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
• Meg and Mog by Helen Nicoll, illus Jan Pienkowski
• Thornhill by Pam Smy
• Isadora Moon by Helen Muncaster
• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
• Earthsea and Annals of the Western Shore by Ursula Le Guin
• Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

Authors mentioned in this episode:

• Catherine Cookson, who is still in print
• Helen Forrester

Una’s most recent book: Doctor Who: Caged

Follow Una on Bluesky @unamccormack.bsky.social

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails. Check out his radio show on Radio Lewes here! Thank you to Danny for the fresh new idents, and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss.

Ep 39: Writeopolis v Fantasy Book Swap- not a dance off

Ep 39- Writeopolis v Fantasy Book Swap, but no dance-off

In today’s episode, I am joined by Scott K.  Andrews and Kit Power from the Writeopolis podcast. We have a lovely chat, and then Fantasy Book Swap proper starts at 12 minutes in.

Scott’s choice: The Devil on the Road by Robert Westall

Ali’s choice: Unraveller by Frances Hardinge

The Lodestar award finalists- scroll to the bottom of the page.

My copy of The Devil in the Road. Note the cat’s eye, and the gibbet with the executed witch’s body.

Children of the Stones on YouTube, and the trailer for the adaptation of Red Shift  

Robert Westall’s official website

Frances Hardinge’s official website

Frances Hardinge conference, Saturday 11^th July 2026, Aston University, Birmingham.

As Kit mentions, he was on Fantasy Book Swap before! We discussed The Tripods by John Christopher and Wildspark by Vashti Hardy.

A Wikipedia summary of Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Wild Swans

A list of Joan Aiken’s Wolves books

Leon Garfield  

Find out more about Scott here, Kit here and join the Writeopolis patreon here.

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails. Check out his radio show on Radio Lewes here! Thank you to Danny for the fresh new idents, and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss.

 Until next time, bye!

 

Ep 38: Is that Conan in space? With Tade Thompson

Firstly, huge apologies for the delay in this episode, which was recorded live at EasterCon, Levitation 2024. Life got in the way.

Tade Thompson’s Bluesky: @tadethompson.bsky.social

Tade’s award-winning novel Rosewater is the New Scientist’s July book club pick.

Tade’s pick: The Masters of Solitude by Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin. It’s out of print, but widely available second hand with absolutely dreadful covers like this and this, the Conan in Space one.

Ali’s pick: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir.

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails. Check out his radio show on Radio Lewes here! Thank you to Danny for the fresh new idents, and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss.

 Until next time, bye!

Ep 37: Totally Elemental with Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Chair of Glasgow 2024 WorldCon

Ali’s choice: The Boggart by Susan Cooper. Ali’s edition with cat tax.

Esther’s choice: Like a Charm by Elle McNicoll

Elle’s novel A Kind of Spark was adapted by CBBC. Several members of the cast are neurodiverse.

Information about dyspraxia here

Elle McNicholl’s website

Esther and Ali mention a lot of books and other media! Hilary McKay’s Casson family books, Terry Pratchett’s Only You Can Save Mankind, the spinning room in Poltergeist, You’re Wrong About… podcast on the Amityville horror and  the CBC podcast on the satanic panic.

The history of Castle Stalker with photos

Greyfriars Bobby monument and the story

Candlemakers Row. I think the red shop is the bookshop.

Glasgow Necropolis

Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh which features in Lari Don’s book First Aid for Fairies. It’s an injured centaur that Helen looks after first.

Andy The Highlander

Romance book recommendations

• Olivia Dade
• Talia Hibbert
• Helen Hoang

Thanks so much to Esther! Find out more about Glasgow 2024 Worldcon here.

Thanks for listening! Thanks to Steve for the production assistance. Steve’s band, The Late Returns, are playing a gig supporting Bone Records at The Brunswick, Hove on Friday! Unfortunately, it’s sold out. Thanks to Danny for the idents and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss.

Follow me on Instagram and Bluesky @alisonbaker01.

Ep 36: Ghosts, machines and aliens with Kit Power

Kit’s choice: The Tripods by John Christopher

Ali’s choice: Wildspark by Vashti Hardy

Kit’s Patreon

Kit’s page on Amazon

 Kit reads his essay on The Tripods on his podcast feed

The British Fantasy Society award shortlist

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails. Check out his radio show on Radio Lewes here! Thank you to Danny for the fresh new idents, and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss.

I have signed up for Ko-Fi. For the month of September I have pledged to walk for 30 minutes a day in aid of the Trussell Trust, who both provide food banks and campaign for the end of food poverty. If you’d like to support me, please donate at https://ko-fi.com/alibb. I will post a screenshot daily from my Active 10 app onto my Instagram, and on 30^th September will share how much I am donating!