Fantasy Book Swap

Winter special trailer

Get involved! Email your voice recording introducing your favourite winter reads to fantasybookswap@gmail.com. 

Ep 11: Farah Mendlesohn, Fattypuffs and Thinifers and Lightfall

Follow Farah on Twitter. Farah is also a co-chair for the Eastercon 2024 bid

Farah co-authored Children's Fantasy Literature: An Introduction with Michael Levy, and is the author of The Intergalactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children's and Teens' Science Fiction

Farah recommends The Tea Dragon Society

Farah's choice: Fattypuffs and Thinifers by Andre Maurois

Ali's choice: Lightfall by Tim Probert

Please tell me your favourite Winter reads! Record a short voice note and email fantasybookswap@gmail.com

Thanks to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track, Bliss.

”More funny than Thomas Hardy”: John Coxon, Rebecca‘s World and Flora & Ulysses

Rebecca’s World by Terry Nation 
As John states, there is an Audible audiobook of Rebecca’s World, read by Paul Darrow, who was indeed Avon from Blakes 7.

Flora and Ulysses by Kate di Camillo. There is a Disney film based on the book; see the trailer here
The Tale of Despereaux trailer on YouTube

John mentions Groosham Grange by Anthony Horowitz

Ali mentions The Eighteenth Emergency by Betsy Byars and You’re A Bad Man, Mr Gum! by Andy Stanton

Octothorpe British SFF fandom podcast with Liz Batty, John and Alison Scott

John’s website, including links to his fan writing, is procrastinations.co.uk
Reclamation 2022, the 72^nd EasterCon

It’s the 50^th Novacon this weekend coming (12^th-14^th November)

MERCH! From Stow Shirts  

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his track Bliss.

Ep.9 ”Not your average hawk”: Tamora Pierce‘s Tortal universe with Ruth Hunt

Guest: my colleague Ruth Hunt. Find out more about Ruth and her research here

Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce

Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce

The Tortall universe in chronological order- though new readers would be best off starting with Alanna: The First Adventure

Tamora Pierce’s thinking about gender identity and sexuality has changed over time

An interview with Tamora Pierce on Beyond the Trope podcast

Ruth Hunt the Wild Mage’s wildlife photos here

Thanks to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance. Please check out his radio show! Also to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track, Bliss.

Episode True 8- Virginia Preston, cricket, cake and nuns

Antonia Forests’s The Cricket Term

Daisy May Johnson’s How To Be Brave

Fantasy Book Swap episode with Daisy

The Dickens novel that we couldn’t remember was Dombey and Son, where an annoying child does indeed die

The Worst Witch- Mildred unmasking the evil witches

Eva Ibbotson’s books: The Journey to the River Sea is set in the Amazon rainforest

Many of Angela Brazil’s books are on Project Gutenberg

Nicola and Rowan discuss Dorothy L Sayers’s Murder Must Advertise. A cricket match is the climax, foreshadowing the climactic cricket match in The Cricket Term

Nesbit’s Bastables books

The Chalet School book where to the best of my memory, buried treasure is found

Join us at Reclamation2022!

Follow Virginia on Twitter

Thanks to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance. Please check out his radio show! Also to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track, Bliss.

 

Episode 7 ”No booty call for Merlin”: Tiffani Angus on Mary Stewart‘s The Crystal Cave and James Clammer‘s Why I Went Back

Content warning for non-explicit discussion of sexual violence and mental health crises including sectioning.

Recorded live at FantasyCon, so there is background noise of 3D humans, including some sound bleed of the panel in the room next door. Let's call it atmosphere!

Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave- it is in fact a quintet, not a trilogy

James Clammer's Why I Went Back

I got Steve and Jimmy's friendship origin story wrong- Steve was friends at university with some of Jimmy's friends, but they actually met in Brighton. My story is better, though.

Find Tiffani here

Big thanks to Edward James and Jeremy Carter for audio support! Please check out Cast of Wonders, Katherine Inskipp and Jeremy's YA fiction podcast.

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production support and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his track Bliss. Your Letters of Comment are always welcome at Fantasybookswap@gmail.com,

Episode 6 Fran Dowd: Puffin Club, Hobberdy Dick, The Wee Free Men and More!

Show notes Episode 6

 

Hobberdy Dick song by Rod Anderson https://www.reverbnation.com/rodanderson

The Wee Free Men (from Steeleye Span’s Wintersmith album) https://youtu.be/ybsZpSn1grg

Sheffield Science Fiction and Fantasy Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2388189214

History of the Puffin Club https://puffinclub.co.uk/history

Link to K. M. Briggs’ papers and correspondence at University of Leeds https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/6579

Terry Pratchett’s books for younger readers https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/book-series/younger-readers/

We also talked about The Little Grey Men by ‘BB’. More information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Grey_Men 

Tony Keen’s course on London and the Fantastic https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-and-the-fantastic-individual-sessions-tickets-166044255839?aff=erelpanelorg (individual session on 22^nd September)

Fran has read The Death of Grass by John Christopher as a result of discussion on Tony’s course https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/96de7be2-25f3-4799-b6d4-666eedafd275?fbclid=IwAR1icbdZ0Iv7JyDZOxB1NdKXBryXHU6uzHFdllCuhxoIh22xyABHFrV_CtU

Episode 5 Daisy May Johnson, Five Children and It and The Time of Green Magic

Unfortunately, we had technical difficulties recording this episode, so it is slightly shorter than usual.

Quick correction: Nesbit’s relationship doesn’t seem to have been poly. It has been described as an open relationship, but her husband Hubert Bland’s affairs don’t seem to have been with her consent.

1. Nesbit Five Children and It. My edition is the Puffin Classics one published in 2008, with the foreword by Quentin Blake, but really poor-quality reproductions of illustrations.

Hilary McKay The Time of Green Magic MacMillan’s Children’s Books.

Daisy May Johnson’s wonderful book How To Be Brave

Daisy’s blog, with links to her other social media

Episode 4 Steve Brooks The Trigan Empire and Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl The Graphic Novel

CONTENT WARNING- this episode discusses racism and orientalism in the context of children’s comics.

Look and Learn Book of The Trigan Empire 1973- Some Trigan Empire books have been republished by Rebellion Publishers, owners of 2000AD https://2000ad.com/news/out-now-the-trigan-empire-vol-1/

Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Michael Moreci and Stephen Gilpin. We know that there is a film; we haven’t been able to bring ourselves to watch it.

The names of the characters in Die Hard are of course John McClane and Hans Gruber.

Peric’s daughter is called Salvia

Ming the Merciless; Zorth of Loka

Radio Lewes https://radiolewes.weebly.com/

Steve’s Vapour Trails website https://www.vapourtrails.org/

Follow Steve on Twitter @stevevapourtra1

Episode 3 Alison Scott, Marianne Dreams and Tamarind and the Star of Ishta

In which Ali gets the name of the podcast wrong twice!

Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr

Tamarind and the Star of Ishta by Jasbinder Bilan, @jasinbath on Twitter

We also mention Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Catherine Storr's The Chinese Egg and Marianne and Mark, and Jasbinder Bilan's Asha and the Spirit Bird.

Alison's book recommendation list: https://www.facebook.com/alison.scott.3998/posts/10158236430174766

Stow Shirts on Etsy

Octothorpe podcast (where news of Punctuation 3 is likely to be found!) https://octothorpe.podbean.com/ 

Escape into Night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57eRt8kpS4Q&t=206s