2021 Update
Page One
While Page One continues its ever-extending mid-season break, Charles Adrian has popped back onto the mic to let listeners know about a podcast he is making with Lisa Findley called The Rom Com Rewrite. Rom com fans everywhere can find it on Spotify () and Apple Podcasts (). Incidentally, you can find a description of the seven major beats of rom com writing here: Also, while he’s here, Charles Adrian would like to recommend the beautiful, 4-part podcast The Fateful Tale Of Chesapeake Bay, which you can find on Apple Podcasts here: (and a quick google will take you to all the...
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192 - Year End 2020
Page One
Taking another break from revisiting the books that he has been given by guests on the podcast, Charles Adrian revisits instead what he said in the previous episode about Scottish Country Dancing and talks about three books that he has very much enjoyed. More information and a transcript of this episode is at Correction 1: This episode was recorded on the 15th December, 2020, and not the 14th December as Charles Adrian says. Correction 2: Charles Adrian mistakenly pronounces Ivanhoe as Ivinghoe. The first is a novel by Sir Walter Scott; the second is a village in...
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191 - POIR 33
Page One
Marked as explicit because of strong language. Speaking minutes after he had finished recording the previous episode of the podcast, Charles Adrian revisits the last books that were given to him by guests on the 4th season of the podcast. More information and a transcript of this episode is at . You can find information about London’s National Theatre here: and about Liverpool’s Empire Theatre here: Also mentioned in this episode is Dracula by Bram Stoker You can find Phoebe Judge’s podcast Phoebe Reads A Mystery, series 6 of which is a reading of...
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190 - POIR 32
Page One
Marked as explicit because of derogatory language. Fleeing from hammering and drilling sounds coming through the wall, Charles Adrian talks about books that were given to him towards the end of the fourth season of his podcast. More information and a transcript of this episode is at . You can find a handy primer on the limitations of a first-past-the-post voting system, along with links to information about alternative systems, on the Electoral Reform Society’s website here: You can read about Caroline Lucas, who at time of recording this episode was the UK’s...
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189 - POIR 31
Page One
Taking the time to indulge in some discussion of both the Gunpowder Plot and the differences between climbing and bouldering, Charles Adrian starts off the UK’s second national lockdown with three more books from guests on the podcast. More information and a transcript of this episode is at . A description of the Gunpowder Plot and its aftermath can be found on Wikipedia here: and a round-up of the differences between climbing and bouldering can be found on the Guardian here: . Arlie Adlington is featured in Page One 148, which you can listen to here: Another book by...
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188 - POIR 30
Page One
Marked as explicit because of strong language. Still living in a Tier 2 city, Charles Adrian talks about three slim books, all of which feature characters who are children. More information and a transcript of this episode is at . You can read about The Good Immigrant on Nikesh Shukla’s website here: . You can read Darren Chetty on the prevalence of white protagonists in Media Diversified here: and you can download Beyond The Secret Garden by Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor here: If you, like Charles Adrian, are confused about comic book terminology,...
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187 - POIR 29
Page One
Talking about two books he remembers very little about and the only book he was given twice, Charles Adrian continues his journey through the books from Season 4 of his podcast and reminisces about a trip to Japan. More information and a transcript of this episode is at . Correction: Tier 3 of the new restrictions that came into force in the UK on the 14th of October, 2020, is the highest tier, described as “very high risk. Tier 2 is described as “high risk” with tier 1 being “medium risk”. You can find an explanation of the three-tier system on the BBC here: ...
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186 extra - Swimmer
Page One
Continuing to feed his own preoccupation with the poem Swimmer by Dennis Cooper, which he has already talked about in both Page One 185 and Page One 186, Charles Adrian hones in on the lines: “Monday Dave calls me/ at a party” and attempts to reconstruct their historical context. More information and a transcript of this episode is at . The Dream Police by Dennis Cooper was previously discussed in Page One 111 () and Page One 185 () Episode image is a detail from the cover of The Dream Police by Dennis Cooper, published by Grove Press in 1995; cover design by John...
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186 - Swimmer
Page One
Marked as explicit because of extensive discussion of death and suicide. Content note: there is a lot of talk of death and suicide in this episode. If you are in the UK and would like to talk to someone in confidence, you can reach Switchboard LGBT at or by phone on 0300 330 0630, and you can reach the Samaritans at or by phone on 116 123. Taking a very personal look at a poem that has been stuck in his head since the previous episode of this podcast, Charles Adrian talks about the poem Swimmer by Dennis Cooper and some of the things that it brings up for him. ...
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185 - POIR 28
Page One
Marked as explicit because of sexual imagery. Beginning with a brief cloudburst and a coda to the previous episode designed to calm Charles Adrian’s esprit d’escalier, the 28th Page One In Review goes on to look at the first five books from the fourth season of the podcast. More information and a transcript of this episode is at . The Bees by Laline Paull, Royal Flash by George MacDonald Fraser and Unless by Carol Shields were all discussed at more length in Page One 184. Revolutionary Letters by Diane Di Prima was previously discussed in Page One 122. You can...
info_outlineReflecting on the toppling of some statues and the protecting of others, Charles Adrian shares what he remembers of three books given to him at the beginning of the second season of the podcast.
Books discussed in this episode were previously discussed in Page One 52 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-2#/52-vera-chok/), Page One 53 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-2#/53-paula-varjack/) and Page One 54 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-2#/54-catherine-payton/).
Correction: Edward Colston’s Royal African Company was active in the 17th century and not the 18th. You can read Gurminder K Bhambra on Edward Colston and the glorification of the British Empire in the New York Times here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/edward-colston-statue-racism.html?smid=tw-share and Priyamvada Gopal on the relationship between statues and our idea of history in The Huffinton Post here: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/statues_uk_5ee33c50c5b609f241c952b7?sl9. You can watch Afua Hirsch talking to PoliticsJOE about Black Lives Matter and British history, including some reflection on the theatrical boarding-up of the Churchill statue in Westminster, on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXY5BfpcAlQ&feature=youtu.be.
Between recording and releasing this episode, the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol was briefly replaced by a statue of Jen Reid by Marc Quinn. You can read about it in the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/15/the-day-bristol-woke-up-to-a-new-statue and you can read thoughts on it by Thomas J. Price in The Art Newspaper here: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/a-votive-statue-to-appropriation-the-problem-with-marc-quinn-s-black-lives-matter-sculpture
You can read more about the Rhodes Must Fall movement, meanwhile, in The New Statesman here: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/06/rhodes-must-fall-oxford-slavery-statue-oxford-university-oriel-black-lives-matter
For some reflection on racism and anti-racism in Europe and the UK, you can read Musa Okwonga in Byline Times here: https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/05/white-complicity-matters-the-nazis-by-the-lake/ and Gary Younge in The New York Review Of Books here: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/06/06/what-black-america-means-to-europe/
You can read June Tuesday writing about J.K. Rowling and the so-called reasonable concerns in Medium here: https://medium.com/@june.tuesday/jk-rowling-and-the-reasonable-bigotry-43bc2c6d3c2b, you can read Evan Urquhart on J.K. Rowling and her obsession with trans men in Slate here: https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/06/jk-rowling-trans-men-terf.html and you can read an open letter from the charity Mermaids to J.K. Rowling here: https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/news/dear-jk-rowling/
And, in case you are worried about how the kids are doing, you can read Katelyn Burns’ profile of New York’s Gender And Family Project in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/15/trans-transgender-children-gender-family-project
The Page One podcast began as a project recorded at the Wilton Way Cafe for London Fields Radio, which is now called Fields Radio (https://fields.radio/). From the second season onwards, however, the podcast was produced independently by Charles Adrian.
Correction: The film adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley Charles Adrian talks about seeing came out in 1999.
You can read about the theatre adaptation of The Master And Margarita made by Théâtre de Complicité here: http://www.complicite.org/productions/TheMasterandMargarita
Episode image is a detail of a photo by Charles Adrian
Episode recorded 13th June, 2020
More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/
Book listing:
Shopgirl by Steve Martin (Page One 52)
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (Page One 53)
The Master And Margarita by Mikail Bulgakov (trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) (Page One 54)