25 min listen
Emma Smith on Burning Books
ratings:
Length:
46 minutes
Released:
May 10, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
In this episode, 'This is Shakespeare' author Emma Smith joins us to discuss her latest book, 'Portable Magic,' an iconoclastic new story of the book in human hands, exploring when, why, and how it acquired its particular hold over us. Gathering together a millennium's worth of pivotal encounters with volumes big and small, Smith reveals that, as much as their contents, it is books' physical form - their 'bookhood' - that lends them their distinctive and sometimes dangerous magic. Emma spoke to us about why she feels it is important not to overly romanticise the book form, as historically books have been at the center of powerful authoritarian movements such as Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' or Mao's 'Red Book.' While that description may lead you to think that our conversation has a contrarian streak, in reality, you have never heard three people speak more enthusiastically, or indeed more exhaustively, about books. Trust us when we say we have left no page unturned.This is truly The Hatchards Podcast at its most unabridged. For book lovers, is there anything better?
Released:
May 10, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (40)
Roger Katz on the Golden Age of Bookselling: In this episode, we spoke to Roger Katz, the former manager of Hatchards, about selling his library of over 500 signed first editions, as well as working in the book trade throughout the 1990s, an era that he dubs the "Golden Age of Bookselling." He... by The Hatchards Podcast