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We hear from Holly Pester about her latest poetry collection, Cafés. Published this summer by Fitzcarraldo, it’s a series of dream-like narrative fragments, that explore the possibilities of friendship and love, the myriad ways in which capital invades our lives and a hope for connection that appears unnervingly bygone. 
Described by the publisher as both a ‘stylish, political intervention and an elegy for communal space,’ Holly’s writing is, as ever, resistant, loving, vivid and wildly funny - always running ahead of you, waiting as you turn the page only to lead you further on in.
‘Holly Pester’s café is a place to sink into the soft leather couches, eavesdrop, work and dream: a waiting room both strange and familiar, full of spillages (of coffee) and slippages (of language). A public space or a place to hide; to meet friends and strangers or to be alone; Pester’s brilliance builds this café up and invites us in to linger.’
― Francesca Wade, author of Gertrude Stein: an Afterlife
Music on this episode: Makaya McCraven - Standing on Shoulders 
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First up this month’s Sam speaks to Max Lury about his unsettling debut No Ghosts. After being reunited at Annie’s memorial, Kieran and Harlow begin separate searches for their lost friend. Harlow, discovers fragments of the dead – faces, gestures, glances – in AI generated videos;  Kieran, aimless and isolated, stumbles into an occult community of those dedicated to finding the missing ghosts. No Ghosts is a novel set in new space - the eerie, boundless simulcra of ai and the dead air of a spiritless age. Unnerving and uncannily recognisable, it is infused from the first page to the last with the terrible weight of an elusive absence.
Then Lara sits down with Ghost in the Throat author Doireann ní Ghríofha to hear all about Said The Dead - an unforgettable book - both history and ghost story - that will leave you gasping by its final page. In the city of Cork, a derelict Victorian mental hospital is being converted into modern apartments. One passerby has always flinched as she passes the place. Had she lived in another time, she too might have found herself held within those walls. Now, she notices a sign: FOR SALE. It is the first of many signs.
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On this episode Sally Hayden joins us from Beirut  to discuss her latest book This is Also A Love Story. Sally is a multi award winning journalist for her writing and photography, most recently winning journalist of the year at the Irish journalism awards in 2025. Her first book, My Fourth Time We Drowned won Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2022 and Non Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book awards and was shortlisted for the Baille Gifford Prize.
The subtitle of This is Also A Love Story is 'searching for good in a divided world.' This search took Sally from Rwanda to Syria, Ukraine to Japan both documenting the horrors of conflict and natural disaster as well as the capacity for love that remained. It is a profoundly moving work charting the persistence of compassion and humanity in the face of unimaginable horror. 
‘Bringing us hope from dark places, this remarkable book is the perfect antidote to our times.’  - Christina Lamb 
‘Original and heart-warming… By finding beauty amidst ugliness, Hayden finds a way of making our fractured world whole again.’ - Lindsey Hilsum
https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/this-is-also-a-love-story-searching-for-good-in-a-divided-world-sally-hayden

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The ancient town of Weimar looms large in German history; a crucible of democracy and dictatorship and home to Goethe, Liszt, Schiller and Nietzsche. It gave its name to the ambitious Weimar Republic crafted in the aftermath of the First World War. But it was also where fascism took hold. Where Bauhaus architects first experimented with new ways of living, Buchenwald was dug out of a beech forest. 
Weimar shows us a town and its people on the edge of catastrophe. Drawing on a wealth of new research acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer takes us from 1919 to 1939 as she tells the stories of the men and women who lived through the new republic and Hitler’s regime.  An unforgettable picture of lives and choices in extraordinary circumstances, Weimar takes us deep into the heart of the story of a town that dreamt of a better world and woke up to tyranny.
‘Katja Hoyer tracks the everyday acts of omission and concession in the face of ruthless wrong, showing how the compliant and the complacent ultimately undermine the brave.’ - Neil McGregor. 
https://www.thewavesbookshop.com/
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Happy Beltane to those that celebrate, here's an extra episode to welcome those longer days that are on the way. 
It’s an extended interview with author and broadcaster Zakia Sewell about the journeys and discoveries that make up Finding Albion, her search for another Britain. Born out of her 2020 radio 4 series (My Albion) - it is a rejection of a narrow and exclusionary vision of Englishness in favour of a unifying sense of national identity. 
Centred around the wheel of the year and a pursuit that took Zakia the length and breadth of  our island Finding Albion is as much an exploration of our shared colonial past as it is the weird and wonderful folk customs and traditions that continue to bind our communities together. 
What emerges is a (much needed) hopeful vision of our future and the offer to pursue a deeper sense of who we are.
'Hopeful and Inspiring' - Caroline Lucas
'Finding Albion offers up much-needed alternative national identities and stories for us to keep close and cherish. A timely book' - Jeremy Deller. 
Huge thanks to Huw Marc Bennett and the mighty Albert's Favourites for the use of Huw's music. 
Music used: 
Carol Haf (Summer Carol) 
Gwenith Gwyn (White Wheat) 
Taken from Huw's latest album 'Heol Las,' get your copy direct from Huw's band camp page. 
If you fancy getting a copy of the Finding Albion why not help the wonderful  Gloucester Road Books (Bristol) celebrate their fifth birthday by ordering it from their website. 
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