Show Notes
This week, we’re doing something a little different. Normally I’m the one asking the questions, but today, in the name of bringing new voices into the conversation, I’m handing the mic over to someone who usually works behind the scenes on the Lit With Charles podcast – Liv. In this episode, she speaks with British author Amy Twigg, whose fantastic debut Spoilt Creatures follows a 30-something woman as she joins an all-women commune in rural Kent, and falls down the rabbit hole in all that entails. I hope you enjoy it!
Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at @litwithcharles. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!
Amy Twigg’s four books were: Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818)
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara (2018)
Little Eyes, Samanta Schweblin (2018)
The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson (1959)
More from Lit with Charles
Religion, artificial intelligence and a particularly terrifying lunch date are on the menu this week. Liv has been reading Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, while Charles tackles Pope Leo XIV’s thoughts on AI and the relationship between humanity and technology.
Marguerite Duras and Philip K. Dick make for an unlikely pairing this week, as Charles and Liv compare notes on The Lover and A Scanner Darkly. Then, things get stranger with a trip through the extraordinary life of Victor Hugo – a man whose habits involved live bats, raw lobsters and some deeply questionable party tricks.
This week, Charles and Liv discuss Gisèle Pelicot’s harrowing memoir A Hymn to Life and Alan Bennett’s brilliantly subtle Talking Heads.
This week, Charles and Liv discuss Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House and Kamel Daoud’s controversial novel Houris, exploring the Algerian Civil War and the strange story surrounding the book.
This week, Charles and Liv discuss Ian Fleming’s For Your Eyes Only, Clarice Lispector’s strange and brilliant The Hour of the Star, and why some books are better read like poetry. They also uncover John Steinbeck’s unpublished werewolf novel and debate whether authors’ work should ever be published against their wishes. Plus, they answer a listener question: what would you change about contemporary book culture? From endless “best books” lists to the pressure to read 100 books a year, Charles and Liv have a few complaints.