(Introductory notes: my series Comics: A Beginner’s Guide seemed to go over quite well, as far as I can tell. It occurred to me that there were two other areas where I have sometimes been asked for guidance and recommendations – the other[…]

Having read the late Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (a ponderous Swedish whodunit filled with frozen countrysides, casual sex and endless cups of coffee) I found that as usual I had my finger on the caffeinated, S[…]

When I found out my favourite theatre director in the world had written his first novel I was intrigued, but also somewhat trepidacious. Tim’s theatre writing (which I talked about a bit here) is so strongly of and about theatre itself, would […]

With Rubicon and Persian Fire, Tom Holland proved himself a master of narrative history with a sizeable weakness for relating the ancient world to the modern. His third history blockbuster, Millennium, dials back the parallels but finds its narrative[…]

In the last episode of Series 2, Astrophysicist Michael Williams joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about “The Forgotten Enemy”, written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1949. It’s about comfy isolation, radio static, and forces la[…]

It’s Katie Grocott in the studio this week with Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about “Things”, written by Ursula Le Guin in 1970. This is a short story about a society sharply divided between nihilist marauders and maudlin […]

Richard Tunnicliffe joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about Thomas M. Disch’s “The Squirrel Cage”. It’s a story about a writer writing for no one, or for everyone – he’s not sure which (lol Livejournal)[…]

Rebecca Levene sits in with Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about Brian Aldiss’ 1957 short story, “All the World’s Tears”. It’s about a vitiated ecology, a mechanized society, and a desolate, wind-swept mansion w[…]

Team Slug apologises for the delay in posting last night’s episode of A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou — indeed, we had REAL LIFE S.F. AND PULP AUTHOR REBECCA LEVENE on the show — she once commissioned Doctor Who novels for[…]

Magnus Anderson joins the Slug Lords to talk about Arsen Darnay’s short story, “Such Is Fate”. It’s about a gypsy, a sailor, a tank of liquified gas, and what we can learn from the past. Music comes via Olivia Newton-John and […]