Holland House Books Podcast

Today's episode continues our exploration of novels by John Harvey. John taught at Cambridge and is the prize-winning author of five highly acclaimed novels and four studies of colour, clothes, and illustration. He has reviewed widely, for the Sunday Times, the London Review of Books, and many others. Unusual in their scope and variety, his novels have tackled the asset-stripping that has devastated working communities; torture and resistance to a military dictatorship; family break-up in the world of road-haulage and motor-racing; a notorious love-crisis in the art-world of the Victorians. In the words of A.S. Byatt, his prose is poetic and incisive, while Anthony Thwaite described his work as ‘Tolstoyan’.

Today's episode continues our exploration of novels by John Harvey. John taught at Cambridge and is the prize-winning author of five highly acclaimed novels and four studies of colour, clothes, and illustration. He has reviewed widely, for the Sunday Times, the London Review of Books, and many others. Unusual in their scope and variety, his novels have tackled the asset-stripping that has devastated working communities; torture and resistance to a military dictatorship; family break-up in the world of road-haulage and motor-racing; a notorious love-crisis in the art-world of the Victorians. In the words of A.S. Byatt, his prose is poetic and incisive, while Anthony Thwaite described his work as ‘Tolstoyan’.

Today's episode continues our exploration of novels by John Harvey. John taught at Cambridge and is the prize-winning author of five highly acclaimed novels and four studies of colour, clothes, and illustration. He has reviewed widely, for the Sunday Times, the London Review of Books, and many others. Unusual in their scope and variety, his novels have tackled the asset-stripping that has devastated working communities; torture and resistance to a military dictatorship; family break-up in the world of road-haulage and motor-racing; a notorious love-crisis in the art-world of the Victorians. In the words of A.S. Byatt, his prose is poetic and incisive, while Anthony Thwaite described his work as ‘Tolstoyan’.

Today's guest is John Harvey. John taught at Cambridge and is the prize-winning author of five highly acclaimed novels and four studies of colour, clothes, and illustration. He has reviewed widely, for the Sunday Times, the London Review of Books, and many others. Unusual in their scope and variety, his novels have tackled the asset-stripping that has devastated working communities; torture and resistance to a military dictatorship; family break-up in the world of road-haulage and motor-racing; a notorious love-crisis in the art-world of the Victorians. In the words of A.S. Byatt, his prose is poetic and incisive, while Anthony Thwaite described his work as ‘Tolstoyan’.

Today's guest is Martin Harrington. Born in Kenmare, Co. Kerry, Ireland, Martin is a graduate of the University of Warwick, and spent much of his life in the book trade in Oxford. He was for some years editor of the Oxford University Gazette and the Oxford University Calendar. His sense of a certain resemblance between the University of Oxford and the old Republic of Venice – two ‘Most Serene Republics’ – was the genesis of The Sometime Embarrassments of Petty Veniz.

He is now retired and lives near Oxford.

Petty Veniz is available here: https://www.hhousebooks.com/books/petty-veniz/

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Holland House Books is an independent publisher specialising in literary fiction and non-fiction, crime, and historical fiction.

Today's guest is Karen Jennings. She is a South African author. Her debut novel, Finding Soutbek, was shortlisted for the inaugural Etisalat Prize for African Fiction. She has published a short story collection Away from the Dead and a poetry collection, Space Inhabited by Echoes, as well as a memoir, Travels with my Father. In 2019 she published the historical mining novel Upturned Earth. Her most recent novel, An Island, was written with support from the Miles Morland Foundation and was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.

Today's guest is Lynn Farley-Rose. It was while she was working on her PhD in developmental psychology that Lynn became fascinated by what people do to cope when things gets tough. Her first book, 31 Treats And A Marriage, was a personal account of reconnecting with life after years as a wife and mother, when everything was overturned by unforeseen calamities.

This led her to wonder about other people’s stories, particularly on the question of where people find strength and inspiration. In writing The Interview Chain she talked to many remarkable people, each of whom had wise words to share about the human world—about things that help to make it a kinder and more connected place.