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PODCAST

Secret Life of Books

Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole

Every book has two stories: the one it tells, and the one it hides.The Secret Life of Books is a fascinating, addictive, often shocking, occasionally hilarious weekly podcast starring Sophie Gee, an English professor at Princeton University, and Jonty Claypole, formerly director of arts at the BBC.Every week these virtuoso critics and close friends take an iconic book and reveal the hidden story behind the story: who made it, their clandestine motives, the undeclared stakes, the scandalous backstory

arts books

All Episodes

51:10

World Poetry Day Double-Bill: Elizabeth Bishop's...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/03/13

Elizabeth Bishop is one of those poets who’s often referred to as a writer’s writer, but this doesn’t mean her poems are hard to read. On the contrary: as one of the most loved and admired twentieth-century poets, Bishop has the rare ability to do high-low. She’s enjoyable and accessible and also intensely artful and complex, not to mention very funny. In this special episode, Sophie and Jonty chat to American writer and critic Rachel Cohen about her decades-long admiration for Bishop and deep

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1:20:03

George Orwell 1: The Best Gap Yah, great food writing...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/03/11

In the winter of 1927, George Orwell dropped his aitches, pulled on his distressed tailored trousers, and took the first of many trips to the underbelly of London society. Over the following years, he spent long stints amongst the homeless and starving people of both Paris and London. He collected these experiences into his first book Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), conveniently leaving out the weekends and kitchen sups with mater and pater.Orwell’s intention was partly to draw attention to

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49:44

International Women's Day Bonus: Was Shakespeare a...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/03/08

Legendary bestseller Jodi Picoult is also a graduate of the Princeton English Department, and this week she came back to teach class! Sophie recorded a live episode at the Princeton Public Library in front of a packed house of Jodi fans who were delighted to hear why she believes that when it comes to Shakespeare's best plays, a women was holding the quill!Jodi's newest novel "By Any Other Name," tells an intense, gripping story about a real-life woman who might just have written many of

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1:24:39

Magnetic chemistry, social anxiety, and the in-laws...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/03/04

By many reckonings, this is the most famous novel in English. It’s also the book Jane Austen described as her own “Darling Child.” As we head to the milestone of Jane’s 250th Birthday in December (get ready for the minced chicken and negus party) Sophie and Jonty dig into one of the most joyful, funny, sexy stories ever told.In this episode we ask why this small novel of village life exploded into a global cultural icon, inspiring retelling upon retelling, and catapulting Mr. Darcy and Lizzie

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54:17

Self-Help, dodgy marriages and the siren call of...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/02/28

In Part 2 of David Copperfield, we pick up David where we left him, sobbing at the door of Betsey Trotwood’s house in Dover. From this low, David’s life changes - he is no longer a victim, but embarks on a (very long) journey towards self-reliance, re-encountering old friends like Micawbers and Steerforth, but also new characters like Uriah Heep and the simpering Dora.To make sense of this long, rambling journey of redemption, Sophie and Jonty reveal the influence of the emerging self-help movement

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1:01:58

‘Umble beginnings, childhood neglect, and did Dickens...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/02/25

David Copperfield is the name of an American illusionist, whose feats included levitating over the Grand Canyon, walking through the Great Wall of China and making an airplane disappear. It’s also the name of novel by Charles Dickens.Published in serial form between 1849 and 1850, David Copperfield charts the degradation and eventual success of its narrator - a figure based closely on the author himself. So much so that Dickens later referred to the book as a ‘favourite child’, which considering his

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43:48

BONUS: SLoB's Secret Crushes and Clandestine...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/02/21

In part 2 of SLoB's Valentine's special, more heroes and heroines from the world of classic books get the brutal Tinder treatment as Sophie and Jonty assess the romantic moves of your literary faves. They are in full agreement concerning the lead characters of Sense & Sensibility and Go Tell It On The Mountain, but the conversation turns fractious as they lock horns over whether Frankenstein or his monster is the greatest lover in Mary Shelley's famous novel. Fortunately, Dracula - that great

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1:19:48

Free love in Paris, male wrestling and murder:...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/02/18

It's Black History Month and Sophie and Jonty are bringing their analytical chops once again to the giant of 20th-century literature, James Baldwin.In his debut novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain, Baldwin had captured the experience of growing up in 1930s Harlem. In his second novel, Giovanni’s Room, published in 1956, he focused instead on his experiences as a gay man, living in Paris. But, unlike Baldwin, the narrator of this novel is white.The hero David is torn between two desires - his

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49:20

BONUS: SLoB's Secret Crushes and Clandestine...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/02/14

It's Valentine's Day and love is quite literally in the air as the Secret Life of Books beams, via a complex network of satellites and data banks, to your ears. In this Bonus Episode, Sophie and Jonty reflect on what they've learnt about love from the classics, and rank the leading men and ladies of the books covered so far as lovers. St Valentine first appears in English literature in Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls and weaves his way via Jane Austen and Charles Dickens through to the

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58:58

Shakespeare does 'Succession': Rory Stewart on King Lear

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/02/11

“Now, gods, stand up for bastards!”King Lear is the Mount Everest of Theatre - a sprawling masterpiece of political turmoil, personal betrayal, horrifying gore and great poetry. It makes ‘Succession’ look like The Midsomer Murders. Lear is the pagan king who decides to divides his kingdom between two daughters (and banishing a third), only to find himself outcast, succumbing to madness, adrift in a world collapsing into civil war.Who better to tackle this cautionary tale of domestic and political

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23:40

Love and Beauty Bonus: Geraldine Brooks picks Gilead...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/01/31

The Pulitzer Prize winner, fan-favorite Geraldine Brooks first readGileadon a packed flight and found herself clambering over passengers for a Kleenex. Find out why Robinson’s quiet, meditative, multi-generational story remains a model and touchstone for one of the most admired and loved novelists writing today.Or, to echo Jonty’s effort to sound like the cool kids: why isGileadsuch a stone-cold classic?Geraldine talks openly about love, beauty and her determination not to turn away from the world

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1:04:55

Soldier Preachers, late-life love and Soapy the cat...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/01/28

Gilead, from 2004, by the American writer Marilynne Robinson, is a smash-hit novel about Calvinism, three generations of Congregationalist minister and a cat called Soapy. Unlikely trifecta through this is, Gilead is a gorgeous, life-affirming tale that has the distinction of being one of Barack Obama’s favorite books. The Gilead tetralogy - the four novels that make up Robinson’s Gilead cycle, were Oprah’s Book Club pick in 2021 and Robinson is beloved by intellectuals and celebrities alike.Despite

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75:42

Jane Austen goes to the dark side: social turmoil and...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/01/21

If you think Jane Austen is light and bright and sparkling, think again. In Sense and Sensibility, her first published novel, Jane goes to the dark side. Listeners remembering Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet laughing prettily in pale dresses might be expecting a tale of sisterly affection and romantic walks, while Hugh Grant stammers and charms his way towards inevitable wedlock. Tune in to hear how Austen changes the course of the English novel by writing about teenage girls left homeles...

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76:18

Cannes, a white mess jacket, and the pure joy of P.G....

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/01/14

Right Ho, Jeeves was the 34th novel by the British writer PG Wodehouse, written when he was - struggling writers take note - 52 years old. But you would never guess this. It is fresh, energetic, joyful, structurally perfect and one of a handful of books that might be considered Wodehouse’s masterpiece. The story follows the escapades of hopeless toff Bertie Wooster and his mentally superior butler Jeeves as they tackle the romantic woes of Bertie’s friends, the demands of his formidable ...

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50:14

The Craft of Writing, the Booker Prize from...

Secret Life of Books ·

2025/01/07

Elizabeth Strout’s My Name Is Lucy Barton is a much-loved and perennially-read novel that has caught the attention of literally millions of readers worldwide. But it’s quiet, low-key book, about family dynamics and difficult feelings, with a modest plot and characters who wouldn’t seem heroic if you met them in real life. Find out why Charlotte Wood found herself drawn to a novel that refuses to be a “people pleaser.” How does it connect to her own novel Stone Yard Devotional, shortliste...

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58:15

Literature's great parties: launch 2025 in style with...

Secret Life of Books ·

2024/12/31

To round out 2024, SLoB is hosting the world’s shortest New Year’s Eve party, in which we rank literary history’s most under-the-radar ragers. Crank up your sonos and get ready for classic fun this New Year. In under an hour, and with lashings of improvisational revelry, Sophie and Jonty review and rank party scenes from the books they covered in 2024. Most readers of the great English classics come for the amazing settings, the unrequited passions, the rampant alcoholism, homicidal...

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59:12

Did Dickens Change the Face of Christmas Forever?...

Secret Life of Books ·

2024/12/24

From the “man who invented Christmas,” this is the ultimate Christmas fable. Everyone’s heard of Scrooge, and many could quote his “Bah! Humbug!” And maybe even Tiny Tim’s “God Bless us, every one.” But who knows which Christmas season mega-industry Dickens started, with Scrooge’s parting gift to the Cratchit family? And what was going on in Dickens’s life that drove him to the power and melodrama of this micro-novel?Sophie makes a foolhardy attempt to link Dickens’ Christmas Carol to our mod...

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72:29

The Albatross Curse, Bad Weddings and Lots of Opium:...

Secret Life of Books ·

2024/12/17

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - the name of a classic song by Iron Maiden AND a decent-ish poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It’s the latter that’s under the microscope in this episode. Written in 1798, in a haze of opium smoke and revolutionary fervor, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a long ballad poem describing the supernatural curse against a sailor who shoots an albatross. There’s a ghost ship, angelic spirits, a zombie crew and many unforgettable lines, including ‘water, water ...

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59:33

Victorian dresses, teenage passions and fiction’s...

Secret Life of Books ·

2024/12/10

Sophie and Jonty find themselves a few sandwiches short of a picnic this week when they take on their first Australian classic book, the legendary “Picnic at Hanging Rock.” This 1960s masterpiece achieved global fame with Peter Weir’s hit film in 1975. And it has lost none of its edge with the passage of time. The intrepid hosts of SLoB discover that the joke’s on them – descended as they are from the white colonial families that Joan Lindsay set out to skewer so mercilessly. With riffs ...

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66:18

Please Sir, may we have some more? Oliver Twist, sex...

Secret Life of Books ·

2024/12/03

Let’s Twist Again! Not the dance, of course, but Charles Dickens’ incendiary second novel, which he began writing at the tender age of 24. With Oliver Twist, Dickens found his voice - a style simultaneously intimate and epic, funny but terrifying, exaggerated but true to life. Millions fell in love with his characters, shared their misfortunes and triumphs, and had their eyes opened to the plight of society’s outcasts. To write it, Dickens drew on his own experiences as a ch...

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104 results

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