On this month's episode I chat to the guitarist James Blackshaw. We talk about James's influences, his guitar playing technique, and why he decided to take a break from music. I go through a few of my favourite songs by him, and we discuss the making of his new album. We also talk about cooking! James and his wife run a pop-up ramen restaurant at Stooge Coffee in Hastings. More info here:

https://www.instagram.com/sumisu_ramen/?hl=en

James's new album Unraveling in Your Hands was released on Bandcamp on 13 November:

https://jamesblackshaw.bandcamp.com/album/unraveling-in-your-hands

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This week on The Allender Calendar I talk to the journalist Dan Hancox about his new book Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World.

Dan's Substack:

https://danhancox.substack.com/

Buy the book from Verso here:

https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3176-multitudes?srsltid=AfmBOoqy2ieOOXaF3SOVrqp665ddddqoHLOSBCYkyOumLc4pJJxWtCBO

Townsville by The Necks:

https://thenecks2.bandcamp.com/album/townsville

'Some of My Best Friends Are Lizards' is on the album Get Your Hopes Down by Landslide Purist:

https://landslidepurist.bandcamp.com/album/get-your-hopes-down

Ill Spectre productions:

https://samwisternoff.wixsite.com/illspectreproduction

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On this month's episode I interview the author Frances Leviston. Frances has written two books of poetry – Public Dream (2007) and Disinformation (2015), both published by Picador. Her debut collection of short stories, The Voice in My Ear, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2020, and that's the focus of our chat. We talk about the differences between writing poetry and fiction, and the themes that bind the stories together in the The Voice in My Ear.

Frances's website:

https://francesleviston.com/

Here's a good review of The Voice in My Ear:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/14/the-voice-in-my-ear-frances-leviston-review-claire

This episode also features my new regular feature about what I've been listening to and reading.

Here's a great interview with ML Buch:

https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/step-inside-ml-buchs-digitized-art-pop-wilderness/

And I loved reading The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns. Here's a good Backlisted episode about it:

https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/14-barbara-comyns-the-vets-daughter

And here's the Backlisted episode about Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner:

https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/8-sylvia-townsend-warner-lolly-willowes

Azalea City Bandcamp page:

https://azaleacity.bandcamp.com/

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