Podcast: Damian Barr's Literary Salon
Damian Barr’s Literary Salon tempts the world’s best writers to read exclusively from their latest greatest works and share their own personal stories. Star guests include: Jojo Moyes, John Waters, Yaa Gyasi, Mary Beard, Diana Athill and Louis de Bernières – all in front of a live audience at leading glamorous locations world-wide. Our London home is the Savoy. Suave Salonnière Damian Barr is your host.
Produced by Megan Bay Dorman and Russell Finch.
BOOK OF THE WEEK: Jackdaw by Tade Thompson
A psychologically dark and graphic novel haunted by the spectre of Francis Bacon. This week’s episode could not be any spookier. We’re welcoming Tade Thompson onto the show to read from his new novel Jackdaw. In the book, a psychiatrist hired to write a short piece on Francis Bacon becomes obsessed with the artist, his…
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Alan Cumming Book Week Scotland Salon Special! November 2021
Alan Cumming in discussion with Damian Barr – plus performances from Len Pennie and Courtney Stoddart
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BOOK OF THE WEEK: I Am Not Raymond Wallace by Sam Kenyon
There’s nothing we like more than to highlight the exceptional talents of our queer literary community, so it’s our pleasure to bring you Am Not Raymond Wallace by debut author Sam Kenyon. Manhattan, 1963: Raymond lands in the New York Times newsroom on a three-month bursary from Cambridge University. To his surprise, he’s tasked with…
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BOOK OF THE WEEK: New Skin for the Old Ceremony by Arun Sood
Our Book of the Week is by a debut author and an independent press – our favourite mash-up! New Skin for the Old Ceremony is a novel by Scottish-Indian author Arun Sood that tells the story of four estranged friends, reunited for a motorcycle trip up the Isle of Skye. They hope to reconcile how…
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BOOK OF THE WEEK: The Foghorn Echoes by Danny Ramadan
We’ve got a brilliantly evocative book for your listening pleasure on this week’s episode. The Foghorn Echoes is by Danny Ramadan, an award-winning Canadian-Syrian author and advocate for LGBTQ+ refugees.  Danny’s new novel is about two gay men who find themselves in war-torn Damascus and an alienating Vancouver. It is a tragic love story about…
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SALON EXCLUSIVE: Bobby Palmer reads from ‘Isaac and the Egg’
If you’re in the market for something a little unusual and totally brilliant then let us introduce you to Bobby Palmer’s wholly original debut novel Isaac and the Egg. A man who has lost everything finds a reason to keep going when he discovers a two-foot-tall egg of unknown origin in a forest. What unravels…
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