Fantasy Book Swap

Stewart Hotston is the chair of the BSFA. Stewart’s choice: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams (First in the Dragonbone Chair trilogy. It is 5 1/2 cm deep. You can see the original cover on Tad Williams’s website Ali’s choice: Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa. It is considerably less thick. The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey. A novel about a child, but not a children’s book. Aliette de Bodard’s essay On Motherhood and Erasure. Anna Smith Spark’s A Sword of Bronze and Ashes is one of the few fantasy books where a mother is the protagonist. Catherynne M. Valente’s excellent The Refrigerator Monologues addresses the phenomenon of fridging women characters as a plot device and motivation for male superheroes. Stewart recommends Richard Swan, David Wragg and Neal Stephenson’s Baroque cycle for interesting takes on mythology and folklore. Wuxia such as Monkey adapted from Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en. Zen Cho’s novelette The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water. Historical C-dramas are very big on yearning glances. Stewart is currently watching Veil of Shadows. Stewart recently read The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson. The most challenged books. The CLPE’s Reflecting Realities report demonstrates that the number of children’s books with protagonists of colour published in 2025 was lower than in previous years. Stewart wrote a blog about representation and the Clarke Awards. EasterCon is the British SFF fan-run con that travels around the UK. Next year it is in Glasgow! Find Stewart online! Website, Bluesky, Nerds of a Feather. Read Project Hanuman.

Anna’s book choice: The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner Ali’s book choice: Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend by Lizzie Huxley-Jones. Sadly, I have just found out that Knights Of publishers have gone out of business, so Vivi’s trilogy is out of print. Hopefully you will be able to find them at online second hand book stores. Find out more about Anna Smith Spark The Bread Horse by Alan Garner- front cover. Boneland, which I intend to read. The Ceffyl Dwr, the wild hunt, Afanc. Rhianna Pratchett’s podcast on British mythology, Mythical Creatures, discusses water demons in episode 3. Herne the Hunter. Herne features in The Box of Delights by John Masefield, Silver in the Tree by Susan Cooper and (foreshadowing!) Tad Williams’s Memory, Shadow and Thorn series. Angharad Golden-Hand. Rhiannon. Epona, the Celtic horse goddess, who has nothing to do with Sulis/ Aquae Sulis/ Bath. Hobby Horse- a May Day tradition, originally associated with Morris dancers. The Mari Lwyd is a Christmas tradition, first referenced in the early 19th Century. Gelert the wolfhound; of course Gelert's grave isn't real. Nina Beachcroft, an excellent children’s author of spooky stories. Anna discusses Cold Christmas, which is the name of a hamlet in Hertfordshire, Nina Beachcroft’s home county- and mine, though I grew up near Watford rather than Hertford. The Stephen Collins cartoon on Netflix exposition Nancy Drew, The Chalet School- there are 58 books in the original series, but it was incredibly difficult to read them in order in the 1970s and 1980s! I encountered the wonderful Scrivener’s Books when in Buxton for Novacon. It’s a wonderful place, and that perfect shop for stumbling over that elusive third book in an out of print series! I remembered Pat O’Shea’s The Hounds of the Morrigan and Aliette de Bodard on Motherhood and Erasure in speculative fiction- Aliette talks about this blog on the Breaking the Glass Slipper podcast. Seanan McGuire’s wonderful The Wayward Children series

Ep 48 Shownotes Sandra’s book: The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater Ali’s book: The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. It’s also a film The Politics of Fantasy by Brian Attebury Catherine Crumb on her bicycle Nicolas Bentley’s illustrations Rudyard Kipling’s Just-So Stories Murderbot by Martha Wells. It’s also a TV series The Martian by Andy Weir Tik Tok by John Sladek Peter Brown’s website Sandra is not a dog groomer from the US Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production support. Why not go and give his radio show a listen?

Jim’s book (with Twilight-style cover); with Alison Moyet cover Ali’s book Stars and Sabers publishing Ferengi “Human female” Murderbot trailer Dave McKean’s website SF Said’s website Alfred Bester: The Stars my Destination There are two sequels to War of the Worlds: the straight to DVD adaptation and Stephen Baxter’s The Massacre of Mankind Material Girls podcast episode discussing Romantasy Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles trailer. This is what the first couple of chapters of Phoenix is like. It doesn’t end up like this. Jim’s website, Worrad Enterprises Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails, Jack Sadler-Johnson and Danny!

Meg’s choice: The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge Ali’s copy of the book Ali’s choice: The Beginners Guide to Curses by Lari Don More about Elizabeth Goudge More about Lari Don Heliotrope flowers Lari Don on Rhianna Pratchett’s BBC radio show about British mythical creatures talking about kelpies The legend of Gelert and Greyfriars Bobby Kate Crackernuts Whuppity Stoorie Mairi Hedderwick Katie Morag TV series Glasgow Worldcon 2024 Presents on Youtube LACon V: Worldcon 2026 Follow Meg on BlueSky

Katie’s choice: C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Ali’s choice: David A. Robertson’s The Barren Grounds Katie is just back from FantasyCon! Next year Brighton hosts World FantasyCon 2025; come and join us! Neil Gaiman’s short story is called ‘The Problem of Susan’ and is in the collection Fragile Things (it is of course entirely up to you whether or not you wish to support Gaiman’s work by buying it new or second hand.) Katie couldn’t continue with Robin Hobb’s Soldiers Sons trilogy because the food descriptions brought on morning sickness Fiona Moore’s blog, where she cooks from SFF cook books so we don’t have to! Lovely Gili Bar-Hillel introduced me to this brilliant piece of fan fic where Anthony Bourdain reviews Narnian hospitality. Read it, it’s perfect! https://archiveofourown.org/works/137185 The BBC 1988 adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Leeds Playhouse’s adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe runs from 18th November 2024- 25th January 2025 Trailer for Greta Gerwig’s adaptation Tilda Swinton’s White Witch tempts Edmund I delivered a paper on orientalism in the Chronicles of Narnia at a Historical Fictions Network conference. You can read it here David A. Robertson’s website Scottish bannock recipe. Canadian First Nations Bannocks were adapted from Scottish recipes. I have not found a bison chili recipe; I assume that you first catch your bison. The Little Bookshop, Leeds City Books, Brighton Find Katie online AuthorAssist.co.uk @Katiebruce.bsky.social on BlueSky @Katiebrucecake on Instagram I was a guest on Steve Vapour Trail’s radio show many moons ago with a selection of fantasy and science fiction-themed music. Enjoy the playlist here. Thank you to Danny for the idents, and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss.

Ep 39- Writeopolis v Fantasy Book Swap, but no dance-off In today’s episode, I am joined by Scott K. Andrews and Kit Power from the Writeopolis podcast. We have a lovely chat, and then Fantasy Book Swap proper starts at 12 minutes in. Scott’s choice: The Devil on the Road by Robert Westall Ali’s choice: Unraveller by Frances Hardinge The Lodestar award finalists- scroll to the bottom of the page. My copy of The Devil in the Road. Note the cat’s eye, and the gibbet with the executed witch’s body. Children of the Stones on YouTube, and the trailer for the adaptation of Red Shift Robert Westall’s official website Frances Hardinge’s official website Frances Hardinge conference, Saturday 11th July 2026, Aston University, Birmingham. As Kit mentions, he was on Fantasy Book Swap before! We discussed The Tripods by John Christopher and Wildspark by Vashti Hardy. A Wikipedia summary of Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Wild Swans A list of Joan Aiken’s Wolves books Leon Garfield Find out more about Scott here, Kit here and join the Writeopolis patreon here. Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails. Check out his radio show on Radio Lewes here! Thank you to Danny for the fresh new idents, and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss. Until next time, bye!

Ali’s choice: The Boggart by Susan Cooper. Ali’s edition with cat tax. Esther’s choice: Like a Charm by Elle McNicoll Elle’s novel A Kind of Spark was adapted by CBBC. Several members of the cast are neurodiverse. Information about dyspraxia here Elle McNicholl’s website Esther and Ali mention a lot of books and other media! Hilary McKay’s Casson family books, Terry Pratchett’s Only You Can Save Mankind, the spinning room in Poltergeist, You’re Wrong About… podcast on the Amityville horror and the CBC podcast on the satanic panic. The history of Castle Stalker with photos Greyfriars Bobby monument and the story Candlemakers Row. I think the red shop is the bookshop. Glasgow Necropolis Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh which features in Lari Don’s book First Aid for Fairies. It’s an injured centaur that Helen looks after first. Andy The Highlander Romance book recommendations Olivia Dade Talia Hibbert Helen Hoang Thanks so much to Esther! Find out more about Glasgow 2024 Worldcon here. Thanks for listening! Thanks to Steve for the production assistance. Steve’s band, The Late Returns, are playing a gig supporting Bone Records at The Brunswick, Hove on Friday! Unfortunately, it’s sold out. Thanks to Danny for the idents and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss. Follow me on Instagram and Bluesky @alisonbaker01.

Juliet’s choice: We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome. There is a small display related to the Swallows and Amazons at the Ruskin Museum in Coniston, in the Lake District. It’s not far from Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s house near Ambleside. Ali’s choice: The Strangeworlds Travel Agency: The Edge of the Ocean by L. D. Lapinski. I talked to Phil Dyson about the first book in the series, way back in episode 2! Find links to Juliet’s social media and information about their books from their website. Check out their short fiction via the link, and also their non-fiction writing: I love this essay on capitalism in worldbuilding. I talk about the amazing South Riding by Winifred Holtby. Read it; it’s an amazing piece of writing with an strong sense of place. Please do like, review and recommend! It does satisfy my vanity- but it’s also great to know that people enjoy what I do. And it helps to bring in new listeners. Thanks as always to Steve Vapour-Trails for production assistance and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his track Bliss. Why not check out Steve’s radio show, Vapour Trails on Radio Lewes?

Episode 33- A refreshing lack of Wizard Dads with S.J. Groenewegen SJ’s choice: Andra by Louise Lawrence, with the ABC TV cover Ali’s choice: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao SJ’s website: https://www.sjgroenewegen.co.uk Pre-order The Disinformation War here @nyssa1968 – twitter Reachingforthevoid - tumblr https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781913380809/ - links to pre-orders/orders for the Disinformation War, out on 13 June. SJ will be at Super Relaxed Fantasy Club on 13 June at Star of Kings, London, for readings and Q&A. https://www.facebook.com/groups/srfclondon/about 1990 was the dystopian TV series SJ couldn’t remember the title of, not 1991. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075469/ Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 Edited by Andrew Nette and lain McIntyre © 2021 PM Press ISBN: 9781629638836 Mentions Andra on a few pages, including the TV series. It quotes Kari Sperring about Louise Lawrence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Wu_(TV_series) the TV show on SBS in the late 1980s in Australia. The Untamed was my first Chinese drama show, and Ali kept thinking of it when reading Iron Widow.

Kate’s choice: The House of Arden by E. Nesbit Ali’s choice: Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi The Mahabharat has been dramatized twice for TV. This is the one I watched in the 1980s. If you want to read the other great Sanskrit epic, the Ramayana, I recommend this graphic novel version told from Sita’s perspective. A new biography of Edith Nesbit was published in 2019. The House of Arden was dramatized for BBC radio in 1989. You can buy an audiobook collection of Nesbit adaptations here. Follow Kate on Twitter at @katepreach and @fantasybookclu3, and on Instagram, where she posts pictures of her artwork and cats @kate.towner. Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails and Jack Sadler-Johnson.

This episode was recorded live at FantasyCon 2022 so the sound is a little echoey Laura is a games writer, Manga translator and the award-winning author of Sing Your Sadness Deep (2019) among other wonderful things. You can follow her on Twitter here, and find out more at LauraMauro.com Laura’s choice: Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson Ali’s choice: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo We mention Tove Jansson’s biography by Boel Westin I really love Kate DiCamillo’s work, and John Coxon read Flora & Ulysses for the podcast back in November 2021. You can listen again here. The trailer of The Tale of Despereaux adapted from Kate DiCamillo here Laura remembers the Japanese cartoons of the Moomins. I love the German stop motion animations. I mention the Moomins on the Riviera film Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss. Thank you to the committee for giving me a programme slot, and to the audience for coming along and asking questions! See you at FantasyCon 2023!