On the Road with Penguin Classics – Details, episodes & analysis

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On the Road with Penguin Classics

Penguin Random House UK

Arts

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/34d. Total Eps: 34

On the Road with Penguin Classics is a podcast that takes a stroll around the world's favourite books. In each episode, author and editor Henry Eliot travels to a different literary location to explore a brilliant book in the company of a remarkable reader.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Apple Podcasts

🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
27/08/2026
#33
🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
27/08/2026
#100
🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
26/08/2026
#38
🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
25/08/2026
#29
🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
25/08/2026
#75
🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
24/08/2026
#26
🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
24/08/2026
#66
🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
23/08/2026
#30
🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
23/08/2026
#73
🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
22/08/2026
#28

Spotify

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https://www.henryeliot.co.uk/
22 shares
https://www.andrearangecroft.co.uk/
22 shares
https://wwnorton.com/books/Shirley-Jackson-A-Rather-Haunted-Life/
4 shares

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Score global : 63%

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William Blake's poetry with Philip Pullman

Episode 30

Thursday, February 1, 2024 • Duration 56:16

William Blake’s poetry and prose. We visit Sir Philip at home to discuss the poet who has ‘inspired and intoxicated’ him for the last sixty years. In Philip’s book-lined sitting room we discuss Blake’s most loved works: his Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Auguries of Innocence.

Pullman has written frequently about Blake and previously served as President of the William Blake Society.

Blake’s Selected Poems (Penguin Classics edition)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/33866/selected-poems-blake-by-william-blake-ed-professor-g-e-bentley-series-editor--christopher-ricks/9780140424461

https://apple.co/48HX8yM

Naxos Audiobooks edition of Blake’s poetry, read by Robert Glenister, Michael Maloney and Stephen Critchlow

https://naxosaudiobooks.com/blake-william-selections/

https://apple.co/3tRg676

Sir Philip Pullman

https://www.philip-pullman.com/

Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman

https://www.davidficklingbooks.com/shop/ItemDetails.php?pubID=190

https://apple.co/4aVkHpC

Audiobook edition of Daemon Voices

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/309349/daemon-voices-by-pullman-philip/9780241372906

https://apple.co/47NE6Gl

The Blake Society

https://blakesociety.org/

Presenter – Henry Eliot: https://www.henryeliot.co.uk/

Producer – Andrea Rangecroft: https://www.andrearangecroft.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Giovanni’s Room with Caryl Phillips

Episode 29

Thursday, January 25, 2024 • Duration 01:11:09

James Baldwin in Paris. On the rain-soaked boulevards, the novelist Caryl Phillips discusses Baldwin's exquisite same-sex love story, drinking in the Cafe de Flore and exploring Saint Germain des Prés.

Phillips, who knew James Baldwin, wrote the introduction to the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Giovanni’s Room and an unfilmed screenplay of the novel for Merchant Ivory productions.

2024 marks 100 years since Baldwin was born

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57368/giovannis-room-by-james-baldwin-introduction-by-caryl-phillips/9780141186351

https://apple.co/3Hnscrz

Penguin Audio edition of Giovanni’s Room – available June 6th 2024

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/56260/giovannis-room-by-baldwin-james/9781802067224

Calliope Author Readings – James Baldwin

http://calliopeauthorreadings.com/james-baldwin/

https://apple.co/4aTk0go

Caryl Phillips

https://www.carylphillips.com/

The Haunting of Hill House with Ruth Franklin – Halloween Special 2023

Episode 20

Tuesday, October 31, 2023 • Duration 45:54

Shirley Jackson in Bennington, Vermont. For this spooky Halloween special, award-winning biographer Ruth Franklin joins Henry to haunt the eery corridors of the derelict Everett Mansion, the house that may well have inspired the greatest ghost story ever written, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

Penguin Modern Classics edition of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/133430/the-haunting-of-hill-house-by-jackson-shirley/9780141191447

https://apple.co/45OjA79

Blackstone Publishing audiobook edition of The Haunting of Hill House, read by Bernadette Dunne

https://www.blackstonelibrary.com/the-haunting-of-hill-house?sp=17673

https://apple.co/46I1m8K

Ruth Franklin

http://ruthfranklin.substack.com/

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

https://wwnorton.com/books/Shirley-Jackson-A-Rather-Haunted-Life/

https://apple.co/475esgb

Season 4 Trailer

Thursday, October 26, 2023 • Duration 01:45

On the Road with Penguin Classics is the literary podcast that takes a stroll around the world's favourite books. In each episode, author Henry Eliot travels to a different location to discuss a great work of literature with a different guest.

In series four, Henry's guests include Monica Ali, Katherine Rundell, Simon Callow, Marina Warner, Caryl Phillips, Anil Seth and Philip Pullman. They discuss the love stories of Jane Austen and James Baldwin, the fantasies of Charles Dickens and Angela Carter, the thrillers of Raymond Chandler and Anthony Burgess, the horrors of Mary Shelley and Shirley Jackson and the poetry of John Donne and William Blake.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Eliot's Book of Bookish Lists – Christmas Special 2022

Episode 19

Thursday, December 1, 2022 • Duration 21:47

In this bonus episode, Henry introduces Eliot's Book of Bookish Lists, the perfect stocking-filler for book-lovers.

Who had birds called Death, Wigs and Spinach? How do you spell the noise of a door slamming? Whose working title was The Chronic Argonauts?

In this eclectic gallimaufry, Henry showcases some of his favourite literary lists: we witness the tragic ends of the Ancient Greek tragedians, learn the name of George Orwell's pet cockerel and rummage through Joan Didion's travelling bag; we consider the history of literary fart jokes, orbit the Shakespearean moons of Uranus and meet several pigs with wings. From the sublime to the ridiculous – and everything in between – Eliot's lists, recommendations and nuggets of trivia will delight, inspire and surprise anyone who loves reading.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/448329/eliots-book-of-bookish-lists-by-eliot-henry/9780241562727

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Pilgrim’s Progress with Rachel Joyce

Episode 18

Thursday, November 3, 2022 • Duration 01:07:58

John Bunyan in Bedfordshire. The novelist Rachel Joyce joins Henry as they follow in the footsteps of Bunyan’s pilgrim Christian, as he walks from Bedford, or the City of Destruction, to London, the Celestial City. Along the way they visit the Slough of Despond (Elstow), the Palace Beautiful (Houghton House) and Vanity Fair (Ampthill). They start at the Bunyan Meeting House, where they meet John Pestell, and finish at Bunyan’s resting place, Bunhill Fields.

2022 marks the 350th anniversary of the Bunyan Meeting House on its current site.

The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (Penguin Classics)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/60345/the-pilgrims-progress-by-john-bunyan-ed-dr-roger-pooley/9780141439716

https://apple.co/3rtwupL

The Pilgrim’s Progress, read by David Shaw-Parker (Naxos Audiobook)

https://naxosaudiobooks.com/pilgrim-s-progress-the-unabridged/

https://apple.co/3dJ7Lu6

Rachel Joyce

https://www.rachel-joyce.co.uk/

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/413693/the-unlikely-pilgrimage-of-harold-fry-by-joyce-rachel/9780552778091

Season of Migration to the North with Leila Aboulela

Episode 17

Thursday, October 27, 2022 • Duration 01:12:26

Tayeb Salih in London. The novelist Leila Aboulela meets Henry in London to discuss Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North, which was voted the most important Arab novel of the 20th century by the Arab Literary Academy in Damascus. The novel is set in both a small village in northern Sudan and various locations in London, the city that Tayeb Salih made his home. Leila and Henry visit Victoria Station, Speaker’s Corner, the London Central Mosque, the Old Bailey and Cleopatra’s Needle.

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (Penguin Modern Classics)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57444/season-of-migration-to-the-north-by-tayeb-salih-trans-denys-johnson-davies/9780141187204

Leila Aboulela

http://www.leila-aboulela.com/

The Translator by Leila Aboulela

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/the-translator/

https://apple.co/3UGl6Uy

The Minaret by Leila Aboulela

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/minaret-9780747579427/

https://apple.co/3xSuwTq

London Central Mosque

The Book of Disquiet with Richard Zenith

Episode 16

Thursday, October 20, 2022 • Duration 01:08:44

Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon. The translator and biographer Richard Zenith meets Henry in Lisbon to sift the fragments of Fernando Pessoa’s extraordinary ‘non-book’, The Book of Disquiet. They visit the cafes where Pessoa liked to drink, they meet Clara Riso, director of the Casa Fernando Pessoa, and they walk from the hills of Lisbon to the edge of the River Tagus.

2022 is the 40th anniversary of the first, posthumous publication of The Book of Disquiet.

The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, trans. Richard Zenith (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57066/the-book-of-disquiet-by-fernando-pessoatransrichard-zenith/9780241200131

https://apple.co/3SjNQRq

The Book of Disquiet, trans. Richard Zenith, read by Adam Sims (Naxos Audiobook)

https://naxosaudiobooks.com/book-of-disquiet-the-unabridged/

https://apple.co/3dIY9iY

Pessoa’s poems, A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe, trans. Richard Zenith (Penguin Classics edition)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/62448/a-little-larger-than-the-entire-universe-by-fernando-pessoa-trans-richard-zenith/9780143039556

Maurice with Diarmuid Hester

Episode 15

Thursday, October 13, 2022 • Duration 01:10:27

E. M. Forster in Cambridge. The cultural historian Diarmuid Hester joins Henry to explore the streets and colleges of Cambridge before escaping to the greenwood to discuss Maurice by E. M. Forster, his novel of same-sex love that remained unpublished throughout his lifetime. Diarmuid and Henry visit King’s College, where Forster lived both as an undergraduate and an honorary fellow and they visit Madingley Hall and Madingley Dell.

2021 was the 50th anniversary of the first, posthumous publication of Maurice in 1971.

Maurice by E. M. Forster (Penguin Classics edition)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/60370/maurice-by-ed--steven-d-levitt-em-forster/9780141441139

Maurice by E. M. Forster, read by Ben Whishaw (Audible audiobook)

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Maurice-Audiobook/B08CVRKWYH

https://apple.co/3LNOqEF

Diarmuid Hester

https://www.diarmuidhester.com/

Nothing Ever Just Disappears by Diarmuid Hester

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/445054/nothing-ever-just-disappears-by-hester-diarmuid/9780241528457

https://apple.co/3RgFU20

The Hearing Trumpet with Joanna Moorhead

Episode 14

Thursday, October 6, 2022 • Duration 01:14:13

Leonora Carrington in the Ardèche. The journalist and biographer Joanna Moorhead joins Henry in the south of France to discuss her cousin, the surrealist artist and writer Leonora Carrington. They trace Carrington’s life story to Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche, where she lived with the artist Max Ernst, and discuss her spectacular feminist, eco-apocalypse novel The Hearing Trumpet.

Penguin Modern Classics edition of The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57481/the-hearing-trumpet-by-leonora-carrington-intro--ali-smith/9780141187990

Naxos audiobook of The Hearing Trumpet, read by Siân Phillips

https://naxosaudiobooks.com/hearing-trumpet-the-unabridged/

https://apple.co/3dOYfpp

Joanna Moorhead

http://www.joannamoorhead.org/

The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington by Joanna Moorhead

https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/joanna-moorhead/the-surreal-life-of-leonora-carrington/9780349008776/

https://apple.co/3SCdDUU

Leonora Carrington at the Tate

On the Road with Penguin Classics – Details, episodes & analysis

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On the Road with Penguin Classics – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

Apple80

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

Apple80

Twitter8

Apple Podcasts

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