The Follycast – Details, episodes & analysis

The Follycast Episode 15: In Conversation with Ben Aaronovitch

In this month’s episode…

Richard and Margaret welcome Ben Aaronovitch onto the podcast. The interview was recorded a few weeks ahead of the publication of the Masquerades of Spring and we discuss the origins of the series, cover the novels, novellas and graphic novels and look to the future.

Along the way Ben reveals:

• What order the books originally were supposed to be released in
• When book ten and eleven are set
• How Molly was not supposed to be a regular character
• Ben’s writing process
• What the graphic novels can do that the books just can’t
• The latest status of ‘Schroedinger’s TV series’, and the potential challenges of casting Nightingale
• The timetable for the next main novels.

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks,

Produced by Richard Marks for Uncertain Smile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk.

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

SHOW NOTES AND LINKS

 

The book tour for Masquerades Of Spring

Ben’s interview with Radio Free Skaro

Ben enjoyed reading: Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. 

Ben’s collaborator Andrew Cartmel has his own hit book series, The Vinyl Detective.

Ben’s novel Genius Loci, sadly not currently in print.

Remembrance Of The Daleks, which happily is..

Cutwater live at The Bedford on 25 September (free to attend or watch live stream) 

Ben discusses Rivers of London with Kobna Holbrook-Smith

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, YouTube and all good pod catchers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

   Subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates

 

The Follycast Episode 14: Amongst Our Weapons

In this month’s episode…

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch, book nine in the Rivers Of London series, is hot off the press at the time of recording and we meet up to share our views. No spoilers in this episode description, but plenty in the podcast itself, so probably best to wait if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet!

Credits

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks, with Jan Trott and Jennie Beck

Produced by Richard Marks for Uncertain Smile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk.

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, YouTube and all good pod catchers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

   Subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates

 

The Follycast Episode 5: Foxglove Summer

In this month’s episode…

…after a summer break we discuss, appropriately enough, Foxglove Summer – book five in the bestselling Peter Grant series of novels by Ben Aaronovitch.

It’s a story that ties together changelings, unicorns, dogging, forests, steam traction engines, bees, fairy queens and Roman Roads, but if we are entirely honest, did we entirely understand the plot? Is it a much needed break from London and the Folly, or frustrating after the explosive conclusion of the book before it, Broken Homes? After a re-read is it still Margaret’s favourite book? Why does Jennie think it ends like an opera? Why does Richard hang around in a den of geeks and will Jan be able to visit Herefordshire any more?

All this will be revealed in the next 42 minutes.

 

Credits

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks, with Jan Trott and Jennie Beck

Produced by Richard Marks for Uncertain Smile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk.

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, YouTube and all good pod catchers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

   Subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates

Shownotes

During the episode we discussed the following:

Den Of Geek article: Lies Sleeping & the challenge of crafting an intersectional narrator for the Rivers Of London Series Nadine Hughes’s Foxglove Summer Interactive Map Other maps in the Follypedia Star Trek: The Next Generation – Family The new short story collection, Tales From The Folly

The Follycast Episode 4: Broken Homes

In this month’s episode…

…we discuss ‘Whispers Underground’, the fourth novel in the Rivers Of London series by Ben Aaronovitch.

In Broken Homes, Peter finds a whole new set of senior officers to annoy as bodies pile up across the home counties and South London. All roads lead to Skygarden tower, a fictional, but strangely familiar, tower block in Elephant & Castle. Peter and Lesley move in together, but not in the way many of us would have been hoping for back when we were reading book one. We experience a trippy Spring Court on the South Bank, Nightingale manages to lay waste to a farmhouse and the book ends with a huge revelation, much to the relief of hosts Margaret and Richard who have been carefully policing potential spoilers in the first three podcasts.

As BBC continuity announcers are fond of saying, “Things will never be the same after this episode of the Follycast.”

Credits

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks, with Jan Trott and Jennie Beck

Produced by Richard Marks for UncertainSmile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk.

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify and all good pod catchers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

   Subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates

Shownotes

During the episode we discussed the following:

Rivers Of London graphic novels- Body Work Night Witch The new short story collection, Tales From The Folly We also discussed: Gallifrey Heygate Estate Elephant Park For those who couldn’t place it, the music playing at 3:15 into the podcast is the theme tune from the 1980s US comedy, ‘Soap’

The Follycast Episode 3: Whispers Underground

In this month’s episode…

…we discuss ‘Whispers Underground’, the third novel in the Rivers Of London series by Ben Aaronovitch.

We review a tale of pigs, potteries, FBI agents, sewers, art installations, Underground raves, earthbenders and time travel hallucination.  The Grant and May partnership is back, but how well is Lesley coping and how has her relationship with Peter evolved? Are the noticeably lower level of horror and the smaller body count good things? If Zach had been more co-operative would that have made for a much shorter book? Does the London Underground feature as much as we were hoping? Eight years on from ‘Whispers Underground’ will Crossrail ever be finished?

Meanwhile, as Peter settles down to watch the 2012 Doctor Who Christmas special at the end of his first year at the Folly (yes, everything so far really did all happen in the same year) we close the episode with a Rivers Of London quiz covering the first three books. Play along at home!

Credits

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks, with Jan Trott and Jennie Beck

Produced by Richard Marks for UncertainSmile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk.

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify and all good pod catchers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

   Subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates

Shownotes

During the episode we discussed the following:

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman The Time Machine by HG Wells Pottery Lane Kindle X ray? Here is a short story available online, set during the 2012 Olympics: The Home Crowd Advantage by Ben Aaronovitch

 

The Follycast Episode 2: Moon Over Soho

In this month’s episode…

…we discuss ‘Moon Over Soho’, the second novel in the Rivers Of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. We all loved the first book, so how does this live up to expectations as a sequel?

We welcome important new characters to the series and witness the appearance of a major new foe. We debate some of Peter’s questionable choices, Richard shares his childhood nightmares and we wonder at exactly what point in the future Peter Grant decides to get this all down on paper.  All whilst listening to multiple versions of ‘Body and Soul’

We introduce our first listener feedback section, but there’s no spoiler zone this episode (although the spoiler klaxon does make its debut for the first time).

 

Credits

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks, with Jan Trott and Jennie Beck

Produced by Richard Marks for UncertainSmile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk.

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify and all good pod catchers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

   Subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates

Shownotes

During the episode we discussed the following:

Kate Mosse

JK Rowling 

Andrew Cartmel’s  Vinyl Detective series

Neal Stephenson’ Baroque Trilogy

Doctor Who: Survival

‘If’ by Lindsay Anderson

Four versions of ‘Body and Soul’ are featured during the podcast. In order they are:

Coleman Hawkins & His Orchestra

John Coltrane

Ella Fitzgerald

Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson

 

The Follycast Episode 1: Rivers Of London

In this month’s episode…

…we start our look at the Rivers Of London novels by Ben Aaronovitch with – logically enough – Rivers Of London itself, the first book in the series.

Will new readers Jennie and Jan share hosts Margaret and Richard’s enthusiasm for the world of the Folly?  In the nail biting finale to the show we find out whether our control sample want to stick with the podcast for the next book or whether we will need a new pair of ‘test subjects’ upon whom to inflict our enthusiasm next time.

Before that dramatic reveal we speculate about the influences on the book, London as a character in the novel and the significance of the ‘Molly Folly Bite Time Machine’. We wonder how on earth it could be made into a TV show and, in his desperate attempts to not mention Doctor Who, Richard talks about Sons Of Anarchy for no obvious reason. Richard and Margaret then retire to a spoiler zone to discuss how the book works effectively as a ‘Season Premiere’.

What about spoilers?

Each show will contain plot points for that particular book but, to not spoil the series for new readers, how the book fits into the series as a whole will be left to the end of each podcast (from 37:20 in this episode), so new readers can skip and come back at a later date.

Credits

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks, with guests Jan Trott and Jennie Beck

Produced by Richard Marks for UncertainSmile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk.You can hear the track in full at the end of the pod from 47:35

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify and all good pod catchers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

   Subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates

Shownotes

During the episode we discussed the following:

Guardian Podcast with Ben Aaronovitch (very mild spoilers)

Rivers Of London – the TV series?

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

London’s Lost Rivers by Paul Talling

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neal Stephenson’ Baroque Trilogy

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Sons Of Anarchy

Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk

The Bone Clocks

About the Follycast

Welcome to the Follycast, a Rivers of London bookclub podcast, in which we discuss each book in the PC Grant series of fantasy detective novels by Ben Aaronovitch.  Each podcast will contain plot points for that particular book but, to not spoil the series for new readers, how the book fits into the series as a whole will be left to the end of each podcast, so new readers can skip.

Credits

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks, with guests Jan Trott and Jennie Beck

Produced by Richard Marks for UncertainSmile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud and Spotify, so don’t forget to subscribe.

 

The Follycast Episode 13: Monday, Monday and Amongst Our Weapons preview

In this month’s episode…

We make our first foray into the world of the Rivers Of London graphic novels with the recently released ‘Sunday Sunday’. We have a wider discussion about the graphic novels released so far and we wonder what implications the revelations in Monday, Monday have for the (at time of recording) soon to be released new novel ‘Amongst Our Weapons’. Now that the back cover ‘blurb’ has been released, what are our hopes and predictions for the ninth book in the Rivers series?

Along the way we discuss whether ‘Monday, Monday’ actually reveals quite as much as it seems to and the role the graphic novels play in the Rivers universe. Suffice it to say our opinions vary considerably. Along the way Jennie gets angry, Margaret does some name etymology and we generate the most extensive show notes so far.

Whether you have read ‘Monday, Monday,’ or are wondering whether the graphic novels are really for you, this is the podcast for you.

Credits

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks, with Jan Trott and Jennie Beck

Produced by Richard Marks for Uncertain Smile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk.

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, YouTube and all good pod catchers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

   Subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates

 

Show notes

Jennie recommends:

The Dark Remains by Ian Rankin & William McIlvanney

Jan recommends:

The Girl Behind The Wall by Mandy Robotham

Margaret Recommends:

The Ashes Of London by Andrew Taylor

Richard recommends:

Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe

Margaret & Jan also mentioned: Milkman by Anna Burns Richard & Margaret recommended The Vinyl Detective series by Andrew Cartmel Graphic novels: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage by Sydney Padua Funhome: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel Sally Heathcote: Suffragette Origin of Taiwo & Kehinde names The London Silver vaults Amongst Our Weapons: Cover Reveal Monty Python ‘Amongst Our Weapons: full sketch

The Follycast Episode 12: False Value

In this month’s episode…

We reach the end of our quest (for the time being) as we review the most recent Rivers Of London novel, False Value, published in 2020, just before the pandemic turned the world upside down and gave us all the time to do this podcast.

False Value is a tale that links Silicon Valley, Ada Lovelace and the New York Public Library, but does it have too many characters to keep track of? Is the order of the early chapters intriguing or confusing? How many different Hitchhiker’s Guide references are there? Could Nightingale be about to retire? Most importantly of all, when will the official Molly Cookbook be published?

Having debated these questions we end with some speculation about where the series could be headed next.

Hopefully our next episode will review the next Rivers Of London book as and when it is written and published!

Credits

Hosted by Margaret Holborn and Richard Marks, with Jan Trott and Jennie Beck

Produced by Richard Marks for Uncertain Smile productions

Theme tune: ‘London Is Inspired’ by Cutwater: www.cutwaterband.co.uk.

Cover image: Mack Chater (@MackChater)

Contact us

Email follypodcast@gmail.com with your feedback on this and upcoming books. We particularly like short (max 2 mins) audio feedback via mp3 or the audio format of your choice!

Follow us on Twitter @thefollycast

We are available via iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, YouTube and all good pod catchers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

   Subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates

 

Show notes

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – By Douglas Adams

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

Body Work graphic novel

The Hogsmill River ( a handy guide to the lost rivers of London)