The Hatchards Podcast

• Katy Hessel on How to Live an Artful Life: Seasons, Sacrifice, and More of the ‘Story’

  On this episode, we were joined by the writer, art historian, and host of The Great Women Artists podcast, Katy Hessel.Katy’s new book How to Live an Artful Life is a collection of 366 inspirations from her favourite artists and writers, designed to motivate readers to find creativity, beauty, and meaning in everyday life. Many of the ideas in the book stem from her acclaimed podcast, where Katy speaks to artists, curators, and thinkers whose work continues to expand our understanding of art history.Needless to say, there’s a certain meta quality to this conversation, as we compared notes on the art of conversation itself — as well as London, museums, childhood inspirations, and the influence of other books about creativity by figures such as Julia Cameron.Katy first appeared on this podcast back in August 2022, just before the release of her groundbreaking debut The Story of Art Without Men, a book that redefined the canon and changed the course of her career. It began a conversation that has led to collaborations with museums, galleries, and artists around the world. Her new collection distills these experiences into a vibrant companion for anyone seeking a more artful way of living.Hosted by Ryan Edgington.

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• Olivia Laing on The Silver Book: Italy, Illusion, and Intransigence

  On this episode, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Olivia Laing to discuss their extraordinary new novel, The Silver Book, which has been selected as a Hatchards Book of the Month for November. Set amid the turbulence of Italy’s Years of Lead, the novel is full of rich and deliberate contradictions: it’s a love story coloured by political extremism; a journey through Rome’s legendary film studio, Cinecittà, that sidesteps glamour in favour of the artisans and craftspeople who brought cinematic illusions to life. At its heart is a character who recalls Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, though driven more by naïveté than malice. Olivia spoke with us about the deep immersion in Italian history and culture that informed their writing, and about the figures of Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini — both major characters in the novel — whose contrasting creative visions shaped modern Italian art and cinema. They also reflected on how Italy’s fraught political history continues to resonate today, offering unexpected parallels with contemporary Britain. Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Matt Hennessey.

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• Benjamin Myers on Jesus Christ Kinski: Berlin, Biography, and Bad Behaviour

  On this episode, we were joined by Benjamin Myers, the prize-winning writer and journalist, to discuss his new novel Jesus Christ Kinski. It’s November 1971 in Berlin, and actor Klaus Kinski performs a one-man show that quickly descends into chaos and recrimination. Fifty years later, a writer snowed in during the pandemic winter of 2021 becomes obsessed with the performance and compelled to write something like a biography of the tortured figure. Recalling Geoff Dyer’s Out of Sheer Rage—a book about trying and failing to write about D.H. Lawrence—Myers ventures into similar territory, offering a mercilessly funny look at one of the twentieth century’s most volatile public figures. We talk with Benjamin about Kinski’s modern relevance as both artist and self-mythologising provocateur; the line between genius and narcissism, madness and evil; and how today’s culture might have treated a man like him. As a music journalist, Benjamin also reflects on the decline of the “rock star” persona in an age that expects entertainers to model good behaviour. Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Matt Hennessey.

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• Lyse Doucet on The Finest Hotel in Kabul: Freedom and Frontline Journalism

  On this episode, we had the privilege of sitting down with Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, to discuss her powerful new book The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan.Now nominated for the Baillie Gifford Prize, this deeply personal work reflects Lyse’s decades of reporting on Afghanistan from the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, during which she forged lasting connections with both the hotel’s staff and its guests. These relationships have shaped her unique perspective on the country’s turbulent history.Lyse spoke with us about her remarkable career reporting from the frontlines, as well as her reflections on writing, the changing media landscape, and the responsibilities and challenges that come with international journalism. She also offered her perspective on how Afghanistan is too often seen only through the lens of conflict, and why it is important to recognise the country’s rich cultural heritage alongside its history of war.Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Olivia Robinson.

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• Roger Lewis on The Life and Death of Peter Sellers: Goons, Ghosts, and Destructive Genius

  On this episode, we welcome back Roger Lewis, whose deeply researched and gleefully idiosyncratic biographies of British performing artists have come to constitute a genre all their own. Our subject is the book that began it all: his classic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, newly reissued in a hardback edition with a foreword by Steve Coogan. In its pages, Lewis makes the case that Sellers was, alongside Olivier, perhaps the finest British actor of the twentieth century — even as he remained one of the most impossible. In our conversation, he conjures Sellers as a man without a core, a figure of astonishing mimicry in whom there was no enduring sense of self. From The Goon Show to The Ladykillers, from The Pink Panther to Dr. Strangelove and Being There, the magnificence of the performances remains undeniable. But so, too, is the destruction he left in his wake.  Hosted by Ryan Edgington. 

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