Episode 721: On Ballard, biography and books

This week, Jonathan and Gary sit down and talk some new and forthcoming books, including our mutual choices for favorite book of the year so far. Gary starts by describing a book which he just finished and found particularly moving: The Illuminated Man: Life, Death and the Worlds of J. G. Ballard , Christopher Priest and Nina Allan, which he says reads more like a novel than a biography, with Priest’s final illness becoming a significant theme in portions written by Allan. They also discuss The Recollections: Fragments from a Life in Writing , a collection of Priest's writings from Briardene Books. Gary then goes on to recommend Frances Spufford's Nonesuch as his book of the year so far, Jonathan recommends S.L. Huang’s new novella The Language of Liars and then talks about what it’s like to reread The Fellowship of the Ring after a long tome. Of course, there are the usual digressions into things like the New Wave, the popularity of romantasy, the immense length of some literary classics, and other matters. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!

You can listen to Episode 721: On Ballard, biography and books online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 721: On Ballard, biography and books is an episode from The Coode Street Podcast by Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe.

This episode is 58:57 long.

This episode was published on Apr 19, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Coode Street Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.