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Show Notes
This week I chat with Dr Samantha Rayner, Vice Dean of Wellbeing and Director of Publishing at UCL. We talk about how books affect our wellbeing and how we reach for different books for different reasons. We dive through historical fiction and make a quick stop in the world of mediaeval literature.

Sam has edited a new book on Georgette Heyer which you can find here

Authors and works mentioned in the episode:
Authors:
Georgette Heyer
Robin Hobb
J.R.R. Tolkien
Dorothy Dunnett
Margaret Campbell Barnes
Anya Seaton
Chaucer

Works:
Wilding by Isabella Tree
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Selected Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Katherine by Anya Seton
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Abelard and Heloise by  Peter Waddell
Love Without End: A Story of Heloise and Abelard by Melvyn Bragg
La Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Pearl

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Show Notes
I chat with the lovely Nadya Menuhin this week all about theatre, playwriting, and agenting. We discuss favourite books, mental health, the power of theatre and so much more in a fabulous interview. There’s even some fun squirrel facts at the very end.

Nadya’s twitter
Hive Mind project

Authors and works mentioned:
Authors
David Sedaris
Jeanette Winterson
A. M. Homes
Rachel Cusk
Max Frisch
André Breton
Simon Stevens
Christopher Hampton
Simon McBurney
Yuval Noah Harari
Joseph Conrad

Works
Graceling  by Kristin Cashore
Santaland Diaries  by David Sedaris
Written on the Body  by Jeanette Winterson
This Book Will Save Your Life  by A. M. Homes
Homo Faber  by Max Frisch
Nadja  by André Breton
Art  by Yasmina Reza
Sapiens  by Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus  by Yuval Noah Harari
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov

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Show Notes
In this Shelf Healing interview we chat to Clare Balding, author, broadcaster, and advocate for women in sport. We talk about books that help us understand ourselves better, the power of animals and animals in books, audio and walking, and getting around to reading newspapers.

Link to Clare’s website
Link to Clare’s twitter

Links to charities, people, and podcasts mentioned in the episode:
Strength and Learning Through Horses
Ted the Assiantance Dog
Ebony Riding School
RDA (Riding for the Disabled)
Fortunately
Economist Radio 

Authors and works mentioned in the podcast:
Heroic Animals by Clare Balding
How to Win a Life Without Losing Yourself by Dr Pippa Grange
The Long Win: The search for a better way to succeed by Cath Bishop
The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Animal Farm by George Orwell
My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding
After You’ve Gone by Maggie O’Farrell
One Day by David Nicholls
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Triumps and Turbulence by Chris Boardman
A Few Wise Words
The History of the World in 100 Animals by Simon Barnes

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Show Notes
This week our guest is Dr Douglas Cowie, senior lecturer in creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. We talk about the therapeutic effects of reading and writing, Moby Dick, and how everyone approaches texts differently and gets different things out of them.

Link to Doug’s website

List of texts and authors mentioned:
Authors:
WH Auden
John Berryman
Patrick Kavanaugh
Eve L Ewing
Herman Melville

Texts:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Dream Song by John Berryman
Black Girl Magic the second BreakBeat Poets anthology
“what I mean when I say I’m sharpening my oyster knife” by Eve L Ewing 

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Show Notes
In this Shelf Healing interview we chat to Deborah Alma, poet and founder of The Poetry Pharmacy. We discuss bibliotherapy, poetry, prescribing poems, and wellbeing, and what literature Deborah reaches for to improve mental health. This week I am joined by a guest co-host, Sara Cheraghlou.

Link to The Poetry Pharmacy website
Link to Deborah’s twitter account 

Authors and works mentioned in the podcast:
Authors:
Tove Jansson
Seamus Heaney
Derek Walcott
John Keats
William Shakespeare
Esther Morgan

Works:
The Moomin books by Tove Jansson
Love After Love by Derek Walcott
Postscript by Seamus Heaney
Grace by Esther Morgan
East Coker by TS Eliot

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Show Notes
In this Shelf Healing interview we chat to Gyles Brandreth, author, actor, and broadcaster. We discuss bibliotherapy, where to read, memorising poetry, and what literature Gyles reaches for from his bedisde book trough. For all of Gyles’ jumper wearing and poetry reading follow #poetryandjumpers and find Gyles on twitter.

Link to Gyles’ twitter account
Link to Gyles’ website
Link to Gyles’ Instagram account
Link to Gyles’ podcast, Something Rhymes with Purple

Books and authors mentioned in the podcast:

Authors:
Aphra Behn
Philip Larkin
Bertrand Russell
Rupert Everett
Oscar Wilde
Professor Anthony Clare
Gyles Brandreth
T S Eliot
Mae West
Dorothy Parker
Emily Dickinson
Virginia Woolf
Anne Olivier Bell
Mary Tourtel
AA Milne
Christopher Robin Milne
JM Barrie
Anton Chekov
Arnold Bennett
Jane Austen
George Eliot
Charles Dickens
PG Wodehouse
Ben Schott
Evelyn Waugh
Frank Richards
Terry Pratchett
Iain Banks
Enid Blyton
Jilly Cooper
Mark Twain
Professor Usha Goswami
Elizabeth Browning
William Shakespeare
Roger McGough
Michael Rosen
Spike Milligan
Robert Graves
John Keats
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Steve Turner
John Donne
Andrew Marvell
Derek Mahon
Mary Wesley

Titles:
This Be The Verse by Philip Larkin
To the End of the World: Travels with Oscar by Rupert Everett
The 7 Secrets of Happiness by Gyles Brandreth
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
A Moment’s Liberty: Shorter Diary of Virginia Woolf by Virginia Woolf, ed Anne Olivier Bell
Rupert Bear by Mary Tourtel
Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
Peter Pan by JM Barrie
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekov
The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett
Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett
Jeeves and Wooster series by PG Wodehouse
Billy Bunter books by Frank Richards
Malory Towers books by Enid Blyton
Riders by Jilly Cooper
Tintin by Georges Remi
Histoire de Babar by Jean de Brunhoff
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Dancing in the Light of the Moon by Gyles Brandreth
The Death of a Fly by Steve Turner
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear
If I can stop one heart from breaking by Emily Dickinson
Everything Is Going to Be All Right by Derek Mahon

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Show Notes
In this Shelf Healing interview we chat to Giles Paley-Phillips, children’s picture book author and podcast host. We discuss bibliotherapy, writing, and mental wellbeing, and what literature Giles reaches for to improve his own mental health.

Link to Blank Giles’ podcast
Link to Giles’ lovely twitter account
Link to Giles’ author page  

Books and authors mentioned in the podcast:

Authors:
Giles Paley-Phillips
Ian Livingstone
Steve Jackson
Chuck Palahnuik
Don DeLillo
Paul Auster
Jon Ronson
Ian Rankin
John Fowles
Glen David Gold
Sharon Olds
Bret Easton Ellis
Gelong Thubten

Titles:
Fighting Fantasies by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson
The Magus by John Fowles
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
The Father by Sharon Olds
One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days by Giles Paley-Phillips
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
A Monks Guide to Happiness by Gelong Thubten
Beautiful Lego by Mike Doyle
The Property by Rutu Modan
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Sandman: 30th Anniversary Edition by Neil Gaiman

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Show Notes
In our first Shelf Healing interview we chat to Dr Paula Byrne, author and founder and CEO of ReLit: The Bibliotherapy Foundation. We discuss bibliotherapy, reading and mental health, and what literature Paula reaches for to improve her own mental health.

Link to Paula’s charity ReLit: The Bibliotherapy Foundation
Link to Paula’s twitter account
Link to Paula’s author website
Link to LibriVox

Books and authors mentioned in the podcast:

Authors:

Dr Paula Byrne
Jane Austen
Evelyn Waugh
Jonathan Bate
P.G. Wodehouse
Barbara Pym
Thomas Hardy
Elizabeth Taylor
William Shakespeare
William Wordsworth
Matt Haig
 
Titles:

Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Diary for Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
Middlemarch by Mary Ann Evans
Othello by William Shakespeare
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
The Anti-Romantic Child: A Story of Unexpected Joy by Priscilla Gilman
Daffodils by William Wordsworth
Stressed, Unstressed by Jonathan Bate and Paula Byrne
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
On the Birth and Death of My Dearest Child Hector Phillips by Katherine Phillips
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig