Best of the Spectator
Home to the Spectator's best podcasts on everything from politics to religion, literature to food and drink, and more. A new podcast every day from writers worth listening to. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Filtered episodes(3)
- StandardSummaries onlyBook Club: Lindsey Fitzharris – Sleuth-Hound
Published Oct 24, 2026
Book ClubWho was the real Sherlock Holmes? In this episode Sam Leith is joined by medical historian and author Lindsey Fitzharris to discuss her new book, Sleuth Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes.Fitzharris tells the extraordinary story of Joseph Bell, the Edinburgh surgeon whose powers of observation inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective. How did Bell learn to read the human body like a crime scene, and what role did he play in the emergence of modern forensic science? From Victori
- StandardSummaries onlyBook Club: Shaun Bythell – Return of the Bookseller Diarist
Published Oct 14, 2026
Book ClubFor this week’s Book Club, Sam Leith, the Spectator’s literary editor, is joined by Shaun Bythell, proprietor of The Book Shop in Wigtown, Scotland, and author of The Diary of a Bookseller series, to discuss the fourth instalment, The Return of the Bookseller’s Diary.They discuss the strange characters who wander into second-hand bookshops, the customers who haggle over £2 books, and how Bythell’s shop helped turn Wigtown into Scotland’s unlikely book town.They also explore the changing world of
- StandardSummaries onlyBook Club: Matthew Sweet – The Great Dictator
Published Oct 7, 2026
Book ClubIn this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith is joined by author Matthew Sweet to discuss his new biography, The Great Dictator, about the bestselling novelist Barbara Cartland.They explore the extraordinary life behind Barbara Cartland’s instantly recognisable image – from her beginnings in the aftermath of the First World War to her career as one of the bestselling authors of all time.They discuss why Cartland was so often dismissed as a joke by literary critics, and how her novels offered gene