Backlisted Podcast
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backlisted.bsky.social
Backlisted Podcast
@backlisted.bsky.social
Giving new life to old books every fortnight. Bookshop.org Indie Champion 2023. Find us: backlisted.fm, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Support us: patreon.com/backlisted.
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New episode up now. Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon, with guest Matthew De Abaitua in conversation with Andy Miller and Una McCormack. @mdeabaitua.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/253...
253. Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon — Backlisted
Writer and critic Matthew De Abaitua joins Andy, Una and Nicky to discuss  Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future  (1930), the astounding first novel by Olaf Stapledon. The...
www.backlisted.fm
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New episode up now. Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon, with guest Matthew De Abaitua in conversation with Andy Miller and Una McCormack. @mdeabaitua.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/253...
253. Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon — Backlisted
Writer and critic Matthew De Abaitua joins Andy, Una and Nicky to discuss  Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future  (1930), the astounding first novel by Olaf Stapledon. The...
www.backlisted.fm
November 25, 2025 at 7:53 AM
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What a brilliant fact - I had no idea. (For anyone else impressed by this, the letter is here: digitalheritagelab.liverpool.ac.uk/Documents/De...)
Letter from Virginia Woolf - University of Liverpool Digital Heritage Lab
Letter from Virginia Woolf, OS/H2/A32, A thank you after Stapledon sent her a copy of one of his books. She admits to not understanding its full meaning but finding it interesting anyway., We grateful...
digitalheritagelab.liverpool.ac.uk
November 25, 2025 at 6:09 PM
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I love this book, and love also that it was a major inspiration to Virginia Woolf for her thinking about time and structure in her later novels (& she wrote a fan letter to Stapledon to tell him so!)
November 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
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Skyyy rockets in flight, afternoon delight...Another fantastic episode discussing a thing I had never heard of.
Reach for the stars... New @backlisted.bsky.social, LAST AND FIRST MEN by Olaf Stapledon, with @mdeabaitua.bsky.social!
New episode up now. Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon, with guest Matthew De Abaitua in conversation with Andy Miller and Una McCormack. @mdeabaitua.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/253...
November 25, 2025 at 8:41 AM
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Tomorrow morning I'll have Clay Pipe Music 2026 calendars, greeting cards (based on figures from European Christmas folklore), Giclee prints of @catebrooksmusic.bsky.social Lofoten, and CP accessory pouches. Available from Bandcamp and Greedbag.
November 25, 2025 at 11:39 AM
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I have this American Dover edition of Last and First Men and Starmaker.
Looking forward to listening to this episode later today.
November 25, 2025 at 11:54 AM
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This is what @backlisted.bsky.social do so well. A fascinating discussion (to which I have now listened twice) of a book I have never heard of and still may never read.
November 25, 2025 at 11:44 AM
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This was brilliant and made my head spin in the best way.

Why not follow it up by immersing yourself in the film and soundtrack by Jóhann Jóhannsson & Yair Elazar Glotman?

Backlisted favourite @andrewmale.bsky.social
wrote the liner notes which contain one of JJ’s last ever interviews. #RIP
November 25, 2025 at 11:27 AM
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Olaf gets a brief mention in Half Man Half Biscuit's ode to The Wirral 'Oblong of Dreams'. There also seems to be a Stapledon Wood there in his honour
November 25, 2025 at 9:29 AM
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this was so out of control I listened to it again straight away (join the cult of book).
November 25, 2025 at 9:21 AM
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We are on fire at the moment. But somehow, we’ve made another brilliant episode of @backlisted.bsky.social.
November 25, 2025 at 8:57 AM
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Last and First Men! @backlisted.bsky.social is doing Last and First Men!

I quite like Last and First Men.
November 25, 2025 at 8:27 AM
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Olaf manages to make nihilism accessible to all and ‘Aeon’ a commonplace word.

A truly remarkable book.
November 25, 2025 at 8:10 AM
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Nice early Christmas present to hear Olaf Stapleton's FIRST AND LAST MEN given the @backlisted.bsky.social glow up. He's always going to be an acquired taste, but I love that his best work is that of a true novelist of ideas without the kind of lecturn-pounding that has made so much...
November 25, 2025 at 2:28 AM
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Reach for the stars... New @backlisted.bsky.social, LAST AND FIRST MEN by Olaf Stapledon, with @mdeabaitua.bsky.social!
November 25, 2025 at 8:03 AM
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Looking forward to this. Only read Star Maker which I thought was mind bendingly fantastic...
November 25, 2025 at 8:00 AM
New episode up now. Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon, with guest Matthew De Abaitua in conversation with Andy Miller and Una McCormack. @mdeabaitua.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/253...
253. Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon — Backlisted
Writer and critic Matthew De Abaitua joins Andy, Una and Nicky to discuss  Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future  (1930), the astounding first novel by Olaf Stapledon. The...
www.backlisted.fm
November 25, 2025 at 7:53 AM
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Listened to the new @backlisted.bsky.social episode on Patreon this morning and it’s another excellent, interesting discussion. I went into the bookshop to order the book and H asked me what it was about. I tried to remember Una’s blurb and failed miserably. Advised him to just listen to Backlisted!
November 24, 2025 at 12:51 PM
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Sunday reading, Sunday listening and current audiobook. Both the book and the audiobook fall into the “I would never have read this without @backlisted.bsky.social” category. One I am enjoying, on the other I remain undecided. The music is from an @iammilliam.bsky.social recommendation.
November 23, 2025 at 3:23 PM
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Also, inspired by @backlisted.bsky.social, I re-read A Month in the Country, which I read in Yr 12, and I enjoyed my footnotes and even the bite marks on the cover from one of my schoolmates
November 23, 2025 at 11:10 AM
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#nowplaying In anticipation of Wednesday... @iammilliam.bsky.social 🙏💙
November 23, 2025 at 11:47 AM
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Writers have a tough time and nobody likes them either! Till they are dead. Then they become quite respectable and useful.
November 23, 2025 at 7:54 AM
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But the main point being that the show shifted us from having two separate opinions to discussing it together in a way we hadn't before.

So thank you.
November 22, 2025 at 10:21 PM
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My wife and I spent our Saturday evening listening to (and enjoying this). My wife is a Cusk fan (and had never listened to Blacklisted before) whereas I bailed after Outline and a quarter of Transit. It helped us both – helped my wife put her finger on what she liked, me what I disliked.
November 22, 2025 at 10:20 PM
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Read Craig Brown's "Ma'am Darling". Finally got around to this after hearing it so warmly recommended during @iammilliam.bsky.social's appearance on an old episode of @notrollergirl.bsky.social's "You're Booked" podcast - and is very very glad I did. For some reason when it came out, I must have 1/6
November 22, 2025 at 4:32 PM