John Sandoe Books

Jennifer Homans: Mr B.

George Balanchine’s life cut the twentieth century in two. He was a choreographer who trained in Tsarist St Petersburg and reached the peak of his career in New York during the Cold War. Mr B.: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century is more than a biography, and more than a book about ballet. It’s about a changing century and a revolutionary approach to art. Magnus talks to Jennifer Homans – ballet critic for The New Yorker – about her brilliant, intense and wonderfully readable book.

Edited by Magnus Rena

Music, in order of appearance:
Igor Stravinsky, Claire Quellet, Sandra Murray: Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (version for Piano 4 hands): V. Rondes printanieres (Spring Rounds)
Igor Stravinsky, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez: Concerto in E-Flat Major “Dumbarton Oaks”: I. Tempo Giusto

Edward Wilson Lee: A History of Water

A History of Water is a riddling title but the subtitle, Being an Account of a Murder, an Epic and Two Visions of Global History, points towards its rich cultural and historical context.

Edward Wilson-Lee is a Cambridge academic who specialises in making big stories out of archival minutiae. His superb new book follows the paths of two men in sixteenth-century Portugal. One, a humane and intellectually curious archivist to the King, was found dead in 1574 after falling foul of the Inquisition. The other was a rogue who become the Portuguese national poet. Beyond its intrigue as a murder investigation, this is a spectacular portrait of the world's expansion during the period, and how the imperial attitudes that resulted might have been otherwise.

Interviewed by John de Falbe

Edited by Magnus Rena

Music: Josquin Des Prez, Sanctus "D'ung aultre amer"

Karina Urbach: Alice’s Book

We are delighted to bring you a new podcast with Karina Urbach, author of Alice’s Book: How the Nazis Stole My Grandmother’s Cookbook. It tells the remarkable story of her Jewish grandmother, whose bestselling Viennese cookbook was expropriated by the Nazis after the Anschluss in 1938 and republished – for decades - under a false Aryan name. Dr. Urbach is an historian at the University of London; her book is expertly researched, using international archives, family papers, interviews, etc and has an extraordinary range – from Shanghai in the 1930s to Dachau, Vienna to Lake Windermere, the Kindertransport, the US intelligences services, publishing protocols under the Nuremberg laws, emigration and the creation of new lives in new worlds.

Interviewed by Arabella von Friesen

Edited by Magnus Rena

Music: Kurt Weill, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), Act II: Zuhälterballade performed by the Dreigroschenoper Band in 1928

Laura Beatty: Looking for Theophrastus

Laura Beatty could turn straw into gold. In Looking for Theophrastus: Travels in Search of a Lost Philosopher, she describes chancing across the writings of a rather obscure Greek philosopher, and the wonders and illuminations that followed. She speaks to Johnny about her pursuit of this forgotten figure, through markets and cobbled streets, via Chaucer and George Eliot... 

Edited by Magnus Rena 

Music: Mikis Theodorakis and Thanasis Vasilas, Galazio Taximi

 

Vashti Bunyan: Wayward

Vashti speaks to Magnus about her new memoir, Wayward: Just Another Life to Live. From London in the Swinging Sixties to a hippie retreat in the Outer Hebrides: she and her partner travelled – slowly – by horse and wagon. She gave up music, disillusioned with the pop industry, until her 1970 album was rediscovered thirty years later. 

This podcast is particularly exciting for us because, as we discovered while recording it, Vashti once worked in (what is now) John Sandoe's. The art room on the ground floor used to be a veterinary clinic; she worked there after leaving her record label in the 60s and before leaving London altogether. 

We have a number of signed copies so please telephone, email or order online if you would like one. 

Edited by Magnus Rena 

Music, in order: 

Vashti Bunyan, I'd Like To Walk Around In Your Mind 

Some Things Just Stick In your Mind 

Train Song 

Rainbow River 

Rose Hip November 

Just Another Diamond Day 

Here Before 

I'd Like To Walk Around In Your Mind 

Eileen Atkins: Will She Do?

Dame Eileen is joined by the novelist Salley Vickers to talk about Will She Do?: Act One of a Life on Stage. It is a marvellous memoir, beginning with her youth in Tottenham and ending when her theatrical career takes off. Forthright, transparent, dry, funny... there is nothing remotely precious about Dame Eileen’s account of herself. It is a delight! 

Please email, telephone (+44 (0)20 7589 9473) or order online if you would like a copy. 

Edited by Magnus Rena 

Music: Dusty Springfield, Don't Let Me Lose This Dream

Robert Edric: My Own Worst Enemy

Johnny once wrote of Robert Edric that 'his was the most significant body of work from a novelist in a generation.' He has written over twenty novels; My Own Worst Enemy is his first memoir. He spoke to Johnny about growing up in Sheffield in the 60s, as well as books, food, friendships, and what it's like to write about your own family.

Please email, telephone (+44 (0)20 7589 9473) or order online if you would like a copy. 

Edited by Magnus Rena

Music: Leo Kottke, Machine No. 2 

 

Salley Vickers: The Gardener

Salley Vickers wrote her latest novel in a Wiltshire cottage during lockdown. She talks to Johnny about the importance of gardening while writing, Shropshire's historic pagan landscapes, and the complications of family relationships. 

Click here to order a copy of The Gardener; choose to collect from Sandoe's or have us post it to you. 

Two sisters buy a rambling house in the Welsh Marches. One decides to bring the neglected garden back to life with the help of an Albanian migrant living in the nearby village. The work allows her space to contemplate her complex relationship with her sister and their difficult upbringing. Characteristically evocative and perceptive. 

 

Edited by Magnus Rena 

Music: Nick Drake, Man In A Shed

The Great Carp Ferdinand: A Wintry Tale by Eva Ibbotson

In anticipation of Christmas and the excitement of the coming weeks, we are thrilled to present a reading of one of Eva Ibbotson’s short stories. Some of our most obliging customers will already know her as an author of unparalleled charm and humour. Who else could combine an immense fish, a blunderbuss, love, moustaches and a vast, rose-sprigged chamberpot? A feast of Central European sensibility that will make you long to sip coffee and drift away all afternoon on a Biedermeier sofa... We have the right to post this magnificent piece of transporting bliss until the end of January, and we hope you enjoy it quite as much as we do.

 

Introduction by Arabella von Friesen, read by John de Falbe, and edited by Magnus Rena

 

Music: Johann Strauss II, Tales from the Vienna Woods piano version

Mark Mazower: The Greek Revolution

2021 marks 200 years since the Greek Revolution and Mark Mazower's new book - The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe - is as timely as it is thrilling, expertly researched and vividly told. He spoke to Johnny de Falbe about this first 'romantic' European revolution. 

 

Edited by Magnus Rena 

 

Music: Marika Ninou, Soúroupo Me Sinnephiá