Page One

  For the 61st Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian sits down to eat with performer, writer, director and 32-year-old Caroline Horton. Without the help of physical books, they manage to talk about poetry competitions, lightness of touch and beauty in graphic form. You can find out more about Caroline here.  

  Another of the podcasts dredged up from Page One’s London Fields Radio past, Charles Adrian is joined here by ‘maker’ Greg Wohead. They talk about writing, running and the far north east (of America). Greg is a wonderful storyteller and is frequently to be found on tour – more information about his work and his tour dates is here.        A note about the end of the podcast: Greg and I talk about the radio play The Air Gap, which Greg had starred in, and which told the story of Chelsea Manning. At the time of recording this conversation, Chelsea Manning was still known as Bradley Manning.  

  Joining Charles Adrian at the Farm Shop in Dalston for the 60th Second-Hand Book Factory is actress Liz Chan. They have a calm and quiet talk and exchange memories in different forms. Disclaimer: Having asked his guest to turn off her phone, Charles Adrian failed to turn off his; he apologises, therefore, for a little electronic interference towards the beginning of this recording. He also apologises for the occasional sound of chewing as he eats some rather nice lemon drizzle cake.  

  For the 59th Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian is joined by Dave Pickering, who is a freelance storyteller, podcaster and, on the day we met, author of an article about the disappearance of his previous job that was published in the Guardian’s Comment Is Free section; you can read the article here and the blog post that it is based on is here. Also, if  you think you might be interested, check out Miranda July’s Learning To Love You More project here. And here is a link to Dave’s Getting Better Acquainted podcast.   [Warning: some bad language during the first music track]  

  Sitting outside the Money Museum in Athens, Charles Adrian is joined by musician, performer and teacher Vicky Sachpazi for the 58th Second-Hand Book Factory.  They talk about the science of religiosity, the right way to behave in a room and Lawrence Durrell’s ‘poet of the city’. (Incidentally, if you haven’t already, check out the 55th Page One, in which Charles Adrian talks about Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet!) More information about Trio Tzane is here.  

  On top of Mount Parnitha just outside Athens, with a storm and a dog and some people in the background, Charles Adrian talks to performer Erifili Stefanidou (not to be confused with the other actress of the same name) for the 57th Second-Hand Book Factory. They talk about the most famous book in modern Greek, something splenetic by a famous Russian and something sweet by a relatively famous Frenchman. When Charles Adrian says ‘pilote’ he means, of course, ‘Pilate’.  

  Alison Windsor describes herself as a teaching artist with an interest in theatre and language, which is a neat shorthand for some of the kinds of things that she does. For the 56th Second-Hand Book Factory, she has flown from Sydney, Australia, to Athens, Greece, to talk to Charles Adrian about Kundera’s lightness of touch, the first play performed in (colonial) Australia and to swap stories about Paris. In the background you will occasionally hear the sound of next week’s guest… More information about Alison is here.  

  This week Charles Adrian puts on his poetry voice to read from some poetry pamphlets that he has found beneath Waterloo Bridge. That’s it. He encourages his listeners to embrace poetry.  

  Get ready for one of the classic key-changes of modern times kicking off this vintage Page One, in which artist and provocateur John Walter joins Charles Adrian in the Wilton Way Café in Hackney at a time when this podcast was still being made for London Fields Radio. John is currently raising money for Alien Sex Club, which is planned for July and August 2015 and aims to raise awareness of rising HIV infection rates among gay people. You can find out more and donate via his sponsume page here. His own website is here.  

  For the 55th Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian is joined by Bernadette Russell, an artist who makes theatre pieces, books, objects, installations, radio plays and more or less whatever strikes her fancy. We talk about reactions to art, whether we should settle for reality as it presents itself and beds in bookshops. Find out more about Are You Sitting Comfortably and the 366 Days Of Kindness project here. You can read about the wonderful Wigtown Book Festival here. [Warning: edited for language]  

Joining Charles Adrian for the 54th Second-Hand Book Factory is Ben Walters whose work life takes him to, between and around film, moving image, cabaret, performance and queer culture. They usher in the purple epoch of Hollywood, the fight against the patriarchy and a peculiarly loveable psychopath. Follow Ben on Twitter as @not_television. Oh, and there's a video of Justin Vivian Bond singing The Golden Age Of Hustlers here. [Warning: two instances of possibly offensive language]

Joining Charles Adrian in the Candid Arts Café near the Angel, Islington, for the 53rd Second-Hand Book Factory is writer, performer and clown doctor Anna Tobert. Live on air, they sign the form that puts an end to their dormant theatre company, The Same Person Ltd, and they talk about some things they know a lot about and some things they don’t. The first piece music is Anna’s choice but made after the podcast was recorded, which is why it is unannounced. Here is a link to the Mandela podcast Charles Adrian talks about. [Warning: there some offensive language during the CocoRosie track]

Charles Adrian is joined for the 52nd Second-Hand Book Factory at a noisy Royal Festival Hall in London by avid reader and mega-commuter Katrina Crear. They talk about art and value and Australia. Bill Bryson is mentioned. Charles Adrian wants to say Royal Opera House towards the middle of the episode and, instead, says Royal Festival Hall twice; he also seems to say E flat instead of B flat when describing the Corelli track. Of such mistakes are blushes made.

Charles Adrian shares his love for Fantasy literature this week and reads from some properly brilliant books. He also uses this as an excuse to pontificate on the function of art.

Gloriously named actress, performance artist and poet warrior Isabelle Schoelcher joins Charles Adrian for the 51st Second-Hand Book Factory. They talk about the yellow sun gang, about sex and about the sea. They get off topic for a while in order to talk about the kittens but, knowing Isabelle, this seems appropriate. [Warning: French speakers may spot some objectionable language] Here is a youtube clip of Jacques Brel performing Vesoul

Poet, performer and former child Francesca Beard joins Charles Adrian for the 50th Second-Hand Book Factory. They talk about two books that transcend their subject matter and one book that is a call to consciousness. Links to Francesca's work mentioned here include: this, this and this.

Get ready for the beautiful sound of some German language: an unwell Julian Meding starts this 49th Second-Hand Book Factory by introducing Charles Adrian to the science of strolling (Spaziergangswissenschaft). They also talk about the politics of threesomes and Julian brings both great music and deathless critical thinking. Apologies for the electronic intrusions - Julian wasn't asked to turn off his phone, which is Charles Adrian's fault. [Warning: some swearing]

For the 48th Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian talks to category-hopper Jaya Hartlein about life being not like it is in the movies, questions of scale and suitable topics for Applied Theatre. Jaya, as is somehow not mentioned, has just finished a Masters in Applied Theatre. Incidentally, if anybody else is unaware of the Pina Colada song, it turns out to be very easy to find on youtube. Of course.

For this week's Page One, Charles Adrian looks into the future and the past and alternative reality and other planets. It's a whistle stop tour of science fiction and should satisfy the soul of anybody who has ever wondered what things might be like if they were different. Incidentally, Charles Adrian writes: "I can only apologise for the offensively bad Scottish accent used at around the 13-minute mark." [Warning: some explicit sexual content.] Promised links: more info about Friends Of Friends can be found at https://soundcloud.com/foftheband and more info about the Anti-Valentine Festival can be found at http://beautifulbitchmonsteridiot.com/2014/01/09/anti-valentine-big-on-love/

Repackaged for iTunes, here, from January 2013, is the 10th Second-Hand Book Factory. Charles Adrian is joined by Gloria Sanders, who describes herself as an actress and an explorer and whose beautiful poetry can be found at http://poetryzoo.com/author/glorsanders. Incidentally: the word 'Over-Soul', later much misused by Charles Adrian, makes its first appearance on the podcast during this recording. As explained, this episode has been shortened; the original, full length interview can still be found in the archives at pageonepodcast.com.