Page One

For the 47th Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian is joined by journalist (among other things) Oscar Rickett. After a rocky start, they talk about a particular kind of American comic writing, a melancholy penguin and Fitzgerald's elegant command of emotion. You can listen to Fairewell's music here: https://soundcloud.com/fairewell. [Warning: some swearing]

Battling background noise in the foyer of the Almeida in London's Islington, Charles Adrian takes screenwriter and playwright Erik Patterson through his first ever (broadcast) podcast. They talk about the world as a playground for imperial Brits and the surprisingly immediate appeal of a Russian classic. For anybody who is interested, the Frug is demonstrated here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SsnwALj6G0 [Warning: there is some bad language in this episode.]

After a slightly unfocused start to this 45th Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian gets down to asking his old schoolfriend Christine Goldsmith (née Morris) about the books and music that she likes. They talk about things that cannot be put right, the correct names for rooms and furniture, and the notion that some books might secretly have better beginnings. [Episode edited for language.] More information at www.pageonepodcast.com.

Natalie 'shouty' Clarke joins Charles Adrian for a fractionally longer-than-normal and marginally explicit 44th Second-Hand Book Factory in the café at the front of the Royal Festival Hall in London. They talk about the potential downsides of time-travel, identification with plotlines and Jesuits in space. Pedants' corner: for "secret society" towards the end of the episode, please substitute "secretive society"; Charles Adrian also realises that the phrase "explicit edit" would be a more colloquial expression to describe the Wretch 32 track than "explicit edition".

For the last Page One of 2013, Charles Adrian serves up a dish of murder. Expect classic writers alongside a couple of relative whippersnappers. Happy holidays!

Allan Taylor, artist, academic and writer joins Charles Adrian for the 43rd Second-Hand Book Factory. Beginning with a modern classic and navigating onward between banks of paradox and proto-trash, the episode finishes with the soundtrack to Allan's own, internal, bad-day-to-good-day montage sequence. Allan's work can be found at allanstanleytaylor.com.

Holidays in Time, science as an art-form and upping sticks to move away from home: Charles Adrian talks to writer, performer, comedian, zinester, enthusiast and public engager Chella Quint. The first track, incidentally, was written in response to Chella's Zine Adventures In Menstruating, which you will find at chellaquint.com. For other links, go to pageonepodcast.com.

In an atmospheric recording, with vibrations from the Circle and District Line beneath and noise-spill from an editing suite next door, Charles Adrian talks to Superbard, a.k.a. George Lewkowicz, for the 41st Second-Hand Book Factory. Info about George and his activities can be found at http://www.superbard.co.uk/.

From teen worries to contract shagging, Charles Adrian takes us through some books that he has picked up in a foreign capital for this week's Page One. Stay to the end for some gorgeous Nina Simone.

For the 40th Second-Hand Book Factory, Charles Adrian is joined by writer, musician and ex-footballer Martin Bengtsson, aka Waldemaar. They discuss minimalist writing, the mythologising of friends and a letter novel that is not exactly a novel. Warning: this interview was conducted over Skype and there is occasional distortion due to a bad connection. More info about Martin can be found at http://www.waldemaarmusic.com/

The theme for this week’s Page One is myths and legends as Charles Adrian digs out tales of gods and heroes from his uncle’s library and shares with you a little of his love for these stories. Suggested further reading, as explained in the podcast: John Keats’ Hyperion, Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Ted Hughes’ translation and both Ka and The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony by Roberto Calasso. None of this is compulsory; no extra marks will be awarded.

Beginning with some tips on how to live right and ending with a hum of Pooh, the 56th edition of Page One sees Charles Adrian struggling to keep to the path that he has set out upon. For fans of ethics, advice and bears of little brain.

For the 55th Page One, Charles Adrian goes back to the roots of the podcast. It’s just second-hand books and a bit of good music. This week: an overview without plot-spoilers of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet. There is also some hesitant discussion of current events. The link mentioned in the podcast is http://madamasr.com/content/deaths-without-dignity; for more links, visit www.pageonepodcast.com.

This week, artist and writer Catherine Payton joins Charles Adrian for the 39th Second-Hand Book Factory. Quietly, and under a full moon, they discuss the First World War and the construction of a realer Scotland for the film industry.

And it was Paula Varjack! A slightly unusual Second-Hand Book Factory this week, recorded while Charles Adrian and his guest, the writer and performance-maker Paula Varjack, were in Edinburgh for the 2013 Fringe Festival. Given that they could not plunder their own shelves for books to share, they agreed to scour the second-hand bookshops of the city for a book that each thought the other should have. Perhaps this episode should be called the Third-Hand Book Factory. Paula's bandcamp is here: http://paulavarjack.bandcamp.com/

Joining Charles Adrian for the first of the new-style iTunes-hosted Page One podcasts is Vera Chok, who makes things and connects people. Almost exactly a year after their previous interview (Page One, vol. 6), they discuss the joy of tight prose, optimism in the face of disaster and whether comedians can compete with poets. All previous Page Ones can still be found at pageonepodcast.com. [n.b. some of the audio in the original version of this podcast was damaged; this has now been repaired]

Charles Adrian talks about the Page One book podcast that he will be putting out through iTunes from October 2013 onwards. More information at pageonepodcast.com. There isn't time enough in one lifetime to read all of the books that exist, but there might be time to read just the first page...