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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Review for THE VANISHING EARTH in today’s @theobserveruk.bsky.social “Requiem for a ravaged planet… Despite its gritty subject matter The Vanishing Earth is poetically written and it ends in hope” @scribeuk.bsky.social @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Also, by coincidence look who I was interviewing this week!

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Pre-order my new book THE VANISHING EARTH now in US & Canada! Barnes & Noble @barnesandnoble.com Rewards and Premium Members get 25% off all pre-orders through Friday, June 26th. Premium Members get an additional 10% off! geni.us/vanishingearth @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

This week on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio 4 I was talking to Maggie O’Farrell about new novel LAND, what it means to map a country, & her 3 influences, including Jospeh O’Connor and Marie Heaney - listen now! 🎧📚📻👇 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Had wonderfully wide-ranging chat with Douglas Stuart on BBC R4 - recorded @hayfestival.bsky.social - about new novel JOHN OF JOHN & the 3 works that influenced it: 3 novels of fathers and sons (and daughters!) by Marilynne Robinson, David Leavitt and John McGahern 🎧📚👇 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Loved talking to @katiekitamura.bsky.social on BBCR4 about her latest @thebookerprizes.com & @pulitzerprizes.bsky.social shortlisted novel AUDITION and 3 brilliant influences inc Rosemary's Baby, Javier Marias, Maupassant (& bonus influence David Lynch!) Listen now! 👇 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

On today's #TakeFourBooks on BBC R4 I talked with @amitav.bsky.social about his new novel GHOST EYE and his 3 influences: two ghost stories - one about a haunted palace, another about a haunted river - and Robert Macfarlane's luminous "Is A River Alive?" Listen now! 📚🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

It may not be the 18th of November but it is 'Selter Day' on BBCR4’s TAKE FOUR BOOKS as I talk to SOLVEJ BALLE about her @faberbooks.bsky.social serial novel ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME & her 3 influences - come join us in the time loop! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Listen now to my chat with Yann Martel on BBC R4 about new @canongate.co.uk novel SON OF NOBODY and his 3 influences: Homer's Iliad (as translated by Stephen Mitchell), Alice Oswald's poem Memorial & Edward Albee's classic 1960s play. From the Trojan War to marital war! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Brilliant guests on #TakeFourBooks in the last 2 weeks: Colm Toibin giving us THE NEWS FROM DUBLIN and then yesterday a fantastic chat with Susan Choi on FLASHLIGHT... Some fab influences too, from John McGahern's The Country Funeral, to Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Listen now to my BBC Radio 4 chat with John Lanchester about new @faberbooks.bsky.social novel 'Look What You Made Me Do' and his three comic novel influences, Evelyn Waugh, Barbara Pym & Kurt Vonnegut! 🎧📚👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

PRE-ORDER NOW FOR 25% off (My new book THE VANISHING EARTH coming out September ‘26!) www.waterstones.com/book/the-van...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

🚨COVER REVEAL! 🚨 Several years in the writing, my new book, THE VANISHING EARTH is an odyssey to the frontiers of extraction & to the radical alternatives emerging just as we threaten to exhaust the earth's natural resources... OUT AUG/SEP @scribepub.bsky.social & @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Listen now to my BBCRadio4 chat with Ali Smith about new novel GLYPH & 3 influences, including a novel about a magic donkey hide (by Balzac!), a book of nonsense & Leo Tolstoy! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Today on #TakeFourBooks on BBCRadio4 I'm talking to Rob Doyle about his "mise en abyme" new novel CAMEO, and 3 influences - absolute crackers this week in the form of Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Bolano and Marguerite Yourcenar! Listen here 📚🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Today on #TakeFourBooks on BBC R4 I'm talking to Makenna Goodman about her new @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social novel HELEN OF NOWHERE & her 3 influences: Jean Giono's "The Man Who Planted Trees", Bell Hooks' "All About Love" & the plays of Pulitzer-winner Annie Baker www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Listen now to my BBC Radio4 #TakeFourBooks chat with Andrew Michael Hurley about new novel SALTWASH and three influences including Philip Larkin's 'Aubade', 'Free Will' by Sam Harris, and Shirley Jackson's chilling 'The Summer People' 🎧📚📻👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Listen now to my BBC R4 chat with Salman Rushdie about new work THE ELEVENTH HOUR and his 3 picks of influences, including E.M. Forster, Franz Kafka’s unfinished novel Amerika & the Pied Piper of Hamelin! #TakeFourBooks www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

Listen now to my BBCR4 chat with Jo Nesbø about latest novel WOLF HOUR, “saving the cat” vs “killing the cat”, taxidermy, & 3 influences including Jim Thompson, Knut Hamsun and Brett Easton Ellis #TakeFourBooks www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Listen now to my BBC R4 chat with @mccallsmith.bsky.social about new novel THE PRIVATE SIDE OF FRIENDSHIP and 3 influences, including W.H. Auden on unrequited love, Robin Dunbar’s “Friends”, and Madeline Miller’s “The Song of Achilles” www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

Today on #TakeFourBooks on BBCR4 I was talking to Karl Ove Knausgaard about new novel THE SCHOOL OF NIGHT and 3 ‘Faustian’ influences incl Thomas Mann & the memoir of @willsergeant.com from @bunnymen.com! Listen now! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

Loved having brill @olgaravn.bsky.social on BBCR4’s #TakeFourBooks today - talking about her new novel THE WAX CHILD & 3 influences inc M.R. James and a book of southern Italian spells! 📚📻🎧https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002m96r

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

If you are interested in books, reading and the power of story, then listen to this BBC R4 chat I had with the brilliant Katherine Rundell. We're talking about her new @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social novel The Poisoned King, but much more too, from Hamlet to Le Guin! 📚👇🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Listen now to my BBC Radio 4 chat with Chris Kraus on her new “true-crime” novel THE FOUR SPENT THE DAY TOGETHER & her 3 influences including Norman Mailer & Phil Neel 📚🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

I was on Radio4's Front Row last night with @nationalgalleries.bsky.social Louise Pearson talking about NGS exhibition of Alfred Buckham's aerial photography & my own experience of taking to the sky in open cockpit (I also wrote intro to the exhibition catalogue!) 🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Today on #TakeFourBooks Booker-winner John Banville is talking about his new @faberbooks.bsky.social novel 'Venetian Vespers' & 3 haunting, Venice-based influences, including (stories & films) Don't Look Now & Death in Venice! Listen now!👇🎧📚 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

This week on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio 4 I was talking to William Boyd about his new spy novel 'The Predicament' and 3 influences Lawrence Durrell, Len Deighton and John Le Carre - also with guest @louisewelsh00.bsky.social - listen now! 👇🎧📚 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Coming up later today on BBC Radio 4 I'm talking to Graham Norton on #TakeFourBooks about his latest novel Frankie, along with 3 influences - Elizabeth Bowen, Armistead Maupin & Gabrielle Zevin (and bonus influence Charlie Brown!) - at 4pm 👇🎧📚 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Loved talking to Ian McEwan (& @damedenisemina.bsky.social!) on BBCRadio4 #TakeFourBooks about climate, memory & the way the past haunts the present in his new @jonathancape.bsky.social novel WHAT WE CAN KNOW with 3 influences incl the epic Footsteps by Richard Holmes www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Listen now to my chat with Melissa Lucashenko on Radio4's #TakeFourBooks about her latest @oneworldbooks.bsky.social novel 'Edenglassie' and 3 influences incl Keri Hulme & Sebastian Barry (recorded with @rodgeglass.bsky.social & live audience at @edbookfest.bsky.social) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Listen to my chat with Sarah Hall on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio4 discussing new @faberbooks.bsky.social novel HELM (the first book to have a wind as its main character?) & 3 influences incl George Saunders & Angela Carter. With Alan McMunnigall of @thiwurd.bsky.social! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Listen now on BBC Radio4 to my chat with Rachel Kushner and live audience @edbookfest.bsky.social for #TakeFourBooks - talking about Creation Lake and 3 influences including Nabokov's Pale Fire and radical 1970s French crime noir! Also with @andrewmeehanesq.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Listen now to @irvinewelsh.bsky.social on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio 4 - talking Trainspotting sequel 'Men In Love' and his 3 influences, no less than James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Bill Shakespeare! Also with guest @kirstininnes.bsky.social 🎧📚👇 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Listen now to our Radio4 #TakeFourBooks chat with @damedenisemina.bsky.social about new novel ‘The Good Liar’, and 3 influences - 1984, Obedience to Authority and the Dorothy Thompson’s essay ‘Who Goes Nazi?’ - also with Kim Sherwood! 👇🎧📻📚 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Listen now to my chat on Radio4 with Gurnaik Johal on his debut @serpents-tail.bsky.social novel Saraswati on #TakeFourBooks: where a lost river re-emerges in contemporary India. His 3 influences include @amitav.bsky.social, Joseph Conrad and poet Natalie Diaz! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Listen now to my chat with Colm Toibin on #TakeFourBooks on Radio 4 - talking about Long Island (his first sequel!) and three influences, Hardy, Conrad & Wharton - also with @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Listen now to my chat on Radio 4's #TakeFourBooks with Madeleine Thien about her new, time-warping @grantabooks.bsky.social novel of war, exile and refugees, 'The Book of Records' - and her three influences, including the evergreen 'Invisible Cities' by Italo Calvino... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

A joy to talk to @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social about her new, polyphonic novel 'The Benefactors' on #TakeFourBooks, along with 3 influences Chernobyl Prayer, The Slap and @larapawson.bsky.social's This Is The Place to Be - listen now on Radio 4 & BBC Sounds! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Listen to us chat to Elif Shafak behind the scenes at @hayfestival.bsky.social on R4 #TakeFourBooks: talking 'There Are Rivers in the Sky' & 3 influences including the earliest recorded poem The Epic of Gilgamesh - along with first national poet of Wales, Gwyneth Lewis! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Listen now to latest #TakeFourBooks recorded at @hayfestival.bsky.social - Andrew Miller talking about his latest novel 'The Land in Winter' & influences including a book about a mad, 300-page party - with excellent @joannechocolat.bsky.social as guest! 👇🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

#TakeFourBooks has been at the Hay Festival for the past few days - including a show in front of live audience for the first time with Andrew Miller & @joannechocolat.bsky.social and lovely interview today with @elifsafak.bsky.social and poet Gwyneth Lewis - look out for Radio 4 broadcasts v soon! 🎧

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

On latest #TakeFourBooks I’m talking to poet and memoirist Sean Hewitt about his debut novel ‘Open Heaven’ & 3 influences including E M Forster’s Maurice, LP Hartley’s The Go-Between and Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls! Listen now 🎧📻📚 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

I talked to Ocean Vuong on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio 4 about his new @vintagebooks.bsky.social novel “The Emperor of Gladness” and his three influences, including The Brothers Karamazov and Jack Kerouac - listen now! 📚🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

I'm talking to Sir Ben Okri about new book 'Madame Sosostris & The Festival for the Broken-Hearted' (@headofzeus.bsky.social) on BBC Radio4's #TakeFourBooks, with influences 'The Waste Land', 'The Outsider', Shakespeare & bonus book we both love: Les Grand Meaulnes!🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

4pm BBCRadio4 #TakeFourBooks @vincenzo.bsky.social is talking to me about his International @thebookerprizes.bsky.social shortlisted @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social novel 'Perfection' on the emptiness of contemporary existence, and 3 influences, incl Patricia Lockwood www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

It’s a whale-filled #TakeFourBooks today, 4pm Radio 4 with Xiaolu Guo’s epic @vintagebooks.bsky.social reworking of Moby Dick CALL ME ISHMAELLE & influences including Melville, Philip Hoare & Othello-also with Alan McMunnigall @thiwurd.bsky.social! #BookSky 💙https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002b6lt

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

4pm, BBC Radio 4, I'm talking to Andrew O'Hagan about CALEDONIAN ROAD and his three influences, including Henry James, poet Wallace Stevens, and a certain Peter Pan, by JM Barrie... #TakeFourBooks Listen here! 👇📚📻 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

I'm talking to Eoin McNamee today 4pm #TakeFourBooks on Radio4, with @louisekennedy.bsky.social! Eoin's novel THE BUREAU is a story of kidnap, murder & fraud in the Irish borderlands & his 3 influences include Truman Capote's IN COLD BLOOD and MILKMAN, by Anna Burns... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Today at 4pm on BBC Radio4, I'm talking to David Szalay about his new novel FLESH alongside his 3 picks of influences: American writer Katherine Faw, Virginia Woolf and Joseph Conrad - listen here or wherever you get your podcasts 👇🎧📻📚 #TakeFourBooks www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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James Crawford @jdcrawf.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Today at 4pm on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio4 I’m talking to Eimear McBride about her new novel ‘The City Changes Its Face’ and her 3 influences, including Scott Walker & Marguerite Duras - also with @louisewelsh00.bsky.social! 🎧📚📻 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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