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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 4h

Time for the clue to our next episode! For our Halloween episode later this month, we will be covering a text that a MUCH more famous horror novel ... just completely plagiarised. What is our creature feature?

Boris Karloff in the 1930s Mummy Film, all done up in bandages

Boris Karloff in the 1930s Frankenstein film, emerging from the shadows

Lon Chaney Jr in the 1940s Wolfman film, looking like a hairy twit in the woods

Bela Lugosi in the 1930s Dracula film, BLEHHH!

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Listen to our most unhinged episode of Bookends yet. Abby gets a new military ranking, a venomous spider writes into the show, we're given a Vanity Fair personality quiz by a listener, AND unbox a treasure trove of beautiful gifts (courtesy of Vintagerie by JJ)! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

External view of a beautiful wooden cigar box turned into a purse, with the words 'Sancho Panza' written on the cover.

Interior view of the Sancho Panza cigar box purse, lined with rose-coloured velvet and gold border, and with a small mirror on the inside.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Anti-detectives, boozers, and Thurn und Taxis loyalists! It's time to NOT solve an 800-year-old postal service mystery, but very much time to read some bizarre names and an even more bizarre sex scene, when we recap (?!) 'The Crying of Lot 49'. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I don't think you guys are ready for tomorrow's psychedelic anti-detective novel, 'The Crying of Lot 49'. It drove us to the brink of madness before our introductions at the top of the episode were even done.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

We had some correct guesses for our next (and frequently requested) text: Thomas Pynchon's psychedelic '60s freak-out about an 800-year-old evil postal service cabal, 'The Crying of Lot 49' (1966). Post-horns, highballs, and LSD tabs at the ready, because this doozy lands on 16 September.

Cover of The Crying of Lot 49 that is very psychedelic and shows a woman in 1960s attire (paisley shirt and miniskirt) dancing in front of a long-haired drummer.

Cover of Crying of Lot 49 showing a small woman on a bleak brown landscape standing in front of a billboard with an old-fashioned post-horn on it.

Cover of Crying of Lot 49. It's unclear what we're looking at, but it appears to maybe be a collage of a bunch of stamps with post-horns on them, with the number 49 superimposed on top.

Cover of Crying of Lot 49 showing an old-fashioned post-horn with a mute drawn in chalk on a cracked sidewalk.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Time for our clue to the next episode! We had a lot of wacky adventures during our poetry month in August, so how about something more straightforward and calm? Even, dare we hope, boring? What about a text about the postal service? That sounds like it won't be zany at all. What are we reading?

Photograph of a US postal service truck parked at a curb, while a mail carrier empties a postbox.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

We conclude our run of narrative poems with Christina Rossetti's bonkers fruit-themed poem about lesbianism(?), incest(?), addiction, assault, and capital, 'Goblin Market' (1862). These illustrations (esp. the 1973 Playboy parody) give you a good sense of the vibe. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Arthur Rackham illustration of Lizzie, clothed but in a disheveled white dress, being menaced by goblins who hold fruit aggressively up to her as she is backed up against a tree.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti's illustration of Laura cutting her hair off for the goblins, who are very animalistic. Everyone just simply looks too round.

Disturbingly wholesome illustration of a child-like Laura dressed like Alice in Wonderland kneeling in the daytime with some very innocent animal-looking goblins who hold up fruit to her in a non-threatening way.

1973 Playboy parody version in which a naked Lizzie is menaced by goblins holding fruit at her, but every fruit is a penis or a vagina.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

'I was born a free cranberry, and I'll die a free cranberry!' In this final August ep, we address the big question in 19th-century poetry: is Cristina Rossetti's 'Goblin Market' (1862) a defence, or a satire, of cran liberties? Coming out Wednesday.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Anyone for Tennyson? The next stop in our tour of narrative poetry is the surprisingly onion-light, 'The Lady of Shalott' (1832/42). Out on Wednesday!

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

What's that, a *lyrical* ballad? Why, that's the maddest thing I've ever heard! (100 pts if you can give an equivalent contemporary genre/form oxymoron). Yes, next stop on our month-long tour of narrative poems is Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' (1798): podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e...

Original frontispiece to Wordsworth and Coleridge's 'Lyrical Ballads' (1798). (I've heard it told that Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd's 'Blank Verse' - 1798 - was the true watershed of English Romanticism...)

Statue of the ancient mariner in Watchet, Somerset.

Watch out! One of Gustave Doré's 1878 illustrations of the poem.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

The next instalment in our August poetical miniseries deals with a lil thing called *Romanticism*, as we cover Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' (1798). If you like your weddings bassoon-laden, and your Constantinopolitans Platonic, then join us TOMORRAH!

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

We are very excited to start our August run of weekly episodes on short narrative poems. Tune in Wednesday 5th for Alexander Pope's epic about f*ckbois and haircuts, 'The Rape of the Lock' (1714).

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

In the month of August, we will be giving listeners not one, but FOUR (shorter) episodes, each on a narrative poem. Tune in on 5 August to hear us recap Alexander Pope's mock-epic about fairies, bad haircuts, making coffee, and men who belong in the sewer: 'The Rape of the Lock' (1714).

Book cover for Rape of the Lock, showing a C18th party.

Cover for Rape of the Lock showing an ornate pair of scissors aimed at a tiny lock of hair at the top of the cover.

Cover for Rape of the Lock, showing a pretty young woman in C18th clothes shoving snuff up the nose of a sneezing crusty old dude.

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The Dyad Payne Writing @writing.aksan.dev · 21/07/2026

It is page one of Don Juan and 'good', 'hood', and 'food' have just been rhymed. Gods help us. @smfmspodcast.bsky.social the things we do for this book club.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

As we revealed in our last episode, we have a special treat for the month of August: FOUR episodes, one per week, (20-40 min each) on shorter narrative poems. The first of these poems is also the funniest of the bunch: a mock epic. What are we reading?

Poster for the 2007 film 'Epic Movie', showing a bunch of knock-off epic film characters about to be squashed by the falling title.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

TOMORROW: our episode on Wilkie Collins's 'The Woman in White' (1860). This is a novel with a message: if you're going to be falsely imprisoned in a Victorian hospital, you simply *must* go private.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Shelfers! A quick and informal poll for Season 8 in 2027. If (IF) we were to do a Sherlock Holmes novel, which one would you prefer? -A Study in Scarlet -The Sign of Four -Hound of the Baskervilles Stay tuned for at least one more poll later.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Several of you guessed correctly: we'll be doing our first sensation fiction on the podcast with Wilkie Collins's 'The Woman in White' (1860). This is the perfect text for us, as Daniel is an expert on concertinas and Abby is an expert on Italian men. Listen in on 15 July.

Book cover for The Woman in White, showing a man in a suit and top hat backlit against a streetlight and showing an all-white outline of a woman in a bonnet.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Time to guess the clue to our next episode! We've had a lot of texts this season that focus on women. Our next text is no different and, in fact, even references a woman right in the title. But let's complicate gender a little bit. What if it featured a very sexy lady with a big ole moustache?

Pretty blonde woman with a polka dot scarf holding up a prop moustache on a stick and looking playfully to the side

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Happy summer, Shelfers! Today we go Down Unda with Joan Lindsay's freaky-deaky missing persons horror story, 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' (1967). Let's look into the cosmic pouch, hear a bit from Rupert Murdoch's dad, and steal acting jobs from the Brethren Hemsworth. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Book cover of Picnic at Hanging Rock showing a girl, whose face is half-off the cover, laying on the ground, with her old-fashioned clothes slightly unbuttoned, presumably to give relief from the heat.

Picnic at Hanging Rock book cover showing a crack in a huge rock with a blonde girl in old-fashioned clothes peeking in.

Picnic at Hanging Rock book cover showing three floating or falling parasols on a harsh, craggy landscape.

Picnic at Hanging Rock film poster showing a blonde girl in old-fashioned clothes looking over her shoulder at the audience, as she stands in front of three other girls in white and a giant rock.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

We had one correct guess: our big summer episode (which could easily double as a Valentine's Day or Halloween episode) is the Australian cosmic horror, 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' (1967). Brace yourselves for the laughs, lusts, and primal screams of a buncha old-fashioned teens. Episode drops 17 June.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Let's guess the clue to our next episode! As we enter summer, we thought we should focus on a text that HEAVILY features a classic summer activity. Or, since it's set on and around Feb 14th, should this should have been our Valentine's Day text instead??? Is it possible it could be ... both?

Photo of Valentine's Day chocolate in a heart-shaped box and a bunch of roses.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Bosom friends and kindred spirits: it's here, our single queerest text to date! 'Anne of Green Gables' (1908). There's a lot of chat about puffed sleeves, hating the French, and child labour on a farm (which city-boy Daniel refuses to understand in good faith). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Out tamorrah! Our coverage of the Canadian children's classic, co-written by Lucy Ward Montgomery and Georges Perec. Join us for 'Ann of Grn Gabls' (1908) - it's a tearjerker.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

As some of you have guessed from our (quite difficult!) clue, we're not covering the musical 'Annie', but rather the OTHER redheaded orphan named Anne from the early C20th, who is put to hard labour before warming the heart of an old bachelor. Our 'Anne of Green Gables' (1908) episode drops 13 May.

Still from the CBC 1985 adaptation of a joyous looking Anne, holding out her arms to show some absolutely despicable puffed sleeves.

Book cover for Anne of Green Gables, showing Anne clutching a book and standing in a field in front of Green Gables, smiling and looking generally bucolic and peaceful.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

It's time to guess the clue to our next episode, which comes out in mid-May (not *Tomorrow*). Our text features a lot of female characters, but not all adults. Many are *Little Girls*. Our protagonist has had a *Hard Knock Life*. Will she end up on *Easy Street*? *Maybe*! What are we reading?

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Nice to see the word spelt properly, for once. Please take time to read it prior to its defenestration.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

It's an SMFMS first--two episodes in one day! We cover another Big Boy™: William Thackeray's silver fork parody and 'novel without a hero', 'Vanity Fair' (1848). Parts 1 and 2 below. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Begad! Our double episode of W.M. Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' (1847-8) is coming out this Wednesday - featuring a damn inarticulate rant about aristocratic accents in period dramas:

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Our 'clue' was clearly rubbish, because nearly everyone guessed it immediately. You can all stop asking, because we're finally doing it--William Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' (1848)!!! Join us for the two-part adventures of Becky Sharp in a few weeks. BOTH episodes will drop the same day: 15 April.

Cover of Vanity Fair showing a bunch of Regency folks all tumbling over each other in a giant chinchilla pile. It's funny.

Cover of Vanity Fair showing a woman in anachronistic dress fixing her hair in front of a mirror. She looks like she's from the 1830s-40s, but the book is set in the 1810s.

Very minimialist old fashioned cover for Vanity Fair showing some flowers embossed on a brown background.

Pulpy cover for Vanity Fair showing a chic Regency lass talking to a couple of red coats in a ballroom.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

It's time to guess the clue to our next episode! We thought that the ladies in Lysistrata were pretty smart. And we've had a lot of savvy, intelligent female characters on the show so far. But the heroine of our next text is the sharpest BY FAR. What are we reading?

Woman with cool mod style and neat knee-high boots reading a book in a window seat.

Woman wearing safety goggles and rubber gloves doing lab work in a very white, sterile environment. There is a microscope and some beakers and pipettes and other equipment that I don't know because I don't do science. She is dripping something from a pipette on a petri dish.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Happy belated International Women's Day! Enjoy Aristophanes's sex strike farce (and possibly the randiest text we've covered), 'Lysistrata' (411 BCE). We notice a dildo discrepancy, get a surprise visit from wee Donalbain, and get a LOT of translation help. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Some of you guessed correctly: For our International Women's Day episode, we'll be joining the ladies of ancient Greece on a sex strike with Aristophanes's incredibly horny comedy, 'Lysistrata' (411BC). Episode drops 11 March. Milesian dildoes at the ready!

Cover of Lysistrata, showing a man totally naked except for a headband and a little scarf around his shoulders making the 'come on, baby!' arm motion to a woman who has both hands up in protest.

Cover of Lysistrata that spoofs the poster for The Graduate. A woman's leg can be seen while her hands sexily take off a stocking. In the background is a stunned looking Greek soldier.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

The big play-on-words in our last text's title ('Much Ado About Nothing') is that there's an awful lot of fuss over a vagina The same is true of our NEXT text--also a play--which will drop around International Women's Day. What are we reading?

Georgia O'Keefe painting of a red vaginal flower

Georgia O'Keefe painting of a blue, green, yellow, and white vaginal flower

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Happy Valentine's Day! If you like Beatrice and Benedick's schtick in 'Much Ado', you'll love Abby and Daniel's combative barbs. We fight about D's bad attitude, endless fart jokes, & odd directorial decisions. Let's eat HIS heart in the marketplace! Yum yum yum! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Book cover for Much Ado, showing a lil naked Cupid sitting weirdly astride a big red heart while fishing. Why not!

Book cover for Much Ado showing a placid looking woman as 14 disembodied hands point angry fingers at her. I guess that's Hero?

Old picture of Much Ado showing a blue drawing of a house and gardens with various C17th people wandering around. It's cool.

Boring-ass cover fro Much Ado, showing a masquerade mask, which makes sense, on top of a bunch of sheet music, which does not.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

TOMORROW, tomorrow, and tomorrow: our coverage of 'Much Ado About Nothing' comes out - including yet more dramaturgical insights.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Everyone guessed correctly! Our Valentine's Day text (replete with argument kinks, very loud balcony sex, and a whiplash-inducing strangers-to-fiancees-to-exes-to-spouses relationship) is William Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing'. Every single one of these perverts needs to GET IT TOGETHER.

Film poster of Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado, with Denzel looking especially sassy.

Book cover for Much Ado, showing a swooning bride at the altar with a bunch of people clustering around her, not really seeming as upset as they should be.

Book cover for Much Ado, showing presumaby Beatrice being weirdly gripped at the wrists by Benedick, coming at her from behind. I don't get why they're standing this way. Also, there is a strange and superfluous bush or tree or something in front of them, despite literally no other scenery. This artist was high at the time of drawing.

Book cover for Much Ado, showing a masquerade mask at the top, a bunch of birds on a bunch of flowers, for some reason, an engagement ring in the centre, even though I think engagement rings are anachronistic at this point, and some jester hats at the bottom, despite there being no actual jesters in the text (every character IS a fucking clown, though)

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

It's time to guess the clue to our next episode (our Valentine's Day text--so you know it probably has *something* to do with love, marriage, and/or sex). While our next text is an unambiguous classic, an essential part of the canon ... we don't see what all the fuss is about. What are we reading?

Stock photo of a white woman in the beigest possible living room yawning while reading a book.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Welcome to Season 7! Let's kick off a year of fan favourites and camp classics with our trashiest novel yet: Gaston Leroux's 1910 'Phantom of the Opera'. Abby has the time of her life, Daniel is checked out, and our new imaginary producer, Diane, keeps us on task. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

TOMORROW: If you thought 2026 already couldn't get any worse, our new series starts with Gaston Leroux's thoroughly stupid 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1910) - a rare example of a novel that's *more* incoherent and histrionic than its musical adaptation.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

You guessed right! Season 7 (on camp classics and fan favourites) starts with Gaston Leroux's 1910 melodrama, 'The Phantom of the Opera'. And if you think the stage show is OTT, has an insufferable Raoul, and nonsensical plot points...then, babygirl, you better gird your loins for the original text.

Phantom book cover showing a beruffled man in a mask and a dashing hat, gesturing ambiguously.

Phantom book cover showing a cowering woman in a bathrobe and with truly fucked up hair, on her knees at the feet of a man in a tux. His head is cut off in the image, but his stance says: smug.

Phantom book cover, showing a negative-space illustration of a half-mask and a rose.

Phantom book cover showing a man in a top hat, opera cloak, and tux, rowing a woman in a bathrobe in a lil boat (technically I think he's punting, but that doesn't quite sound right).

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Happy New Year, Shelfers! Time to guess the clue to our next episode. In S6, we saw an awful lot of attractive characters. The Duchess of Malfi, Emma Bovary, Molly Bloom, everyone in Streetcar and Fanny Hill, etc. But uggos need love, too! So for our S7 opener, I want to read about a real munter.

Still from Beavis and Butthead, where two gormless looking teenage dweebs sit on a couch and gurn at each other, hornily.

The crone-witch from the 1930s animated Snow White, leaning in through the open half-door.

A still from Shrek, showing big ole green lumpy Shrek holding Princess Fiona's dainty lil hand as the sun sets. Aww!

A still from Batman Returns, showing Danny DeVito hamming it up as the grotesque Penguin. My good dude could use some colour corrector for this dark under-eye circles!

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

In our final banned book episode, we celebrate (?) Christmas with the inappropriately summery (but sufficiently maudlin) 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852). Turns out, everything we knew about this book we learned from 'The King and I' and was therefore wildly incorrect! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Book cover of Uncle Tom's Cabin showing an illustration of a Black woman and Black child tending a garden next to the presumably titular cabin.

Book cover of Uncle Tom's Cabin showing an illustration of a blonde girl in a white dress reading a book to a Black man in rags, while they both sit in a shack with a hammock, while a white woman looks on approvingly. Also, there is a dog.

Book cover for Uncle Tom's Cabin showing an illustration of a bunch of white men standing around looking at a Black man in rags. One of the white men holds a whip.

Super old-fashioned book cover for Uncle Tom's Cabin, showing a woman of ambiugous race talking to a Black man, while she points at something in the distance. They are standing in front of the presumably titular cabin, and also there is a whip and a pair of shackles hanging from the title letters of the book.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

We come out all guns blazing for our Christmas episode, and the final instalment of our banned books series, with Harriet Beecher Stowe's Civil War-causing/-winning 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852) - what's more, it's crammed with sizzling Quakers... Out on Wednesday!

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

We had a few correct guesses! Our Christmas text, which is overly sentimental and OBSESSED with Heaven, is Harriet Beecher Stowe's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852). Get ready for some vom-inducing emotional manipulation on 17 December!

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Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Two independent studies found that AI chatbots were better at persuading voters than political ads. The most persuasive bots also lied the most. This is something that humans working in psyops have known for decades. AI is psyops at scale. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/04/1...

This is a quote from the article summing up both studies in Technology Review: "A multi-university team of researchers has found that chatting with a politically biased AI model was more effective than political advertisements at nudging both Democrats and Republicans to support presidential candidates of the opposing party. The chatbots swayed opinions by citing facts and evidence, but they were not always accurate—in fact, the researchers found, the most persuasive models said the most untrue things."

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Time to guess the clue to our next (Christmas!) episode. We've spent a lot of time IN Heaven on this show (Paradise Lost, Dante's Divine Comedy, etc). But I want a text that talks about Heaven even more than that. Improbably more. Exhaustingly more. Melodramatically more. What are we reading?

Classical painting of God in Heaven (on some sort of ceiling, I'm guessing), throwing his arms around like a diva, surrounded by angels, and looking down on the viewer

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Happy (early) Thanksgiving, Shelfers! Don't pull a spear on or chuck a boulder at a relative. Not unless they *really* deserve it. More importantly, Happy International Men's Day: no girls allowed in our episode on William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Book cover of Lord of the Flies showing an illustrated up-close picture of Piggy's face (or just his eyes, nose, and forehead), specifically showing his cracked glasses. It's all in red and black and looks ominous as hell.

Cover of Lord of the Flies, showing a terrified child's face with war paint on, seemingly peeping out of a spiky conch shell. It's illustrated and creepy.

Illustrated cover of Lord of the Flies showing a conch shell pouring blood. Chill!

Illustrated cover of Lord of the Flies, showing a backlit jungle setting against a setting sun, with a bunch of creepy looking silhouettes of boys, one of whom is holding a spear, standing next to a shack. A couple of boys in the hazy background appear to be doing war dances holding spears, and they're the creepiest of all!

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

It's human nature to be a snotty private schoolboy - or so William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954) tells us - and we got into the spirit of this message with plenty of quibbling over pronunciation. Episode out on Wednesday! 'One fly to rule them all, one fly to find them' etc.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Some of you guessed our clue correctly: For International Men's Day (19 November), we will be release the most laddish book we've ever read on the show: William Golding's 1954 anti-colonialist schoolboy castaway narrative, 'Lord of the Flies'. No girls allowed, and 'Sucks to your Auntie!'

Book cover of Lord of the Flies, showing a bunch of (presumably) masked naked stick-figure lads dancing around with spears, on a red background that's dotted with flames, and also there is a big snake there.

Book cover for Lord of the Flies showing a chaotic drawing of a jungle with loads of tiny lads looking lost in between the plants.

Book cover of Lord of the Flies, showing a boy's face peering out from a bush, or perhaps wearing a sort of headdress mask thing made of leaves. I don't precisely know what I'm looking at. There are also a bunch of flies on a tree trunk or something in the foreground by his jaw.

Book cover for Lord of the Flies showing a Rubenesque young lad in a schoolboy's uniform, with a fuck-off great big fly behind and over him, looking like it's almost going to pick him up. There are a pair of shattered glasses separate from this image, below the book's title.

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