Last year Caroline Crampton (of Shedunnit) and I teamed up to create a joint live show, called Words Dunnit: a 200-year history of detective fiction in an hour. We performed the show live at the Dublin Podcast Festival in November 2019, and then again at Pod UK, in Birmingham, in read more…
Ep 43: Lost Books
There are countless great works of literature we have tantalising glimpses of, works we know exist but, as far as anyone can tell, have been lost to history. Huge swathes of ancient Greek literature, a vast Chinese encyclopedia, a lost Shakespeare play based on the story of Don Quixote. And read more…
Ep 42: The Missing Link
The Hunt for the Missing Link Sasquatch. Bigfoot. The Abominable Snowman. Yeti. The Yowie, the Yeren, the Almas Ape-men, cave men, wild men. The Missing Link. The idea of the missing link came about in the mid-19th century, with the rise of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. In 1859 Darwin read more…
Ep 41: Romance Novels
His head moved, his mouth glided up her neck with feather-light brushes to that hollow beneath her ear. Then something hot and wet… His tongue. A Mills & Boon romance novel. The style is pretty easy to recognize – and to imitate or parody – because it works to a read more…
Ep 40: Time Travel Tales
Time travel fiction is a small subgenre of science fiction. Science fiction is a small subset of all the many genres and types of literature. Time machines and time travellers are a niche interest. And yet, in another way, all fiction is time travel fiction. All stories rely on time read more…
2020 Update
Unfortunately due to, well, life, and things that are far, far outside my control, I won’t be getting the next WTTE episode out today (14th) as planned. Things will return as soon as possible thought and I have 3 new episodes in the works. Most likely I’ll just skip this read more…
Christmas Bonus Episode: A Victorian Christmas Ghost Story
Normal episodes will resume in the new year but, in the mean time, I have made a very special Christmas episode. The Christmas before last I released an M.R. James story, following a Christmas tradition of ghost stories going back to Victorian times. So, I’ve decided to do it again, read more…
Ep 39: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs is no longer a familiar name. Like many other authors, the fame of his greatest creation, in his case Tarzan, has long eclipsed his own. But Burroughs was far more than the creator of Tarzan. He was an early pioneer of science fiction, a master of the read more…
Ep 38: Children’s Picture Books
Unlike modernist poetry or Shakespearean drama, when it comes to children’s picture books, everyone has an opinion. Most of us are exposed to kids’ books in some shape or form and, crucially, 100% of us have been children. For an academic working with children’s literature, this can have its rewards read more…
Ep 37: The Golden Age of Piracy
Pirates have been around, for a very long time. As far as the historical record seems to show, they have been around for as long as there have been property and boats. What is it that attracts us to pirates and why have we got such a well-developed set of read more…
Ep 36: Blood, Death, and Varney the Vampire
There is no pop culture monster more written about, more critiqued and analysed, more portrayed and adapted and reimagined, than the vampire. So this episode is not about most vampires. There are no discussions of Dracula or Nosferatu, no True Blood or Twilight or Buffy, no Anne Rice or Stephen read more…
Ep 35: Jekyll & Hyde (Transcripts)
Transcripts below for Episode 35: Jekyll & Hyde. Full show notes are on the main page here. You can listen below or on your favourite podcast app. Transcript I’m Conor Reid, with Words To That Effect. Stories of the fiction that shapes popular culture. In the summer of 1888, in read more…
Ep 35: Jekyll and Hyde
For most people today, I think it’s fair to say, the story of Jekyll and Hyde is a rough outline of a tale, a fairly straightforward allegory of the potential dark side within us all. Read Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novella, however, and you immediately realise there is so much read more…
Season 4 Trailer
Season 4 is here! The new season of Words To That Effect will launch next Tuesday, 15th October. Have a listen to a short trailer of what’s to come. If you’re not caught up, now’s the time to listen to any or all of the previous 34 episodes. Have a read more…
Upcoming Live Shows!
In exciting news, Caroline Crampton (of the podcast Shedunnit) and I are teaming up for a joint live show at the Dublin Podcast Festival and PodUK! The title is yet to be confirmed – what do you think: Shedunnit to that Effect or Words Dunnit Either way, I’m very excited read more…