Words to That Effect

Edgar Rice Burroughs is not, it's fair to say, a hugely familiar name these days. 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…

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…

Pirates have been around for a very long time. In fact, as far we know, 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 pirate…

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…

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,…

Words To That Effect is back! Words To That Effect Season 4 kicks off next Tuesday, 15th October. In the meantime, you can have a listen to what's in store in the trailer below. See you on the 15th! Listen to all the WTTE episodes on…

There are the celebrated authors: Checkov, Joyce, Mansfield, Munro. There are the big questions: “what makes a truly great short story?”. “Where does the form originate?” “What can short stories do that other forms of literature can’t?” But…

What is Fantasy Literature? What do you think of, when you think of the genre of fantasy? Whether it’s fiction, TV, cinema, games, are there certain elements you need to have for something to be considered fantasy? Well, you might say…

The Mysterious Case of Golden Age Detective Fiction An English country estate. A detective pacing the room, explaining how they have solved the crime, revealing the solution to a puzzle and the clues which were there all along.…

Note: Part 1 of this double steampunk episode is here One way of thinking about steampunk is to divide it into two parts: the steam and the punk. https://audioboom.com/posts/7240712-wtte-031-steampunk-pt-2-even-greater-london The…