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Radar: Recent Cultural Picks 12.01.26
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for all of my latest writing. This week’s Radar features a range of genres from a range of time periods. The first is the short story Oysters by Anton Chekhov from 1884. There is so much to love about Chekhov’s style, despite the fact his life-view seems to be inherently a pessimistic one based on the idea that our lives are essentially lives of endurance and suffering. His attention to detail, though, is really what I think marks him
Andrew Jamison
Jan 84 min read
Radar: Rowley Leigh - A Life Through Food
Subscribe to Andrew's blog here for weekly updates on his writing. 'A Long and Messy Business' is the name of Rowley Leigh's latest cookery book, and it alludes to how describes his life as a chef. Attending Clifton College, he went on to study English at Cambridge before heading to London and working his way up from burger bars, through Le Gavroche, to opening his own restaurant 'Kensington Place' in 1987. While it may appear on the surface that Leigh lived something of a c
Andrew Jamison
Dec 13, 20252 min read
Radar: Recent Cultural Picks
Subscribe to Andrew's blog here for weekly updates on his writing. Cooking the Books , (BBC World Service) I’ve just finished listening to this series of sub-fifteen minute episodes on famous food writers on the BBC World Service and thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. They range from Savarin, the French 18th Century bon-viveur and cultural commentator, through Marinetti in the 1930s, to MFK Fisher, Alan Davidson the genius behind The Oxford Companion to Food, through to E
Andrew Jamison
Dec 12, 20253 min read
Radar: December Cultural Picks 01.12.25
Subscribe to Andrew's weekly newsletter here or support his writing and access exclusive weekly posts by upgrading to The Jotter Premium Plan here . Oliver Twist , BBC Sounds I’ve been taking in a wide range of short fiction recently. What’s been interesting to note is how different styles can be effective in such different ways. I love not just the style of Charles Dickens and his long, adjective-laden sentences, but the humanity in the world he conveys in his fiction. Dicke
Andrew Jamison
Nov 21, 20256 min read
Radar: Current Cultural Picks 24.11.25
Discover Andrew's latest cultural picks. Subscribe here for Andrew's next newsletter. Literary Belfast , Youtube I stumbled across these videos last week on Youtube, and couldn’t stop watching them - what a hidden gem. They seem all the more poignant and significant now the likes of Ciaran Carson, Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley are no longer with us. The big omission from the series, though, was Derek Mahon (a Belfast native who ended up leaving) and it’s regrettable that
Andrew Jamison
Nov 19, 20252 min read
Radar: Recent Cultural Picks 17.11.25
Explore Andrew's recent cultural picks. You can read his previous posts here. The Castle of Otranto , BBC Sounds and Opening Lines , BBC Sounds I’ve been embracing the seasonal offering on BBC Sounds recently and have listened to three gothic themed dramatisations and one discussion of a key gothic text. I’ll start with The Castle of Otranto, which is as good a place as any, especially when we take into account the fact that it’s often cited as the first gothic text. There
Andrew Jamison
Nov 5, 20252 min read
Radar: My Cultural Picks 10.11.25
Rose Tremain: This Cultural Life , BBC Sounds I’ll make a terrible, shameful confession: I’ve never read anything by Rose Tremain. Well, apart from an extract from her novel The Road Home , entitled ‘Significant Cigarettes’, for the purposes of teaching it as part of the Edexcel English Literature IGCSE. It’s okay as an extract; it features a character called Lev who’s leaving behind his Eastern European family in order to pursue work in England. It’s an intriguing character
Andrew Jamison
Oct 22, 20256 min read
Radar: My Cultural Picks 03.11.25
BBC Witness History, BBC Sounds 'Time Is Short' were three words hung on a Presbyterian church in Comber, Co. Down we always used to drive past on the way to or from Belfast. In fact I've written a poem about it, by way of an elegy, in my latest collection . But, it's true - time is short and entering my 40th year, it's hard not to feel like it's getting increasingly shorter, which is why, when I come across a ten-minute podcast which distills the life of a great writer I'm n
Andrew Jamison
Oct 14, 20252 min read
Radar: My Cultural Picks 27.10.25
Read about my latest television picks here. Celebrity Traitors, BBC IPlayer Big fringe; big castle; big lies – Traitors must be back. And this time it’s the celebrity version. If, like me, you are a sceptic of celebrity versions of reality TV programmes – because, well, aren’t celebrities just normal people? – you may well be watching this with a critical eye. We live in an age where the line between normal person and celebrity is blurring, thanks (I think I mean thanks) to s
Andrew Jamison
Oct 11, 20254 min read
Radar: My Cultural Picks 13.10.25
Blue Lights (BBC IPlayer) This is the third series of Bafta-winning Blue Lights and, boy oh boy, is it better than ever. Coming from...
Andrew Jamison
Oct 6, 20254 min read
Radar: My Cultural Picks 06.10.25
Watching Beck, BBC 4, BBC iPlayer Beck is back. I love a good Nordic Noir and Beck is a shining example of this bleak genre. This time the lead character is Vilhelm, Martin Beck’s grandson. He’s quite the Byronic hero: mysterious, rebellious, arrogant, and principled yet misunderstood and alone in a world of bureaucracy and groupthink. These traits get him into trouble, of course they do, but he remains eminently likable and the writers and producers have struck a good balanc
Andrew Jamison
Sep 28, 20253 min read
Radar: My Recent Cultural Picks 29.09.25
Find out what Andrew has been watching and listening to recently. Listening There is an absolute feast of excellent radio programmes at the minute, and I'm starting to wonder if, actually, we're living in a golden age of radio. We're certainly spoiled for choice and I'm excited to share some of my recent favourites here. Three of my five top radio picks are written by novelist Carlo Gébler, who while an acclaimed novelist in his own right, is also the son of Edna O'Brien and
Andrew Jamison
Sep 23, 20255 min read
Radar: My Recent Cultural Highlights
Find out what I've been reading, watching, listening to recently. Listening Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour - Happy Birthday Van the Man, BBC...
Andrew Jamison
Sep 16, 20254 min read
Radar: My Cultural Highlights 15.09.25
Find out what's on Andrew's cultural radar this week. Reading Michael Ondaatje, A Year of Last Things (Cape, 2024) Ondaatje's most...
Andrew Jamison
Sep 10, 20254 min read
Radar: 01.09.25
Find out what I've been reading, watching, listening to recently. Listening Words and Music: The Coastal Path (BBC Sounds) I’ve always...
Andrew Jamison
Aug 26, 20254 min read
Radar: What I’m Reading, Watching, Listening To This Week - 18.08.25
Reading: Love Poet, Carpenter: Michael Longley at 70, ed. Robin Robertson, (Enitharmon, 2009) I’ve finally got round to alphabetising my...
Andrew Jamison
Aug 13, 20253 min read
Radar: What I'm Reading, Watching, Listening To This Week
Reading Precipice by Robert Harris This is not my first Robert Harris novel, as I read Enigma before. Having led a school trip to...
Andrew Jamison
Jul 25, 20253 min read
Radar: What I'm Reading, Watching, Listening To This Week - 14th July
"The programme discussed the effects a nuclear war would have on the planet." Reading Bad Lilies is an online poetry magazine edited by...
Andrew Jamison
Jul 10, 20253 min read
Radar: What I’m Reading, Watching, Listening To This Week - 1st July
"It's an excellent listen and I'm hooked." Reading I was given a bundle of poetry books from a neighbour clearing out their home last week (as seen in the photo above). So, I’ve been going through some of these books, dipping in and out. Jo Shapcott is a poet I’d heard of but until now hadn’t really read. So, I’ve been enjoying her collection Of Mutability and will report back more when I’ve had time to reflect on that. I’ve always enjoyed the work of Helen Dunmore, so gett
Andrew Jamison
Jun 29, 20253 min read
Radar: What I’m Reading, Watching, Listening This Week - 24th June
Listening Take Four Books (BBC Radio 4) I've always found it such a treat to listen to authors talk about their work, and share insights...
Andrew Jamison
Jun 24, 20253 min read
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