Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)

Our fifth outing – and at our age we’re struggling to do the counting now!

Nicholas and I discuss a non-fiction book – End Times by Peter Turchin – which leads to a discussion of a work of fiction – The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. What makes political states fall? Can the political ‘elite’ do anything about it? Can we predict when nation states will fall? Find out by listening to the podcast.

Apologies in advance for the odd glitch or two!

Some of the books mentioned in the review are:

• End Times by Peter Turchin (you can read my review of this book here or read a summary by click on this Shortform link.
• The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
• You can also watch The Leopard on Netflix
• There’s a hint of a mention of Asimov’s Foundation series that Turchin does actually reference a lot at the end of his book. I didn’t have time to chat with Nick about it in the podcast.

Nicholas Graham is the author of historical detective fiction ‘The Judas Case’ which won a Northern Writers Awards New Fiction Bursary, and is currently working on its sequel, ‘Solomon’s Vineyard’. He was a member of the Sidney Sussex College Cambridge team that won BBC2’s University Challenge – Reunited series. He lives with his partner in a remote coastal village close to a decommissioned nuclear power station, a location he regards as being at the heart of the realities of the age. Follow him on Twitter @ThatNickGraham and via www.thejudascase.com.

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

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