Liz Calder & Alexandra Pringle

Mostly Books Meets...

It is our great pleasure to welcome onto the podcast this week Liz Calder and Alexandra Pringle. Liz was one of the founding directors of Bloomsbury and was editor-in-chief from 1987 to the year 2000, after which she passed the baton on to Alexandra, who served in the role until 2020. Between them, they have published Nobel Prize, Booker Prize and Women's Prize winners and have published household names such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Madeline Miller. Together they have edited the Bloomsbury 35 Anthology, a celebration of the now much-loved and admired publisher. To flick through its pages is to meet some of the most exciting voices in fiction writing from across the world, and is a testament to the brilliant work Bloomsbury has and continues to do.

(0:49) Introduction
(3:20) Liz Calder and Alexandra Pringle’s First Reading Experiences
(8:37) Liz and Alexandra’s Teenage Years
(15:41) Liz Calder's Most Recent Read
(22:21) Alexandra Pringle’s Most Recent Read
(26:14) The Books That Changed Their Lives
(38:35) The Emotional Side of Publishing

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton @jackwrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Bloomsbury 35 is published in the UK by Bloomsbury.

Books mentioned in this episode include:
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - ISBN: 9780349009308
Bartleby and Co by Enrique Vila-Matas - ISBN: 9781843430520
The Great Garden by Meg Rozoff - ISBN: 9781841585659
My Salinger Days by Joanna Rakoff - ISBN: 9780307958013
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan - ISBN: 9780393017755
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - ISBN: 9780395775592
The Ventriloquist Tale by Pauline Melville - ISBN: 9780747531500
Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie - ISBN: 9780593421826

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