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This is the second part of our adventure with Bram Stoker’s epic chiller Dracula. Having travelled south from Whitby, we find ourselves in Purfleet, Stoker’s imaginative location for the estate of Carfax and Jack Seward’s asylum. We then head to Piccadilly to pick a virtual fight with the online Stoker cognoscenti over the location of Dracula’s London pad. We end in a graveyard in Hampstead, discussing sunsets and decapitations under the eyes of owls and bats. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’re available, subscribe to our Patreon page. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’re taking on a book which is as much a myth as it is a novel: Bram Stoker’s 1897 chiller, Dracula. Like Stoker’s eponymous neck-botherer, we find ourselves washed up in Whitby, one of the most theatrical settings we’ve ever seen for a book. We hunt down the bench where the Count attacks poor Lucy Westenra, and stand on the beach where his ship crashes into the shore of England. We discuss goths and sleepwalking and wonder why it is, exactly, that anyone would ask where they could find Dracula’s grave? If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’re available, subscribe to our Patreon page. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the second part of our adventure with Susan Hill’s classic chiller The Woman in Black. In our ongoing hunt for places which could have inspired the fictional locations of Crythin Gifford and Eel Marsh House we find ourselves in Lincolnshire, where the land merges into the sea seemingly without interruption, where old rock stars haunt interesting market towns, and where Marconi dreamed of talking to the dead. Tim tries to get Lloyd to walk through an abandoned railway tunnel, without success, and we salute Hill’s masterful messing with her readers’ heads. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’re available, subscribe to our Patreon page. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’re taking Susan Hill’s classic chiller The Woman in Black out for an adventure. It isn’t easy, because the market town of Crythin Gifford and the scary old Eel Marsh House are not real places. But what if they were constructed from real memories, and reminiscent of real places? In part one of our latest episode we check out some likely spots in Yorkshire, and Tim tries to scare Lloyd with the tale of a Norman princess and the church she haunts. He is more successful than he planned for. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’re available, subscribe to our Patreon page. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In part 2 of our Day of the Triffids adventure, we follow Bill Masen as he leaves London and heads down into Sussex, on the trail of the woman he finds himself in love with. We discover John Wyndham’s house in the countryside, and travel the Wyndham Way, our name for the road which winds along below the South Downs, with Wyndham’s school and home at one end, and Bill Masen’s refuge at the other. On the way we speculate as to when the book is set, and discover the dark history of 20th century seed manipulation. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’re available, subscribe to our Patreon page. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’re back in London, discovering the places and context for John Wyndham’s legendary dystopian tale The Day of the Triffids. Our hero, Bill Masen, has woken up in a London hospital to a world in which everything has changed - almost everyone has become blind overnight, and the plants which Bill helped to breed, the triffids, have begun to prey on the newly vulnerable humans. But where is the hospital Bill wakes up in? And where does he end up taking shelter in central London? And why do pubs play such an important role? If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’re available, subscribe to our Patreon page. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In part two of our Riddley Walker adventure, we follow Riddley down from How Fents to Widders Dump, and then along the line of the old railway to Rose and Power. On the way we learn about Russell Hoban’s interest in shamanism and the occult, and speculate on whether he ever met the French alchemist Fulcanelli. We finish in Fork Stoan, known to us today as Folkestone, and try and figure out just where the Power Place might have been that Riddley discovers on the outskirts of the town. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’ve available, subscribe to our Patreon page. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’re heading back to Kent! This time we’re having an adventure with Russell Hoban’s magnificent dystopian fable Riddley Walker. Set two thousand years in the future and based entirely in north Kent, the novel tells the story of a 12 year old boy and his adventures wondering a strange post-nuclear landscape, where towns have odd new names that echo the past, and where language has shifted and morphed into extraordinary new shapes. But how close is the book to the landscapes it describes? If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’ve available, subscribe to our Patreon page. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In part two, we move down the Wey river and on to the Thames at Shepperton, the site of a destructive battle between the British Army and the Martians. The tower of Shepperton church is supposedly seen from the south bank of the river and is reduced to a pile of rubble. If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’ve available, subscribe to our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’re kicking off Series 2 with The War of the Worlds by H G Wells – the classic tale of Martian invasion that spawned radio shows, movies, musicals and even an ‘immersive’ experience. But where is the original book set? If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’ve available, subscribe to our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lloyd and Tim take on the 'holy scripture' of spy novels, John Le Carré's classic tale of 1970s Cold War intrigue and betrayal; the book that established George Smiley as one of the all-time great fictional characters - 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

‘Lamb’s been banished. Where’ve they sent him? Somewhere awful? Bad as it gets. God, not Slough? Might as well be.’ In the middle of the third Covid-19 lockdown, Lloyd and Tim get together virtually for a Zoom around London’s Aldersgate Street and key points north and west of Slough House, the headquarters for Mick Herron’s titular Slow Horses. They spy on Slough House itself, uncovering countless off-the-shelf companies which might be fronts for unseen agents, but probably aren’t, not to mention watchful owls which might be hints of a conspiracy or might just be there to scare off the pigeons. Mick Herron’s somewhat spooky prescience about the course of British politics over the last decade is put to the test, and hats are doffed. Finally, the inevitable argument about dating ensues, with a vicious disagreement over which particular England qualifying game the book is referring to, and an unwelcome reminder of the fleeting electoral successes of the British National Party. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

‘A plan to brain-wash the entire framework of the nation,’ said Jean, over the coffee and croissants. ‘It’s hardly credible.’ After a long hiatus, Tim and Lloyd are back with the (unlucky-for-some) 13th Curiously Specific Book Club podcast. They start with something that comes easy to them both – a leisurely stroll around Soho. Who knew Len Deighton’s classic 1962 spy novel The Ipcress File was the perfect excuse for a long lunch and a general loaf? Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“It began that summer, a hot and sticky summer that made the air shimmer and the walls melt.” We’re back in Brighton, for the third in our trilogy of books set in Southern England’s biggest seaside resort. The book we’re taking for a walk this time is a tale of bloody revenge set against a 1980s backdrop of shifting sexual politics and wrenching political change. Our guide is Bella, who woke up one morning and realised she’d had enough. She’s the heroine of Helen Zahavi’s controversial bestseller and literary tour de force Dirty Weekend - and its film adaptation, a curious affair brought to you by Michael Winner. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"To those whom God has forsaken, is given a gas-fire in Earl’s Court” We’re joined in this, the 11th Curiously Specific Book Club podcast, by Andy (@DulwichRaider) from Deserter, who is our natural go-to mate for summoning up the spirit of alcoholic drift and under-employment that permeates ‘Hangover Square’ by Patrick Hamilton. We are forced to drink in all the pubs on or just off the Earl’s Court Road, until we find the one that is mostly likely to be ‘The Black Hart’, the drinking den around which much of the book’s events revolve. We go to the exact point off the Cromwell Road where the author, Patrick Hamilton, was run over  - and also where Netta (the book’s anti-heroine) resides. After one too many Gin & Frenches and much talk of fascism, Lloyd and Tim take off to Brighton in search of a theatre and golf course. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.” For the tenth instalment of the Curiously Specific Book Club podcast, we travel to the southern coast of England for Graham Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’. We discover the Brighton of the 1930s, a place of seedy glamour shoved up against repulsive poverty, a town of razor boys, prostitutes, gangsters and dodgy lawyers. We find the tunnel where Fred Hale is done in by Pinkie, Dallow and Cubitt, and take tea in the same cafe where the killers eat fish and chips and ponder their next move. We hunt for Snow’s tea rooms, and ponder the meaning of good and evil in a Brighton shelter. Up on the hill above the Old Steyne we find the slums in which Pinkie and Rose spent their childhoods, and then we sit in the empty grandstand of Brighton racecourse, before following Pinkie’s desperate tracks as he scrambles down into the outskirts of Brighton, pursued by Collini’s razor boys. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“Antiques and Women are my only interests. It sounds simple, but you just try putting them in the right order.” The third instalment of our East Anglian trilogy takes us to Essex. We immerse ourselves in the unreconstructed 1970s world of the UK’s favourite antiques dealer-cum-private eye - Lovejoy. We use Books 1 and 3 in the series - ‘The Judas Pair’ and ‘The Grail Tree’ - to explore Colchester and its environs and track down key locations, such the main antiques arcade where Lovejoy spends a lot of his time, the White Hart pub where all his deals get done, and his cottage where a dramatic showdown takes place with a villain with a crossbow. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“In August 1992, when the dog days were drawing to an end, I set off to walk the county of Suffolk, in the hope of dispelling the emptiness that takes hold of me whenever I have completed a long stint of work.” For the 8th 'CuSpec' Book Club podcast, and the second in our East Anglian trilogy, we’re in Suffolk, following in the footsteps of German writer W.G. ‘Max’ Sebald as he walked from the little town of Somerleyton to the bleak prospect of Orford Ness, taking in a spectacular sweep of European history (most of it awful) on the way. At the little railway station of Somerleyton, we start to suspect that all is not what it seems with Sebald’s journey, as we uncover an egregious case of not being able to tell one’s left from one’s right. We also ponder whether Sebaldians have actually read this book in quite as close a way as we intend to. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“At precisely one o’clock on the morning of Saturday 6 November 1943, Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS and Chief of State Police, received a simple message… The Eagle Has Landed.” We’re in North Norfolk looking for the tiny village of Studley Constable, as described in Jack Higgins’s classic WW2 thriller about the attempted kidnap of Winston Churchill by a small band of German paratroopers. On the marshes of Stiffkey, amongst the remains of gun emplacements, pillboxes, tank traps and POW camp huts, we find a perfect place for Germans to sneak in and sneak out of the country. We visit a lot of villages - with mills, churches, bridges and pubs - none of which quite match Studley Constable. But at Weybourne Camp we do find enough evidence of a visit by Churchill in 1943 to believe that Higgins was not entirely making this whole story up. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We take you on a merry tour of the magical land of Peckham in South London, courtesy of Muriel Spark and her superb (and remarkably short) novel 'The Ballad of Peckham Rye'. We start at the address in Camberwell where Muriel Spark lived and wrote the book. We then follow a number of lost - or perhaps completely mythical - pathways down the old Surrey Canal, past a number of long-gone pubs in Peckham & Nunhead, before emerging on to the ancient Rye - where Boadicea may or may not have popped her clogs. Tim gets very excited about the number of pubs you get to visit by following this book - some of them still there and serving pints! Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes - and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos - please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Get early access to new episodes and bonus content See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.