To honour the life of Jilly Cooper, we are replaying this joyous episode from 2019 with a new introduction.

Joining Andy and John in this episode are Daisy Buchanan, writer, feminist, host of the brilliant You’re Booked podcast. Daisy’s latest book Read Yourself Happy - How to Use Books to Ease Your Anxiety is published by Dorling Kindersley. She is joined by Dr. Ian Patterson, a poet and retired academic who taught English for 20 years at Queens’ College, Cambridge. Ian has just written Books, A Manifesto or, How To Build A Library which is published by Orion. The main book under discussion is is Imogen by Jilly Cooper, first published by Arlington Books in 1978, the fifth in her now legendary series of 7 ‘romances’ published between 1975 and 1981. Also in this episode, Andy overcomes his horror of football to praise J.L. Carr’s 1975 classic How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup while John toasts the memory of the great children’s author and illustrator, John Burningham.

*For £150 off any Serious Readers HD Light and free UK delivery use the discount code: BACK at seriousreaders.com/backlisted

*We will be appearing live in NYC on Mon 27th Oct 2025 at 92NY and on Weds Oct 29th 2025 at The Bitter End - come and say hello.

* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.

* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm

*If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted

*You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices