Monocle on Culture
Robert Bound and guests explore what’s new in art, film, books, and media. Expect lively discussions, in-depth interviews, and expert insights.
Latest Episodes
Hay Festival
This year’s Hay Festival of literature, which takes place in the beautiful town of Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh border, has just wrapped up. We take a look at the festival’s international ambitions and its influence on book sales. Plus: we meet some of the talented writers and publishers on offer.
Why are books in translation such big business?
Robert Bound investigates the recent rise in translated fiction with sidekicks Anne Meadows, commissioning editor at Portobello and Granta, and Lisette Verhagen, foreign-rights agent at David Godwin Associates. Plus: we hear from Deborah Smith, Man Booker International Prize-winning translator and head to Deep Vellum books in Dallas.
Culture goes cruising
Robert Bound is on board the ‘MSC Preziosa’, somewhere between Rome and Marseille, to find out about the most misunderstood area of the arts: cruise-ship entertainers.
How do you write about nature?
As city populations rise there seems to be a new generation of writers turning to the natural world, a trend that might have been spearheaded by Helen Macdonald’s 2014 memoir ‘H is for Hawk’. We discuss this wave of green-minded penmanship with Lucy Jones, author of ‘Foxes Unearthed’; John Mitchinson,…
Can Eurovision be a US hit?
Last week it was announced that the final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest would be broadcast in the US for the first time, with LGBT network Logo airing the competition. Can Eurovision be as successful in the US as it has been in other non-European nations such as Australia?…
Summer lookahead 2016
As we approach summer we summon some cultural experts to find out what films are worth missing a bit of sunshine for, what music we should soundtrack our holidays to and which exhibitions we should be wandering. Ossian Ward, head of content at the Lisson Gallery, broadcaster and DJ Nick…
Where does culture thrive outside the city?
We’re heading out of the city for a breath of fresh air and an assessment of village culture. We take a tour of Lebanon’s Modern and Contemporary Art Museum in the bucolic surroundings of Alita and check out the headlines of the ‘Nunatsiaq News’, the local paper for the residents…
How do you start a collection?
Whether you collect for love or money, how do you start and who do you ask? At the moment people are dismayed that art is bought not to hang above the fireplace but to be kept in a huge Swiss freeport until a more biddable buyer is found. Robert Bound…
How do you turn a band into an exhibition?
‘Exhibitionism: the Rolling Stones’ is a new show at the Saatchi Gallery, produced with the co-operation of the band; there has been a lot of crawling through Keith Richards’ attic and rifling through Mick Jagger’s drawers. We take a tour with the show’s designers, Will Russell and Abbott Miller from…
Who would launch a music magazine in 2016?
Robert Bound is joined by storied music magazine editor Mark Ellen and Liv Siddall, editor of the brand new ‘Rough Trade Magazine’, to discuss what it takes to launch a new publication in 2016. Plus: we meet Karl Henkell, editor of another new publication about to hit shelves, ‘Record Culture…
