The next British Invasion will be one for the books.
Backlisted, the beloved U.K. books podcast launched by John Mitchinson, a longtime publishing figure and former head of research for the British quiz show “QI,” and Andy Miller, an author and former bookseller, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with its first-ever live shows in the United States.
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At New York City’s 92nd Street Y on Oct. 27, they’ll be talking about the work of William Maxwell with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan and The New Yorker’s fiction editor Deborah Treisman and staff writer Alec Wilkinson. (Livestream tickets are on sale as well.) A second show on Oct. 29 at the Bitter End will explore the books of Bob Dylan with the Washington Post’s John Williams. (But Dylan is on tour in Europe, so don’t expect a visit from him.)
And while the podcast won’t be coming to the West Coast this time around, I reached out to Miller – we last spoke in 2023 around the time of the 200th episode – to discuss the show and its anniversary.
“How did this happen? How did this English podcast about old books take on enough momentum and popularity that 10 years later, we’ve been moved to the big room at the 92nd Street Y because of quote-unquote unprecedented demand? It’s crazy, but wonderful,” says Miller, via Zoom from Liverpool, a few days after the 250th episode of the podcast dropped.
Launched in 2015, the podcast famously aims to “give new life to old books,” and it has done just that, whether boosting the profiles of underappreciated authors such as Anita Brookner, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Lore Segal and Gayl Jones or finding fresh takes on big names such as James Baldwin, Virginia Woolf, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, Raymond Chandler and more.
Or, as in the case of David Seabrook’s “All the Devils Are Here,” which they talked about in 2016, helping nudge a book back into print. The podcast recently revisited it with a fresh episode for the anniversary.
“We did a show recently about ‘All the Devils Are Here” by David Seabrook, which was a book we featured early on, which, as a result of us talking about it, got republished. And as a result of its republication, it has become a bigger deal than it ever was the first time it came out,” says Miller.
“So in terms of our tagline – ‘Backlisted, the podcast that gives new life to old books’ – in the case of ‘All the Devils Are Here,’ we literally did that. We gave new life to an old book. We wrote ourselves into the history of that particular book that we love, and that is incredibly gratifying and rewarding to think you’ve made a difference,” he says. “I hope we can encourage and enable people to read things that perhaps they otherwise wouldn’t feel were for them.”
Their efforts appear to be working here. Miller says the podcast now has more listeners in the U.S. than in Britain (though it remains close, he adds), but he downplays any grand plan.
“We were very, very fortunate that the chemistry between me and John really works for the listeners, and we are also respectful of what the other brings to the show,” he says, citing Mitchinson’s knowledge of literature and his own interests in books, music and film.
Then, he cites another reason for the show’s success. “John’s rich velvet voice versus my disgusting ‘70s polyester one,” he jokes.”It just works.”
Some things have changed over the years. A jokey “Beavis & Butthead”-inspired tagline is gone, as is a segment on tenuous links. And now, there are subscriber-level-only episodes and online content (such as Miller’s “Inventory” essays inspired by his record collection) available on Patreon.
But in many ways, the podcast arrived almost fully formed. Longtime listeners can chart the show’s evolution over the years, but it’s remained remarkably consistent from the first episode to its most recent ones: good books, intelligent talk and excellent guests.
“We’ve been very fortunate that our lifespan coincides with the growth of podcasts,” says Miller, noting that there is an audience of people who like old books and conversations about them. “We all feel the sense of listeners around the world who feel they have found their people.”
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That was especially evident during the COVID lockdowns when the community seemed to grow even closer, resulting in events like a virtual holiday party for listeners and the launch of Locklisted, a subscriber-only spinoff in which the hosts discuss music, movies and more.
“We’ve all been through ups and downs together,” says Miller, describing not just his friendship with Mitchinson and producer Nicky Birch but also with listeners. “The people who were with us during lockdown, we have a real connection with them. Those listeners are the ones who are our backbone, which is very humbling. Those are the people who say to us, ‘You really helped me through that terrible time.’
“We got one another through that terrible time,” he says.
This year has not been an easy one for the podcast, either.
Launched as part of the crowdfunding publisher Unbound, which was cofounded by Mitchinson, the podcast spun off on its own five years ago. But the implosion of Unbound this year, which left authors unable to collect royalties owed to them and crowdfunders unsure whether they’d get their pledges back, saw Mitchinson step away from the podcast as the situation made headlines. He eventually withdrew from efforts to revive the publisher, releasing a statement in which he apologized and said the reformulated company’s position was “morally and financially unacceptable.”
While the podcast has been independent of Unbound for years, Miller responded to a question about Mitchinson’s absence and potential return to the podcast. Since he’s been gone, the author and academic Dr. Una McCormack has been acting as cohost with Miller.
“I think John feels that the reason why he stepped back was because the failure of Unbound caused him real distress. He didn’t feel he could meaningfully continue to have a public profile while that was happening. And we, with some regret, agreed with him. I hope he’ll be back. As to when that might be, I don’t know,” says Miller. “It might be he doesn’t want to come back, so we’ll see.”
For now, though, the live shows will include both Miller and Mitchinson (which will be recorded, though he says there aren’t plans currently to release them) and more podcast episodes featuring Miller and McCormack are coming.
SEE ALSO: After nearly 200 episodes, the ‘Backlisted’ podcast isn’t running out of great books
And Miller can’t wait to get over here for the shows.
“I’m so grateful to those venues and I’m so grateful to listeners in the States for tuning in for all these years and getting us to the point where we can do such incredible, exciting things,” he says.
“From my point of view, I would be happy to carry on reading and talking about books till the cows come home.”
For more information about the events, go to the 92NY website and the Bitter End online. For more about the podcast, go to Backlisted’s website.