The Allender Calendar

This month on The Allender Calendar, it's a two-part special as I (Robin Allender) talk to the musician William Doyle about Cass McCombs's beautifully morbid 2011 album, Wit's End. In the first part, we discuss Cass's extraordinary lyrics, what makes him such a unique (and underrated) songwrite, and where we were when we first heard the album.

Interview with Cass McCombs from around the time of Wit's End:

https://www.thefader...

Happy Bloomsday! This month I'm delighted to welcome back writer and top-tier Joycean David Collard to celebrate the publication (on 16 June, no less) of Guillermo Stitch's dazzling new novel The Coast of Everything.

Guillermo Stitch's Substack:

https://guillermostitch.substack.com/

Support the podcast:

https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender

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This month on The Allender Calendar I’m talking to comedian, broadcaster, and very good friend John Robins about his book Thirst: Twelve Drinks That Changed My Life. It's a beautifully written account of alcoholism and recovery – candid, profound and very funny. I’m positive it will help a lot of people. I’m extremely proud of John for writing this book, and for getting to the place he’s at now. It was...

This month on the pod I'm joined by London-based Cardiff-born musician Simon Love! Simon is a superb songwriter with excellent pop smarts, an innate feeling for hooks, and a gift for Ray Davies-esque scene-setting. His lyrics are often very funny (in particular the bridge-burning bitterness of 'Green Man Blues'), but there's a noticeable air of melancholy to his new album The One True Prince of Wales (in exile after abdication), wh...

This month on The Allender Calendar I'm talking to the fantastic stand-up comedian Celya AB about Crushing, the 2019 album by Julia Jacklin. We had a great chat about music in general, and vulnerability in performance, specifically relating to Celya's last show Of All People.

Through the course of our conversation we ask the big questions like: Are people adicted to vulnerability cigarettes? Should we move Christmas? And what's...

This month on The Allender Calendar I chat to the Northern Irish writer Wendy Erskine about her 2025 novel The Benefactors.

The novel's central incident is the sexual assault of a teenage girl, Misty, at a party. The novel follows Misty, the boys involved in the assault, and their families – and also expands out to include countless other voices, some of whom are linked to the story and some who aren't. This polyphonic app...

This month on The Allender Calendar, I'm chatting to the author Ben Pester about his debut novel The Expansion Project. Part corporate satire, part Lynchian dreamscape, The Expansion Project explores loss, parenthood, grief, and the ways in which identity and meaning are being distorted as technology takes over our lives. It's also very funny!

We talked about balancing creativity with a day job, finding joy and humour in office ...

This month on The Allender Calendar I'm joined by the comedian Pierre Novellie to discuss his 2024 book Why Can't I Just Enjoy Things?: A Comedian's Guide to Autism. It's a brilliant, and very funny, book which taught me so much about the condition. We discuss the misunderstandings and misconceptions surrounding autism, as well as Pierre's own experience of his diagnosis (following a heckle at a stand-up gig), and how it helped him...

This month on The Allender Calendar, I speak to the fabulous Bristol-based musician Emily Breeze, whose lipstick-smeared and glitter-drenched album Rats in Paradise is one of my favourites of the year. And Emily very kindly gave me permission to include snippets from the album in the episode!

We talk about the songwriting process, Emily's day job teaching at BIMM (the British and Irish Modern Music Institute) in Bristol, and abo...

This month on The Allender Calendar I talk to the fabulous writer Rose Ruane. Rose has published two novels, Birding (2024), which was longlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction, and This is Yesterday (2019). Rose writes brilliantly and insightfully about female relationships, the legacy of the 90s, and the ways in which we process trauma. If that all sounds a bit heavy, don't worry, she's also extremely funny and very engag...

On the month's episode of The Allender Calendar I talk to the fantastic comedian Jordan Brookes.

2019 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner

Bleed:

https://youtu.be/z5O3PI9whAo?si=K9WSnV8YrJftiliy

I've Got Nothing:

https://youtu.be/myOoRrMIyO8?si=YbwPZl5-Ei8348lD

Body of Work:

https://youtu.be/D_yQ9eHQq70?si=tBDyQ_9MRJ2G4Fua

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This month on The Allender Calendar I talk to the novelist Rebecca Watson about her books little scratch (2021) and I Will Crash (2024). We discuss whether Rebecca is an 'experimental' writer, or if her unique fragmentary style is really just the most effective and immediate way of communicating first person consciousness. We talk about how both novels deal with trauma, and how the way she writes is suited to this subject. Sounds a...

Part 2 of my chat with comedian Elis James about the brilliant Welsh psychedelic folk band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.

Check out Rhodri Viney's latest EP here:

https://ratatosk.bandcamp.com/album/1

And here are a few of my favourite Gorky's moments on YouTube:

The Banana film with all the early music videos:

https://youtu.be/nYt4KApiPMw?si=lJHHzfY9g5PsrsD2

Lucy's Hamper:

https://youtu.be/nYt4KApiPMw?si=lJHHzfY9g5Psr...

This month on The Allender Calendar I had the great pleasure of talking to the comedian and broadcaster Elis James about our favourite band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Because Elis and I chatted for over two hours I've decided to release this episodes in two parts (both out today!). In Part 1, Elis and I talk about the beginnings of the group and how we first got into them. We then discuss how the band evolved to create the perfect blen...

It's the 16th of June which can mean only one thing: it's Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses is set. To celebrate, I spoke to the amazing writer David Collard about his book Multiple Joyce: 100 Short Essays About James Joyce's Cultural Legacy. And, of course, we also discuss what makes Ulysses such a brilliant, difficult, beautiful, hilarious, humane, and endlessly fascinating novel.

You can buy Multip...

This month on The Allender Calendar I talk to the incredible writer and council worker Evie King. Evie's book Ashes to Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer was published in 2023 and is a profound and moving account of her job. Also, for a book about death, it is very funny. Evie writes brilliantly about the bathos and inadvertent comedy of working on funerals alongside complaints about bins and noisy neighbou...

On this month's podcast, I chat to the brilliant stand-up comedian Pravanya Pillay about the Back to the Future trilogy, a firm childhood favourite. We talk about time travel paradoxes, how the films stand up today, and why it's such a special and mind-blowing series of films to watch when you're young (apart from the third one maybe). Also Pravanya has a hoverboard!

Follow Pravanya on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.co...

On this month's Allender Calendar I chat to the writer Luke Turner about his book Men at War. Luke's book examines the legacy of the Second World War and shines a light on the real lives of the people who fought in it; their complications, loves, and lusts. We talk about the experiences of gay, bi and transgender soldiers, and discuss contemporary nostalgia and jingoism around the war.

More info about Men at War here:

https:/...