Breakfast in the Ruins

Breakfast in the Ruins

Friends old and new join me in Derry and Toms roof gardens to discuss the work and influence of prolific British fantasist Michael Moorcock, as well as other bits of 60s and 70s genre fiction that came to me via my Grandad in the 80s and informed my world view. Books, music, role-playing games, wrestling in Featherstone Library and many other digressions await.

Episodes

February 27, 2024 79 mins

Oliver Brackenbury returns to Derry & Toms to talk about the next phase of his excellent mag New Edge Sword and Sorcery. Moorcock talk, uncovering and unleashing a golden age hero anew and copious amounts of caffeine and lemsip dominate.

JOIN US.

Be sure to check out the Backerkit link for New Edge Sword and Sorcery issues 3 and 4 and Oliver's podcast So I'm Writing a Novel... 

The conversation about The Dreaming City and The F...

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Derek AKA Imrryr returns to Derry and Toms to talk about fellow New Yorker Robert Sheckley, the late master of SF satire and absurdist parables, and his rather unusual and wigged-out 1975 opus... Options.   Spoiler... it's out there... AND I LOVE IT!   All of the Imrryr catalogue is available via Bandcamp, including merch, and when I get the links for the upcoming physical releases I'll add them here.
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January 29, 2024 105 mins

So it turns out there's a 'Britain is Fucked' novel about Hawkwind tonning around in a van fighting ghosts and squares with guns that shoot their music AND that happens to feature Moorcock as a tertiary character with a saucy house computer.

WHO KNEW???

Well, some of you did obviously... but I didn't until my mate Yarks sent me a copy for my birthday a few years ago. It turns out that I was dimly aware of author Michael Butterworth...

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Clarky the Cruel returns to Derry and Toms to revive the One-Shit Book (books that could potentially be read on one visit to the throne) format as we look at SNOWCASTLES by Duncan McGeary.

We consider wizard contracting standards, when barbarians aren't barbarians and just what the hell is under Greylock's fur...? We don't read the sequel but we do wonder why those people look like they're out of a 1970s public information film for...

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In this Birthday Special double-bill of salutations, Joe Monti (editorial Director at SAGA Press) drops by D&Ts to engage in day-drinking, Moorcock talk and chew the fat about editing amazing fantasy and various other bits n' bobs. Also, Joe gets Crabs.   Then Phil and Loz join me for a serious* roundtable. Whilst we drink mucky booze and engage in a hastily and lazily bashed together but closely contested Moorcock-related q...
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December 7, 2023 110 mins

Simon Perrins (artist, graphic designer and co-host of Can I Pod With Madness) returns to Derry and Toms so we can finally conclude our re-read of the second Corum adventure, The Queen of the Swords.

Between wading gods, crackles from beyond the veil and other interventions from the old gods of chaos, we managed to get through books two and three of this adventure intact. So join us for small talk about Moorcock, fighting fantasy b...

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Power up your voxcaster, recite a litany of protection and light a lho stick as beer lover, wargamer and death metal LEGEND Karl Willetts braves the Immaterium to warp over to Derry and Toms and discuss Memoriam, Bolt Thrower, Warhammer and his three rules of beer…

Memoriam's latest release is Rise to Power and it and their back catalogue are available at all good stockists.

I also wistfully recall my first exposure to Bolt Thrower...

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Miles and Phil brave nuclear Armageddon, mutant rats, zoom meltdowns and horrific rabies treatment to join me in Derry & Toms and check out our patron-selected Halloween double-bill of James Herbert's Domain and Bruno Mattei's Rats: Night of Terror. So paint your windows white, lock the dogs and cats outside, get safely ensconced in your inner sanctum and JOIN US!

... and listen to the Casual Trek Podcast

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In this, the second blow of that one-two punch of GNS brain matter, Graham and I welcome Tara Paulsson to Derry and Toms to talk about her Dad and his work.

Tara will be at Tamworth Castle's Tales From the Darkside Week on Saturday 28th October and you can find details about 'An Ode to Guy Newman Smith's, 1970's Pulp Fiction Horror' and how to book at www.tamworthcastle.co.uk/darkside  

You can find all of Tara's GNS content on Ins...

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Graham and Phil return to Derry and Toms to tackle our third adventure in the company of the mighty Professor Cliff Davenport in the first of a one-two punch of GNS-related early Halloween action. Disturbing violence, saucy language and copious amounts of pus await the unwary traveller. Be sure to check out Graham and the Duck Pond Sailors' latest release Urban Navigators. There's much more to say on Guy and his extensive b...
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Phil returns to Derry & Toms to tackle the second Erekosë volume - Pheonix in Obsidian, also known as The Silver Warriors in the USA.

Misery, perversion and very metal methods of conveyance abound in this tale of an Earth in its final ebbs of existence.

JOIN US!

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September 15, 2023 116 mins

Chris (AKA Dirk the Dice) returns to Derry and  Toms to discuss Michael Moorcock's sort-of-memoir of his time in LA and wider California in Letters From Hollywood. Along the way we drink fusty northern beer, console one another about Pernod-soaked catastrophes in our salad days, wistfully recall the Moorcock/Tolkien Weekender and muse on what form it could take in the future (Dannus/Lud-in-the-Mist Premier Inn Takeover anyone?*). 

...

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August 29, 2023 102 mins

Andy Darby shakes off the Monkey for an evening and drops by D and Ts to take a look at one of Moorcock's 60s SF tales, The Fireclown (later retitled The Winds of Limbo but I'm sticking with the original title for vaguely defined reasons related to being old and finnicky).

Strap in for a political thriller laced with astute observations on the natures of media and personality politics, the odd sprinkling of futurism and some oddly ...

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Graham returns to Derry and Toms to pick up the chat regarding another Uncosy Catastrophe, on this occasion recommended by listener Paul Miles... 1985's The Fungus by Harry Adam Knight, a book that somehow passed us by despite being firmly in our wheelhouse.

Exploding landlords, extremely poor mission personnel choices, sweaty liaisons and deeply unfortunate children await in this tale of an England overwhelmed by scientifically bo...

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July 14, 2023 93 mins

Dave returns to Derry & Toms to pick up our thread with The Sword of the Dawn Book Two, the third instalment in Michael Moorcock's epic The History of the Runestaff.

Hawkmoon gets some swish togs but seems to have a real blind spot when it comes to fighting pirates. Meanwhile, D'Averc is... sort of there?

Don your wafters and JOIN US!

(and check out  SÖNUS on bandcamp)

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June 29, 2023 105 mins

Miles of the Casual Trek Podcast returns to Derry & Toms as we turn flagellant and cast our eyes over the first in John Norman's GOR series (and the Cannon movie adaptation as a Brucey Bonus).

Publishers disdain it, booksellers sneer at it and the literary establishment would rather just not talk about it. But the GOR series still has a habit of popping up in the second-hand bookshops we frequent, because there are still millions o...

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For our latest exploration of multiversal gaming, friends of the show Dave and Steve bring games mastering knowledge and expertise to Derry and Toms (as well as a couple of afternoon libations of course). Whilst we consider whether Stormbringer is the Moorcockian RPG to rule them all, we also yak about the lineage of the Stormbringer RPG (see terribly boring powerpoint slide below), gaming as shit-kickers, when games get too met...
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Goran Gligović stopped by Derry and Toms to discuss his art and influences, as well as his work on the recently kickstarted Black Sword Hack: Ultimate Chaos Edition, a Moorcock-influenced roleplaying game from The Merry Mushmen 

We rove around the joint and, for possibly the first time, Excalibur gets a mention on Breakfast in the Ruins... how it took so long I honestly can't say. We also do a prize draw for some lucky Patron Demon...

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May 15, 2023 102 mins

Simon returns to D&Ts to look at the first part of the second volume of the adventures of Corum, Prince in the Scarlet Robe and tell us all about his new(ish) podcast Can I Pod With Madness (available wherever you consume your pods).

Beer mistakes and dodgy audio can't dampen our enthusiasm for some fantastic world-building and the first true appearance of everyone's (well ours anyway) favourite companion/hat/cat combination.

JOIN ...

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April 28, 2023 97 mins

Loz returns to Derry & Toms to brave the final gate (and the depredations of the beer slate) as we conclude our re-read of Michael Moorcock's 1989 Elric novel The Fortress of the Pearl.

Expect revisionism (both textual and personal), rose-tinted reflections on the dole, a beer challenge best described as cyclopean and some RPG-focused grumbling as we complete our re-evaluation of a novel we haven't read in over 30 years and fail to...

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