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.
Our Halloween run continues as our mate Gemma joins us to revisit her horrifying history with the Point Horror series, courtesy of Caroline B. Cooney’s Freeze Tag. We’re heading back to a world of ominous paperback covers, American teenage envy and playground games with potentially fatal consequences.
Along the way, we discuss childhood cruelty, teenage obsession, sympathy for the outsider, questionable behaviour from the beautiful people, and the discovery that supernatural powers are unlikely to improve your love life.
Because no excursion into adolescent horror would be complete without adolescent drinking choices, our accompanying ghoulish booze pays tribute to the crap we drank as teenagers. Come for the paperback nostalgia. Stay for the poor decisions.
9 Oct 2026
Halloween 2026 - The Valley of the Worm
It's Halloween season again at Breakfast in the Ruins, and we're kicking things off with a journey into the darker, more monstrous corners of Robert E. Howard's imagination!
This time, I'm joined by author and friend of the show Andy Darby to discuss Howard's gloriously gruesome sword and sorcery tale The Valley of the Worm, along with another of his rip-roaring adventures, The Gods of Bal-Sagoth.
Expect prehistoric horrors, ancient evils, mighty-thewed warriors, a bit of literary archaeology and plenty of enthusiasm for the weird fiction of one of Weird Tales' most celebrated contributors.
We also chat about Andy's latest book, Sword Songs: An Anthology of Dark Fantasy – Volume 1, a collection of four bloody tales of dark fantasy, murderous gods, haunted places and grim destinies.
You can pick up a copy through AbeBooks UK or ThriftBooks.
So sharpen your blades, gird your loins and keep an eye out for anything enormous and wriggling in the undergrowth. Halloween has arrived at Derry and Toms!
2 Oct 2026
Episode 150 - The Magic Faraway Tree
It's our 150th episode, and we've now been at this for seven Earth years!
So how do we celebrate this milestone? By sitting on the sofa and gassing about one of our earliest reads, a book we read in the 1970s that turned out, on reflection, to be a massive gateway drug in terms of where our interests would head just a couple of years later.
We're looking at Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree... a tale of the Multiverse?
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
80,270
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
19 ratings
Spotify
4.9 / 5
40 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 56 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
48
Social presence
0
YouTube
76
Engagement
85
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Guest appearances
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