Ali Baker and a guest discuss children’s fantasy fiction. The guest chooses a favourite for Ali, and Ali chooses a complementing contemporary book. Jokes and the occasional swear word may ensue. Please contact https://www.instagram.com/fantasy_book_swap_podcast/, @alisonbaker01 on BlueSky or https://www.facebook.com/Fantasybookswap. Ask questions, make comments and join in the discussion!
Gary's book choice: The Devil's Children by Peter Dickinson
Ali's book choice: Tin by Padraig Kenny
The book covers while I try to be a book influencer
The Changes TV show trailer
Anna Home, children's TV producer
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics
The TV that made us
Gary's website
Gary's Facebook
Buy Me a Coffee
19 Aug 2026
Ep 57 Lost boys and celebrity rivers with Tajinder Hayer
Ali’s choice: The Borribles by Michael de Larrabeiti
Taj’s choice: The Blackthorn Branch by Elen Caldecott
Ebbs and Flows by Tajinder on Ragged Edge Productions’ website
Taj’s episode of Zog: The Great Gnome Games
Ali’s article on The Borribles, Punk and Protest can be read in this edition of Vector, the BSFA’s journal.
SUS laws
Media mentioned in this episode
The Warriors
Assault on Precinct 13
The Tribe
Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome
You can use the TfL Walking website to follow the route from Angel to Farringdon that Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger walked to Fagin’s den.
Three Men in a Boat and The Wind in the Willows are two classics of leisurely life on the river. Former guest Sandra Bond’s Three Men in Orbit relocates Jerome K. Jerome’s characters in space!
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo
Elidor by Alan Garner
Aru Shah and the End of Time I thoroughly recommend Sarwat Chadda’s Ash Mistry series as another brilliant use of Indian traditional stories for children’s fantasy.
The Mahabharata and Ramayana are key texts that are the basis of spiritual practices that originated in India
Edgelands by Paul Farley and Michael Symonds Roberts
Taj’s webpage at Lancaster University
My Buy me a coffee link buymeacoffee.com/alibaker68e
26 Jul 2026
Ep 56: Weird Science with Dr Annie Czajkowski
Annie’s choice:The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts
Ali’s choice: The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
A short piece by Willo Davis Roberts on writing mysteries for young people
Annie has just got back from Finncon where her husband, multiple award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky was a guest of honour. Rosebud is an excellent bookshop. If you’re ever in Helsinki you should definitely visit.
Annie talks about Xan Van Roojen, a South African writer who lives in Finland, and their use of music while writing.
My vote for a new National Anthem: Disco Inferno
I listen to a lot of Philip Glass music when writing. It calms my brain. This is the beginning of his opera Akhnaten, which I was lucky enough to see staged in Leeds in the mid-90s.
The Girl with the Silver Eyes reminds me of Escape to Witch Mountain, a Disney live-action film.
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Shockingly I misremembered the opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice. I will retire my English Literature degree. In my defence, I'm a Victorianist.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
My earworm this week: Mean Green Mother From Outer Space from Little Shop of Horrors
Alnwick Castle Poison Garden
Maelstrom LARP
The Coral Bones by EJ Swift has been on my TBR list for an embarrassingly long time.
You can find out more about Annie and her research here and hear some of her music on Adrian Tchaikovsky and Emma Newman’s Starship Alexandria podcast, where Adrian and Emma take it in turns to select a favourite piece of speculative fiction and discuss it.
Fantasy Book Swap has recently been shortlisted for a British Fantasy Society award! Thanks so much to anyone who nominated.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
29,889
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
4.7 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 36 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
10
Social presence
91
YouTube
76
Engagement
32
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