Leo Robson on cultural criticism, writing London and the virtues of obstinacy

On this episode of The London Magazine Podcast, we speak to award-winning cultural critic and novelist Leo Robson. Leo’s writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, Granta and the New Left Review. He works for Literary Review and Granta, and The Boys is his first novel.In the episode, we talk about evoking London on the page, the strange nostalgia of the 2012 Olympics, the role of humour in serious writing and the virtues of obstinacy.Timestamps0.32 - The joys of book promotion2.43 - Leo reads an extract from The Boys8.25 - Writing a ‘London’ novel9.51 - The 2012 London Olympics and the legacy of New Labour14.12 - Chronologies, rites of passage and parody16.01 - The writing process and the evocation of place20.49 - Stefan Zweig, Wes Anderson, Alt-J and Mark Fisher’s temporal paradoxes28.22 - Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net and other inspirations30.06 - Light and dark: balancing humour and serious subjects in a novel33.45 - The process: writing cultural criticism vs writing fictionFollow The London Magazine Podcast here to never miss an episode. To discover more content exclusive to our print and digital editions, subscribe here to receive a copy of The London Magazine to your door every two months, while also enjoying full access to our extensive digital archive of essays, literary journalism, fiction and poetry.