Breakfast in the Ruins

Nov 12 2024 98 ep. 99 mins 118
Breakfast in the Ruins Podcast artwork

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.

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Warhounds and Witch Hammers (MM & RPGs VIII maybe?)

Nov 12 2024 120 mins  
For this almost-delve into Moorcock's dark and inspired quest fantasy The Warhound and the World's Pain, I'm joined by author, playwright and Games Master David Griffiths. Inevitably, we ended up going down various routes in a wide-ranging conversation including Target Books (again), Moorcock and other inspirations, roleplaying games and, eventually, The Warhound and the World's Pa

Halloween Special 2024 - Guy N Smith's SABAT

Oct 30 2024 127 mins  
The patrons spoke and this year's full-bore Halloween Special is Sabat - The Graveyard Vultures (and more) by Guy N Smith... It's fair to say that this one was challenging, and not just because our hero is a massive wanker. There's more... much more... Content warning for sexual violence and exasperated hosts.

SLIMER (Halloween 2024 continues)

Oct 21 2024 133 mins  
In this, our third (?) Halloween episode for 2024, we tackle the book Loz describes as, "crass, bluff and gittish"! It's SLIMER... our second experience of Harry Adam Knight action on Breakfast in the Ruins and it certainly was a book. Interesting developments on the 'base under siege by weird monster' are brought low by some of the unfortunate tropes of the genre at the time. Stil

The House on the Borderland (Halloween 2024)

Oct 14 2024 115 mins  
We are firmly in our Halloween groove. The eco-horror of Pisces Rising may have given us a light step into the season, but now we're up to our necks in it and our choices for this year not only include the winner and one of the runners-up from this year's patron poll, but we're also taking a look at one that has featured on past polls but never reached the top... William Hope Hodgs

Breakfast with Robert (a Prelude to Bastable)

Oct 08 2024 68 mins  
In this bonus fix-up episode, I meet up with our pen-pal Robert MacMillan in a coffee shop in Bradford to set the scene for our journey into the worlds of Bastable… this wasn't our initial plan. Still, life intervenes in strange ways sometimes and we follow the moonbeam roads as we must. As well as Moorcock, we talk about 1980s coach holidays to Palamos, VHS tracking, Bond, Who c

PISCES RISING (Tales From Pops's Coffee Table)

Oct 04 2024 99 mins  
It's October already so it's time for Graham to return for our traditional Halloween period of exploring killer critter features and, from time to time, discovering new author rabbit holes to tumble down. This time, it's PISCES RISING by NEL stalwart Peter Cave and his one-time collaborator Margaret Wredden. Fantastic creation myths combine with brutal deaths, drinking bitter in a

BARBARIAN BINGO -Thongor and Brak

Sep 12 2024 100 mins  
From the North he came, to seek knowledge and fortune. Cast out by his tribe for offending Ulfr, God of the Wastes, he is driven by mirth, restrained by melancholy. One day he will return to make offerings to the Bear Druids, particularly Mewler the Claw. She thinks he’s an idiot but owes him a debt. Memories of Krangg, The Iron Bear Clarky is back in Derry and Toms to talk Conan

BEFORE ARMAGEDDON

Sep 03 2024 122 mins  
New traveller Liam Jones drops by Derry & Toms to discuss one of his favourite things... Victorian Invasion literature... as we tackle the Moorcock-edited anthology Before Armageddon, a collection of Victorian and Edwardian imaginative fiction. Liam also teaches me about the Parisian dandy criminals, the Apaches! (Who I must now write into my next game...) Very cool! At some po

Hither Came Conan

Aug 16 2024 140 mins  
Dave is back in Derry & Toms to talk about some stories that were as formative for him as they were for me back in our teens... The Robert E Howard Conan stories, The Phoenix on the Sword and The Scarlet Citadel. Dave also gives us an update on the latest SÖNUS news and we delve into some of the murkier aspects of the pulp of the time. But mostly we enjoy the head smashing and

Moorcock & RPGs Part VII - Reflections on The Void

Aug 06 2024 146 mins  
Pig-bombs, priests in daisy dukes, dressing down the Theocrat of Pan Tang and getting torn apart by dogs are just some of the highlights as I’m joined in D&Ts once again by Steve Round to talk Stormbringer gaming and this time he’s brought the whole damn party. The wandering beer table returns and, as a reward to the gang, we debut an all-new lazily assembled table of rubbi