THE BIBLIO FILE is a podcast about "the book," and an inquiry into the wider world of book culture. Hosted by Nigel Beale it features wide ranging, long-form conversations with best practitioners inside the book trade and out - from writer to reader. Why listen? The hope is that it will help you to read, write, publish, edit, design, and collect better, and improve how you communicate serious, big, necessary, new, good ideas and stories...

Feedback or suggestions? Please email notabenebeale@gmail.com

About

“The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation.”
― Michel de Montaigne

The Biblio File Back-Story by Nigel Beale

For about ten years I ran a monthly book club. There were only four or five of us in it, the perfect number if you ask me; enough of us to get a good selection of ideas on the table, not too many to cause separate conversations to break out. Then one of our key members left to teach in the English Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. It was a crippling loss.

We've since recovered, but at the time, I immediately missed Joseph's stimulating contribution. After a while I hit on an idea. I’d host a radio program on books. Matthew Crozier agreed to let me host a show on the Carleton University radio station in Ottawa, Canada. Only one hitch. The time slot. 6am Monday mornings.

I toughed it out for a year, then took the easy way out. The show would be a podcast, produced and aired whenever I felt like it.

From the moment I launched The Biblio File I knew I was doing the right thing. The void had been filled. I now live for this stuff: reading the books, recruiting, researching, connecting and conversing with the guests; editing the recordings; creating episodes that I hope reward the listener.

Producing this show enables me to indulge my passion for books, and to share what I discover. It allows me to interview amazing people connected with the book; to engage them in stimulating conversation. And you know what Montaigne had to say about conversation:

In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is in conversation. I find it sweeter than any other action in life; and if I were forced to choose, I think I would rather lose my sight than my hearing and voice.

If you love books, reading and good conversation, my hope is that you’ll enjoy listening to The Biblio File. The great thing about podcasts is that you don’t have to wake up at 6am on Monday mornings to listen to them, unless of course you want to.

Mission: 1) To explore the world of book culture at the turn of the 21st Century by interviewing 'best practitioners' in book publishing and its related trades, as well as those involved in book-related activities - exceptional people who have written, edited, created, published, promoted, sold, read, studied, collected, made accessible and/or preserved books in one way or another.

2) To explore the histories of these trades and activities by interviewing experts about great past practitioners.

Feedback:

"The Biblio File is an extraordinary, eclectic audio archive of writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, the whole international book trade. Nigel Beale has achieved this through doggedness, professionalism, decency and an ambition to capture the essence of the world’s literary community. It is a huge achievement and will only grow in significance and value as years pass. It completely overshadows all other such enterprises."

Richard Charkin, former Chief Executive of Macmillan Publishers Limited and Executive Director of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck. In 2015, he became President of the International Publishers Association

(see more feedback below)

Process:

I've drawn up an outline detailing most of the roles I'm interested in learning about. I use this outline to help me select prospective guests for the Biblio File podcast (see also categories on right-hand side of this page). For past practitioners I seek out scholars/biographers, and where possible, friends and/or relatives.

The Writer: The Novelist:

Literary

Crime Fiction

Historical

Young Adult (YA)
The Short Story Writer
The Children's Book Writer/Illustrator
The Poet
The Non-fiction writer:

Politics

History

Science

True Crime
The Biographer
The Memoirist
The Literary Agent
The Publisher Trade Publisher
Small/Literary Publisher
Fine Press Printer/Publisher
The Acquisitions/Commissioning Editor
The Editor
The Copy Editor
The Designer: Dust Jacket
Book Design
The Illustrator

The Author Photographer
The Proofreader and Indexer
The Production Manager (The Printer, The Binder, The Paper Manufacturer)
The Sales, Marketing & Publicity Manager
The Distribution Manager
The Reviewer/Critic
The Writers Festival/Reading Series Organizer

The Author Interviewer
The Bookseller

The Librarian

Cataloger
The Reader

The Book Club Organizer
The Used/Antiquarian Bookseller

Cataloger

The Book Collector
The Archives Dealer

The Bibliographer

The Book Scholar/Historian

More feedback:

"I very much enjoyed our conversation. Your knowledge of the story of publishing, the current questions facing publishers, and specifically the long and recent history of Faber & Faber bears testament to your expertise, vocation and deep interest in the story of reading and writing seen particularly through an industry lens. If it's valuable now, which it is, in the future it will be an essential archive of our febrile times, and of publishing in the second half of the twentieth century. Keep doing it!"

Stephen Page, CEO, Faber & Faber.

Nigel Beale's literary podcast "The Biblio File" [is] much loved.

International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB)

"I listened to your excellent interview with Sandra Campbell the other day, about her Lorne Pierce biography. As usual, I was captivated throughout — penetrating questions eliciting interesting answers; a great sense of both the foreground life in the biography, and the larger significance of that life. Your questions are always well-informed because you have read the book both sympathetically and critically. Your podcasts are an essential feature of the Canadian cultural landscape."

Best-selling Canadian author Charlotte Gray

"Nigel Beale is one of the sharpest readers and reviewers of our age. His profound knowledge of every aspect of the literary business is carried with grace and charm in podcasts that will delight all who read."

Author and political analyst David Frum

"It was a pleasure being interviewed by Nigel Beale some years ago. He showed a real appreciation of the business issues facing independent publishing and a bibliophile’s fascination with the books that result. In the last year, I have particularly enjoyed a series of interviews he conducted with leading members of the book trade in the UK, including Stephen Page, Richard Charkin, Will Atkinson and James Daunt. That last interview, in particular, I have been recommending to all my book trade friends."

Toby Faber is Chairman of Faber Music, and on the boards of Faber & Faber and Liverpool University Press.

“I have been interviewed by hundreds of journalists all over the world - my books are in 32 languages - and if I had to name one interview which touched virtually every nerve in my writing experience, I would say it belonged to Nigel Beale.

If you have anything important to say about your writing or anyone else’s, you will probably say it to Nigel Beale”

Award-winning Canadian author David Gilmour

"Your interview with us was one of our memorable pleasures. In the first place, you ask the right questions: they define a workable area of discussion, while allowing latitude for the digressions necessary to good conversation. The trick with interviewing, as of course you know, is to point out a direction without necessarily dictating the route. This you do with consummate skill, and the result is that those you interview find themselves exploring ideas and subjects which they know about, but often from a new perspective. That at least was our experience.

Listening to some of your other interviews, when we have the time to sit for an hour, confirms our view that you are in the ranks of interviewers like Michael Enright, a most rare breed and, one fears, a disappearing one. Long may you reign!"

Poet and Proprietor of the fine press Barbarian Press Crispin Elsted

"I loved being interviewed by you – your approach was searching, thoughtful, and deeply informed. You have established a reputation as one of the most impressive literary journalists and critics in Canada. I hope that you continue your work for many years."

Award-winning Canadian poet, editor and biographer Richard Greene

"If I didn’t say it before, I’ll say it now, you’re the last man standing, you’re the bulwark against the background noise, you’re proof that intellectualism and craft mean something to somebody. This is starting to sound like a Cole Porter song. The long and the short of it is, in a world where the major media outlets, newspapers, TV, magazines, only allot the smallest of spaces to the arts - if anything at all - it is up to guys like you to pick up the slack. Keep it up.

I enjoyed our talk and I hope we can do it again."

Michael Torosian is the proprietor of the Lumiere Press

"Your interviews are always interesting and insightful. Your questions are informed and well directed. The Bibliofiles are a treasure of interviews on the book arts, publishing, and literature. You’re the best. Keep up the good work and may you thrive."

Carl Spadoni was until his retirement the Director of the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections at McMaster University Library. He is the author or editor of nine books and 175 other publications.

"You are a wonderful interviewer! I was nervous about being interviewed about Homer's Odyssey, but you put me at ease and we had a delightful conversation. Your enthusiasm for the topic was clear to people who listened to the interview and wrote me about it afterwards. You have a gift for bringing out the best in people!"

Katharine Streip, Associate Professor, Liberal Arts College, Concordia University

"I frequently look at your interviews, and one of the recent ones with Sandra Campbell on Lorne Pierce I enjoyed very much. I think you provide an interesting view not only of Canadian events and persons in literature and publishing, etc., but on other similar topics outside Canada, and I hope you will keep these going."

George L. Parker, literary scholar, history of the book. Professor Emeritus Royal Military College, Kingston. Author of The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

“Nigel Beale is a true bibliophile with whom it’s a pleasure to converse. While our interview began as book biz talk, it soon became an animated discussion between literary kindred spirits, as all the best interviews do. I look forward to his next visit, and am hereby reminding myself to include some peripatetic wandering among the bookstores in his company!”

Eric Lorberer, Editor, Rain Taxi Review of Books, Minneapolis/St. Paul

"I've been interviewed by Nigel twice now, and each time was a pleasure. He's interested and engaged, well prepared but ready to learn more. The conversation is comfortable and natural, and the result once the podcast appears is always professional, informative, and fun."

Levi Stahl is the marketing director of the University of Chicago Press and the editor of The Getaway Car: A Donald E. Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany.

"These Biblio File podcasts are remarkable in the depth of understanding and detail they show us about aspects of books – from their inception until, actually, their deaths. A book may be born with the author, yes, but comes into its own life only with its publication, with its birth in a physical form. Nigel Beale is astonishingly knowledgeable across a wide range of disciplines and leads his subjects and his listeners on a journey – through time, through space, through the mind of creators.

Whenever I receive one of Nigel Beale’s exceptional podcasts, I have no idea where I will be lead. Yes, it will always be about books in some way, but how and where and with whom: that is the gift Nigel Beale presents. I am sometimes led into history, sometimes into form or content, sometimes into an author’s mind.

What a treasure it is to have this kind of artistic documentation!"

Canadian author and book designer Laurie Lewis

"You ask the most brilliant, thoughtful questions, it's really a pleasure to do an interview where someone actually wants to talk about writing and literature in general."

Award-winning Canadian/American/Scottish Novelist Margot Livesey.

More…

The Biblio File interviews are designed to appeal to anyone interested in books. Guests, famous and infamous, typically talk about works they’ve written, created, published, sold, studied, promoted, hunted, collected, or preserved.

My goal is to entertain and inform those who love books. My job is to connect with guests and help them to tell the stories they want and need to tell.

I do my very best to deliver quality content that I hope is worthy of your time and attention.

Guests have included:

Novelists: Martin Amis, John Banville, Damon Galgut, Tim Winton, Margret Atwood, David Mitchell, Ha Jin, Nadeem Aslam, Junot Diaz, Andre Brink, Larry McMurtry, Ivan Klima Andre Alexis, David Gilmour

Poets: Derek Walcott, Alice Notley, Paul Muldoon, Galway Kinnell, John Hollander, Rae Armantrout, Ron Silliman, Jerry Rothenberg, John Burnside, Jap Blonk, Richard Greene

Short Story Writers: Nam Le, Anne Enright, John Metcalf

Publishers: Trade: British: Richard Charkin, Stephen Page, Jamie Byng, Gordon Graham,

American: Tom Doherty, John Sargent, Jonathan Galassi

German: Jonathan Landgrebe,

French: Heloise d'Ormesson,

Small/Literary: Rocky Stinehour (Stinehour Press), Allan Kornblum (Coffee House), Emilie Buchwald (Milkweed), Stan Bevington (Coach House)

Fine Press: John Randle, Crispin & Jan Elsted, Andrew Hoyem, Claire Van Vliet, Gaylord Schanilec, David Esslemont

Designers: Dust Jacket: Chip Kidd, Steven Heller, C.S. Richardson, Matt Dorfman
Book Design: Jerry Kelly, Frank Newfeld

Illustrators: Barry Moser.

Printers: Robert R. Reid

Literary Agents: Andrew Wylie, Elisabeth Ruge.

Independent Booksellers: Emily Powell, Mitch Kaplan, Sarah McNally, Nancy Bass Wyden, Doug Minett, Bill Samuel,

Chain Booksellers: James Daunt, Tim Waterstone, Dan Mozersky

Antiquarian Booksellers: Ken Lopez, Kenneth Gloss, Bob Fleck, William Reese, Glenn Horowitz, Robert Rulon-Miller, Jonathan Hill. David Mason, Steven Temple.

Critics: Daniel Mendelsohn, James Wood, Michael Dirda, Adam Gopnik, Robert Fulford, Tim Parks, Alex Ross, Matthew Zapruder, Nick Mount.

Librarians: Falk Eisermann, Leslie Weir, Bruno Racine, John Bidwell, Richard Ovenden

Book Scholars: Jonathan Rose, Robert Darnton, Roger Chartier

There are currently 600-plus interviews on this site. Each runs between 40-90 minutes.

To learn more about the host, Nigel Beale visit his website at www.nigelbeale.com

To contact him, please email notabenebeale@gmail.com

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