Better Known

Ian Green discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Ian Green is a writer from Northern Scotland with a PhD in epigenetics. His debut fantasy trilogy The Rotstorm began with the Sunday Times bestseller The Gauntlet and the First Beneath. His short fiction has been widely published and he won the BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines competition, the Futurebook Future Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the British Fantasy Awards. His biopunk eco-terrorism thriller Extremophile was one of Financial Times’ Best Science Fiction Books of 2024 and was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. His swashbuckling new book The Deep and the Drowned is out now from Head of Zeus.

The British Fantasy Society https://britishfantasysociety.org/

The Last Blade Priest by W.P. Wiles https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-the-last-blade-priest-by-w-p-wiles/

The Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/titus-alone-peake-gormenghast-trilogy-review-essay/

How much fun having kids is https://ifstudies.org/blog/why-bother-having-kids

Historic European Martial Arts (HEMA) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=763THsqZ_ng

Nature immersion https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/insight-therapy/202606/seeing-green-nature-immersion-has-its-benefits

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Matt Hill discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Matt Hill is the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author of Lamb, The Breach, Zero Bomb, Graft, and The Folded
Man. He lives in Glossop, on the edge of the Peak District. His new novel is Wrecks, which is available at https://deadinkbooks.com/products/wrecks-matt-hill.

You have to rinse the suds off your dishes when you’ve washed them. Sounds trite, even silly, but it’s true, and there’s a deeper point around my wife gently challenging me re mental load of managing childcare and housework

Phil Collins was a phenomenal drummer. Before his 80s ballads, Phil was writing wildly inventive drum parts. Brand X, early Genesis, mad time signatures, technically brilliant.

We are surrounded by free food – some of it weeds! Family walks now involve stopping every ten seconds to pick at leaves or berries. Foraging used to be common and now, obviously, isn’t. Nettles factoid, hawthorn ketchup, pig nuts, pineapple weed tea...

The moors of the Peak District are dotted with WW2 aircraft wreckage you can just walk up to. During and after the Second World War, dozens of planes crashed on the hills of the Peak District. Many of those wrecks are still there, including the Bleaklow Bomber. Amazing, raw history – feels rare for it not to be sanitised or in a museum

It takes a scarily long time to stop when you’re doing 80mph. A recent speed awareness course changed my perception of driving, especially residual speeds. By the time a car going at 70mph has stopped, a car braking from 80mph is still doing 40mph – eek

In England, we only have legal access to a tiny amount of land. Free access to the countryside was fought for, and often won, by mass trespass Yet we still only have access to something like 10% of land and 3% of waterways; the rest is enclosed, bounded away, or requires us to pay.

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Joel Christensen discusses with Ivan six things about The Odyssey which should be better known.

Joel P. Christensen is Professor of Classics at the CUNY Graduate Center where he also serves as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. Joel has previously taught at UT San Antonio and Brandeis University. His research interests include early Greek poetry, myth, and literary theory. With Elton Barker, Joel has published Homer: A Beginner’s Guide (2013) and Homer’s Thebes (Harvard University Press 2020). Joel has also authored The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic (2020) with Cornell University Press, Storylife: On Epic, Language, and Living Things with Yale in 2025, and Why Odysseus? With Palgrave/Macmillan (2026). He is also editor of the Oxford Critical Guide to the Odyssey (2026) and author of numerous articles on Homer, myth, Greek poetry, and its reception in the modern world.

Ancient Audiences rarely ever read the Odyssey in its entirety

The Odyssey was sung and performed for generations before it was written down

We don't know how The Odyssey was written down

The Homeric Odyssey isn't the only version of the story that used to exist

Odysseus was disliked by many early Greek audiences

The ending of the Odyssey is extremely strange and most people ignore it!

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Jessica Fellowes discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Jessica Fellowes is an author, journalist and public speaker. The Mitford Murders is her debut series as a novelist and has been nominated for awards in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, and sold into eighteen territories. Jessica is also the author of five official companion books to ‘Downton Abbey,’ various of which hit the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists. Former columnist for the Mail on Sunday and deputy editor of Country Life, she has written business books with Sophie Cornish MBE, 'The Devil You Know' with forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes and short stories for Vogue Italia and L’Uomo Vogue. Jessica makes frequent appearances on radio, podcasts and television, has a Substack – ‘Your Fellowes Reader’ – and lives in Oxfordshire with her family.

The work of school governors https://boardsforeducation.org.uk/

Hitster https://hitstergame.com/en-gb/

The advantages of hearing aids https://www.outsideclinic.co.uk/blog/impact-of-hearing-aids

Jessica Fellowes https://substack.com/@jessicafellowes

The Sale Room https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb

Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson https://www.virginianicholson.co.uk/singled-out

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Sarah Wilson discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Sarah Wilson is a multi-New York Times bestselling author, journalist, social philosopher, international keynote speaker and philanthropist. Sarah leads dynamic, global conversations about modern philosophy, creativity, existential risk, and climate change via her keynote speaking, Wild podcast, and her Substack and social communities. She lives nomadically, but is based between Paris and Sydney, and is a compulsive hiker and adventurer. Her new book is I Eat the Stars, which is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/i-eat-the-stars/sarah-wilson/9781837827213.

Fractal flourishing https://accidentalgods.life/fractal-flourishing/

Maison de Balzac https://sarahwilson.substack.com/p/how-balzac-made-me-feel-joyous-about

Sufficiency https://sarahwilson.substack.com/p/sufficiency-as-a-way-of-living-a

Vanessa Andreotti https://decolonialfutures.net/hospicingmodernity/

Ikaria https://www.bluezones.com/explorations/ikaria-greece/

Mug cakes https://uk.pinterest.com/meganusafwife/muggin-recipes/

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