CENSORED

October 14, 2020

S3 E5 Unzipped! Collins, ‘The Stud’ (1969)

This is a silly rather than sexy book. Why on earth was such a trashy, ridiculous banned when the censor ignored sex in serious literature?

Facebook

Twitter

October 7, 2020

S3 E4 Perverty Stuff: Salinger, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ (1951)

Holden Caulfield’s swearing and sex talk has offended many since 1951. This book is now a modern classic but why is a story of a poor little rich kid still read and enjoyed today?

Facebook

Twitter

September 30, 2020

S3 E3 Such badness: Hoult, ‘There were no windows’ (1944)

Hoult was banned more often than any other Irish woman writer. Only the censor’s beady eye could see filth in a novel about loneliness and dementia.

Persephone Books keep forgotten books in print – thanks to them I could read Norah Hoult for this episode.

Facebook

Twitter

September 23, 2020

S3 E1 Voluptuous Jazzing: McKay, ‘Home to Harlem’ (1928

A love letter to Harlem and it’s music, this book offended all kinds of people. McKay’s honesty about sex was brave and inflammatory.

Facebook

Twitter

September 16, 2020

S3 E1 Low and Vulgar: Cross, ‘The Tailor and Ansty’ (1942)

A little book of folklore that became infamous. It was debated in parliament where nationalists denounced the elderly couple who were the subject of the book. But was the bull/cow story really that rude?

Facebook

Twitter

August 27, 2020

Bonus Smut: There’s something about Mary: Donleavy, ‘The Ginger Man’ (1954)

There was too much filth for one episode, so I made another one! I needed to rant about Mary, one of the women wronged by Sebastian Dangerfield. How did Mary, a strong woman with her own bank account and coalshed, fare when she joined Dangerfield in London? There’s shagging aplenty but it’s not a happy ending.

Facebook

Twitter

August 20, 2020

E10 Filth and Faeces: Beckett, ‘More Pricks than Kicks’ (1934)

A riotous, whirling, silly read that hides it’s rudeness with classical allusions and puns. The blasphemous, punning and lewd title earned it’s ban but there was a profusion of filth within.

Facebook

Twitter

August 13, 2020August 13, 2020

E9 Rapey Noir: Keene, ‘Sleep with the Devil’ (1954)

The censor hated Keene’s pulp noir, banning his work many times. This taut thriller was full of violence but it was also a morality tale.

Facebook

Twitter

August 5, 2020

E 8 Queer Ireland: Broderick, ‘The Pilgrimage’ (1961)

Is it a book about a promiscuous wife, a pilgrimage or queer life in 1960s Ireland? Banned for indecency and blasphemy, Broderick’s novel is a multi-layered text.

Facebook

Twitter

July 31, 2020

E 7 Bestial Behaviour: Endore, ‘The Werewolf of Paris’ (1933)

Endore combined violence and blasphemy in this classic of the werewolf genre. It’s impossible to know whether the radical politics or freaky sex most offended the censor.

Facebook

Twitter