On this episode, we’re joined by writer and fashion critic Charlie Porter to discuss our Fiction Book of the Month, Nova Scotia House—a powerful love story that summons a lost generation, set against the backdrop of the UK AIDS crisis and its aftermath throughout the 1980s and ’90s.

Our discussion of the novel’s vivid characters and cultural history offers a fascinating window into queer life in London at the close of the 20th century—and into Charlie’s own personal journey toward living without fear.

In true form, we also cover everything from Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group to the feud over “punk” between British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman and fashion icon Vivienne Westwood. Charlie also shares his love of Proust and 19th-century literature, despite his improbable hatred of Madame Bovary.

Finally, we discuss the resurrection of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt—consisting of 42 twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot panels—which Porter has helped present at Tate Modern in London this summer.

Signed copies of the book are available in-store and on our website. Listeners of The Hatchards Podcast can receive 15% off at checkout with the code “NOVA15.”

Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Olivia Robinson.