Nigel Beale is a bibliophile who travels the world interviewing people about b00ks and print culture.
Contact him at: notabenebeale@gmail.com
He is host of a podcast called The Biblio File. It’s about "the book" - an inquiry into the wider world of print culture - and features long-form conversations with authors, poets, publishers, booksellers, editors, collectors, book makers, scholars, critics, designers, publicists, literary agents and many other ‘best’ practitioners inside the book trade and out - from writer to reader.
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“How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!”
― Walter Benjamin, Illuminations: Essays and Reflections
What People have said about The Biblio File podcast:
"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. 2015-17 President of the International Publishers Association
“Nigel Beale’s Biblio File podcast is much loved.”
"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, Chair of Faber & Faber, one of world's leading independent publishers, after having been Chief Executive for 20 years.
“Nigel Beale is the real deal. I can certainly vouch for him. His podcast on books is fascinating.”
— Bob Rae, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations
"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
What People have said about the blog:
"I wanted to thank you for your many generous and intelligent words about my new book How Fiction Works (and other stuff)... I get great pleasure from reading your blog."
— Critic, James Wood, The New Yorker
"You can find very bad writing and sloppy impressionism in literary blogs, but also incisive, fresh, thoughtful criticism from voices unencumbered by the politics of Grub St". I would put your blog in the latter category, which is why I’m responding here… Congratulations on a very fine blog."
— Scholar, Dr. Ronan McDonald, author of The Death of the Critic
What people have said about the interviewing:
"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 popular historian Charlotte Gray
“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 novelist David Gilmour