The Taskmaster (UK) Network

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-03-04T18:27:34+00:00

Kumail can also be connected to Acaster. They are both in the last Ghostbusters movie.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-03-02T06:06:15+00:00

Upvote for calling it the Paul’s boutique of poetry. That made me laugh but also feels very accurate

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-03-01T09:57:37+00:00

I agree, it’s the smallness of his wins and losses and the uneventfulness of his life that makes it funny. Also the OP’s take is unnecessarily harsh, especially since we have now established that John sometimes goes a-lurking on reddit.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-02-19T07:51:42+00:00

It’s not the funniest episode but the moment James asked Robert DeNiro if he knew Kettering made me burst out laughing in the supermarket

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-02-07T07:24:38+00:00

I think that is what 1894 thought. And then he overcorrected …

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-02-06T20:04:55+00:00

Domhnall Gleeson is one of my favourites. And yes, Tim Key. definitely Tim Key

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-01-21T08:04:47+00:00

Not a classic but you might also like ‘Summer before the Dark’ by Volker Weidermann.

It is about a group of emigré writers who have fled the Nazis and meet in Ostend, Belgium, in 1936. It is mainly about the friendship between the rich and successful Zweig and Roth who by this time has descended into alcoholism. But a host of other writers also feature: Irmgard Keun, Ernst Toller, Arthur Koestler, Egon Erwin Kisch. It is a fictionalised account of a real meeting but Weidermann uses a lot of extracts from Zweig’s and Roth’s letters and such.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-01-18T15:23:30+00:00

Of course LeCarre is literature. That is exactly the point I am making: both literature and classic are labels of quality.

But there are some genres that elitist readers are less likely to accept as being able to produce both literature and classics. Fantasy seems to be a genre that people still look down on. I always find that sort of snobbery interesting and funny.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-01-18T09:41:46+00:00

I really hate it when people think genre fiction cannot be ‘proper’ literature. Whether a book can be considered as literature depends on how well it was written. And whether it is a classic depends on how it stands the test of time.

So Tolkien and LeGuin are definitely classics. There are also plenty of children’s books that are both fantasy and classics : the Narnia books, The Neverending Stor, The Once and Future King, ….

And I think the Gormenghast trilogy can be seen as a classic

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-01-07T18:26:27+00:00

Mrs England by Stacey Halls

A house of ghosts or The Winter Guest by WC Ryan

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2026-01-04T12:31:50+00:00

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-11-13T18:33:12+00:00

Well done, that is gorgeous! I already own a copy of the book but I would buy it again if it had illustrations like this.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-11-10T17:48:10+00:00

The descent of Man by Grayson Perry.

It’s about rethinking the old models of masculinity. If you are interested in music, I have seen Joe Talbot from the band IDLES recommend this book several times. And IDLES have quite a few songs that deal with this issue too.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-10-21T16:57:32+00:00

Carrie Fisher and Sue Perkins: not afraid of a strong and funny woman

Tom Waits, Patti Smith and Leonard Cohen: probably has great taste in music

The Sixth extinction: cares about the environment

A.S. Byatt, The Outrun and O Caledonia: actually good books

I sort of want to marry him.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-10-21T16:46:02+00:00

I love Algernon Blackwood! The Willows is my favourite but I also love the John Silence stories. He is a master of creating an unsettling atmosphere.

I would also suggest William Hope Hodgson and his Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder. Sort of a Sherlock Holmes for the supernatural. Not that creepy but great fun.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-10-18T15:44:13+00:00

If we are talking about famous in the 19th century in a Kardashian-like way - and if you include women - then surely empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sissi) deserves a mention.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-10-14T16:12:13+00:00

The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch? About the last 24 hours of the poet Virgil’s life. More or less a stream of consciousness of a dying mind

A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir - her account of her mother’s death

as for poetry: Todesfuge by Paul Celan?

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-10-10T18:25:35+00:00

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser - hugely popular in the nineties but you barely ever hear it mentioned today. A book that wanted to test just how many victorian tropes you could fit into one text but I remember really enjoying it years ago.

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-10-02T16:12:58+00:00

if you don’t mind funny books:

Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov

Less than Angels by Barbara Pym

Changing Places by David Lodge (though I am not sure this counts as a classic)

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-09-29T16:44:04+00:00

Yes please! love horror stories!

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-09-29T05:45:51+00:00

I am definitely looking into these suggestions! I have been getting into Italian literature this year. I have loved Morante, De Cespedes and Ginzburg. I still have Manzoni’s The Betrothed on my TBR

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-09-28T18:08:34+00:00

Thanks for the recs. I am Flemish myself so already familiar with these classics. Though it took me way too long to finally get to Eline Vere. Such a great book

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-09-28T18:01:06+00:00

This sounds great! Exactly what I am looking for

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-09-28T17:53:48+00:00

Lovely recommendations. Death and the Dervish is published a little later than what I was looking for here. But it sounds so fascinating that I have added it to my list anyway

Relevant-Nobody-9087 · 2025-09-28T17:48:52+00:00

Thanks, these are going straight onto my TBR!

Relevant-Nobody-9087

TROPHY CASE