Massaging the old joints with a bit of Antony Beevor
Off Air with Jane & Fi
The Times
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to Monday! Jane is off today and tomorrow, so we’re bringing you a big book special today… Robbie Millen, literary editor of The Times and The Sunday Times, joins Fi to discuss his current book recommendations, being an intellectual snob, deliciously bitchy writing, why you should avoid poets, and Ed Balls doing the Gangnam Style dance.
Our next book club pick is 'A Town Like Alice' by Nevil Shute.
Our most asked about book is called 'The Later Years' by Peter Thornton.
You can listen to our 'I'm in the cupboard on Christmas' playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1awQioX5y4fxhTAK8ZPhwQ
If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: janeandfi@times.radio
Follow us on Instagram! @janeandfi
Podcast Producers: Eve Salusbury
Executive Producer: Rosie Cutler
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh! |
| 0:01.0 | I was trying to do my professional with my papers and I should completely miss the desk. |
| 0:18.0 | Hang on a second everybody. Just picky the mop off the floor. Oh God, they were in some kind of order as well, Eve. I'm going to take that as a sign for the week. Right, good morning class. Good morning class. We've got our favourite supply teacher with us today. It's young Eve Salisbury. How are you? I'm well. Thank |
| 0:38.9 | you for you. How are you? I'm very well indeed. Did you have a nice weekend? I had a really |
| 0:42.1 | nice weekend. Yes. I didn't have my christening but I had a christening for my goddaughter. |
| 0:49.6 | Lovely. Now, a we're like, can I ask you some questions about this? Please. Well, because you asked a question of all of us dinosaurs in the office, |
| 0:57.8 | what a good present is for a godchild. |
| 1:01.0 | And it's an interesting question, isn't it? |
| 1:03.5 | And there were all manner of suggestions being thrown around. |
| 1:06.8 | And I wonder what you made of the suggestions and what you then chose. |
| 1:10.4 | There were some really, really nice suggestions. |
| 1:13.2 | Well, Jane told me just to invest in gold. |
| 1:18.2 | I don't know how wealthy you are, but at the moment, I think you'd be able to get a pin break. |
| 1:26.3 | So that was, yep, a no. |
| 1:29.2 | No. |
| 1:29.7 | You had a really lovely suggestion, |
| 1:31.8 | which was to kind of create a little collection, |
| 1:34.5 | a little box of things from this year. |
| 1:36.8 | And I have to say that's not because I'm such a brilliant gifter. |
| 1:39.6 | It's because a godparent did that for one of my kids. |
| 1:43.1 | And on his 18th birthday, what a magnificent thing to have. |
| 1:47.3 | Because you've just completely forgotten. |
... |
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