There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad-free.

Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondry app.

As a member of NoisorPlus at noisor.com or in Apple Podcasts,

or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com.

There are few places as quietly exciting, as magical and full of possibilities as a bookstore.

They even smell good, new and old simultaneously.

In today's rough sea of fast, vapid information,

bookstores are island paradises, ports in a storm,

micro-nations ruled by writer kings.

But what if there was a real island paradise ruled by writer-kings?

There is the Kingdom of Redonda. To help tell its story on today's Saturday matinee, is the Kingdom of Redonda, and to help tell its story on today's Saturday

matinee, is the owner of a bookshop, making my, a bookshop as an island metaphor, a nice

complete circle. Across the Pond is a podcast about the most discussed and anticipated books on both

sides of the Atlantic, hosted by Laurie Feathers, the co-owner of my favorite

local Dallas Independent Bookstore in Terabang Books, and UK publisher Sam Jordison.

In the episode you're about to hear, they speak with Michael Hingston, author of Try Not to be

Strange, the Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda, the tiny Caribbean island that strangely

came to be ruled by a line

of eccentric authors, artists, and academics in what might or might not be a joke.

I hope you enjoy.

While you're listening, be sure to search for and follow Across the Pond.

We put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you.

...