Breakfast in the Ruins Podcast
Podcasting about Michael Moorcock and traversing the million spheres.
Miles is back in Derry & Toms as we tackle another 60s Moorcock classic… The Ice Schooner. Lots to talk about here, and some pearls to clutch too, as we visit one of Mike’s sweatiest rime-encrusted tales that, one way or another, remind us of our hometowns.
And we talk about Doctor Who and Star Trek a bit too.
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(and listen to the Casual Trek Podcast)
Ice Schooner art by Simon Perrins.
As voted for by our dear patrons, the subject for this year’s Halloween Special is SLUGS!
Shaun Hutson’s breakthrough best seller has been on the poll list for three or four years, but 2025 was its year. So, join Graham, Phil and me as we evaluate Shaun Hutson’s entry into that classic and most pulpy of British horror traditions, the Killer Critter novel. Also, we mull over whether four clefts are just too many, and get disappointed by our initially impressive socialist hero’s basic levels of competence.
Image by Simon Perrins!
Simon is back to finish our look at the final instalment in the first Corum trilogy… The King of the Swords… and, as it runs ramraid style into the conclusion of The Vanishing Tower, we roped in Miles too, because he’d only recently read it!
This is another pivotal book in Moorcock’s oeuvre, and for this podcast, because it means that the second sequence of eternal champeen books we’ve managed to complete in the last six years. Yes… This pod has been going for six years.
Crikey!
Miles is one half of the team behind the Casual Trek Podcast.
Simon, as well as being behind lots of the visual stylings of Breakfast in the Ruins, is also the co-host of Can I Pod With Madness… and they have a Patreon Page!
THIS EPISODE: I’m joined in Derry & Toms by Powys Media’s Mateo Latosa and, via ringer (Phil), Patricia Sokol, to talk about Space 1999 and the 20-plus-year efforts of Powys Media to keep the show alive via novelisations and original stories.
I was very lucky to receive a copy of the incredible (and impressively girthed) Space 1999 Year One Omnibus c/o Mateo. A handful are still available, and you can grab a copy here.
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From the Powys website:
SPACE:1999 YEAR ONE is the long-awaited, licensed omnibus of the novelizations of all the episodes of the series’ first season episodes. Originally published as six separate volumes by authors E.C. Tubb, John Rankine and Brian Ball, this omnibus contains all the episodes that appeared in those original books but also contains a new novelization of the episode Earthbound (formerly not included in the individual novelizations), written by Patricia Sokol. There are also new novelizations of the episodes Force of Life and End of Eternity written by William Latham. Finally, a previously unpublished twenty-fifth episode, called Operation Deliverance, written by Rupert Booth, has been added.
All the episode novelizations have been revised for continuity with each other and with the rest of the “Powysverse” novels and short stories. The idea, from the beginning, has been to create an interconnected, internally consistent, literary epic tale of the Alphans’ odyssey.
The editing team spent, literally, years working on this omnibus and are proud to finally publish it as the definitive chronicle of Moonbase Alpha for the enjoyment of the series’ fans.
This omnibus, the companion to Powys Media’s earlier work, SPACE:1999 YEAR TWO by Michael Butterworth, is bound in a black vinyl cover with embossed gold lettering. It features forewords by all three of the original novelizations’ authors, a publishing history, and a detailed note from editors about the thoughts and methodology behind the editing process.
We’re finally back to finish our reportage on Phoenix in Obsidian (AKA The Silver Warriors).
It’s an epic tale of anguish and self-pity on an earth where the sun has dimmed, the moon has crashed down to simply be called Moon and the menace known as the Silver Warriors have extreme problems figuring out the point of polearms. How will Count Ulrik Skarsol endure…?
Loz is back alongside Phil for this one and we have a D8 Wandering Beer Table to boot.
Bob Haberfield: The Man and His Art is published by Jayde Design and available from there and the Bob Haberfield Web Shop.
Joe Banks, author of Hawkwind: Days of the Undergound, is back in Derry and Toms to enthuse about a film that was, for me, a shock revelation about one of Britain’s most misunderstood bands.
Not only were Slade a hard rocking act whose reputation as a live act belies their popular image as a slightly goofy glam rock fixture from early 70s Top of the Pops that invade our ears every bloody Xmas… But in 1975 they took a big swing (and commercially a miss), resulting in an incredible film about the seedy underbelly of the music business that turned 50 this year.
It spawned a fantastic novelisation too, courtesy of the late John Pidgeon and published by Panther, that ranks up there with the sweatiest, grittiest NEL pulps of the mid-70s. So we talk about that too.
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Seeing as John and I had such a good time with Trevor Hoyle’s first Blakes 7 novelisation and series watch-a-long, we thought sod it… let’s do another.
And this time… it has Servalan, plus:
Roy from Eastenders…
Glynnis Barber…
Woke blasters…
Big Ron Tarr…
TRAVIS!!!
IT’S GOT THE LOT!
Tom Murphy of Colossive Press drops by Derry and Toms to discuss The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. Plus, creator and legendary author/artist Bryan Talbot himself joins us so we can quiz him about his early career and the origins of Arkwright!
For more exclusive content check out the Breakfast in the Ruins Patreon page.
Steve Aylett, Moorcock’s favourite modern absurdist and one-man genre, drops by Derry and Toms to talk about his work, satire and his latest novel The Book Lovers (available Dec 2nd 2024).
This was a real treat for me as I’ve been a fan of Steve’s since happening across Lint in a King’s Cross bookshop nearly 20 years ago. Since then he’s continued to amuse and alarm with a whole range of writings and claims.
In his own words:
“My writing has been described as dreampunk, slipstream, bizarro, cyberpunk, new weird. I call it satire. I’m an aspie, a synaesthete and, despite all I’ve done, miraculously invisible. I love books. I’m very interested in permaculture, perennial veg and ecobuilds. I’m tall and resemble some sort of hen.”
For this almost-delve into Moorcock’s dark and inspired quest fantasy The Warhound and the World’s Pain, I’m joined by author, playwright and Games Master David Griffiths. Inevitably, we ended up going down various routes in a wide-ranging conversation including Target Books (again), Moorcock and other inspirations, roleplaying games and, eventually, The Warhound and the World’s Pain, which is getting a fresh coat of paint thanks to Joe Monti and Saga Press and their brand-new hardcover Von Bek collection (releasing in December). We will follow up on this in the next few weeks with a deeper delve.
We also discuss Dave’s latest play, inspired by the events that led an under-sexed weirdo to produce the infamous Malleus Maleficarum, The Hammer and Helena.
This is the latest of Dave’s plays to be staged by Arts Groupie, a Liverpool-based Community Interest Company. Check out their website for more details, including Dave’s take on the Dickens classic ghost story, The Signalman.
Breakfast in the Ruins Podcast 