Me and the Monkey – Chronicles of the Monkey God Vol. I

Andy Darby joins me in virtual Derry and Toms to talk his tales of the Monkey God, Moorcock, and lots of other stuff including reminiscences about Johnny Seven, Lion annuals, Commando comics, Mme. Blavatsky, My First Two Thousand Years and tripping in Amsterdam.

You can pick up Vol I and The Paddington Incident now and Vol II releases on 5th November. There are QR codes with the illustrations in Vol 2 and The Paddington Incident that link to audio sections narrated by Andy, and you can connect with him on Goodreads.

Brayna’s Creed, the second track from the upcoming Journal Vol II is available via N Λ Ṇ D

This episode is played out by the title track from The Dreaming City III by Immryr. At the time of recording (and at the time we released The Black Corridor) this was the latest release from Imrryr but, characteristically, there is another available for pre-order already. Check out One Flesh, One End.

Andy’s reading recommendations:

C J Cherryh: Gate of Ivrel, Well of Shiuan, Fires of Azeroth, Exile’s Gate
Madeline Miller: Circe, The Song of Achilles,
Pat Barker: The Silence of the Girls, Natalie Haynes: A Thousand Ships,
Conn Iggulden: Conqueror series (these are just fucking epic!)
Tim Willocks: The Religion (awesome!), The Twelve Children of Paris (awesome 2!)
Ben Aaronovitch: Rivers of London series
Jonathan L Howard: Johannes Cabal series
Catherynne M. Valente: Deathless
Kim Newman: Anno Dracula
Karl Edward Wagner: Kane series
Chris Carlsen: Berserker series
Stewart Gordon Suaine and the Crow God
Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory, The Bridge Walking on Glass,
Clive Barker: Weave World

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.
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Entropic State Report 13th October 2022

Breakfast in the Ruins podcast is three years old!

Well, actually three years and two days. Whilst we adopted Dec 18th as our OFFICAL birthday (for reasons explained in our second birthday show) this week marked three years since Episode 0 – An Introduction to Breakfast in the Ruins & yesterday it was three years since Episode One – The Dreaming City.

It’s been a fun time and it continues to prove a satisfying and rewarding pursuit. It has led to great conversations and hook-ups across the globe and shows just how wide the reach of rambling, often drunken but always enthusiastic conversations about Moorcock, genre fiction, music and anything else that crosses our minds can be.

My better half and regular co-host Phil joining me on the ride has only made it better.

Mad shouts from the mountain tops too to my Buds of Ages for their support:

Loz, getting stuck in from day one with drunken takes and hideous challenging beers only encouraged me to continue
Neil for all that early support showing me what a microphone is, how to plug it in and what is achievable with sound and editing software. He even stepped in and corrected the audio on a particularly drunken session with Tash very early on. Loz and Neil’s old band Giantkind is the source of the intro and outro music on the show too
And Wayne for all of his collaboration, creative and musical input on the Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly.

Very specific thanks also to Simon Perrins. Simon has provided almost all of the art and banners for this podcast across a variety of platforms and, as a result, he’s a core part of its identity.

And finally of course thanks to all our you, our patrons, and to all of our friends & contributors!

I raise my wine mug to you all.

Here’s to the next three!

The Mad God’s Amulet Book Two

Dave (AKA SÖNUS) is back in Derry and Toms to pick up the second and concluding part of our quest for The Mad God’s Amulet.

Join us as we discover the greatest NWOBHM band to never exist… THE MUTANT WAR JAGUARS OF ASIACOMMUNISTA… and Lord Shark’s Ostentatious Couch returns.

Things mentioned in the show include Gates of Londra – a must have if you dig your industrial black metal with a Moorcockian twist.

Imrryr’s latest release The Dreaming City III is out now featuring Dave and Allister Thompson AKA The Gateless Gate.

Massive thanks to Dave Dempster for the Maegan Lemay poster. Check out her web and store page.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store. Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.

Moorcock and RPGs Part V – Stormbringer Redux!

Moorcock & RPGs V – Stormbringer Redux!

Ted AKA @tedankhamen joins me in Derry and Toms for the second leaf of our Summer diptych musing on Moorcock, gaming and whatever else enters our eyeline.

Some choice cuts in here including miniature bashing, Tolkien (again), a shock Strongbow appreciation story, chaosium-isms… but mostly some good, chewy thinking on modelling Moorcockian worlds and cosmology. I also bang my BoL drum again.

Be sure to have a good delve around Ted’s blog Tomb of Tedankhamen.

Ted also mentioned Lasers and Feelings by John Harper. Lots more good stuff on his itch.io

You can check out the Tentacled Whisperer of Secrets Discord by making an offering to… THE TENTACLED WHISPERER… or just check out his profile. He’s pretty lax on gatekeeping for an ancient deity of unspeakable power.

Steve’s Stormbringer game recaps are on his blog.

Check out and subscribe to Jim Kirkland’s newsletter and read his spoiler-free review of The Citadel of Forgotten Myths.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store. Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.

Moorcock and RPGs Part Four – Sandboxing the Multiverse

We’re back in Derry and Toms to talk gaming again, this time with CLARKY THE CRUEL.

Dave gets shocked by the crap number of TV channels we had in the UK as kids, Clarky tells us about his sandboxing adventures beyond the ultraworld, and I get inspired. And we digress. Obviously.

You can find Clarky’s Dissecting Worlds podcast archive and all of his game logs on his blog (including entries by yours truly describing the action from the perspective of post-apocalypse fiction powerhouse Roy Saveloy).

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.

We also mention Jason’s podcast, the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast.

Check out Miles’s new venture, the Casual Trek Podcast.

The Art of Bob Haberfield (1938 – 2021)

The Art of Bob Haberfield

After 40 years of obsessing over the Mayflower covers of Bob Haberfield, Dave and I get to wig out and talk to Ben Haberfield about his Dad’s life, art and the gestating project to celebrate the breadth of his work in the form of two art books.

You can keep up with Ben’s work at bobhaberfield.com and follow him on Instagram.

You can pick up Maureen Cawthorn Bell’s James Cawthorn: The Man And His Art from John Davey’s Jayde Design.

We also mention Jason’s podcast, the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast and I recently talked pulp and genre fiction with Rob AKA Menion on Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.

Breakfast in the Ruins is hosted on Podbean and available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Owltail, Podparadise, TuneIn, Overcast, Amazon Music and most other podcast clients. If we’re not on your favourite let us know and we’ll sort it.

You can support the podcast over on Patreon.

The Mad God’s Amulet – Book One

Dave AKA SÖNUS returns to Derry and Toms to dive into the fast-paced and very metal, yet weirdly just OK-ish first part of The Mad God’s Amulet, second in the Hawkmoon sequence The History of the Runestaff.

As always, digressions await the unwary traveller as well as ostentatious coughing and just excellent pants.

JOIN US!

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Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Chapter 12 of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly was scored by N Λ N D.

Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.

The Fortress of the Pearl – Part One

The Fortress of the Pearl – Gollancz SF 1989

The Fortress of the Pearl – Part One

Loz returns to Derry & Toms to revisit an old adversary, Michael Moorcock’s The Fortress of the Pearl.

Join us and marvel at our declining energy.

Bridle, as Loz declares The Chronicle of the Black Sword a shit book and denigrates poetry.

Along the way we ‘wake the chicken’. What does that even mean? How many names are there for trousers? Why would anyone smoke stout?

Listen as we mull over the answers.

(Spoiler – we don’t know)

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Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Chapter 11 of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly was scored by N Λ N D

My Experiences in the Third World War

Finally, we’re back at Derry & Toms to take a look at the 1980 Moorcock collection My Experiences in the Third World War. Along the way Phil and I compare notes regarding our mindsets in the 1980s, laugh at the preposterous Controller and let fate decide on the Wandering Traumatic Nuclear War Film Table.

Also, on this occasion we might not offend a small town in the UK, but potentially all of Canada. But seriously what DOES ‘pie-dish of privilege and broken promises’ really mean?

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Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

CONTENT WARNING – there are discussions in this show regarding sexual violence and exploitation

Guy N Smith Revisited – Crabs’ Moon

After the Halloween Special we couldn’t stay away. Phil needed questions answered.

Where did they come from?

How did they come to be?

So we read Crabs Moon and discovered the answers to none of these questions. But we did have a hoot and we were joined by Graham (aka @opensussex AKA Apkallu of Enmerkar AKA DECADNIDS) to have a couple of beverages, discuss Crabs’ Moon and to talk in general about the late Guy N Smith and his diverse writing career.

We also raised a glass to the man as this show lands close to a year after his passing.

We reference a Guy N Smith interview from the excellent The Collected Pulp Horror by Justin Marriott and Will Errickson.

Guy’s daughter TARA has re-energised the GNS Twitter and Instagram accounts.

We play this show out with Proditol from the album The Black Corridor by DECADNIDS vs ＮΛＮD.

***warning: unlike Night of the Crabs, Crabs Moon contains references to sexual violence and we do talk about them so please proceed with caution and look after yourselves – this month’s Patreon funds have been donated to The Survivor’s Trust – please do look them up and consider donating***

Support the podcast by becoming a Patron.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.