Breakfast in the Ruins
Friends old and new join me in Derry and Toms roof gardens to discuss the work and influence of prolific British fantasist Michael Moorcock, as well as other bits of 60s and 70s genre fiction that came to me via my Grandad in the 80s and informed my world view. Books, music, role-playing games, wrestling in Featherstone Library and many other digressions await.
Friends old and new join me in Derry and Toms roof gardens to discuss the work and influence of prolific British fantasist Michael Moorcock, as well as other bits of 60s and 70s genre fiction that came to me via my Grandad in the 80s and informed my world view. Books, music, role-playing games, wrestling in Featherstone Library and many other digressions await.
Episodes
Thursday Oct 02, 2025
Bryan Talbot Part Two
Thursday Oct 02, 2025
Thursday Oct 02, 2025
Bryan Talbot returns to Derry and Toms to talk to about Alice in Sunderland, Grandville and his upcoming release, The Case of Stamford Hawkmoor - and we get a special guest appearance from Dr Mary Talbot too!
Also, James Robertson calls in to talk about his two decades and more working on Bryan's website, being green in an increasingly grey world and all sorts of other stuff along the way.
My co-host for this ep was Tom Murphy, and thank goodness for Tom as all of my technology had half a foot in Earth 749.
Friday Sep 19, 2025
The King of the Swords Part Two - The Vanishing Tower
Friday Sep 19, 2025
Friday Sep 19, 2025
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!
Friday Sep 05, 2025
The Powysverse of Space 1999 w/ Mateo Latosa
Friday Sep 05, 2025
Friday Sep 05, 2025
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.
JOIN US!!!
Friday Aug 22, 2025
The Tiptoe Boys / Who Dares Wins
Friday Aug 22, 2025
Friday Aug 22, 2025
John is back in Derry & Toms to talk about another novelisation, but we're taking a break from Blakes 7 to focus on another early 80s obsession of ours...
Well. Two. They just happen to combine to glorious effect in the classic slice of Daily Mail wet dreamery that is Who Dares Wins. Therefore, we get to watch it again for the 8,000th time and discuss it alongside its novelisation, The Tiptoe Boys, by James Follett.
Some other bits that pop up along the way include:
Nissan Almera ads from the 90s
The Bullshitters
Chas n' Dave as protest rockers
Be sure to check out Trystan Mitchell's work at The Bigfoot Studio
Thursday Jul 31, 2025
Phoenix in Obsidian - Part Two
Thursday Jul 31, 2025
Thursday Jul 31, 2025
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.
Friday Jul 11, 2025
Phil's Choice - Revenge of the Manitou
Friday Jul 11, 2025
Friday Jul 11, 2025
It's our summer holiday special - and it was Phil's Choice. She reminded me that we had such a great time with The Devils of D-Day and the film of Masterton's novel The Manitou that we should read Graham Masterton's Revenge of the Manitou.
So we did... and we're going to talk about it.
And watch Grizzly.
JOIN US!
Saturday Jun 21, 2025
(The Secret of) The Runestaff Part Two
Saturday Jun 21, 2025
Saturday Jun 21, 2025
Dave returns to Derry & Toms to combat creeping fascism and technical issues, all whilst concluding our epic reportage on the final volume in The History of the Runestaff - THE RUNESTAFF (AKA The Secret of the Runetaff).
GUYLINER
UPSETTING FATES
PORNOGRAPHIC THRILLERS
And more....
Check out SÖNUS on bandcamp and buy their gear.
And take a look at Gates of Londra
Tuesday Jun 10, 2025
The Sundered Worlds AKA The Blood Red Game
Tuesday Jun 10, 2025
Tuesday Jun 10, 2025
Miles is back to discuss another of Moorcock’s 1960s SF titles, arguably the most influential of the lot when considering the origins of the Multiverse. This may require some thoughtful, in-depth analysis.
Instead, we talk about caffeine, giro spending habits of the 1990s and racist space dogs for close to two hours.
JOIN US!
Listen to the Casual Trek Podcast
Friday May 23, 2025
Slade in Flame
Friday May 23, 2025
Friday May 23, 2025
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.
JOIN US!
Friday May 09, 2025
The Dying Earth
Friday May 09, 2025
Friday May 09, 2025
New guest co-host, author, gamer and podcaster Adrian Tchaikovsky joins me in Derry and Toms to look at Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth and discuss Vance's particular approach, his influence on Moorcock, and that mordant lyricism that defined numerous elements of the fantasy genre.
Check out Adrian's podcast with Emma Newman, Starship Alexandria - latest episode is on KJ Bishop's The Etched City.
For more Lionel Fanthorpe, see here (and thanks to Ben Haggar for the link).

Breakfast in the Ruins
It had been a few years since I tried anything new hobby-wise and particularly anything t’interweb related beyond twitter and generally using it for all of the general reasons we use it (gifs, cat pics, buying things I don’t need etc).
However in recent years, whilst doing lengthy commutes, I found that podcasts had moved on somewhat from the type I’d been exposed to previously, with less of the ‘yuck yuck’ interactions between podcast hosts that felt the need to be artificially heightened, and more of a naturalistic and joyous approach to a specific subject matter that drew me in to feel part of the conversation.
Combined with this new found interest I’ve been needing a hobby and outlet for my creative energies, such that they are.
A few years back, for similar reasons, I started a blog (mentallicohullic.com), where I was able to have a good rant, but also link to the online articles I’d written for thequietus.com. I didn’t really keep that up with any regularity though, so it fell by the wayside, although it is still live.
Anyway, it struck me a while later that a sudden upsurge in interest amongst my friends in fantasy fiction, and particularly Michael Moorcock, had generated a number of conversations that I really enjoyed participating in. We were also having particular discussions about how to best model Moorcock in a table top role playing game. One night I started typing up some thoughts regarding my approach to it and, reading it back, it was written in a conversational style and for a split second the idea of a podcast themed around Michael Moorcock’s books and other associated art seemed appealing. A few sherries later I’d ordered a USB audio hub and a condenser microphone and the next day recorded a five minute podcast introduction as a proof of concept. I shared it with some like-minded friends and, following feedback, decided to give it a whirl.
Michael Moorcock as a subject seemed the natural choice, for reasons that may become apparent during the introductory episode. As you'll see as the show progresses, there's a reason why I call it 'Moorcock flavoured'.









