Crumpled, unwashed and chronically out of money: for centuries, book reviewers have slunk around the back pages of our newspapers and magazines. The stereotypes - stained shirt, elbow patches, hunted look around the eyes - are familiar. The great critic Samuel Johnson was a classic of the genre: “a man of dreadful appearance, very slovenly in his dress and with a most uncouth voice”. And that was according to one of his best friends.

What, one wonders, would Dr Johnson have made of our new generation of charismatic, immaculately coiffed online reviewers. 

Check out their first podcast: Just good chat.

 
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