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Podcast Episode

EP81. [Sat]Ire, ink & Enmity: The Art of Literary Feuding

Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire·Talk About Satire·29 November 2025·1h 16m

About this episode

Join us for an episode filled with spectacular spats, bruised egos, and top-tier literary shade. This month, Adam introduces a riotous tour through Britain’s greatest writerly bust-ups: from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu shredding Swift in more ways than one, to Pope’s poisonously personal vendettas, to the mutual mockeries of Anne Ingram, Mary Leapor, Thackeray, Woolf, Gibbons, Brontë, and beyond. Notably absent from the episode is Jo Waugh herself, rumoured to be lying low after some spirited listener feedback concerning a certain comment she made about friend-of-the-pod Ben Garlick. Will Ben forgive us? And were the best writers really the “good haters” Samuel Johnson claimed? Tune in to find out.