Episode 13 - Tales From Outer Suburbia

For our May 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria Emma puts forward the book Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan for Adrian's consideration.

Other talking points:

The difficulty of summarising

Somehow avoiding the word "surreal"

An emotional model railway trip.

Reading around the story

Balancing story collections

Styles of art

Media Mentions:

The art of Edward Gorey including The Gashlycrumb Tinies and The Insect God

The art of Dr Seuss including I Had Trouble In Getting To Solla Sollew

The art of Adrian Sykes https://www.adriansykes.co.uk/

Next month we look at Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Emma's music recommendation: Future Boy by Turin Brakes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AekubF2xYlg&list=RDAekubF2xYlg&start_radio=1

Emma's latest writing is included in Creative Futures (Beyond and Within) https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/creative-futures-allen-stroud/7847161 which was recently shortlisted for a BSFA Award

Adrian's most recent book: Children of Strife https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/children-of-strife-adrian-tchaikovsky/7864905

If you'd like to support the show, and get an additional monthly patrons-only episode, you can become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/c/starshipalexandria/home

You can buy our official t-shirts and mugs at https://starshipalexandria.teemill.com/

Follow us at:

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com