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: @emmanewman@bsky.social and www.enewman.co.uk  

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