Episode 46: Hotel Lux with Maurice J. Casey

Episode 46 is now live and available here: 46. Hotel Lux, with Maurice J. Casey - ABC With Danny and Jim

In this episode we’re delighted to be joined by Maurice J.Casey, a research fellow at Queens University Belfast and author of Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals, which was published by Footnote in 2025.

Hotel Lux is a fascinating, moving account of the lives of women and men who travelled to Moscow in the 1920s to work for the Comintern. We really enjoyed both reading and talking through the book with Maurice, exploring how the book came about, and ideas of friendship, tragedy, hope and memory.

In March 2026 Maurice produced a documentary for the BBC about The Alpenpost, an incredible source that he discovered during his research for the book. You can listen to it here: ⁠BBC Radio 4 - Illuminated, The Alpenpost: A Girl’s Guide to Fighting Hitler and Stalin