Sunday 16:00-16:30, repeated Thursday 16:00-16:30, except first Sunday in the month when it is replaced by Book Club.
Open Book spotlights new fiction and non-fiction, picks out the best of the paperbacks, talks to authors and publishers, and unearths lost masterpieces.
This week
Sunday 30 April 2006
Booker nominated author Michael Collins talks about his latest novel The Secret Life of E Robert Pendleton and how his love of running helps his writing. And Quentin Blake remembers the Adventures of Lester.
Michael Collins
Irish writer Michael Collins, who now lives in America, talks to Mariella Frostrup about his new novel The Secret Life of E Robert Pendleton, the story of an embittered professor on a small mid west University campus and a mysterious murder.
The Secret Life of E Robert Pendleton - Michael Collins
Publisher - Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 0297850830
The Keepers of Truth - Michael Collins
Publisher - Phoenix
ISBN: 0753811022
The Resurrectionists - Michael Collins
Publisher - Phoenix
ISBN: 075381370X
Quentin Blake
In response to a listener enquiry, writer and illustrator Quentin Blake tells us about his Lester stories, which he wrote in the seventies, when he told the stories and illustrated them on children's television programme Jackanory.
The Adventures of Lester - Quentin Blake
Publisher - BBC
Out of print
The James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Despite being the UK's oldest literary award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize is not well known. It was founded in 1919 and previous winners include EM Forster, DH Lawrence and Evelyn Waugh. This year, the prize money is trebled and judge Professor Colin Nicholson hopes the profile will go up too. He joins Mariella Frostrup to reveal the fiction shortlist.
Praying Mantis - Andre Brink
Publisher - Secker & Warburg
ISBN - 0436206013
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Publisher - Faber and Faber
ISBN: 057122413X
Beasts of No Nation - Uzodinma Iweala
Publisher - John Murray
ISBN: 0719567521
Saturday - Ian McEwan
Publisher - Vintage
ISBN: 0099469685
The Accidental - Ali Smith
Publisher - Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 0141010398
Imre Kertesz
Hungarian author Imre Kertesz, who was made a Nobel Laureate in 2002, has written a screenplay based on his 1975 novel Fatelessness, a harrowing tale of a 14 year old boy's life in the concentration camps. Poet and translator George Szirtes joins Mariella Frostrup to talk about Kertesz's life and work.
Fateless - Imre Kertesz
Publisher - Vintage
ISBN: 0099502526
And the film version of Fatelessness - called Fateless - is in cinemas from 5 May.
