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Spotlights new fiction and non-fiction, picks out the best of the paperbacks, talks to authors and publishers, and unearths lost masterpieces. | | | | | LISTEN AGAIN | | | |
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| | PRESENTER | | | |
|  | | | | Defying any attempt to pigeonhole her skills and talents Mariella combines her television and radio career with that of a prolific journalist.
Over a fifteen-year TV career she has continued to impress both audiences and critics with her friendly, accessible and intelligent screen presence. Her projects run the gamut from current affairs to movies and the arts.
As a journalist she is currently the film critic for Harpers And Queen and has a weekly dilemma column in The Observer Magazine, while her book reviews and travel pieces appear regularly in the press. She has also been a member of the Booker-Mann Prize panel.
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|  | | Elizabeth George, author of Write Away: One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life (Hodder & Stoughton)
Listen to Elizabeth George interview
Scroll down for programme information
To see the books that you nominated as life-changing and to hear the programme again, select 11 April in the Recent Programmes section on this page.
The Reading Clinic:
Do you have a problem that concerns books? If so, Open Book's Reading Clinic wants to hear from you.
For instance, do you have a partner who never reads and want some suggestions as to what might entice them in to the world of literature?
Are there some books or genres that you have never managed to get your head round and to which you'd like an introduction?
What book do you give to the person who has read everything?
Where do I start with Proust?
What book should I take on a long train journey?
How do you get teenage boys to read?
If you want a full and frank discussion of your particular literary conundrum, then Open Book's Reading Clinic can prescribe the right book for you.
Please contact Open Book here with your literary ailment, giving as many details as you can including a daytime contact number if possible.
This Week's Programme:
Author of thirty plus volumes of prose and poetry, Stella Gibbons is remembered by most for just one memorable work, Cold Comfort Farm. As Radio 4 is serialising Stella's lesser-known novel Westwood, Mariella Frostrup talks to writer Lynne Truss, who adapted it for radio, on why we know so little about this most private of writers. Plus, Elizabeth George of 'Inspector Lynley' fame on how to write and a behind the scenes look at literary fan clubs.
List of Books:
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuationby Lynne Truss (Profile)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon (Vintage)
Some Popular Books by Elizabeth George:
Write Away (Hodder and Stoughton)
Place of Hiding (New English Library)
Well Schooled in Murder (Inspector Lynley Mystery Series) (Coronet)
Payment in Blood (Inspector Lynley Mystery Series) (Coronet)
A Selection of Books by Stella Gibbons:
Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin)
Westwood (currently out of print but available through libraries and good second-hand bookshops)
Nightingale Wood (out of print as above)
My American (out of print as above)
A Selection of Books by Margery Allingham:
The Black Dudley Murder (Carroll & Graf)
The Tiger in the Smoke (Carroll & Graf)
Mystery Mile (Vintage)
Hide My Eyes (Hogarth Press)
Police at the Funeral (Penguin)
Mr Campion and Others (Penguin)
The Crime at Black Dudley (Penguin)
Sweet Danger (Vintage)
Black Plumes (Penguin)
Death of a Ghost (Penguin)
Dancers in Mourning (Penguin)
The Mind Readers (Penguin)
Child Governess (Penguin)
More Work For The Undertaker (Penguin)
The Case of the Late Pig (Penguin)
Traitor's Purse (Penguin)
Take Two At Bedtime (Penguin)
Look To The Lady (Heinemann)
Hide My Eyes (Chatto & Windus)
Most of Margery Allingham's books are currently out of print but available through your local library and second hand bookshops.
The Margery Allingham Society is celebrating the centenary of Margery Allingham's birth this year. For information on the Society and events, click here:
Margery Allingham: 100 years of a Great Mystery Writer
Books by Jasper Fforde:
The Eyre Affair (New English Library)
Lost In A Good Book (New English Library)
Something Rotten (Hodder & Stoughton)
Nursery Crimes (Hodder)
Click here for information on:
Jasper Fforde and his fan club
Books Written by Rock Musicians:
In His Own Write by John Lennon (Simon and Schuster)
A Spaniard in the Works by John Lennon (Harper Collins)
Flowers for Hitler by Leonard Cohen (Jonathan Cape)
Tarantula by Bob Dillon (Simon and Schuster)
The Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope (Harper Collins)
No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs by John Lydon (Plexus Publishing)
Click on the authors below for further info:
Jeannette Winterson
Elmore Leonard
Lawrence Block
E-mail Open Book here with your comments and views.
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