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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 | | | |
|  | | | | | | | | Maev Kennedy was born in Dublin 1954, the child of two writers who subsidised literary work with jobbing journalism. She worked for many years for the Irish Times, ultimately as parliamentary and political sketch writer. Maev wrote on arts and politics for a wide range of Irish and British publications, before joining the staff of the Guardian, where after a stint editing the Guardian Diary, she is now Arts and Heritage Correspondent. She lives in London with her son Samuel.
Maev Kennedy's Blaenavan Diary Reports |
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|  | | Photo: cover of Justin Cartwright's novel, The Promise of Happiness.
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This Week's Programme
Maev Kennedy talks to novelist Justin Cartwright about his new book, The Promise of Happiness. A new departure into the family novel, he discusses the place of family relationships and values in our lives.
We take a look at the literary mileage of the steam train, tracing the relationship between the railway and the thriller from Agatha Christie to Patricia Highsmith.
As Nobel prize winning Portuguese writer Jose Saramago publishes a new novel, one of his translators Amanda Hopkinson talks us through the passion and politics behind his life's work.
Also, how to stay awake when reading - we try and find the key to not dropping off a few pages into a good book.
Programme Book List
1) The Promise of Happiness, Justin Cartwright
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 0747570345
2) The Blackpool Highflyer, Andrew Martin
Publisher: Faber
ISBN: 0571219012
3) The Rhythms of Life, Leon Kreitzman, Russell Foster, Lewis Wolpert (Foreword)
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1861972350
4) The Dry Salvages, T. S. Eliot
5) Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
6) 4.50 from Paddington, Agatha Christie
7) Mystery of the Blue Train, Agatha Christie
8) The Cask, Freeman Wills Crofts
9) Sherlock Holmes - The Bruce-Partington Plans, Arthur Conan Doyle
10) The Wheel Spins, Ethel White
11) Stamboul Train, Graham Greene
12) From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming
13) Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith
Books by Jose Saramago
1) The Double, Jose Saramago
Publisher: Harvill
ISBN: 1843430991
2) The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
3) The Cave
4) Blindness
5) The History of the Seige of Lisbon
6) The Stone Raft
7) Journey to Portugal
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