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 9 April 2006
Novelist Salley Vickers talks to Mariella Frostrup about her new book The Other Side of You, which was inspired by Caravaggio's painting The Supper at Emmaus (pictured).
Click here to see all the paintings mentioned in the programme
Salley Vickers
Salley Vickers' debut novel Miss Garnet's Angel was a best seller. She talks to Mariella Frostrup about her fourth novel, which like her first, is set partly in Italy and considers the redemptive power of art. The Other Side of You was inspired by Caravaggio, and tells the story of a psychiatrist and his intense relationship with one of his patients.
The Other Side of You - Sally Vickers Publisher: Fourth Estate ISBN: 0007165447
Miss Garnet's Angel - Salley Vickers Publisher: HarperCollins ISBN: 0006514219
This week, we'd like you to offer advice to the latest reading clinic problem. Our patient is asking for books set in Australia in the nineteenth century. Here's the problem:
In common with I'm sure many people my ancestors spent time in Australia. Can you recommend some light reading - fiction or non-fiction - set in the colony in the period 1850-1900? Perhaps a 'family saga' or something similar? Something which would give a flavour of what life was like there at that time. Thank you.
Last year, Macmillan launched a new scheme to help first time novelists get published. They could dispense with literary agents and send manuscripts to publishers direct. The idea - and the contract offered to first time novelists - was heavily criticised by some commentators. This month the first six books accepted by Macmillan are published. Brian Martin and Suroopa Mukherjee, two of the chosen writers, and publisher Michael Barnard, join Mariella to discss the project.
North - Brian Martin Publisher: Macmillan New Writing ISBN: 0230000002
Selfish Jean - Cate Sweeney Publisher: Macmillan New Writing ISBN: 0230001858
Dark Rain - Conor Corderoy Publisher: Macmillan New Writing ISBN: 023000010X
Taking Comfort - Roger Morris Publisher: Macmillan New Writing ISBN: 0230001378
The Manuscript - Michael Stephen Fuchs Publisher: Macmillan New Writing ISBN: 0230000096
Across the Mystic Shore - Suroopa Mukherjee Publisher: Macmillan New Writing ISBN: 0230000509
There have been a steady stream of books fictionalising the great painters' lives, including Javier Sierra's "The Secret Supper" and Margaret Forster's "Keeping The World Away". To investigate why the lives of artists appeal to novelists, Open Book spoke to Sarah Miano, author of Van Rijn - a book about Rembrandt - and to Arabella Edge whose new book "The Raft" is inspired by Theodore Gericault's painting, "The Raft of the Medusa.
Van Rjin - Sarah Miano Publisher: Picador ISBN: 0330411802
The Raft - Arabella Edge Publisher: Picador ISBN: 0330418475
The Secret Supper - Javier Sierra Publisher: Simon & Schuster ISBN: 0743276299
Keeping the World Away - Margaret Forster Publisher: Chatto and Windus ISBN: 0701179821
