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 11th February 2007
Justin Cartwright talks about his latest book, The Song Before It Is Sung.
Justin Cartwright Justin Cartwright's life long fascination with philosopher Isaiah Berlin has led him to write a novel about Berlin's friendship with Adam von Trott, one of the German aristocrats involved in the plot to kill Hitler.
He talks to Mariella about how he used the known facts to create his fictional version.
The Song Before It Is Sung - Justin Cartwright Publisher: Bloomsbury
Promise of Happiness - Justin Cartwright Publisher: Bloomsbury
White Lightning - Justin Cartwright Publisher: Sceptre
Get It Loud In Libraries The Get It Loud in Libraries project invites up and coming bands to shatter the usual peace of libraries by performing in them. Mariella is joined by Stewart Parsons from Lancaster Library - who's behind the scheme, and Ben Hudson, lead singer of Mr Hudson and the Library who have recently completely a library tour.
Mr Hudson and the Library's album, A Tale of Two Cities, is released on 5 March on Mercury Records.
Unusual Typography Books for children use text and typography in a variety of imaginative ways; so why do adult novels traditionally confine themselves to rows and rows of text?
Open Book talks to Steven Hall, author of The Raw Shark Texts, who's challenging that convention - his book includes blank pages and pictures of sharks drawn using the words themselves.
Designer Zoe Sadokierski and design critic Rick Poynor reveal that he's not the only writer experimenting with unusual typographical effects, nor is the phenomenon is as recent as we might think.
The Raw Shark Tales - Steven Hall Publisher: Canongate
Woman's World - Graham Rawle Publisher: Atlantic Books
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer Publisher: Penguin
House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski Publisher: Doubleday
Bernard Cooper When he was 28, American writer Bernard Cooper was sent a bill by his father for the cost of his upbringing.
He's now written a memoir about his complicated relationship with his Dad, a cantankerous, difficult man prone to turning every conversation into an argument.
But, as he tells Mariella, it is written with a great deal of empathy and understanding.
The Bill From My Father - Bernard Cooper Publisher: Picador
