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 15th April 2007
Graham Swift on his novel Tomorrow and recommendations for a farmer's wife trying to encourage her husband to read more.
Graham Swift In his new novel Graham Swift, who won the Man Booker prize for Last Orders, has entered the mind of an anxious mother lying awake at night, worrying about breaking life-changing news to her twins the following day.
He talks to Mariella about writing in the voice of a woman, about why he describes the eve of the drama rather than the drama itself and why he's proud to have created a happy family in this book.
Graham Swift - Waterland Publisher: Picador
Graham Swift - Last Orders Publisher: Picador
Graham Swift -Tomorrow (20 April 2007) Publisher: Picador
Writing from beyond the grave This month a new book from J R R Tolkien comes out, even though the Hobbit author died over thirty years ago. His son Christopher has created the Children of Hurin from his father's papers, but both Tolkien senior and junior appear on the cover.
Earlier this year the career of Catherine Cookson was also extended when romantic novelist Rosie Goodwin wrote a sequel to her Tilly Trotter books. Rosie's editor, Flora Rees, talks to Mariella about why they decided to give Cookson a new lease of life.
JRR Tolkein, Christopher Tolkein and Alan Lee - Children of Hurin Publisher: HarperCollins (16 April 2007)
Rosie Goodwin - Tilly Trotter's Legacy Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (22 Feb 2007)
Reading Clinic Horatio Clare, author of Running For The Hills advises a farmer's wife who would like her husband to share her love of reading for recreation and is looking for some books that might persuade him.
Sheep: The Remarkable Story of the Humble Animal that Built the Modern World - Alan Butler Publisher: O Books
On the Black Hill - Bruce Chatwin Publisher: Vintage
A Shepherd’s Watch: Through the Seasons with One Man and His Dogs - David Kennard Publisher: Headline Books
Out of Africa - Karen Blixen Publisher: Penguin Books
The Poacher’s Handbook - Ian Niall and Barbara Greg Publisher: Merlin Unwin Books
US Books invasion As several American novels are published on this side of the Atlantic Mariella talks to John Freeman, chairman of the US National Book Critics Circle, about the state of publishing and reading in the US.
American Youth - Phil LeMarche Publisher: Sceptre
The Keep - Jennifer Egan Publisher: Abacus
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million - Daniel Mendelsohn Publisher: HarperPress
