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 29th July 2007
Vintage Twins, a new way of encouraging us to read classic books.
Vintage Twins
Mariella Frostrup talks to publisher Liz Foley and fiction editor of the Sunday Times Peter Kemp about a new publishing initiative designed to encourage readers to see the classics in a new light. Vintage Twins pairs a modern novel with an old one, based on shared themes, so Trainspotting is linked with Oliver Twist while Possession is married to Middlemarch.
Marcus Sedgwick
Novelist Marcus Sedgwick's new book was inspired by his love of Arthur Ransome's writing. In Blood Red, Snow White he recreates the period in Ransome's life when the Swallows and Amazons author was living in revolutionary Russia and was accused by all sides of spying.
Blood Red, Snow White Publisher: Orion Children's Books (imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd)
My Swordhand is Singing Publisher: Orion Children's Books
Floodland Publisher: Orion Children's Books
The Dark Flight Down (Book of Dead Days) Publisher: Orion Children's Books
The Foreshadowing Publisher: Orion Children's Books
Witch Hill Publisher: Orion Children's Books
The Dark Horse Publisher: Orion Children's Books
The Dead Days Omnibus Publisher: Orion Children's Books
Reading Clinic: Italian crime and political fiction
In response to a query to our Reading Clinic, Joe Farrell, professor of Italian Studies at Strathclyde University, recommends the best of Italian crime and political fiction.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco Publisher: Vintage Classics
The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia Arthur Oliver (Translator) Publisher: Granta Books
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) Publisher: Picador
A Walk in the Dark by Gianrico Carofiglio Howard Curtis (Translator) Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
The Columbian Mule by Massimo Carlotto Publisher: Orion
The Agent
Playwright Martin Wagner talks to Mariella Frostrup about his new play, which portrays an antagonistic encounter between a writer and his literary agent.
The Agent is on at the Trafalgar Studios in London until 18 August.
