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
09 March 2008
Justine Picardie on Daphne du Maurier and the forgotten Bronte; the fake Holocaust memoir; and interactive novels.
Justine Picardie
Mariella Frostrup talks to Justine Picardie about her obsession with Daphne du Maurier. Picardie’s new novel Daphne is a fictional depiction of a period in the writer’s life when she was pursuing her interest in Branwell Bronte, the less well-known brother of Charlotte and Emily Bronte. Justine Picardie tells Mariella how she found her own life reflecting Daphne du Maurier’s literary quest.
Daphne: Justine Picardie Publisher: Bloomsbury
Fake memoir
As a bestselling Holocaust memoir is found to be a fake, Mariella is joined by the journalist Blake Eskin to discuss the case, and look at the parallels with a similar book that was discredited a decade ago.
A Life in Pieces: Blake Eskin Publisher: Aurum Press
Surviving With Wolves: Misha Defonseca: Publisher: Portrait
Interactive Fiction
Two recent novels allow the reader to choose what happens next. Emma Campbell Webster, author of Being Elizabeth Bennet, explains why she felt Pride and Prejudice had to go interactive; and Heather McElhatton talks about her fiction debut Pretty Little Mistakes, a book with one beginning but 150 endings.
Being Elizabeth Bennet: Emma Campbell Webster Publisher: Century
Pretty Little Mistakes: Heather McElhatton Publisher: Century
Reading and the Brain
Mariella is joined by the cognitive scientist Maryanne Wolf, the author of a new study of reading and the brain, to discuss the evolution of the written word, and how our brains have adapted to cope with it.
Proust and the Squid: Maryanne Wolf Publisher: Icon Books
