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
13 July 2008
Patrick McGrath, whose novels study the unstable mind. Photographer: Marion Ettlinger.
Patrick McGrath Author Patrick McGrath joins Open Book to discuss his new novel, Trauma, set in 1970s New York. His novels are often centred around characters with unstable minds. Mariella asks Patrick whether this is the result of growing up in the shadow of Broadmoor Hospital, where his father was superintendent.
The Grotesque – Patrick McGrath Publisher: Penguin
Asylum - Patrick McGrath Publisher: Penguin
Dr Haggards Disease - Patrick McGrath Publisher: Vintage
Martha Peake - Patrick McGrath Publisher: Vintage
Trauma - Patrick McGrath Publisher: Bloomsbury
Herman Melville Moby Dick is now the best known of Herman Melville’s books. However, Melville’s Israel Potter, a historical novel first published in 1856, has now been republished. The novelist Benjamin Markovits talk to Mariella about Melville, who worked for the Customs Revenue in New York for the latter part of his life, and died in relative obscurity.
Israel Potter – Herman Melville Publisher: Penguin
Moby Dick – Herman Melville Publisher: Penguin
Billy Budd – Herman Melville Publisher: OUP
Bartleby The Scrivener – Herman Melville Publisher: Hesperus Classics
The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow Publisher: Penguin
Upstairs Downstairs Bethan Robert’s second novel, The Good Plain Cook, follows the fortunes of a young woman entering domestic service in the 1930s. Why are authors drawn to write about the relationships between the upper classes and their servants? Kathryn Hughes and Bethan Roberts join Mariella to talk about the lure of upstairs/downstairs.
The Good Plain Cook – Bethan Roberts Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
The Short Life And Long Times Of Mrs Beeton – Kathryn Hughes Publisher: Harper Perennial
The Remains Of The Day – Kazuo Ishiguro Publisher: Faber and Faber
Pamela – Samuel Richardson Publisher: Oxford World Classics
Shamela – Henry Fielding Publisher: Oxford World Classics
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte Publisher: Penguin
The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins Publisher: Oxford World Classics
Mrs Woolf And The Servants – Alison Light Publisher: Penguin
What Is She Doing Here? – Kate Clanchy Publisher: Picador
