Tibor Fischer
Tibor Fischer's fifth novel and the first in five years "Good to Be God" is set in Miami where professional failure Tyndale Corbett goes to a security conference after borrowing the credit card and identity of handcuffs salesman. His last stand against total failure is to attempt convince the citizenry of Miami that he is God by performing miracles, including what he hopes will be the clincher, dying and coming back to life. Comic novelist Tibor Fischer's first novel was short listed for the Booker prize and he was listed as a Granta best young British novelist.
Books for a rainy day.
After weeks of persistent rain, critic Kate Saunders suggests books to transform listeners to sunnier climes, or if not, sunnier climes then at least a sunnier mood.
Frankenstein in Fiction.
When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818, prompted by the now legendary ghost story writing competition at the literary gathering of Byron and the Shelley’s and others at the Villa Diodati in Italy, it would have been impossible for anyone to predict how her novel would almost immediately touch a nerve in the zeitgeist, spawning numerous creations of its own. Peter Ackroyd, author of a new book "The Case Book of Victor Frankenstein” in which Frankenstein is actually a friend of the Shelley’s and a guest at the Villa Diodati gathering which inspired his creation, novelist and academic Rebecca Stott, and Professor of Literature Chris Baldick talk about the different ways in which the Frankenstein legend has been interpreted and the way it speaks to us now.
Winston Graham Centenary
Winston Graham wrote some fifty books, but it is the twelve Poldark novels for which he is renowned. The first Poldark novel, called "Ross Poldark, A Novel of Cornwall" was published in 1945 and the last Bella Poldark in 2002, the year before Graham’s death. Immortalised by the extremely popular television series of the 70s, attracting 15 million viewers, the books were fantastically successful in the own right, their fans identifying with the eternal love triangle at its heart, Ross Poldark marries his kitchen maid Demelza but holds a flame for Elizabeth tyrannised by the book’s villain, George Warleggan. All this set against the very realistic backdrop 18th century Cornwall. Winston Graham's son Andrew Graham remembers his father's writing, and Mariella talks to Nickianne Moodie editor of Popular Narrative Media about the amazing success of the Poldark novels.
|
