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
26 October 2008
Bernard Cornwell on his bestseller about Agincourt; seventy years of the Teach Yourself books; and Nevil Shute's chilling classic.
Bernard Cornwell
Mariella talks to the novelist Bernard Cornwell, whose latest book is a vivid retelling of the events leading up to the battle of Agincourt. He explains how growing up in a bizarre religious cult fostered a love of history, and reveals the surprising discovery he made when he finally met his natural mother late in life.
Bernard Cornwell: Azincourt is published by HarperCollins
Teach Yourself… at Seventy
In 1938 a new range of self-improvement books hit the market. The earliest titles included Teach Yourself Embroidery and Teach Yourself to Fly. Seventy years and hundreds of titles later the author of a new history of the series, Trevor Barnes, joins Mariella to look at how it charts the changing priorities of a nation.
Trevor Barnes: People with a Purpose is published by Teach Yourself Books.
On the Beach
Mariella talks to the Australian writer Gideon Haigh about Nevil Shute's masterpiece On the Beach. Published in 1957, it's a chilling portrait of the world a year after a major nuclear war has devastated the planet. Gideon explains what it can tell us, half a century on.
Nevil Shute: On the Beach is published by House of Stratus.
