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
14 December and 18 December 2008
Emily Gravett, one of the children's authors joining Mariella to talk about some of her favourite children's books of 2008.
Sean O'Brien
Mariella Frostrup talks to the poet Sean O'Brien, last year's winner of the Forward and T S Eliot Prizes. He explains why he finds the silence of libraries fascinating and sinister, and why he chose one as the setting for his first work of fiction.
Sean O'Brien: The Silence Room is published by Comma Press
Children's Books of the Year
Mariella is joined by the children's writers Philip Ardagh and Emily Gravett, as well as Caroline Horn, children's books editor of the Bookseller. They choose their favourite children's titles of 2008, from pre-school picture books to the best in teen fiction.
In 1976 the American academic Norman Maclean published his first book at the age of 74. Now seen as the poet laureate of fly-fishing, Maclean was made famous by the 1993 film adaptation of A River Runs Through It. As a new collection of his work is published, Mariella talks to a fan, Professor Margaret Soltan, to find out more.
The Norman Maclean Reader is published by University of Chicago Press.
