Marcus Sedgwick, Vintage Twins, Italian Crime Novels, and The Agent

Available for over a year

Vintage Twins Mariella Frostrup talks to publisher Liz Foley and fiction editor of the Sunday Times Peter Kemp about a new publishing initiative designed to encourage readers to see the classics in a new light. Vintage Twins pairs a modern novel with an old one, based on shared themes, so Trainspotting is linked with Oliver Twist while Possession is married to Middlemarch. Marcus Sedgwick Novelist Marcus Sedgwick's new book was inspired by his love of Arthur Ransome's writing. In Blood Red, Snow White he recreates the period in Ransome's life when the Swallows and Amazons author was living in revolutionary Russia and was accused by all sides of spying. Reading Clinic: Italian crime and political fiction In response to a query to our Reading Clinic, Joe Farrell, professor of Italian Studies at Strathclyde University, recommends the best of Italian crime and political fiction. The Agent Playwright Martin Wagner talks to Mariella Frostrup about his new play, which portrays an antagonistic encounter between a writer and his literary agent.