Salley Vickers

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Joan Bakewell explores the beliefs of artists, thinkers, religious leaders and other public figures in a returning series of programmes on Radio 3. Tonight Joan Bakewell's guest is the novelist Salley Vickers. Salley Vickers wrote her first novel at the age of fifty after careers in university education and psychoanalysis. Miss Garnet's Angel, the story of an atheistic, uptight woman who flourishes during a winter spent among the churches and art of Venice, became an instant bestseller. Her succeeding novels, including Mr Golightly's holiday and The Other Side Of you, also have a spiritual dimension, featuring angels, Old Testament prophets - and God. Even so religion's arch-critic Philip Pullman describes her as "a presence to be cherished." Listen to "Belief" and you 'll understand why.