Simon Schama, America in Primetime, Here Lies Love, Basti

Available for over a year

With Anne McElvoy. Good historical writing is a matter of evidence, interpretation - and imagination. Simon Schama's collection of novellas Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations explores the relationship between history and imagination by recreating the various stories surrounding two historical and much discussed deaths. Simon Schama joins Anne to discuss his foray into literature, and the controversy it caused amongst historians. As a new series starts on BBC 2 looking at American Primetime TV, Simon Schama and Alan Yentob discuss how popular American TV series from I Love Lucy through to The Cosby Show and Sex and the City have reflected American social history. They are joined by American TV Executive Caryn Mandabach who helped create many of the biggest Primetime hits, including The Cosby Show, to question how far these TV dramas are reliable social documents. Kamila Shamsie, one of Granta's Best Young Novelists, reflects on Intizar Husain and his masterpiece, Basti, a vivid fictional account of Pakistan from partition to the present that has made its author one of the frontrunners for this year's Man Booker International Prize. The musician and artist David Byrne has written a musical about the life of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines. Its being staged in New York as an immersive theatre event set in a disco. David Darcy reviews.