Literary Landscape: John Banville and 1950s Dublin

Available for over a year

In a Literary Landscape special for Open Book, Irish author John Banville, aka crime writer Benjamin Black, takes Mariella Frostrup on a tour of the foggy streets, smoke-filled bars and genteel hotel tea rooms of 1950s Dublin. Banville explains why he was drawn to the Fifties for his Quirke series of crime fiction and discusses some of the major writers from that period - J P Donleavy, Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh and Mary Lavin. Together, he and Mariella visit some of the locations that feature in Benjamin Black's Quirke novels. Presenter: Mariella Frostrup Reader: Owen Roe Producer: Emma Harding.