Julian Barnes; How Words Get Good; Bangkok Postcard

Available for over a year

Elizabeth Day talks to Julian Barnes about his latest book Elizabeth Finch. Finch is a teacher, thinker, and intellectual inspiration to her mature student Neil. When she dies he unpacks her many notebooks to study her ideas of the past and writes the story of the Roman Emperor, Julian the Apostate, her historical soulmate. Julian Barnes also talks to Open Book's Elizabeth about cancel culture, the absence of young male writers, and why his bisexual sleuth, Duffy, from his 1980s crime novels isn't likely to be resurrected. With over twenty years in the publishing industry, Rebecca Lee talks about her book How Words Get Good, which explores the history and process of writing a book. From getting the first words on the page to book cover design and blurbs, and why 20,000 copies of The Importance of Being Earnest headed to the pulp. While Bangkok resident and writer Emma Larkin sends her literary postcard revealing the city's multifarious books scene. Presenter: Elizabeth Day Producer: Kirsten Locke Book List – Sunday 24 April and Thursday 28 April Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes The Only Story by Julian Barnes How Words Get Good by Rebecca Lee Lord of the Flies by William Golding Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography by Charles Moore Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin Everything is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma by Emma Larkin A Woman of Bangkok by Jack Reynolds Four Reigns by Kukrit Pramoj The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth by Veeraporn Nitiprapha The Sad Part Was by Prabda Yoon: Translated by Mui Poopoksakul Comrade Aeon’s Field Guide to Bangkok by Emma Larkin