1: The Book on the Train

Available for over a year

A sparkling new 10-part literary whodunnit from the acclaimed author William Boyd, set on the remote Scottish Isle of Jura, and featuring amateur sleuth, Bethany Mellmoth. When Orwell obsessive Bethany Mellmoth finds herself in possession of a rare copy of 1984, so begins a literary trail that will take her to the remote Scottish island where the book was written. On Jura, Bethany, in the seemingly genteel company of an antiquarian bookseller, takes on the role of amateur sleuth, as she faces skulduggery and scams, and even threats to her own life... Today: when a man drops a book on the tube, George Orwell-obsessive Bethany Mellmoth decides it's fate when she sees it's a rare copy of 1984. But what should she do with it? The Jura Affair was inspired by and developed from a short story published in 2017. Writer: William Boyd, is one of the UK's most acclaimed writers. He is the author of 17 novels, including A Good Man in Africa, winner of the Whitbread Literary Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An Ice Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and shortlisted for the Booker prize; Any Human Heart, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet; and Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year. Reader: Ruth Everett Producer: Justine Willett