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Last broadcast on Thu, 27 Aug 2009, 16:00 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Muriel Gray talks to novelist Iain Banks, whose latest book, Transition, brings together science fiction and the contemporary concerns of terrorism and global financial collapse. Plus biographer Paula Byrne discussing the eccentric family who inspired Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.
Iain Banks
Iain Banks’ new novel, Transition, is a landmark book in the writer’s career. Possibly best known for Wasp Factory and The Crow Road, Banks is also a highly regarded writer of science fiction which he publishes under the name of Iain M Banks. This is the first book to bridge the gap between the two genres and is also highly topical in its themes – exploring the use of torture, religious fundamentalism and the rights and responsibilities of those in power.
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited is one of Evelyn Waugh’s most celebrated novels. Biographer Paula Bryne’s new book “Mad World Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead” explores Waugh’s relationship with the Lygon family on whom the Marchmains – the family at the heart of the Brideshead – was based. Writer and fellow biographer DJ Taylor and Paula Byrne discuss the sensational documents she discovered during her research and what Waugh’s lifelong friendship with Lygon family reveals about Waugh the man.
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
Crime writer Ian Rankin celebrates James’s Hogg’s “The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner” written in 1824. Written by a self taught Scottish shepherd, this lesser known Scottish classic is set in a pseudo Christian world of angels, devils and demonic possession and is a probing and topical quest into the nature of religious fanaticism.
Booklist
Transition: Iain Banks
Publisher: Little Brown
Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead”
By Paula Byrne
Publisher: Harper Press
Brideshead Revisited: Evelyn Waugh
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson: Paula Byrne
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Orwell: The Life: D J Taylor
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: James Hogg
Publisher: Vintage
Broadcasts
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Sun 23 Aug 200916:00
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Thu 27 Aug 200916:00
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