Marina Warner - in the company of leading contemporary writers - looks at the world of contemporary fiction, considering writing and storytelling from a number of different angles.

Marina is the Chair of the Man Booker International Prize 2015 and this programme draws on the expertise of this year's International Booker judging panel, the views of the shortlisted writers, as well as other key literary talent.

She speaks with writers as diverse as Julian Barnes, Michelle Roberts, Fanny Howe, Marlene van Niekerk, Alain Mabanckou, Lydia Davis, Edwin Frank, Elleke Boehmer, Wen-Chin Ouyang, Daniel Medin, Nadeem Aslam and this year's Man Booker International winner, Laszlo Krasznahorkai.

Key to this exploration will be questions around the boundaries between fact and fiction, which Marina believes are central to any discussion of the subject, since readers' pleasure depends so much on trust built up between the storyteller/writer and the audience.

In this compilation created from five programmes originally broadcast in July this year, Marina considers why we should read and write, the importance of truth, and story as witness to history. She begins by considering our first encounters with stories.

Producer: Kevin Dawson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4. Show less