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The Book Café: 19/09/2011

19/09/2011

BBC Radio Scotland - The Book Café, 19/09/2011

Clare English asks Madeline Miller why she rewrote the Iliad to tell Achilles' love story.

Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller's retelling of Homer's Iliad, has been tipped to do for the Greek classics what Brokeback Mountain did for cowboys. Clare English finds out more.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is arguably the most popular Sherlock Holmes story of all time, but did you know the idea was originally conceived as a collaboration between a young journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson and Arthur Conan Doyle? Writer John O'Connell tells Clare about his fictional account of the encounter between Conan Doyle and the young journalist, and the creepy events which follow.
Madeline Miller's re-telling of Homer's Iliad Song of Achilles has been tipped to do for the Greek Classics what Brokeback Mountain did for cowboys...intrigued? Clare speaks to Madeline about what led her to write an intense love story between Achilles and Patroclus, and her own love of Homer. 
Natalie Haynes studied the Greek Classics at university and believes modern life is much more interesting when viewed through the lens of the Classics...Clare and Natalie discuss modern re-writings of the Classics. 
Are books dead? And can authors survive? These were questions posed and answered very bleakly by Ewan Morrison at the Edinburgh Book Festival...Clare challenges Ewan on his controversial position. 
Nick Sharratt is one of the country's most successful children's illustrators. Our reporter Bob Dickson caught up with him at last month's Edinburgh Book Festival. 
Wigtown Book Festival returns on the 23rd of September, and this year their authors aren't just telling people about their books...they're letting them experience them. Dr Andrew Murray is a GP by day and motivational speaker in his spare time who ran from Scotland to the Sahara for charity. He'll be taking willing participants at the festival out for a 5K run and telling them all about his new book Running Beyond Limits - he tells Clare why he loves running so much.

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19/09/2011

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