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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Open Book

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics

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Open Book: Ian Rankin discusses The Impossible Dead with Mariella Frostrup

16/10/2011

Ian Rankin discusses The Impossible Dead with Mariella Frostrup

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Ian Rankin discusses The Impossible Dead with Mariella Frostrup

Ian Rankin talks to Mariella Frostrup about his latest crime novel The Impossible Dead.

Ian Rankin talks to Mariella Frostrup about his latest crime thriller The Impossible Dead, and world-famous photographer Don McCullin gives his five of the best books.

Ian Rankin discusses his latest crime thriller The Impossible Dead, and why he decided to return to the character of Inspector Malcolm Fox from the Complaints Unit - the cops who deal with the dirty business of internal police affairs. He also describes the inspiration behind setting his investigation in the murky world surrounding a Scottish Nationalist cell in the 1980s.

In the 160 years since the serialisation of Madame Bovary caused a public outcry, there have been many translations of this novel into English and this month sees yet another version, this time by Adam Thorpe. Also just published is yet another undiscovered masterpiece, The Wine of Solitude, from Irene Nemirovsky. Her posthumous series of books since the best-selling Suite Francaise have all been translated from French by the Cambridge academic Sandra Smith. It got us wondering here on Open Book who has the easier job, Thorpe with his revisiting of a much loved and much translated classic, or Smith with no such ghosts from the past peering over her shoulder.

Don McCullin is renowned as one of the most important war photographers in the world, although it's a term he's not comfortable with himself. He's travelled the globe for over 50 years documenting events of international significance including in Vietnam, Lebanon, Berlin and Biafra, and his iconic images have helped to shape our awareness of conflict and its consequences. He discusses with Mariella his five of the best books.

Producer: Andrea Kidd.

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