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The Book Café: 23/01/2012

23/01/2012

BBC Radio Scotland - The Book Café, 23/01/2012

A preview of a new collection of songs based on George Mackay Brown's short stories.

Featuring a preview of a new collection of songs based on George Mackay Brown's short stories.

We're looking north and thinking about Island life and culture...


Fair Isle-based singer-songwriter Lise Sinclair gives us a sneak preview of her latest collection of songs, inspired by the characters in a book of short stories by Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown. 


Donald S Murray's father was a weaver of Harris Tweed on the Isle of Lewis. A single father to his two small sons, like many of the villagers he worked from home on the loom and, as a child, Donald knew exactly where he was in the village using only his ears, because each machine had its own unique sound. He joins us to talk about Weaving Songs; part memoir, part poetry collection, it's his tribute to croft, cloth and community.


Also: we find out how to access Live Literature Funding, a pot of money available to anyone wanting to host their own event featuring their favourite author.


'Some of us came from the mountains, and had never before seen the sea... ' American writer Julie Otsuka discusses her novel The Buddha in the Attic, a moving collective history of the Japanese women who sailed to California after World War One as 'picture brides', with no plans other than their arranged marriages to men they'd only ever seen in photographs. 


Producer: Serena Field.

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The Book Café

23/01/2012

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