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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: Christopher Buckley on his latest novel They Eat Puppies, Don't They

29/07/2012

Christopher Buckley on his latest novel They Eat Puppies, Don't They

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Christopher Buckley on his latest novel They Eat Puppies, Don't They

Christopher Buckley discusses his latest novel They Eat Puppies, Don't They.

Christopher Buckley discusses his latest novel They Eat Puppies, Don't They, and Ann Cleeves and Zoe Ferraris discuss setting their crime novels in unusual places.

Mariella Frostrup talks to Christopher Buckley about his latest novel "They Eat Puppies, Don't They?", a satirical tale in which the shenanigans of Washington lobbyists bring America to the brink of war with China. A classic "what if" narrative which dramatises the doomsday scenario following the untimely death of the Dalai Lama, using Donald Rumsfeld's maxim - "If you can't solve a problem, make it bigger" - as a guiding principle. Author of "Thank You For Smoking" and "The White House Mess", Christopher Buckley was himself once a speech writer for Vice President George Bush (senior) and also the son of the influential Republican commentator William Buckley. In this novel he exploits his inside knowledge of the workings of politics at its highest level to full comic potential.

Mariella also looks at crime in unusual locations. With the television series Vera - based on the Vera Stanhope crime novel series and in which Brenda Blethyn stars alongside such spectacular North Eastern settings as Tod le Moor, Linhope Spout and Thrum Mill - attracting six million plus viewers, we consider why location is such an integral and influential element in the crime novel. And what is the growing appeal of more exotic - and often more rural - locations compared to the mean streets of the gritty urban underworlds that crime novels more traditionally inhabit. With Vera Stanhope creator Ann Cleeves - whose other successful crime series is set in the virtually crime free Shetland Isles - and Zoe Ferraris, who sets her crime novels in Saudi Arabia where she once lived. 

Anthony Cheetham's latest publishing start-up, Head of Zeus, will publish 24 titles between May 2012 and January 2013, with Fay Weldon among its launch authors. Another 36 titles are planned for the following year. Cheetham's been described as a genius and our greatest living publisher by his peers, having helped to shape many of our great publishers including Century, Orion and Quercus. So why is he launching a new publishing house in the middle of a recession when sales of print books are experiencing their worst ever decline - is he the visionary who will at last enable publishers to embrace the challenge posed by the e-book revolution?

Producer: Hilary Dunn.

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