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Mark Lawson

William Boyd

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Lucy Wood

Ella-mai Robey

Front Row: Johnny Vegas, William Boyd, BBC Short Story Award

Johnny Vegas, William Boyd, BBC Short Story Award

25/09/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Johnny Vegas, William Boyd, BBC Short Story Award

Mark Lawson meets writer William Boyd, as he publishes a new James Bond novel.

Arts news with Mark Lawson. Johnny Vegas looks behind his now infamous persona, William Boyd is set to publish a new James Bond novel, and the BBC National Short Story Award.

With Mark Lawson

Comedian and actor Johnny Vegas - real name Michael Pennington - talks to Mark about dropping out of seminary school before embarking on a career in stand-up comedy and how his drunken persona threatened to take over entirely. His autobiography Becoming Johnny Vegas takes a candid look back at the person behind the persona.

This week sees the publication of Solo in which a 45-year-old James Bond, haunted by his memories of his service at the D-Day landings, is sent from 1960s London to help end a war in the fictional African state of Zanzarim. William Boyd discusses how he went through the Fleming canon to learn about the UK's most celebrated spy, writing him from a modern day perspective which meant dealing with his 70-a-day cigarette habit and ferocious drinking, plus why he includes a recipe for Bond's salad dressing.

The next writer in Front Row's series of interviews with the contenders for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 is Lucy Wood, whose story is about a group of ghosts that watch over a Cornish house and its changing inhabitants. Notes from the House Spirits is broadcast tomorrow at 3.30pm on Radio 4.

Producer Ella-mai Robey.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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