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BBC Radio 4 LW

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

BBC Radio 4 FM

Mariella Frostrup

Conn Iggulden

Horatio Clare

Susie Boyt

Caroline Sanderson

Andrea Kidd

Open Book: Conn Iggulden; Autumn in literature; The best non-fiction

20/10/2013

Conn Iggulden; Autumn in literature; The best non-fiction

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Conn Iggulden; Autumn in literature; The best non-fiction

Conn Iggulden on Stormbird, the first in his new series set during The Wars of the Roses.

Conn Iggulden on Stormbird, the first in his new series set during The Wars of the Roses; Horatio Clare and Susie Boyt discuss Autumn in literature; and the best of non-fiction.

Conn Iggulden made publishing history by topping the fiction and non-fiction hardback bestseller lists simultaneously with the first in his Genghis Khan series, Wolf of the Plains and the nostalgic How To manual he co-authored with his brother, The Dangerous Book for Boys. Subsequent instalments of Khan's Mongolian adventures sold millions, as did his series set in Julius Caesar's Ancient Rome.

Conn explains why for his latest series, which starts with the novel Stormbird, he has turned his attention to the Wars of the Roses; a turbulent time in British history, when the Houses of Lancaster and York battled for control of the throne.

From a touch of spring fever to the 'full glow and luxuriance of summer', we are now in the season of 'mists and mellow fruitfulness' as Keats would have it. Continuing our series looking at the influence of the seasons on literature, authors Horatio Clare and Susie Boyt discuss the creative power of Autumn.

Caroline Sanderson is a fervent advocate of non-fiction, which she says combines "the allure of a marvellous story with the telling of real things we really should know." She explores the best of the current crop of non-fiction works, gives suggestions for book groups and explains why she feels that non-fiction can do anything fiction does and often does it better.

Producer: Andrea Kidd.

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