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Kirsty Lang

Toby Litt

Cathy Rentzenbrink

Sara Lloyd

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Ellie Bury

Front Row: Under the Skin; Publicising books; Shetland; Karen Joy Fowler

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11/03/2014

Under the Skin; Publicising books; Shetland; Karen Joy Fowler

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Under the Skin; Publicising books; Shetland; Karen Joy Fowler

Under the Skin reviewed; book publicity tactics; crime drama Shetland; Karen Joy Fowler.

Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin reviewed; changing book publicity tactics discussed; the return of Shetland to the BBC; novelist Karen Joy Fowler on chimp manners.

With Kirsty Lang.

Scarlett Johansson plays an alien wandering around Glasgow looking for human prey in Under The Skin, which was filmed without some of the cast realising they were in a movie or that they were talking to a Hollywood star. Novelist Toby Litt delivers his verdict on Jonathan Glazer's adaptation of Michael Farber's science fiction novel.

On the day research from the University of Sheffield shows half the country picks up a book at least once a week for pleasure, and 45% prefer television, Front Row looks at the fast changing world of publicising books. Publishers are producing their own book programmes and podcasts, authors are appearing in online trailers and are increasingly responsible for promoting their own work. Kirsty finds out about the latest developments from Cathy Rentzenbrink from the Bookseller, Sara Lloyd from Pan Macmillan and author Toby Litt.

Karen Joy Fowler's novel The Jane Austen Book Club spent 13 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was a successful Hollywood film. She talks to Kirsty about her latest book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. It's the story of an American family - with a twist. Karen explains how she drew upon her psychologist father's work with rats and chimpanzees when writing the novel, and how important it is to learn good 'chimp manners' when visiting a chimp colony.

After a successful on-air pilot, Douglas Henshall returns as a detective and single dad in Shetland, an adaptation of Ann Cleeves' series of crime novels about nefarious activities on the remote Scottish islands.

Producer: Ellie Bury.

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