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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

Joseph O'Connor

Louise Welsh

Andrew Wilson

Clara Farmer

David Baddiel

Open Book: 18/05/2014

18/05/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, 18/05/2014

Joseph O'Connor on his new novel The Thrill of It All. With Mariella Frostrup.

Joseph O'Connor tells Mariella Frostrup about his new novel about a fictional band, The Thrill of it All, and Louise Welsh and Andrew Wilson on the elusive Ms Patricia Highsmith.

Joseph O'Connor - who first came to international fame with his 2002 historical novel "Star of the Sea" - joins Mariella Frostrup to talk about his new book, The Thrill Of It All, an account of the rollercoaster life of a fictional band in the 80s. Four musicians who meet in the unglamourous surrounding of Luton Poly and form a band called The Ships in the Night take the eighties music world by storm although success brings inevitable conflict - and disillusion soon sets in. Told in the distinctive style of a faux music biography, Joseph discusses his own experiences of the music world as older brother to his pop star sister Sinead.

As Patricia Highsmith's novel The Two Faces of January hits the cinema screens this week crime writer Louise Welsh and biographer Andrew Wilson discuss the life and personality of the writer who is credited with creating the first likeable psychopath in popular fiction - Tom Ripley. Why does the moral ambivalence that lies at the heart of Highsmith's work continue to resonate, and why - as she said herself - did she like to write about "cruel deeds"?

Another in the occasional series of insider tip offs from the publishing world, Chatto and Windus publisher Clara Farmer recommends Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey.

And inside novelist, comedian and broadcaster David Baddiel's writing room the celebrated author talks about the distractions posed by the internet - and his exercise bike!

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Open Book

18/05/2014

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