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Front Row: Jodi Picoult, Science Museum, winners and losers of the Cultural Recovery Fund

Jodi Picoult on her new novel

Jodi Picoult, Science Museum, winners and losers of the Cultural Recovery Fund

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Jodi Picoult, Science Museum, winners and losers of the Cultural Recovery Fund

Jodi Picoult on her novel The Book of Two Ways.

Jodi Picoult discusses her new novel, The Book of Two Ways; we visit the Science Museum new galleries; we ask what now for those organisations who didn't receive emergency funding.

The global bestselling author Jodi Picoult discusses her 26th novel The Book Of Two Ways. It’s the story of a hospice worker who - when her plane crashes in the opening pages -is surprised at the life that flashes before her eyes. Rather than her scientist husband and teenage daughter, she sees the life that might have been had she made different choices when she was a student. Jodi Picoult discusses life, death and Egyptology with Tom Shakespeare. 

Every day this week we’re hearing from one of the five winners of the 2020 Art Fund Museum of the Year. Today it’s the turn of the Science Museum in London. The institution’s director Sir Ian Blatchford looks back over a significant year, opening two extensive new galleries and receiving more visitors than ever in its history, and then having to close down and re-think its future in light of Covid.

On Monday the recipients of the first round of the Cultural Recovery Fund grants were announced - just over 70% received something, but what then for those who didn't? James Tillit led a major restoration of the Astor Theatre in Deal just ten years ago and is now its general manager. They were not awarded a grant. He explains how catastrophic this will be for the them.

Tom is then joined by Matt Hemley of The Stage, who has been taking a look at those who did and didn't receive a grant from the Cultural Recovery Fund, and assesses what impact this will have on the arts across the country.

Presenter: Tom Shakespeare 
Producer: Timothy Prosser 
Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant

Main image: Jodi Picoult
Image credit: Nina Subin

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