Open Book

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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

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Open Book: Jane Smiley, and writing gay lives from the past with Tom Crewe and Nell Stevens

15/01/2023

Jane Smiley, and writing gay lives from the past with Tom Crewe and Nell Stevens

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Jane Smiley, and writing gay lives from the past with Tom Crewe and Nell Stevens

Chris Power talks to Jane Smiley, Tom Crewe and Nell Stevens about fictionalising history.

Chris Power talks to Jane Smiley, Tom Crewe and Nell Stevens about drawing on marginal - and radical - voices from history in their fiction.

Chris Power talks to Jane Smiley about her new book A Dangerous Business, set in 1850s Monterey when women's lives were not only constrained but often at risk.

Luke Roberts helped to uncover a forgotten gay novel from the 1960s. He retraces poet Mark Hyatt's footsteps in Soho.

Plus, Tom Crewe and Nell Stevens discuss creatively drawing on marginal - and radical - LGBTQ voices from the 19th century in two exciting fiction debuts.

Book List – Sunday 15 January and Thursday 19 January 

A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley 
The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Love, Leda by Mark Hyatt
Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
The New Life, by Tom Crewe
Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner

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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Open Book

Jane Smiley, and writing gay lives from the past with Tom Crewe and Nell Stevens

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