Open Book

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BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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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: Tom Bullough on writing about the climate crisis, and Richard Wright's lost novel

26/02/2023

Tom Bullough on writing about the climate crisis, and Richard Wright's lost novel

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Tom Bullough on writing about the climate crisis, and Richard Wright's lost novel

Tom Bullough talks about his book Sarn Helen.

Tom Bullough talks to Johny Pitts about his new book, Sarn Helen, which explores the landscape of Wales through its past, present and future.

In 2020 the writer Tom Bullough set out to walk along Sarn Helen, the old Roman Road that runs from the south of Wales to the north. From that journey he wrote a state of the nation book of non - fiction, Sarn Helen, filled with a fascinating mix of ancient history, observational nature writing and environmental activism. Johny Pitts talks to Tom Bullough about how he sees his role as a writer in the midst of the climate emergency and his deep connection to the changing landscape. 

Richard Wright was one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century with books like Black Boy, and Native Son, an unforgettable portrait of Bigger Thomas, a 20 year old African American man living in a Chicago slum. Despite his celebrated success one of his novels, The Man Who Lived Underground, was rejected by publishers during the 1940s and published as a short story. But now eighty years on has been restored to its original length.  Johny talks to Richard Wright’s daughter, the poet and essayist, Julia Wright, about the book’s complex history.

And our Editor’s Tip this month chosen by Emma Herdman of Bloomsbury is In Memoriam from Alice Winn.

Book List – Sunday 26 February and Thursday 2 March

Sarn Helen by Tom Bullough with illustrations by Jackie Morris
Addlands by Tom Bullough 
Native Son by Richard Wright 
The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright 
Black Boy by Richard Wright 
In Memoriam by Alice Winn

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Tom Bullough on writing about the climate crisis, and Richard Wright's lost novel

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