Latest From The Interview Online
Kate Summerscale
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, the Murder at Road Hill House.
In an elegant house in England in the mid 19th Century a three year old boy is murdered. His throat is slit and he is thrown down the outside toilet. There is no evidence of an intruder so it must be a member of the family.
Listen to Kate Summerscale explaining to Nicola Barranger what happened that fateful night and her feeling about the story now.
Click to hear the Kate Summerscale interview
Simon Garfield
Freelance writer Simon Garfield “comes out” in his latest book The Error World – an Affair with Stamps - and confesses to a lifelong philatelic obsession. Garfield’s book is a memoir of a life dominated by collecting things
Click to hear the Simon Garfield interview
Kwame Kwei-Armah
The UK's leading playwright of black issues tells Nicola Barranger about his latest work Statement of Regret which has just opened at London's National Theatre.
His new play deals with both consummate grief and the conflict between the UK's African and African Caribbean communities. Set in a Black policy think tank which has seen better times Statement of Regret dissects the legacy of 400 years of slavery and takes up the debate of "post traumatic slave syndrome".
Click to hear the Kwame Kwei-Armah interview
Robert Mack
They discuss the origins of the tale and how Sweeney Todd was not the main character in the original story. Subsequent interpretations even included a ballet by John Cranko before Stephen Sondheim collaborated with Hugh Wheeler to create the famous 1979 version.
Robert Mack explains how the pair drew on a version by Christopher Bond for Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Stratford East. And as for the new Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version - as a Sondheim expert, Robert Mack gives his view.
Click to hear the Robert Mack interview
Zina Rohan
Nicola Barranger discovers Zina Rohan's latest novel, The Officer's Daughter is an epic fiction based on fact.
Zina is filmed explaining the outline of a truely remarkable story told to her by a family member.
Click to view the Zina Rohan interview