Books Library
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Justin Cartwright
tells The Interview Online, what he discovered about bankers'
attitudes to Other People's Money for his new book
of the same title.
For his research he heard from city bankers about what they felt
about making and losing money and whether or not the consequences
would affect them.
In this revealing audio interview he tells Nicky Barranger
about a shocking city culture amongst the banking community.
Click here to
listen to interview
Congratulations to Justin Cartwright - winner of the Spear's Novel of the
Year Award for Other People's Money
Justin Cartwright was one of three judges on the contraversial
2011 Man Booker
International Prize
Listen to Emma Donoghue
explaining how the Josef Fritzl case in Austria was the spark which
inspired the idea for Room - her book which was
shortlisted for the Man Booker prize 2010 and which appears to be
generating as much attention as the winner. The story is the world
of five year old Jack whose whole world at the beginning of the
book is an 11 ft square Room. It is here that he is kept prisoner
with his Ma who has been held for seven years.
Emma Donoghue tells Nicky
Barranger about the grim research she was forced to do for the
book, the joy of writing the character Jack and the difference the
prize has made to her world.
Audio Interview
Image - Colin
Hattersley/www.writerpictures.com
Blake Morrison, one of the UK's best loved writers (and author
of the much acclaimed And When did you Last see your
Father?) talks to The Interview Online
about his latest novel The Last Weekend. Two university
friends, Ian & Ollie plan a weekend away with their
partners.
In the video, Blake Morrison
talks about the plot, why he wanted to write from Ian's points of
view and how he hopes the reader will judge the characters
Click to Watch the Video
Read the Blogpost
about interviewing Blake Morrison
Following the success of her latest book The Long Song
Andrea Levy discusses how slavery has been
recorded in British history.
Talking to Nicola Barranger in
this audio interview Levy points out that since slavery happened
mostly across the Atlantic, many schools and universities in the UK
would rather ignore the contribution that 300 or so years of
slavery have made to British history.
Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
2011
The Long Song was shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize for
Fiction
In an
audio slideshow Amanda Craig talks about her rich cast of
characters in her new book Hearts and Minds and how easy
it is for the establishment to turn a blind eye to the underclasses
propping up British society.
HEARTS & MINDS was longlisted for the Orange
Prize for fiction 2010
Aminatta Forna's latest novel The Memory of Love has a
richly drawn cast of characters set in a country which we are to
presume is Sierra Leone west Africa. In this video interview she
talks about the themes of love, mental health issues in a country
torn apart by war and the role well intentioned aid workers.
Blogpost - Meeting Aminatta
Forna
Carsten Jensen talks to The Interview Online
about his now famous, epic novel, We, the Drowned
which has already won the Danske Banks Litteraturpris, the Danish
equivalent of The Man Booker Prize.
Blogpost - Interviewing Carsten
Jensen
Selected as one of the Financial Times Best Books of the
Year
Following the huge success of The Yacoubian Building
Egyptian Alaa al Aswany talks about his new
novel Chicago in a video interview with Nicola
Barranger
Christopher Nicholson talks about his new book set in the
18th century England when few people had seen anything
as extraordinary as…. an elephant.
Christopher tells Nicola
Barranger about his fascination with elephants, how he
researched the sexual behaviour of the pachyderm and the pleasures
of writing in 18th century English.
Last week's BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama.
You can still listen on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011pq29
With wartime tragedies resonating in the valleys, insensitive
Americans for landlords and a gardener who is arguably the right
side of creative madness, Adam Thorpe explains that
The Standing Pool is rich in metaphors about modern day
colonialism.
Israeli writer Assaf Gavron tells
Nicky Barranger what inspired him to write an ironic novel
about suicide bombings during the Intifada of 20 years ago.
Blogpost - A Comic novel about
the Middle East?
Jann Parry
discusses the legacy left by the great
British choreographer Kenneth MacMillan in her book Different
Drummer recently published by Faber.
New
extracts added from extended interview with Jann
Parry.
CONGRATULATIONS TO JANN PARRY - winner of
the 2009 Theatre Book Prize
In an audio slideshow interview, Justin Cartwright talks about
his book To Heaven by Water..
..explaining that for him, writing is as much about examining
the Human Condition as it is about the narrative.
From Nagasaki to 9/11, Kamila Shamsie talks to Merilyn
Harris about her fifth novel Burnt Shadows, a gripping
epic in which the heroine survives 60 years of modern history.
Following the global success of Labyrinth, which sold more than
1.5m copies, Kate
Mosse talks to Nicola Barranger about her new novel
Sepulchre.
She outlines the details of the plot of the new novel -
explaining that like her previous success it is set in the present
and the past - this time in modern day Paris and fin de siècle
south west France.
Kate Summerscale explains what
happened in a country house in 19th Century rural England when
a 3 year old boy is brutally murdered. The true story of The Murder
at Hill Road House is the basis of her best selling book The
Suspicions of Mr. Whicher which won her the BBC Four Samuel
Johnson Prize for non-fiction.
Lindsay Clarke talks to The Interview Online
about his latest book The Water Theatre. He explains
that like his Whitbread Prizewinning novel The Chymical
Wedding it was inspired by a dream he had. This time though,
it involved his deceased father and it explains how it brought in
to question the role of the father in the family.
CONGRATULATIONS TO Lindsay Clarke for The
Water Theatre - one of the eight featured authors in the 2011 Fiction Uncovered award
Click to watch Lindsay
Clarke Video Interview
Read
the blogpost about interviewing Lindsay Clarke
In
an extended interview, Joan Bakewell the veteran journalist and
TV & Radio presenter tells Nicola Barranger about the plot and
inspiration behind her debut novel All the Nice Girls.
Author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Birds
without Wings discusses work in progress with The Interview
Online.
Listen to the interview to
find out about his love of poetry and the plans for his next
epic.
Lindsay Clarke talks about his latest book The Water
Theatre. He explains that, as happened with his Whitbread
Prizewinning novel The Chymical Wedding, it was inspired
by a dream. This time, however, the dream involved his
deceased father, and Clarke explains how the novel brings into
question the role of the father-figure in two very different
families.
War reporter, Martin, is summoned by his surrogate
father-figure, Hal Brigstock, to try and reunite Hal's
children, Adam and Marina, for a final farewell since Hal
does not have long to live. This is not an easy task since Martin
himself inadvertently played a part in splitting up the family.
In
her book Stranger in the House, Julie Summers talks to
those whose lives were affected by returning servicemen after World
War - just some of 4 million ex-servicemen who had to adjust to
life in "Civvy Street" after World War II.
In
this audio interview, Charles Boyle tells Nicola Barranger how
a small legacy from a deceased uncle led to a large interest in his
first novel - which Bloomsbury have now republished.
24 for 3 has been awarded the
McKitterick Prize 2008
With the huge success of The White Family launching the
book into its third publication, Maggie Gee explains why the
Stephen Lawrence Enquiry (about the death of a black teenager)
propelled her to write about a dysfunctional London family, and she
discusses the problems of combining racial tension with family
humour.
What rôle a Grandmother?
Margaret Forster talks to Nicola Barranger about her latest
novel - Isa and May which examines the rôle of
grandmothers in the family.
Listen to hear Margaret Forster
discuss whether or not we have a right to dig up our ancestors'
past or indeed whether they have the right to keep things secret
from us.
Blogpost - Meeting Margaret Forster
After decades of unpublished writing, Marina Lewycka's dream
came true 3 years ago with the publication of A Short History
of Tractors in Ukranian.
Listen to Marina Lewycka
talking about her latest book We are all Made of Glue and
the bonding of human relationships, her wondeful creation Mrs.
Shapiro and why discussing the Middle East conflict shouldn't be
out of bounds for a comic writer.
In a video interview Mavis Cheek explains that her 13th work is
a departure from her traditional novel of modern manners. She
explain that Amenable Women is about two ladies separated
by 500 years - one a wife of the notorious Henry VIII of England
and the other a modern widow who wants to review her poor
reputation.
In an exclusive video
interview with us Michael Arditti talks about the appeal of
setting his latest book at the French shrine amongst modern day
pilgrims and how miracles can happen often without the recipients
even realising it.
Mohammed Hanif explains how he
could get away with poking fun at General Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan in
his book A Case of Exploding Mangoes
In her 16th novel, Family Album Booker Prize winner
Penelope Lively paints a delightful picture of family life
somewhere (or indeed anywhere) in Britain. Nine people live in a
vast house and the children have a shared if (as we discover later)
somewhat unorthodox upbringing.
She tells Nicola Barranger
why she wanted to write the book
In a separate interview Penelope Lively explains that the
art of writing has for her changed over the
years.
Following the huge success of her debut novel The
Outcast (shortlisted for 2008 Orange Prize) Sadie Jones
talks about her latest and much awaited work Small
Wars.
In the
video interview Sadie Jones explains that she didn't really
want to return to the fifties but that she realised the significant
parallels between the Cyprus conflict and those in which the
British army is engaged in modern times.
"Reading Small Wars now. I lived in Cyprus as a child during the
time period in the book, daughter of a soldier. Just returned from
Famagusta revisiting childhood haunts. Book accurate, discuss this
period a lot with my Mum, now in her eighties. Wanted to let the
author know how evocative the book is for someone who was actually
there. Interview fascinating."
Catherine Hartman - West Midlands, UK
SMALL WARS was on the longlist for Orange Prize for
Fiction 2010
Columnist on The Independent newspaper and presenter of
BBC Radio 4's Saturday Review and Round Britain
Quiz, Tom Sutcliffe served on 2010's panel of judges for the
Man Booker Prize.
Click to listen to
Audio Interview with Tom Sutcliffe
Audio
Interview
Photo - © Janey Airey/Man
Booker
Columnist Virginia Ironside's new book The Virginia
Monologues - Twenty Reasons why Growing Old is Great takes a
light hearted look at ageing and insists that that there is plenty
to look forward to. She (nearly) convinces
Nicola Barranger that there is much to look forward to in old
age.
Photo - Catherine Shakespeare
Lane
Zina
Rohan's latest novel The Officer's
Daughter is epic fiction based on fact.
Marta is a young Pole who is forced from her homeland on the same
day the Germans invade Poland. Her personal story of displacement
and survival takes her to Sibera, Persia and eventually the UK in
post war Britain. Zina is filmed explaining the
outline of a truly remarkable story told to her by a family
member.
© Photo Debra
Rapp
In a
new video interview, Ruth Rendell explains why she still enjoys
reading the grandfather of detective fiction, Sherlock Holmes.
As the publisher Viking issues a new edition of sixty
adventures, Baroness Rendell of Babergh takes time out of being a
working peer to talk to The Interview Online about why Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, 150 years after his birth continues to please. She also
talks about the differences between Holmes and Rendell's famous
sleuth Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford.
Click
to view the video interview
In a separate file, the famous crime writer explains in
detail about the nitty-gritty of her writing routine, whether
she is writing as Ruth Rendell or Barbara Vine.
From Cheltenham Literature Festival, Nick Rankin talks to Nicola
Barranger about his latest work Churchill's Wizards - the
British Genius for Deception. He considers how in two World
Wars the Brits all but enjoyed outsmarting the enemy with their
capacity to confuse.
In 1915, the Somme and a young private Ken Hoskins is marching
to be part of a firing squad.
The condemned man is a member of his own company. In The
Small Book Zina Rohan examines the fall out of that one
incident on young Hoskins' life and how it will mark not only his
life and politics but those of his children and grandchildren.
Rohan, a writer with four novels to her name (including The
Officer's Daughter) outlines why she wanted to write
this book following the pardon in 2006 of some 300 "deserters"
executed for being absent without leave.
Click to view
Interview with Zina Rohan
Zina
Rohan talks to Nicola Barranger about her fourth novel The
Small Book.
1915 and Pte Ken Hoskins is forced to be part of a firing squad
executing a deserter from his own company. The book examines the
repercussions of this, not only on him but also on his children and
grandchildren
Watch
the video
Videod in his London garden
Patrick McGrath talks to Nicola Barranger about the themes and
inspirations behind his new novel Trauma.
Sacred Hearts is Sarah Dunant's third novel in her
Renaissance trilogy and is set in a convent in 16th Century Italy.
As Sarah
tells Nicola Barranger, it's an account of religious life at a
time when up to 50% of Italian noblewomen were forced to enter a
convent.
In a
video interview Yaba Badoe tells Nicola Barranger about
how her work has been 18 years in the creation and how a tragic
event in her own childhood drove the narrative for True
Murder.