Books Library
Scroll down to see our extensive list of writers
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.
Watch the Video
Read the Blogpost
about interviewing Blake Morrison
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.
Watch video
Blogpost - Meeting Aminatta
Forna
Selected as one of the Financial Times Best Books of the
Year
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
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
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?
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
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.
SMALL WARS was on the longlist for Orange Prize for
Fiction 2010
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.
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.
In an audio slideshow interview, Justin Cartwright talks about
his latest book To Heaven by Water..
..explaining that for him, writing is as much about examining
the Human Condition as it is about the narrative.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
From last year's Chelmsford 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.
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.
Videod in his London garden
Patrick McGrath talks to Nicola Barranger about the themes and
inspirations behind his new novel Trauma.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Artist Gregor Harvie's new exhibition Gene
Meme "an Art Installation about
Population" opens next month
Talking to The Interview Online he
discusses the thinking behind his forthcoming exhibition
and his decision to collaborate with the charity Street Child
Africa.