Our studio guest this week is the wonderful Sarah Wise (author of The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave Robbery in 1830s London, The Blackest Streets: Life and Death of a Victorian Slum, and Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad Doctors in Victorian England) and we also have interviews with the marvellous Clare Mulley (The Spy Who Loved: The … [Read more...]

This week Book Night speaks to bestselling author, Victoria Hislop. Her first novel, The Island, has sold over two million copies worldwide. Her second novel, The Return, was a Sunday Times bestseller and The Thread, her third novel, followed suit. Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages. Paige Toon (centre with Leigh and Alex), … [Read more...]

Book Night this week speaks to Christobel Kent (centre with Leigh and Alex), author of seven crime novels – four of which feature Florence-based detective Sandro Cellini. Christobel’s writing has been labelled as sexy and evocative – ‘Italian noir’.  … [Read more...]

This week’s Book Night features the writer and critic Olivia Laing. Between 2007 and 2009, she was Deputy Books Editor of The Observer and now writes and reviews widely for the The Observer, New Statesman, Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian. We discuss the pros and cons of book reviews with Olivia as well as her two brilliant books, To the … [Read more...]

According to a survey in 2012 crime fiction is the most loaned form of book genre in UK libraries. In 2011, a third of the books shortlisted for the Booker Prize were crime novels, proving the genre is popular with readers and critics alike.Why? Is it that we like to feel scared, perplexed, out of control in the knowledge that order will have … [Read more...]

This week Alex and Leigh will be  talking Wordfest with festival director Cathy Moore and local literary agent, Rachel Calder, who is a programmer for the festival. Gain an insight into how the festival was started plus Cathy shares some amusing highs and lows from past events, and tells us about the great events coming up next weekend. In the … [Read more...]

The first Book Night show will focus on memoir, with the in-studio guest, Azadeh Moaveni. The author of Lipstick Jihad, Honeymoon in Tehran, and co-author, with Shirin Ebadi, of Iran Awakening. Azadeh has led a fascinating life, born in California and moving to Iran in 1999 as the only Western journalist in the territory at a highly volatile … [Read more...]