Booksplus - Full Program Podcast

Kate and Cassie are joined by Prof of Mediaeval Literature Louise D'Arcens and novelist Petronella McGovern as they discuss Maria Dahvana Headley's new translation of Beowulf, Una Mannion's The Crooked Tree and Robert Jones Jr's The Prophets

Following on from last week's Book Club on work, which featured Madeleine St John's The Women in Black, an extended interview with St John's biographer Helen Trinca

On Madeleine St John's The Women in Black and Kikuko Tsumura's There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job with doctor and memoirist Yumiko Kadota and RN presenter Richard Aedy (and featuring St John's biographer Helen Trinca)

Rewriting westerns in the 1890s, sex and desire in the present, and romance in Ireland. Three new works of fiction with Kate and Cassie and guests Michael McGirr and Emma Kate Lewis

Australian fiction from 1901, 1980 and 2014. Miles Franklin, Shirley Hazzard, Joan London

Three novels and an illustrator who uses his pencil like a sword

On Aravind Adiga's Amnesty, Richard Flanagan's The Living Sea of Waking Dreams and Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet

On Laura Jean McKay, The Animals in that Country, Curtis Sittenfeld, Rodham and Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs - and putting Jane Harper's The Dry on screen

Some of the best books and discussions about them from 2020: on Robbie Arnott's The Rain Heron, Michael Christie's Greenwood and Polly Samson's A Theatre for Dreamers and Andrew O'Hagan on the Bookshelf that Made Him

Novelist Jock Serong, music writer and broadcaster Stuart Coupe and bookseller and literary judge Fiona Stager join Cassie and Kate for more book recommendations

Reading recommendations from Jessie Tu, Stephen Romei, Suzanne Leal, Kate and Cassie.

American fantasy writer Naomi Novik on her latest novel, A Deadly Education, and the Bookshelf that Made Her

On fantasy foundational texts, finding books from childhood in booksales and libraries, and the lure of imaginary bookshops

On Gail Jones' Our Shadows and Randolph Stow's The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea with guests writer Ailsa Piper and historian Frank Bongiorno

Writer Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell; Piranesi) with Kate Evans, on the bookshelf that shaped her, why statues are fascinating, and creating a world out of ruins and seawater

On Sayaka Murata's Earthlings, Ayad Akhtar's Homeland Elegies and Thomas McMullan's The Last Good Man

Fantasy writer and former literary critic Lev Grossman speaks to Kate Evans about his foundational texts and wider reading in fantasy and elsewhere; and they go on a magical train journey courtesy of his new children's novel, The Silver Arrow

On Philip Salom’s The Fifth Season, Tiffany McDaniel’s Betty and William Boyd’s Trio

The author of Here We Are, Last Orders, Mothering Sunday, Waterland and so many more joins Kate Evans to talk reading, writing, influences and why a book he first read as a twenty year old was just so important

On Andrew Pippos’ Lucky’s, Kate Mildenhall’s The Mother Fault and Karen Wyld’s Where the Fruit Falls