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Category Archives: Radio
The Absolutist on Book at Bedtime
In advance of publication of my new novel THE ABSOLUTIST on May 12th, BBC Radio 4 are dramatising the novel in 10 parts over the next 2 weeks, starting tonight, April 25th.
You can listen to it on your wireless sets or listen back on the Book At Bedtime website.
You can also pre-order the novel from Amazon.
BBC World Book Club
World Book Club
I was in London over the last day or two for a couple of interesting interviews. The first took place at Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, an interview with the BBC World Service as part of their ‘World Book Club’ programme. This programme has been running for about 5 years and encourages people around the globe to read the same book at the same time – this month’s book was THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS. Harriett Gilbert conducted the interview and questions were taken from the audience of about 100 who were gathered to listen to the recording as well as from emails and phone questions that had come in in advance from places as far away as Nigeria, the Crimea and America. Thanks to all those who participated. The programme goes out on March 6th and will be kept on the World Service website after that.
Then, this morning, I was at Sky Arts to take part in The Books Show with Mariella Frostrup. We were discussing THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE, the paperback of which will be published in the UK in April. The other guests were Shirley Williams and Joshua Ferris. As well as discussing our new books, we also spoke about our favourite book of the last decade – Josh chose THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy, I chose THE ROAD HOME by Rose Tremain and Shirley (declining to choose another ‘Road’ title) went for THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, which was quite a surprise for me, and indeed for her as she had not realised that I was also going to be a guest on the show. But it was a tremendous honour to meet her, and Josh, whose first novel THEN WE CAME TO THE END I admired very much. That sentence seems a bit convoluted but there we are.
In other news, I was at my publisher’s office yesterday morning recording some video pieces for use on the Random House website soon and it involved me barking like a dog. This might seem strange but the reason why will be revealed soon. Towards the end of March, to be precise…
Radio Solent
If you live anywhere around the Hampshire area, you might like to tune in to a radio interview I’ll be doing on BBC Radio Solent between 2:00 and 2:30 pm to talk about THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PU.RPOSE. The interview takes place on the Charlie Crocker show. Radio Solent can be found on 96.1 FM / 103.8 FM
Sundays with Norris Interview
One of my former university lectures, Senator David Norris, interviewed me on his Sunday morning programme on Newstalk. Back when I was a student in Trinity College in the early ’90s, David taught me ‘The Novel’ on my English Literature course, which is a nice coincidence since I ended up as a novelist. A couple of years ago he also presented me with the prize when I won the Bisto Book of the Year Award for THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS.
You can listen to the podcast of the programme by clicking here.
Attentive readers might wonder how I did this when I was in Aberdeen on Sunday morning. We recorded it a couple of weeks ago.
Simon Mayo Show
I’m in the UK for the rest of the week on the promotional trail for THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE and what a pleasant change it makes to be talking about Russia, the fall of the Tsars and the time I spent writing the novel in St Petersburg rather than Bruno’s naivite and whether or not I liked the film! Having spent the morning doing book signings around London – and if you’re interested, signed copies of the new novel are available from Foyle’s on Charing Cross Road, Hatchard’s in Piccadilly, Goldsboro Books and Waterstone’s Piccadilly (who also have signed stock of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS) – I went to BBC Television Centre to record some interviews for regional BBC stations and then on to Radio 5 Live to the Simon Mayo Show where the book was being reviewed.
Since my first novel, THE THIEF OF TIME, was published 9 years ago, I’ve had the pleasure or pain of reading reviews of my books in the papers but Simon Mayo’s show takes a different approach – three reviewers discuss the merits of the book (or lack thereof) right in front of you. I did the show once before – for BOY – and again today where, thankfully, THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE received very generous reviews from the assembled critics. It was nice to meet American crime author Michael Connelly too, whose book THE SCARECROW was also very well received. You can listen to the podcast of the show here.
On tomorrow to the Lincoln Book Festival.
Radio Show
I was a guest on Ryan Tubridy’s radio show on RTE Radio 1 this morning to talk about THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE. You can listen back to it here. The interview kicks in around the 34 minute mark.
