Lindsay Davis was born and raised in Birmingham, read English at Oxford, then joined the civil service, which she left in 1985.She started writing about Romans in The Course of Honour, the remarkable true love story of the Emperor Vespasian and his mistress Antonia Caenis. Her research into First Century Rome inspired The Silver Pigs, the first outing for Falco and Helena, which was published in 1989. Starting as a spoof using a Roman âinformerâ as a classic, metropolitan private eye, the series has developed into a set of adventures in various styles which take place throughout the Roman world. The Silver Pigs won the Authorsâ Club Best First Novel award in 1989; she has since won the Crimewritersâ Association Dagger in the Library and Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, while Falco has won the Sherlock Award for Best Comic Detective. She has been Chair of the UK Crimewritersâ Association and Honorary President of the Classical Association. Her Official Website is www.lindseydavis.co.uk. We met recently at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal, and talked, among other things, about the historical mystery genre, Ellis Peters, Wilkie Collinsâs The Moonstone, foreshadowing, the treatment of women, killing characters off, good men, favourite plots and authors, and lessons that can be learned from the Romans, Please listen here:
Rawi Hage was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and lived through nine years of that countryâs civil war. He immigrated to Canada in 1992. He is a writer, a visual artist, and a curator whose debut novel, De Niroâs Game (2006), was shortlisted for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2006 Governor Generalâs Award for English fiction. It is currently shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. House of Anansi Press will publish Rawiâs eagerly anticipated second novel, Cockroach, in fall 2008. He lives in Montreal where I caught up with him at the Blue Met International Literary Festival. We talk about living in war conditions, New York, Deer Hunter and Russian roulette, art as memory, the absurdity of war, the dangers of organized religion, fundamentalism, politics and the writer, canoing and moose, womenâs clothing, Arabic poetry and the influence of fathers. Please listen here:
Glenn Patterson was born in Belfast in 1961 and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury. He is the author of seven novels. The first, Burning Your Own (1988), set in Northern Ireland in 1969, won a Betty Trask Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. We met at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal to talk about reassessing the past, the development and urban topography of his home town Belfast, cities versus nations, Disney, Tolstoyâs theory of history, human complexity, his latest novel The Third Party, apathy, public houses, the minor impact of books, and how happy he is with his oeuvre. Copyright  2008 by Nigel Beale
Author: BNStudio Added: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:40:15 -0800 Duration: 297The beloved Oscar-nominated screenwriter left behind an awe-inspiring collection of over 100,000 books at his Hollywood home.
Author: BNStudio Added: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:09:40 -0800 Duration: 228The beloved author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series chats about his beginnings as a children's books author, why he writes, and his sassy star character, Precious Ramotswe.
Author: BNStudio Added: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:06:50 -0800 Duration: 290The bibliophiles at the Danbury Teen Council share a passion for the written word. Watch and find out what books have these teen readers riveted.
Author: BNStudio Added: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:04:01 -0800 Duration: 257Patricia Cliff turned the tragedy of losing her son into a library of hope in New York City for those dealing with mental illness.
Author: BNStudio Added: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:02:01 -0800 Duration: 299Meet the UMass Science Fiction Society -- a group of students with reading obsessions that are out of this world.
Author: BNStudio Added: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:59:45 -0800 Duration: 297Jon and Ruth Jordan are pair of mystery lovers in every sense. The operators of a fan-based mystery magazine, they own over 18,000 mystery novels between them.
Author: BNStudio Added: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:57:09 -0800 Duration: 255Meet Joe Perlman -- a bibliophile from East Northport, New York with over 35,000 books in his impressive collection. p For more great book-centric videos, go to www.bn.com/studio.
Author: BNStudio Added: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:03:50 -0800 Duration: 267Laurie Gold, an avid romance reader from Texas, invites us into her home for a look at her extensive collection of romance novels, and tells us about some of her all-time favorites.
Sally Cooperâs second novel, Tell Everything,delves into the darkest regions of the human soul, and lends credence to Kiplingâs line: The female of the species is deadlier than the male. During our conversation about Tell Everything we discuss topics including: the media and murder, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, âbody parts in ponds, Rapunsil and crime plays, three way sex, the blurred, complicated lines of consent, the fear of self revelation, and love, self protection, shame and acceptance, boxes and cameras, novel writing as catharsis, iguanas in snow drifts, crime scene photographs, facing moral issues, true crime magazines, Michael Redhillâs short story The Victim, and women being every bit as predatory as men. Sally Cooper grew up in Inglewood, Ontario, population 400. She has an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Guelph, and has published in such places as Shift, Blood & Aphorisms, Carousel, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and eye weekly. Her first novel, Love Object, came out in 2002 to critical acclaim. She currently teaches creative writing at Humber College and lives and writes in Hamilton, Ontario. Listen here:
Ian Brookes is Editor-in-Chief of The Chambers Dictionary which was first published in 1901 and most recently updated in 2006. We talk here about lexicographers, Samuel Johnson, Scotland, the speed of language change getting quicker, Chambersâ unique focus on old, Scottish, literary, historical words with humorous, sardonic definitions, such as mallemaroking and pock pudding, use of the dictionary by crossword puzzle and word game enthusiasts, Wikipediaâs Hawaiian roots, the charm of browsing, the influence of rap, urban slang, multiculturalism, and instant messaging, cookery terms and the pain of being a teacher. For more interviews and book reviews www.nigelbeale.com
Margie McMillan is co-owner of the award winning Granny Bates Childrenâs Bookstore in St. Johnâs Newfoundland. We talk here about longevity and research as a reason for success, the brilliance of Graham Oakley and The Church Mice, the difference between back lists and mid-lists, schools as bread and butter, book sellers as literary critics, driving through the swiss alps, new products that are called books, movies and cereal.
John Freeman is president of The National Book Critics Circle. Founded in 1974, the NBCC is a non-profit organization consisting of nearly 700 active book reviewers who honor quality writing and communicate with one another about common concerns. We met recently and talked, among other things, about the NBCCâs awards program, an impressive new blog site called Critical Mass, and the Campaign to Save Book Reviews, which is addressing the alarming shrinkage of newspaper book review sections across North America.
Bernard Margolis is President of the Boston Public Library (BPL). Founded in 1848, it was the first large free municipal library in the United States. Mr. Margolis has served on the Governing Council of the 63,000-member American Library Association (ALA), and has won many awards including âColorado Librarian of the Year,â two John Cotton Dana library public relations awards, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Artsâ âAward of Excellenceâ for his library-sponsored âImagination Celebration.â Heâs also a master storyteller as youâll find out. We talk here about libraries as a public good, a culture of words and books designed to help everyone improve their lives, French ventriloquist and originator of the concept of the modern library Alexandre Vattemare (1796-1864), the U.S. as a leader in realizing this concept, immigration and self learning, an informed citizenry as the best defense of liberty, democratic access to information, BPL as the first to have a newspaper room, branch libraries and a separate childrenâs room, the Red Sox and the Yankees, why the ebook hasnât replaced the paperback, Brewster Kahle versus Google and the Internet archive, and the question of whether or not information will be âfree for allâ to improve the world.
