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Christopher Koch, Christmas Fiction Picks, and Classics for Children

Mariella Frostrup presents the books programme, including a Christmas selection of some of the year's best fiction.

Christopher Koch
The Australian novelist is best known in this country for The Year of Living Dangerously, which was made into a major Hollywood film. His latest novel is set in the Cold War, and is a spy drama following the lives of childhood friends who are obsessed with secrecy. Christopher Koch tells Mariella Frostrup how a mysterious friend provoked his interest in the subject, and why the island of Tasmania holds such fascination for writers.

Christmas Fiction Picks
Mariella is joined by the novelists Kate Mosse and Toby Litt to recommend some of the year's best fiction, from crime to verse novels, suitable as Christmas presents or just holiday reading.

Classics for Children
As a new series of simplified Dickens novels is published, Open Book investigates the history of retelling great literature for children. The writer Gill Tavner and illustrator Marcia Williams talk about their different approaches to adapting Dickens, and Kim Reynolds, Professor of Children's Literature at Newcastle University, talks about the seventeenth-century origins of the practice.

Available now

30 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Sun 9 Dec 2007 16:00
  • Thu 13 Dec 2007 16:00

This Week's Book List

Read along with us - a list of books discussed in each programme

Books and Authors Podcast

Books and Authors Podcast

Open Book for author interviews and A Good Read for recommended reads

Listen now to books on 大象传媒 Sounds

Listen now to books on 大象传媒 Sounds

Escape with books & stories