大象传媒

Rana Mitter talks to two acclaimed Indian novelists about their new - non-fiction - books. Arundhati Roy and Siddhartha Deb discuss their views on the nature of India's development into an emerging superpower and explore how the dream of a new India compares to the reality.

Controversial writer V.S Naipaul last week suggested that women's writing is overly sentimental; and this year's Orange Prize for literature - a prize which has often attracted criticism for its exclusion of male writers - is about to be announced. Novelists Sarah Dunant and Philip Hensher join Rana to debate why accusations of sentimentality are so often levelled at female writing, and whether or not matters of gender have any place in the appreciation of literature.

Susannah Clapp reviews the 40th anniversary revival of Simon Gray's award-winning comedy, Butley - with Dominic West in the starring role as a charismatic professor.

And Rana talks to poet and writer John Burnside about his new novel, A Summer of Drowning, set in the white nights of an Arctic summer.