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Carlos Acosta; Victoria Hislop; Literary heroines with Samantha Ellis and Dr Paula Byrne

Books news with Mariella Frostrup. Carlos Acosta shares his Five of the Best Books, Victoria Hislop takes us to where she writes best, and our changing relationship with heroines.

Ballet Dancer and now author Carlos Acosta shares his Five of the Best Books.
Carlos Acosta is one of the world's best known ballet dancers and continues to challenge himself on stage in new and classic roles. Meanwhile he's also written an enthusiastically received autobiography No Way Home and now, a debut novel called Pigs Foot, a turbulent tale of history, memory and family set in Cuba and influenced by many of the literary greats on his book list from Marquez to JD Salinger.

In the next in our series looking at where authors write, the internationally bestselling Victoria Hislop takes us deep into the bowels of The London Library.

When 35 year old playwright Samantha Ellis, a Cathy Earnshaw fan, was "wuthering" on the Yorkshire moors, and arguing with her best friend the comparative merits of wild, romantic Cathy over more independent and principled Jane Eyre, she had an epiphany. Had she got it wrong? Perhaps it was Jane, rather than Cathy who provided the more impressive role model? Spurred by this revelation Samantha decided to re-examine her relationship with all her literary heroines. Along with Dr Paula Byrne, she discusses whether as we mature, our choice of heroines reflect the adults we've become.

Producer: Andrea Kidd.

Available now

28 minutes

BOOKLIST

Carlos Acosta's choices:

The Catcher in the Rye听by J D Salinger

Notes from the Underground听by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Earth's Holocaust听by Nathaniel Hawthorne

El llano en Llamas (The Burning Plain and other Stories)听by Juan Rulfo

Cien Anos de Soledad (100 Years of Solitude)听by Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez

Pig's Foot by Carlos Acosta

Publisher: Bloomsbury

A Society by Virginia Woolf

The Thread by Victoria Hislop

Publisher: Harper Collins

Literary Heroines discussion:

How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis

Publisher: Chatto and Windus

The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne

Publisher: Harper Collins

Wuthering Heights听(Cathy Earnshaw) 听by Emily Bronte

Pride and Prejudice (Elizabeth Bennet)听by Jane Austen

To Kill A Mockingbird (Scout) by Harper Lee

Far From The Madding Crowd (Bathsheba)听by Thomas Hardy

Gone With The Wind (Scarlett O'Hara) by Margaret Mitchell

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre)听by Charlotte Bronte

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

The Secret Garden (Mary Lennox)听by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I Capture The Castle (Cassandra Mortmain)听by Dodie Smith

Franny And Zooey (Franny) by J D Salinger

Anne Of Green Gables (Anne) by Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Valley Of The Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

A Room With听A View (Lucy Honeychurch and Charlotte Bartlett) by E M Forster

Little Women (Jo March) by Louisa M Alcott

Harry Potter (Hermione Granger) by J K Rowling

The Northern Lights (Lyra Belacqua) by Philip Pullman

The Hunger Games (Katniss Everdeen) by Suzanne Collins

South Riding (Mrs Beddows) by听Winifred Holtby

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

One Thousand And One Nights (Scherezade)

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Mariella Frostrup
Interviewed Guest Carlos Acosta
Interviewed Guest Victoria Hislop
Interviewed Guest Samantha Ellis
Interviewed Guest Paula Byrne
Producer Andrea Kidd

Broadcasts

  • Sun 12 Jan 2014 16:00
  • Thu 16 Jan 2014 15:30

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