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Adam Foulds, Naomi Wood, David Park, Lindsey Davis, listeners' heroines

Adam Foulds on his latest novel In the Wolf's Mouth; David Park and Naomi Wood discuss the experiences of the wives of great writers; and Lindsey Davis on Quick Reads.

Adam Foulds talks to Mariella Frostrup about his latest novel In the Wolf's Mouth, which follows the Allied troops through North Africa and into Sicily. He explores how the army inadvertently helped the return of the Mafia to that island and explains that for many, with the rise of the Mafia, the end of the Second World War was only the start of the troubles to come.

David Park and Naomi Wood discuss the challenging lives experienced by the partners of great writers and poets from the four Mrs Hemingways to the wives of William Blake and Osip Mandelstam.

Quick Reads was launched in 2006 to help to get people reading and to introduce them to the pleasures that fiction can bring. Lindsey Davis, one of this year's authors writing a bite sized novel, explains why she wanted to be part of this campaign and the challenges of writing a short book for non readers.

Mariella Frostrup hears from the Open Book listeners, as they share their favourite heroines.

Producer: Andrea Kidd.

Available now

28 minutes

BOOKLIST

By Adam Foulds:

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The Truth About These Strange Times -ÌýPublisher: Orion

The Quickening Maze - Publisher: Jonathan Cape

In The Wolf’s Mouth - Publisher: Jonathan Cape

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Poets' Wives by David Park - Publisher: Bloomsbury

Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood - Publisher: Picador

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A Cruel Fate by Lindsey Davis - Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton

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LISTENERS' LITERARY HEROINES

Literary Heroines:

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Prue Sarn in Precious Bane by Mary Webb

MargaritaÌýin The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Offred in The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Aibeleen in The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Lady Slane in All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West

Mrs Waterbury in The Railway Children byÌýEdith Nesbit

Camilla Marteline in Peeping Tom by Howard Jacobson

Elizabeth Bennet in Pride andÌýPrejudice by Jane Austen

Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch by George Eliot

Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Anne Elliot in Persuasion by Jane Austen

Harriet Vane in Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers

The Story Girl by L M Montgomery

Violet Elizabeth Bott by Richmal Crompton

George from the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton

Harriet Pringle from Fortunes of War by Olivia Manning

Jean Paget in A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Catherine Seyton from The Abbot by Walter Scott

Anna Holbrook in Yonondio by Tilly Olsen

Lisa Longland in Life with Lisa by Sybil Burr

Greta in The Snow Queen by Hans Christian AndersenÌýÌý

Lydia Gwilt in Armadale by Wilkie Collins

Priscilla in My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

Flora Post in Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Keti in Voyagers – A Trilogy by Christopher Jon

Maeve Salmon in Going the Whole Hog by Christina Jones

Emma Foxberrow in the Harpole Report and other J L Carr novels

Nancy Blackett Ìýin Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Betsy Trotwood in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Anna in The Soprano Sorceress byÌýL E Modesitt, Jr

Fancy Day in Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy

Frances Montrose in ÌýLeaning Towards Infinity by Sue Woolfe

Priscilla in The Long White Month by E P Dutton and Theresa Kalab

Kate in The Good Master by Kate Seredy

Miss Read in Chronicles of Fairacre by Miss Read

Harriet from The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

Smilla in Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg

Sido in Break of Day by Colette

Lisbeth Salander in the Steig Larrson books

Jo in Little Women by Louisa M Alcott

Miss Lucy Pym in Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl

Irene Forsyte in the Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

Tess in Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

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Read the Opening Chapter of In The Wolf's Mouth by Adam Foulds

Chapter 1: In The Wolf's Mouth by Adam Foulds

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Get ahead with Mariella’s next book Of Cops and Robbers by Mike Nicol

Find Chapter 1 from Of Cops and Robbers by Mike Nicol

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Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Mariella Frostrup
Interviewed Guest Adam Foulds
Interviewed Guest David Park
Interviewed Guest Naomi Wood
Interviewed Guest Lindsey Davis
Producer Andrea Kidd

Broadcasts

  • Sun 9 Feb 2014 16:00
  • Thu 13 Feb 2014 15:30

This Week's Book List

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

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Books and Authors Podcast

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