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Book Club: Capital
Jim Naughtie, Jim Naughtie presents Bookclub on BBC Radio 4
Jim Naughtie discusses John Lanchester's new novel Capital.
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Book Club: The Travelling Hornplayer
Jim Naughtie
Jim Naughtie presents Bookclub on BBC Radio 4
We heard a ghost story from our author on this month’s Bookclub. Barbara Trapido was talking about her novel The Travelling Hornplayer, which begins with the following sentence: ‘Early on the morning of my interview, I woke up and saw my dead sister.’ Not a bad opening line for a story about two interlocking dysfunctional families, but in the course of the discussion with our readers, Barbara revealed an unusual experience of her own.
She was at a literary event in Manchester when something mysterious happened in her hotel. ‘I woke up in the morning and a young girl passed through the room. It wasn’t at all scary, and I knew straight away that this wasn’t a person of flesh and blood. She touched my bedclothes, crossed the room and seemed to disappear through the window.’ Getting up, Barbara checked behind the curtains, found nothing, and went to reception to ask if anything had ever been known to happen in Room 102. Naturally, I asked if she thought she had been dreaming. The reply was emphatic – no. Although a moment or two later, she acknowledged that she couldn’t be entirely sure. The girl – ‘a demure school girl’ dressed in white vest and knickers – seemed perfectly real....
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Book Club: Capital
Jim Naughtie
Jim Naughtie presents Bookclub on BBC Radio 4
Happy New Year! Listening to John Lanchester talking about his novel Capital - the programme is repeated on Thursday afternoon as usual - I was reminded of the force of a question he raised during our discussion with readers. How many of us live in a street where there is still someone around who was born there? It used to be common in London, even a single generation ago I’d guess, but changes in the capital have made that kind of community a rarity, and a thing of the past. In John’s account of life in one fictional London street - Pepys Road - just before the financial crash of 2007-8, there’s one resident (Petunia) who can say that she’s never lived anywhere else. It means that she catches something of the spirit of the whole story, which is partly about the growing sense of unease that precedes the coming storm, and partly about the sudden, even brutal, changes in lifestyle that Londoners have come to know.
As John put it to our readers, ‘She’s the daughter of a solicitor’s clerk and she’s the last contact with when it would have been a very different demographic, and a much more homogenous community. It’s part of the hollowing out of London where there are people who...
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A Fabulous Festive Feast from 4 Extra
Peter Reed
Producer, Radio 4 Extra
Whether you fancy some Ho! Ho! Ho! or a merry melodrama or two, BBC Radio 4 Extra has got it all for you this season:
Mole Cooks His Goose
Sue Townsend’s festive tale sees Adrian Mole in charge of Christmas dinner. Thursday 22nd December at 2pmThe Adventure of The Christmas Pudding
Hercule Poirot investigates in Agatha Christie’s festive whodunit. Friday 23rd December at 11.15amKing Lear on Boxing Day
A recreation of the momentous 1606 opening night of Shakespeare’s play. Christmas Eve at 4pmThe Meow Show With Ed Reardon And Elgar
3 hours of purr-fect archive from Ed and his co-host cat – featuring Sian Phillips, Dawn French, Beryl Reid and a vintage “Ed Reardon's Week”. Christmas Eve at 9.00amVictoria Wood as NOT seen on TV
An hour of rare clips of the much-missed entertainer’s appearances on BBC radio – hosted by her Dinnerladies TV co-star, Maxine Peake. Christmas Eve at NoonCabin Pressure
Benedict Cumberbatch and co prepare for take-off! Christmas Day in the Comedy Club at 11.00pmOld Harry’s Game’s Christmas Special
Satan’s suffering Christmas confusion thanks to Andy Hamilton. Christmas Day in the Comedy Club at 11.30pm -
Book Club: Bright Lights, Big City
Jim Naughtie
Jim Naughtie presents Bookclub on BBC Radio 4
Jay McInerney’s book about a week of hedonism in New York in the early eighties is like a garish postcard from a vanished world. Bright Lights, Big City made the career of a writer who was then in his mid-twenties because, as he told this month’s group of Bookclub readers, it caught the city at a moment of social and cultural drama. It had virtually gone bankrupt, there was a heroin epidemic as obvious to everyone in Manhattan as violence on the streets, and the middle classes were indulging in cocaine without a thought about addiction. There was madness in the air. The AIDS crisis was...
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Marking the 90th Radio 4 Christmas Appeal with St Martin in-the-Fields
Kate Howells
Producer, Radio 4
The 90th Radio 4 Christmas Appeal with St Martin in-the-Fields launched on Sunday 4 December. To find out more and donate visit the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal or call 0800 082 82 84. Thank you for all your support over the years.
St Martin-in-the-Fields, a landmark church in the heart of London. Picture: Craig Barker
The neoclassical Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields at the corner of Trafalgar Square has a long history as a place of refuge. During the First World War...
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Bollywood: Music, Mystery and Magic on BBC Radio 4 Extra
Radio 4 Extra
Bollywood, India’s popular cinema industry, produces thousands of films that are enjoyed around the world. As the nights draw in and the mercury falls, BBC Radio 4 Extra presents a selection of Bollywood-themed features and dramas filled with warmth, light, music and song. The programmes are introduced by Bobby Friction, Bollywood aficionado and presenter of the eponymous weeknight music...
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#LovetoRead
Jim Naughtie
Jim Naughtie presents Bookclub on BBC Radio 4
Sometimes we’re allowed to indulge ourselves, and as part of the BBC’s #LovetoRead season I had the chance to choose a book that meant a lot to me as a young reader. It was easy to decide on something by Robert Louis Stevenson. But which one? In the end, it was Kidnapped, although of course it was hard to put aside Treasure Island. To add to my happiness we managed to record Bookclub in the Hawes Inn at South Queensferry, just under the girders of the Forth Bridge, which is the very place where Stevenson is said to be started to write the story (in Room 13) and the inn from which the young...
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Radio 4 Extra: Corruption Season
Peter Reed
Producer, Radio 4 Extra
Dastardly! Dishonest! Deceitful! Dare we entice you to enjoy 4 Extra’s Corruption Season of comedy and dramas shining a spotlight on unethical or fraudulent conduct. Catch crooks, racketeers, charlatans and swindlers galore:
Rebus: Let it Bleed
Alexander Morton stars as hard-boiled detective, John Rebus in Ian Rankin’s hard-hitting thriller uncovering the dark underbelly of 1990s Scotland. Saturday 29 October, 6.00 – 7.30 5am (rpt 4.00 – 5.30pm)
What A Carve Up!
Robert Bathurst stars in Jonathan Coe's wickedly funny, black comedy, inspired by the immorality, greed, corruption and...
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4 Extra marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Fritz Lang, film director
Radio 4 Extra
Film director Fritz Lang.
Born in Vienna in 1890, Fritz Lang began his directing career in Germany and witnessed Hitler’s rise to power. He fled Fascism to continue his career as an émigré in Hollywood, where he died in 1976.
Lang’s first sound film, M (1931), is among his best known. Based on a true story, it’s set in Berlin where a child murderer is at large. When the intensity of the police hunt interferes with the...
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Book Club: H is for Hawk
Jim Naughtie
Jim Naughtie presents Bookclub on BBC Radio 4
One of our readers at this month’s Bookclub recording with Helen Macdonald, who was talking about H is for Hawk, told a story that brought to life one of the themes of the book. She revealed that she worked with prisoners, and described a programme in which they learn to train hawks. The result? The absorption in the birds, and the discipline of the training, mean that they begin to behave as if they’re no longer in prison: in a strange way, the birds of prey offer them the prospect of release.
Helen asked her if some of the prisoners had read the book. You won’t be surprised to learn that...
