Crime writer Val McDermid investigates Scotland's most famous female character to reveal a very different Lady Macbeth. And Sydney writer Jonathon Seidler delves into the story beyond the happy ending and how breakups can define a relationship. Crime writer Val McDermid investigates Scotland’s most famous female character to reveal a very different Lady Macbeth.  Queen Macbeth: Darkland Tales is part of a series where well known authors find the truth behind the legends commissioned by the historical fiction publishing house Birlinn. Jonathan Seidler is no stranger to the complexities of modern relationships. A Sydney writer, journalist and columnist, his work is frequently published in journals and newspapers. He has also written a memoir exploring his family history of mental illness. Jonathan's latest is a novel,  All the Beautiful Things You Love which delves into the story beyond the happy ending  - how break-ups can define a relationship. 

Val McDermid and Jonathan Seidler on ancient queens and modern love

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Jeanette Winterson asks how AI will give new meaning to ghost stories and Kate Grenville reflects on a lifetime of writing and how accepting failure has been key to her success. Jeanette Winterson is best known for her novels Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, The Stone Gods and Frankissstein. Her long fascination with mortality, religion and technology have come together in a new book of short stories, Night Side of the River (Jonathan Cape), which considers what technology might mean for the future of ghost stories. First broadcast 2 October 2023 Celebrated Australian author Kate Grenville (Secret River, A Room Made of Leaves) won the prestigious Orange Prize for her novel The Idea of Perfection in 2001, that prize is now called the Women's Prize for Fiction and Kate is again shortlisted for the award with her latest novel, Restless Dolly Maunder (Text), her fictional biography of her grandmother. Producer, Sarah L'Estrange visited Kate in her Melbourne worker's cottage to discuss her writing career. First broadcast 21 August 2023

Jeanette Winterson and Kate Grenville on the gift of writing

American author Celeste Ng shares how her latest novel Our Missing Hearts explores one of her deepest fears.  Celeste Ng is known for her dark realist novels, Everything I Never Told You, and Little Fires Everywhere (which was adapted to the screen in 2020). Our Missing Hearts is set in a dystopian, near future America, where anti-Asian sentiment has peaked, books are disappearing from the shelves, and children are being taken away from their families. It's a chilling world but as Claire Nichols discovers at this Sydney Writers' Festival event, there is also hope in art, poetry, and family. Celeste Ng also discusses book banning in the US and you can find out more about this worrying trend on The Book Show's new series Banned Books.

"Every one of my books starts with a question" — Celeste Ng from Sydney Writers' Festival

Shankari Chandran's follow up to her Miles Franklin award winning book, British author Stuart Turton's complicated murder mystery and Julie Janson's ironically named novel Compassion. Shankari Chandran won the 2023 Miles Franklin for her novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens. Her new novel Safe Haven asks readers to confront the reality of Australia's immigration detention system: the lives of the detainees, the guards, the doctors, and the communities that welcome asylum seekers, sometimes to then see them taken away. British writer Stuart Turton has a reputation for risky ideas. His hit novel The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was described as 'Gosford Park meets Groundhog Day'. His latest The Last Murder at the End of the World is also a murder mystery with a twist – it's set on an island that is home to the last remaining humans on the planet and every person on the island has a voice in their head, who is also the narrator of this story. It's a wild, propulsive ride. Julie Janson is a Burruberongal woman of the Darug Aboriginal nation. Her first, historical novel Benevolence, was about a young Aboriginal woman growing up in the New South Wales colony. Now Julie has written a sequel Compassion, inspired by her great-great grandmother.

Shankari Chandran, Stuart Turton and Julie Janson on refuge, failure and outlaws

One of Colm Toibin's most beloved books is Brooklyn and now he's written a sequel. In Long Island, the characters are 20 years older but they haven't let go of their secrets. One of the Irish writer Colm Tóibín's best loved books is Brooklyn. Published in 2009, it's about Eilis, a young woman who leaves Ireland for America in the 1950s. It was longlisted for the Booker, won the Costa Novel Award and was adapted to the screen in 2015. Now there's a sequel, called Long Island, (Picador) set years later in the 70s when Eilis is again faced with a family dilemma. Australian author Michelle Johnston takes you deep into the basement of the Perth hospital where she works and writes and which was the inspiration for the setting of her novel, Tiny Uncertain Miracles (first broadcast 6 February 2023). And in the final episode of Banned Books, the focus is again on Iran but there's an Australian connection. 

Colm Tóibín's Brooklyn sequel

Iran's Kafka like book censorship is causing authors to flee, including writer Shokoofeh Azar who now lives in Australia. Banned Books is a new series that looks at what's driving book bans worldwide.  In this last episode, writer Shokoofeh Azar who now lives in Australia and is the author of The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree which is banned in Iran. Guests: Shokoofeh Azar - Iranian born, Australian based journalist and author The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, shortlisted for the International Booker and Stella Prize.Alireza Abiz - Iranian born, UK based scholar, poet and translator. He's the author of Censorship of Literature in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Politics and Culture since 1979Nassim Khadem - ABC journalist. Provided reading from The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree

Val McDermid and Jonathan Seidler on ancient queens and modern love

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