Led by James Naughtie, this special episode of Bookclub celebrates the late Alasdair Gray's 1981 masterpiece, Lanark, at the Pitlochry Winter Words Festival, with the actor Alan Cumming, who is the voice of the new audiobook recently released by Canongate. Described by the author as 'a life in four books', Lanark follows the interwoven lives of Lanark and Duncan Thaw through the disintegrating cities of Unthank and Glasgow. The book has garnered widespread praise and critical acclaim for sitting realism and surrealism side by side and for daring to be experimental. The Guardian described the novel as "one of the landmarks of twentieth century fiction" while the Times Literary Supplement said it was "profoundly perceptive about the ways in which our society is destroying itself".

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in February.

Producer: Dominic Howell