British writer Alan Garner, 87, has become the oldest writer to be shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize.

His book Treacle Walker is up against five novels including Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These, the shortest ever to make the cut, with 116 pages.

The judges called Treacle Walker a “mysterious, beautifully written and affecting glimpse into the deep work of being human”

Today’s Amol Rajan spoke to Mr Garner about his life and career – and how he felt about being nominated for such a prestigious prize.

(Image, Alan Garner, Credit, David Heke)

Liz Truss started her first full day as Prime Minister with her new Cabinet meeting to discuss the energy crisis.

Some of her most prominent allies have been given top government jobs, but most supporters of Rishi Sunak are out.

One of those allies is the Prime Minister’s long time friend and political confidant – and now health secretary and Deputy Prime Minister – Therese Coffey.

Today’s Nick Robinson spoke to Therese Coffey before she headed into the Cabinet Room about her priorities in her new job.

(Image, Therese Coffey outside 10 Downing Street, Credit, Toby Melville/ Reuters)

Boris Johnson made his farewell speech outside Number 10 Downing Street on Tuesday, before Liz Truss became the next Prime Minister.

During his speech, Mr Johnson made a classical allusion to Cincinnatus, a 5th Century Roman politician who famously left politics and "returned to his plough" – but later came back to power.

Today’s Nick Robinson asked Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, if he was hinting at a possible return to frontline politics. And Today’s Mishal Husain then spoke to Rachel Sylvester, a columnist at The Times, and Charles Moore, biographer of Margaret Thatcher, about Johnson’s legacy as PM.

(Image, Boris Johnson outside 10 Downing Street, Credit, Toby Melville/Reuters)

The results for the Conservative Ballot, voting for our new Prime Minister is to be announced at midday. With Liz Truss expected to win the vote, there have been talks of a new ‘support package’, to help with the rising energy costs. Today’s Nick Robinson spoke to Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary from 2005-11, as well as Paul Johnson, the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and Shanker Singham, who was trade advisor to Liz Truss when she was UK trade secretary, and a fellow of the free market the Institute of Economic Affairs & is CEO of Competere.

(Image, Conservative leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss appear on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show in London, Britain, September 4, 2022. Credit: Jeff Overs/BBC/Handout via REUTERS)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader who brought the Cold War to a peaceful end. But Putin could not stop it resonating in the wider world, says former BBC Moscow correspondent Kevin Connolly. Simon Jack explains.

(Image Credit:REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool)

NASA will attempt again today to launch its most powerful rocket in 50 years after the space agency delayed take-off earlier this week. Simon Jack speaks to the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, about the Artemis 1 moon mission.

(Image Credit:REUTERS/Joe Skipper)

How on earth can we pay our bills? That is a question being asked with increasing urgency, not just by people worrying about whether they can afford to heat their homes or by those who run small businesses, but by headteachers wondering how to make their school budgets add up. Soaring energy bills are only one of the pressures they face. Teachers pay is going up with no increase in school budgets to pay for it. So too are other costs. All this comes as schools are dealing with the costs of helping a generation of children catch up with the schooling they lost during the pandemic.

Today’s Nick Robinson speaks to Nick Hudson, the Chief Executive of Ormiston Academies Trust and Rachael Warwick the Executive Headteacher of the Ridgeway Education Trust in Oxfordshire. He was also joined by Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP and Chair of the Education Select Committee. (IMAGE CREDIT: REUTERS/Andrew Couldridge)

The report by Michelle Bachelet, the former Chilean leader who is the UN's outgoing High Commissioner for Human Rights accused China of using vague national security laws to clamp down on the rights of minorities and establishing "systems of arbitrary detention".

It said prisoners had been subjected to "patterns of ill-treatment" which included "incidents of sexual and gender-based violence". Others, they said, faced forced medical treatment and "discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies".

All this confirms reporting by many international observers, including reporting by BBC News.

Today's Amol Rajan spoke to the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat MP as well as International Human rights barrister Philippe Sands QC and the Journalist and China expert Isobel Hilton.

(Image: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Credit: Reuters, Pierre Albouy)

The father of a girl who was raped aged 13 and has been waiting two years for her case to be heard, has spoken about the devastating impact of court delays. In a moving interview with Mishal Husain, the father described the trauma of the initial attack and the subsequent court delays. It was the summer of 2020 - when Covid lockdown had been lifted enough to allow visits to parks. One afternoon, the man's daughter, who was 13 at the time, took a bus to meet some friends in a neighbouring village. When she began her journey home she was attacked in broad daylight.

Mishal also spoke to BBC's Home Affairs correspondent, Dominic Casciani and former Old Bailey judge Wendy Joseph QC.

(Image: Lady Justice, Old Bailey, Credit: BBC, PERKINS, Barnaby)

Tova Friedman was only a child when she was taken to Auschwitz. Originally from central Poland, she lived in a ghetto with her family before being transported to the concentration camp. Now, as a holocaust survivor, she shares her experiences with the younger generation on TikTok where her videos have attracted more than 45 million views.

Her memoir, The Daughter of Auschwitz, written with British journalist, Malcolm Brabant, has now been published. Tova spoke with Today’s Martha Kearney about her experiences.

(Image: Railway track which leads to Auschwitz, Credit: Kacper Pempel, Reuters)