Today on Read On we're continuing our interviews with authors on the shortlist for the Carnegie Medal for Writing. This week Kelly McCaughrain on Little Bang and Matt Goodfellow on The Final Year, plus we find some new audiobooks out now and available from RNIB Library.

Frederick Forsyth, the author of The Day Of The Jackal, has died at the age of 86 after a brief illness. 

He was a great supporter of RNIB Talking Books, visiting the studios many times to record messages and raise awareness, and even to record a small non-fiction tale he wrote for us as part of a fundraising effort to re-archive our old tape recordings to a digital format.

On one visit, Robert Kirkwood grabbed him for a chat about his books and his dangerous research trips and to ask why he supported RNIB. 

In today's episode, we talk to two more authors on the Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist, Luke Palmer on his book Play and Brian Conaghan on Treacle Town, plus we find some new books out now and available from the RNIB Library.

In today's episode, we talk to two authors on the Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist, Blessing Musariri on her book All That It Ever Meant and Clare Furniss on The Things We Leave Behind, plus we find some new books out now and available from the RNIB Library.

A mix of fiction and non-fiction in today's show as Becky C Brynolf tells us about her debut I Found A Body in which an influencer gets mixed up in a murder investigation. 

We also hear from writer and savant Daniel Tammet about Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum, delving into the extraordinary lives of nine neurodivergent men and women from around the globe, including blind academic Amanda in Australia.

All that plus some new books in the RNIB Library.

Winner of the National Book Award and now the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, James is a subversive reimagining of “Huckleberry Finn” told from the perspective of Jim, Huck's enslaved companion on the raft ride. Percival Everett tells Robert Kirkwood about the book and reveals he read Huck Finn too many times in the research!

We also hear about the science behind James Bond's gadgets and Agatha Christie's poisons with Kathryn Harkup and find some new books in the RNIB Library.

As I'm off recording at Dumfries House at the moment, here's selection of interviews from past Boswell Book Festival events including Lady Anne Glenconner, founder of Private Eye Richard Ingrams, biographer Ben McIntyre, Winston Churchill's granddaughter Emma Soames, Andrew Cotter with Olive and Mabel, and we're Cloistered with Catherine Coldstream.

On this week's Read On, Robert Kirkwood chats to Celia Silvani about her debut novel Baby Teeth, a cautionary tale about how vulnerable, isolated people can be lured into toxic communities and the catastrophic consequences this can have. 

Trigger Warning: This interview contains discussions and references to pregnancy and infertility. There is also a scene of pregnancy loss in the book.

This week on Read On a captivating chat with Beth O'Brien, visually impaired author of new HarperCollins Children’s Book 'Wolf Siren', which also has a visually impaired narrator. Beth talks about her writing, watching the narration process and her passion project, 'Disabled Tales.'

Stella Rimington was the first female director general of MI5 and brings true authenticity to her books about spying and espionage. She talks to Robert Kirkwood about her career, her Liz Carlyle books and her imagined end, plus her two new Manon Tyler books. Dame Rimington also talks about how her failing eyesight due to AMD is affecting her ability to write.

And for episode 420, we also find some influential musical biographies in the RNIB Library.