Today the witty Oscar Wilde, or at least his family and all of their shenanigans, in a new biography. Also a trip to the outer Hebrides to a house full of birds, some shot, some stuffed and some on paintings, and then back to Australia for a discussion on friendship and violence from this years Sydney Writers Festival.

Today we are crossing the world and its borders with cross dressing tough girls in 1940's Sydney, spies in London and maybe Russia; and three people who would not have been allowed to sit together in South Africa under apartheid.

Today light, photography and pain in a book that starts in Germany and travels to Australia. We also look through trees, and hear the stories they tell and we hear all about a garden where all kinds of insects are welcome. Plus a fractured and yet surprisingly funny interview about a book based in Oakland.

Today Clive James talks about Proust, writing, memory and why the end of his life is creative and productive. We also meet the winner of this years Vogel Prize and from the Sydney Writers Festival the author of the bestselling book The Girl on the Train.

Today a mediaeval poem about the death of a child, a picture book of montages and the lives of birds, a dystopian novel about debt and a story about crime in a country town during a drought.

Today a misanthropic writer who claims he's not a misanthrope and the grandfather of gay fiction. Throw in Our Tiny Useless Hearts and mix them with some classic Nirvana and you have something light and beautiful which is also just a bit dark.

Today a novel about Stalinist Russia and Shostakovich and his opera based on Macbeth. Also a debut American writer who is causing a great deal of excitement with her novel called The Turner House and the next instalment of our African Book Club - this time it's Everyday is the Thief by Nigerian New Yorker Teju Cole.

Today we hear another session from the 2016 Sydney Writer's Festival. This time it's a Zimbabwean writer who has been accused of being Judas in her own country.

Today we hear a session from the 2016 Sydney Writers Festival where three male writers take on their country's brutal histories in wildly different ways.

Geraldine Brooks' new novel takes her to the iron age and into the bloody, complicated and barely-documented life of King David. She spoke to Kate Evans as part of a special event for the Sydney Writers Festival at the Seymour Centre late last year, in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd.