The Guardian Books podcast is our weekly look at the world of books, poetry and great writing presented by Claire Armitstead, Richard Lea, & Sian Cain. With in-depth interviews with leading authors and investigations into the thematic trends in contemporary writing, this is the perfect book worm’s companion
As a new report reveals the dire financial straits being faced by literary novelists, we investigate how these bleak conditions arose and what can be done to help the writers, regarded by some as thoroughbreds and by others as ghosts of Christmas past.
We also catch up with Edward St Aubyn, one of a series of top novelists hired to reimagine Shakespeare’s plays for the 21st century. Perhaps not surprisingly for a writer whose name-making Melrose novels centred on his own monstrous father, he chose King Lear as his subject. In a Guardian book club event chaired by John Mullan, he introduces Dunbar, the autocratic head of an international media corporation who has recently been ousted by his family.
