It was an iconic murder – pre-dating the mysterious death of British biological warfare expert David Kelly, but bearing uncanny similarities, too. Rose grower, naturalist, diarist and campaigner against nuclear energy and weapons, Hilda Murrell was truly a Miss Marple character, and her murder in 1984 entered the national consciousness ...read more →
Author Archive
Peter Englund: The Beauty and the Sorrow
His origins were humble; a working-class boy from a small military town in northern Sweden, not far from the Arctic Circle. Today, he is one of the most influential figures in the world of literature, because Peter Englund is Permanent Secretary to the Swedish Academy, the body that awards the ...read more →
Sam Leith: You Talkin’ To Me?
What’s it like to receive 300 books to review for a major national newspaper – every week? That is but one of the more-or-less impossible tasks that befalls a typical literary editor – which is what Sam Leith did for the Daily Telegraph. Highly regarded in the publishing business, Sam ...read more →
John Simopoulos: A Tiger Burning Bright
When we asked John Simopoulos, Founding Fellow and Dean of Degrees at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, to read Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner last year, we had an overwhelming response from listeners wanting to hear more from him. We’re thrilled to welcome John back to present this special ...read more →
Martin Bell: A Front Row Seat At The Making Of History
“I liked the idea of having a front-row seat at the making of history. I felt myself move into another gear when I hit a war zone. And sometimes be not a terribly nice person.” Martin Bell – “the man in the white suit” – is a British institution. Just ...read more →
Nicola Morgan: Write To Be Published
Nicola Morgan – the genius behind the Help I Need A Publisher blog that’s helped thousands of writers – has written a book intended to… help writers. In an online world where there’s no shortage of advice for writers – much of it a bit dubious – Nicola’s latest book ...read more →
Ben Bova – The Anti-Dystopian
There are few bigger names in the SF/speculative fiction area than our very special guest today Dr. Ben Bova. The author of more than 120 futuristic novels and nonfiction books, he has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space age. In a time ...read more →
Seth Godin: The New Face Of Publishing
There are some people who just get what’s going on: faster, more accurately, and more cogently than the rest of us. Seth Godin is one of those people. A legend on the ‘net, Seth authored the most popular e-book ever written (“Unleashing The Idea Virus“) and commands speaker’s fees that ...read more →
The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize
Join us to experience last night’s events at the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, Britain’s most prestigious prize for children’s authors. As the excitement mounts, we speak to last year’s winner and judge Mal Peet, as well as other authors, readers and agents. Peter is not exactly an impartial observer tonight; ...read more →
Siberian Education
Meet Nicolai Lilin – the last of a small and tight-knit community of what he terms ‘honest criminals’. Deported to a remote part of Russia by Stalin, the ‘Urkas’ are an insular fraternity: distrustful of outsiders and violently opposed to any authority. A huge bestseller in Nicolai’s current home country, ...read more →
Six Months in Sudan
In 2007, James Maskalyk, newly recruited by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), set out for the contested border town of Abyei, Sudan. An emergency physician drawn to the ravaged parts of the world, Maskalyk spent six months treating malnourished children, coping with a measles epidemic, watching for war, and struggling to ...read more →
In Memoriam Sid Fleischman
To celebrate the life of Newbery Medal-winning author Sid Fleischman, we are re-broadcasting his interview with Donna Ballman that we first aired some two years ago. Sid was an inspiration for many authors. In addition to writing children’s books, he worked for the Children’s Television Workshop, and also penned numerous ...read more →
The First Modern Poem
What would you consider to be the first modern poem? There can never be a definitive answer, but in today’s extended Litopia Daily, we’re going to hear John Simopoulos, Dean of Degrees at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, both discuss and read from one of the most remarkable poems ever written… ...read more →
Book Launch: Zero Moment by MG Harris
It’s launch time! Scholastic Children’s Books are publishing the latest book in the bestselling children’s series The Joshua Files: Zero Moment by novelist – and Litopian – MG Harris… and we’re all invited to the bash. In fact, one dedicated Litopian has journeyed all the way from Germany just to ...read more →
Scott Sigler, Superstar
Scott Sigler is widely acknowledged to be the first New York Times best-selling novelist to have used the new medium of podcasting to build a large online following by giving away his self-recorded audiobooks as free, serialized podcasts. His loyal fans, who named themselves “Junkies,” have downloaded over seven million ...read more →
