Tomorrow we are publishing Anjali Joseph’s debut novel Saraswati Park.
Anjali was recently chosen as one of the Telegraph’s Top 20 novelists under 40, a great accolade for a first time novelist.
The book takes place over the course of a year and tracks the city of Bombay through the changing seasons. In this podcast she is interviewed by Fourth Estate editor Mark Richards.
Click here to listen to Anjali Joseph.
Another Fourth Estate writer on the Telegraph list is Rana Dasgupta, author of Solo and Tokyo Cancelled.
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Recently Press Books editor Michael Upchurch interviewed Fergal Keane on his new book Road of Bones: The Siege of Kohima 1944.]]>
Recently Press Books editor Michael Upchurch interviewed Fergal Keane on his new book Road of Bones: The Siege of Kohima 1944.
The interview covers Fergal’s inspiration for writing the book, the history behind the title, and how he got ‘the silent fathers’ to talk about their experiences.
[audio:http://fifthestate.co.uk/wp-content/Fergal2a.mp3]
More like this:
]]>Recently I had the good fortune of bumping into the brilliant Susan Fletcher, author of Eve Green, and Corrag which we published in hardback yesterday. Susan was kind of enough to let me ask her a few questions on the process of writing Corrag, the importance of landscape in her fiction, the theme of witchcraft, and what she thinks about the digital future of publishing.
[audio:http://fifthestate.co.uk/wp-content/susanfletcher.mp3]
More about Susan:
More podcasts:
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Click here to purchase a copy of Almost 5′ 4″.

Click here to read Isobella’s article: 5 modeling jobs where height doesn’t matter.
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[wpyt_profile1]QFz4FeKAr8Q[/wpyt_profile1]
Gary recently recorded a great Q&A, posted here as a podcast:
[audio:gary kemp interview.mp3]
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST
Update:
I Know This Much: from Soho to Spandau is out in paperback this Thursday.
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[audio:Shakespeare by Bill Bryson - Chapter 1.mp3]
Despite the scrutiny of generations of biographers and scholars, the Great Bard’s life is still a dense thicket of myths and traditions.
Even Bill Bryson – travel writer, polymath and a master of research – found the world’s most famous writer a rather slippery character: in his new biography Shakespeare: The World as a Stage he declares him at once “the best known and least known of figures”.
In this short extract from the book, Bill begins his quest for the Bard by tracking down the only three existing (and contested) portraits of the great man – and examines what these few uncertain images can tell us about a life.
Click the arrow above to play – and you can download the entire audiobook over at audible.com…
]]>While Roger disappeared (at speed) I dragged Levi into the Green Room for a chat about his million selling sauce, his new book and the forthcoming Reggae Reggae Car – click the button to listen in. Rastafari Bless!
[audio:leviroots.mp3]

But how exactly can you pull off a novel that dares to cross the humour of Shameless with the emotion of To Kill a Mockingbird? Daniel’s been posting regularly on Fifth Estate in the run up to Broken’s release this month – last week I dragged him into the Filing Cupboard for a rather cramped discussion about the book, and about his own decade-long path to publication…
[audio:DanielClay.mp3]
]]>Packed with a cast of eccentric characters, not to mention the peculiar voices of more than thirty different narrators, Maynard and Jennica is a very modern New York love story. Rudy’s been a regular contributor to Fifth Estate: when he passed through London last week I dragged him into the filing cupboard for a conversation, and for what must be one of our most unusual readings…
[audio:rudydelson.mp3]
Along with a reading from fictional rap star ‘Puppy’ Jones, Rudy explained the appeal of living with so wide a cast of characters. We also discussed the challenges of using 9/11 in fiction – the final third of the book sees the attack on the Twin Towers weave it’s way into the lives of all the characters. And while Maynard and Jennica may be Rudolph’s first published novel, it’s actually his third completed book: I asked how rejected writers find the strength to keep going…
]]>It’s always tempting to pin a writer’s themes on their own personal histories – but critics have long assumed that Ballard’s curious themes would have found their beginning in his childhood in occupied Shanghai, and subsequent internment in the Lunghua Concentration Camp.
[audio:MiraclesofLife.mp3]

In his autobiography, Miracles of Life, Ballard speaks plainly about the experiences only fictionally described in Empire of the Sun. In this short extract from the book, read by Tim Piggot-Smith, Ballard describes the immediate aftermath of the Chinese defeat in 1937 – while bodies rot in the city’s verges, the international community continues its daily round of parties and daytrips. And in a scene recognisable to anyone familiar with his autobiographical novel, the young J.G. discovers an old, battered fighter plane…