Bookclub Folgen

Adam Foulds discusses his Man Booker shortlisted novel The Quickening Maze with James Naughtie and a group of readers.Set in the 1840s, The Quickening Maze tells the story of the poet John Clare, and his incarceration at High Beach Asylum in London's Epping Forest. Run by the charismatic and reformist Dr Matthew Allen, its principles include occupational and talking therapies. Based on real life events, amongst the patients is Septimus Tennyson, brother to the young poet Alfred Tennyson. The Tennysons suffered from the English affliction : depression, and Alfred moves to be near his brother, and enjoy the peace of the forest. In the programme Foulds describes how his discovery of Tennyson and Clare being at the asylum at the same time inspired the novel, and how the closed world of the asylum is a gift for a novelist. He grew up on the edges of the forest himself and spent his teenage years birdwatching there, before he discovered a love of poetry. This intensely lyrical novel draws on John Clare's love of nature, how the Enclosure laws of the time contributed to his alienation and the deterioration of his mental health after a lifetime's struggle with alcohol and critical neglect. Foulds shows us Nature's paradise outside the walls, and Clare's dreams of home, of redemption and escape.May's Bookclub choice : In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar.Presenter : James Naughtie Interviewed guest : Adam Foulds Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

Wilbur Smith discusses his novel When the Lion Feeds with James Naughtie and a group of readers.

With James Naughtie.Judith Kerr discusses her novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. First published in 1971, she wrote it for her son in order to explain the story of her own family's flight from Nazi Germany. Her father was a drama critic and a distinguished writer whose books were burned by the Nazis. The family passed through Switzerland and France before arriving finally in England in 1936.Kerr found herself a fairly willing refugee, seeing her long travels as a great adventure. Her parents went to great pains to confirm and support this view, often hiding their own personal and professional privations and struggles from their young children.When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit is now used as a set text in German schools, used as an easy introduction to a difficult period of German history.Presenter : James Naughtie Interviewed guest : Judith Kerr Producer : Dymphna FlynnMarch's Bookclub choice : When the Lion Feeds by Wilbur Smith.