麻豆约拍

Eoin Colfer
Mariella talks to the children's novelist Eoin Colfer, author of the bestselling Artemis Fowl series. His new book, Airman, set in an alternative history on a fictional island kingdom off the coast of Ireland, tells the story of a boy who learns to fly. Eoin tells Mariella about his interest in early science fiction, and reveals how he uses his books to to settle childhood scores with his brothers.

Novels in translation
This week, more than 500 literary figures put their signatures to a letter protesting about Arts Council England's decision to cut funding to two small publishers specialising in foreign literature in translation. Mariella is joined by Tom Tivnan of The Bookseller to find out why publishing translated fiction is such an expensive business, and discuss whether public funding is the way forward.

The Reading Clinic
The journalist and author Jonathan Fenby offers some recommendations of novels and non-fiction to a teenage reader interested in books about China.

Public School Novels
Open Book looks at the history of the public school novel, from the birth of the genre in the 1850s to the present day, talking to Peter Kemp and Gregory Norminton, whose new book, Serious Things, is a dark thriller set in a fictional boys' boarding school.