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Elizabeth Day talks to Julian Barnes about his latest book Elizabeth Finch. Finch is a teacher, thinker, and intellectual inspiration to her mature student Neil. When she dies he unpacks her many notebooks to study her ideas of the past and writes the story of the Roman Emperor, Julian the Apostate, her historical soulmate. Julian Barnes also talks to Open Book's Elizabeth about cancel culture, the absence of young male writers, and why his bisexual sleuth, Duffy, from his 1980s crime novels isn't likely to be resurrected.

With over twenty years in the publishing industry, Rebecca Lee talks about her book How Words Get Good, which explores the history and process of writing a book. From getting the first words on the page to book cover design and blurbs, and why 20,000 copies of The Importance of Being Earnest headed to the pulp. While Bangkok resident and writer Emma Larkin sends her literary postcard revealing the city's multifarious books scene.

Presenter: Elizabeth Day
Producer: Kirsten Locke

Book List – Sunday 24 April and Thursday 28 April

Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
The Only Story by Julian Barnes
How Words Get Good by Rebecca Lee
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography by Charles Moore
Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin
Everything is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma by Emma Larkin
A Woman of Bangkok by Jack Reynolds
Four Reigns by Kukrit Pramoj
The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth by Veeraporn Nitiprapha
The Sad Part Was by Prabda Yoon: Translated by Mui Poopoksakul
Comrade Aeon’s Field Guide to Bangkok by Emma Larkin