368: Leeanne O'Donnell - Sparks of Bright Matter

A show chiefly in the Scottish dialect this week as we head to the Boswell Book Festival to talk to writer, broadcaster and language activist Billy Kay about his book Born in Kyle; poet, Scots language and mental-health advocate Len Pennie reads us some Poyums and we hear from the prolific author and now Knight of the Realm, Sir Alexander McCall Smith, plus, in the spirit of the festival, we find some memoirs in the RNIB library.

Our final two Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing Shortlisted authors join us this week, Nathanael Lessore with Steady For This and Sophie Cameron with Away with Words. Plus we discover some new books entering the Talking Books library.

More Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlisted authors on the show this week. Zillah Bethell on The Song Walker, Tia Fisher on Crossing the Line and Nicola Davies talks about Choose Love. Plus some new books in the RNIB library.

To commemorate D-Day we’ve taken a journey into the RNIB Library to listen to some great history books about the Normandy landings and beyond.

In today's show we feature two authors on the shortlist for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing. Children's Laureate Joseph Coelho tells us how Greek myth inspired his book 'The Boy Lost in the Maze', and Hiba Noor Khan tells us the lesser known story of how the Great Mosque in Paris helped the Jewish community in World War Two in 'Safiyyah's War'

On today's show we listen to the brand new thriller The Deadly Spark from debut novelist Roxie Key, plus following on from last week's climate chat we turn to non-fiction and Mark Lynas' book Our Final Warning. All that plus four brand new audiobooks available from the RNIB Library.

Today we take a deep dive into climate fiction with Greg Mosse and his books The Coming Darkness and The Coming Storm plus we find some brand new audio books that are also available from RNIB. 

As we start gearing up for this year's Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, we listen back to four previous winners with four very different books ... Elizabeth Acevedo, Tanya Landman, Geraldine McCaughrean and Ruta Sepetys.

In today's show we hear the Books of My Life from both Nero debut novel winner Michael Magee and Booker shortlisted Sarah Bernstein. We also chat to C.J. Tudor about the Gathering, The Drift and more, plus find new books in the RNIB library. 

We interview Lord Jeffrey Archer as he records a special introduction to his book Traitors Gate exclusively for RNIB Talking Books, plus as her book 'Nobody Does it Better than Me: The Story of Alma' is recorded for the library, Robert Kirkwood chats to Dr Lin Berwick MBE.