IF YOU struggle to keep your eyes open after a few pages of your book at bedtime, then today's radio shows are here to help, with a top selection of authors talking about and reading from their work.
First up is thriller writer Val McDermid, who takes part in this week's
Stark Talk (Radio Scotland, 10.30am). McDermid's current novel, A Darker Domain, is set in a Fife village around the miners' strike and has already been hailed a
classic.
Fellow Scot John Burnside is the guest on
Private Passions (Radio 3, 12pm). The poet and novelist's favourites include sacred vocal music by John Sheppard and Handel, reflecting his religious upbringing; Bach played by Glenn Gould; Tippett; an Indian raga and Miles Davis.
For some post-Sunday roast stimulation, Mariella Frostrup meets Notes On A Scandal author Zoë Heller in
Open Book (Radio 4, 4pm). Heller's The Believers is set in New York and is a study of manners in which a father ends up in a coma following a stroke, attracting not only his family to his bedside but his mistress too.
Love or hate his louche, dope-celebrating persona, Fun Lovin' Criminals lead singer
Huey Morgan is to some a god among mortals. 6 Music is clearly buying it, as Morgan is handed his own show every Sunday at 2pm. His motto is "if it's cool, I'll play it". Prepare for some whacked-out warbling from your wireless, folks.
More cerebral contributions are due as tributes are paid to Call My Bluff captain and Punch magazine editor Alan Coren in
Remembering Alan (Radio 4, Tuesday, 11.30am).
The full article contains 270 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
