The Eastern Regional Library Show

Library staff member Lesley Conway runs a radio show each Wednesday 12:05pm-12:45pm on Eastern FM 98.1 called The Eastern Regional Library Show. Tune in next Wednesday for a great show.

On last week's show

Lyn Baines was with us again, very smart in fedora and trench coat, over a fetching Elizabethan doublet and hose. We began with a reprise of our last conversation in which we compared crime novelists who maintained interest in their characters over many years, with those who were not aging so gracefully. Today Lyn had three new novels by authors who's characters have stood the test of time. Elizabeth George brings us Inspector Linley in With no-one as witness, a suspenseful novel of murders which highlight institionalised racism. Lyn appreciates Elizabeth George's writing for keeping abreast of current issues and allowing her main characters to develop and grow over time. Another popular crime novelist, Ruth Rendell, has a new title out too. Not in the flesh with Inspectors Wexford and Burden, deals with murders and missing persons going back 10 years or more. The detective skills of Kingsmarkham Police Force are tested to the utmost. And thirdly, an author whose detective stories weren't well known until the tenth in the series won a prize. Inspector Banks is the hero of novels by Peter Robinson, set in the beautiful Dales region of England. In Friend of the devil, two very different and bizarre murders create an atmosphere of tension in which it is possible that two murderers may strike again.

As an antidote to these, a very 'cosy' murder mystery by Lis Howell, the first in a series to come, The flower arranger at All Saints. We are introduced to a typically picturesque English village with eccentric characters and a flower arranger done to death, in the church.

In complete contrast, two books dealing with Shakespeare coming from very different perspectives, and both highly readable. Germaine Greer in her inimitable way is challenging established perceptions of Anne Hathaway in Shakespeare's wife, and in Shakespeare by Bill Bryson, we have a very informative, amusing overview of Shakespeare's life and work, the controversies and contemporary culture.

Cheers, Maryanne