Extended interviews
Interviews recorded at writers festivals are usually too long for our program, and we have to edit them down. To hear the full-length versions of some remarkable interviews, download the mp3 files below.
Dorothy Porter
In April last year, Dorothy Porter discussed El Dorado, and the art of poetry, on the Book Show. She spoke to guest presenter and playwright Michael Gurr.
Garry Trudeau
Download transcript as PDF file
In a very rare public appearance at the 2008 New Zealand Post Writers and Readers week in Wellington, Garry Trudeau, creator of the bitingly political and satirical Doonesbury cartoon strip, spoke to Radio New Zealand's Sean Plunket. He talks about the enduring characters who have navigated their way through wars, political turmoil and a changing American way of life ever since the first cartoon appeared in October 1970.
Norman Mailer
Listen to Ramona Koval interview Norman Mailer at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2000. In this wide-ranging conversation Mailer talks about the perils and exhilaration of the quest for truth, his relationship with his mother, and the formation of his ego. He laments the outcome of the sexual revolution, despite his longstanding reputation as the angriest, sexiest man in America. He condemns the narcissism of America and American politics, and claims wisdom is his vice.
Germaine Greer
The irrepressible intelligence of Germaine Greer has recently been applied to a subject she knows a lot about. She did her PhD in 1968 on the ethic of love and marriage in Shakespeare's early comedies, and in her latest book, Shakespeare's Wife, she takes another look at the marriage of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. The marriage has had a very bad press from generations of Oxford and Cambridge dons, who regarded it as cold and loveless. But Germaine argues that Anne has been undervalued both for what she meant to Shakespeare and what she contributed to his work. This interview was recorded by The Book Show at the 2008 Edinburgh International Book Show.
