Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking to Jayne from the Booktown Blether podcast about all things fiction in translation, as well as music, a lifelong love of languages, and being too scared (at first) to speak Italian in Italy!

Our conversation was completely unscripted so in my enthusiasm of course I completely forgot to mention some of the titles of the books that we discussed. In case you are wondering I will note them here.

We started by talking about Chico Buarque who I wrote a blog post about the other day. And I also mentioned a fictional biography of Chaplin by Fabio Stassi, Charlie Chaplin’s Last Dance, which you will find here along with the excellent review written especially for Other Words Books by Chaplin expert, Adam Weller. Later we moved on to Belarusia, and a novel translated using English and Scots to render the Russian and Belorusian of the original. The books is Alindarka’s Children by Alhierd Bacharevič, winner of an English Pen award. And finally I waxed (blethered?) lyrically about Andrea Camilleri, author of the Inspector Montalbano mysteries, and how reading a Montalbano novel is my ultimate comfort blanket. 

I hope you enjoy hearing a little bit more about Other Words Books. If you are new to my website you might not know that Wigtown is the National Booktown of Scotland and I live in a small village by the sea about eight miles away. Every autumn Wigtown is transformed by the annual Book Festival, a ten day literary event like no other. Not only does the festival attract the big names in literature, the arts and politics, it also includes live music and events for children too — and the setting is magnificent, with the town boasting a backdrop of the Galloway Hills and Wigtown Bay, with its views stretching to the mountains of the Lake District, our world-renowned dark skies, and wildlife galore. This year’s programme will soon be released and you’ll find it over on the festival website.

Happy listening!