Foreign aid, that we cant look at and say, is this money being spent wisely . If it is not, could it be better spent at home . You read my body language. I want to do one more story. The rspca in a dogfight with Crofts Over Dog leads. You have no interest in this. I have no dog in this fight the argument is these dogs are held to tightly on their leads. Crofts say this is nonsense. I have two agree with crofts. I love dogs. I have several of my own. Very naughty. But i think in this instance, they are not your regular iuii instance, they are not your regular run of the mill dog, they are performing dogs. These are more performing dogs. These are more performing dogs. These are more performing dogs. Doesnt mean to say they want to be kept on a tight league and have their heads held up . We are overemphasising the point. They are going around a ring. They have been doing it for many years. The kennel club says it is a silly nonissue. If you dont agree with crofts, it could be a different issue altogether. For the rspca for the dogs to do what they have been trained to do, leave them be. It is part of posture as well. This isa it is part of posture as well. This is a problem with fine thoroughbreds. Over breeding dogs, i do believe, is wrong. There ears arent right, their eyes right. Thats it for now. There you go. You have to fight your corner. You cant get a word in edgewise. Dont forget, the front pages are online. You can read a detailed review of the papers. We will be back at half past 11. Dont leave us yet. Robert and esther will be back. Now its time for meet the author with rebecca jones. For much of her career, Lionel Shriver scribbled in obscurity, and those are her words, not mine. Then her seventh novel hit the big time. We need to talk about kevin won the Orange Prize For Fiction in 2005 and made her name. Lionel shrivers latest book is called the mandibles, and its set during a financial crisis in america during the near future. At its heart are four generations of a once wealthy family who must deal with the loss of their fortune and then learn to survive as the dollar collapses, inflation soars and the economy spirals out of control. Lionel shriver, you wrote the mandibles in 2015, and the picture you paint of america is pretty bleak. Revisiting it now as it comes out in paperback, what are your thoughts . Well, its bleaker now one of the striking things about revisiting this book after the release of the hardback in the spring of 2016 is obviously we now have a new president , and not the president we expected. So theres a feeling of not quite being overtaken by events, because what happened in the book is not happened yet. We havent faced economic collapse. In fact, quite to the contrary, the stock market is going through the roof, though im not convinced it will stay there. But certainly interest in dystopias, in dystopian fiction, has picked up enormously, and i think the entire landscape of reality has changed, if thats not being a little overdramatic. In that what we consider possible has changed. Donald trump was initially not going to get elected. The idea of his being president was farcical. And now look. And ditto with brexit. As you say, it is a dystopian novel, set in 2029 predominantly, in the near future. But this isnt a future of lizards running down 5th ave and zombies in flying cars. Its a world in many ways that is very recognisable to us. How deliberate was that . Very deliberate. In fact, i kept the technological innovation to a minimum. There is a little bit, because of course things do move on, but i didnt want the readers focus to be on gadgets, so i tried to keep the changes between now and then quite modest. I did insert things, there was a major cyber catastrophe in 2024, which i think is highly likely. But i wanted you to be able to walk into this book as if from the next room. And we see what happens to one particular family, the mandibles, and how what they take for granted and perhaps what many of us take for granted is gradually eroded. A cabbage suddenly costs 20. You cant get hold of olive oil and wine. And by the end of the book, its 40. Yes, there you go. Yes. I wanted to go on that nitty gritty household level. So theres more than one scene in this book that takes place in a supermarket. And the supermarket becomes a strangely political place. Which it is, rather, because it has to do with our primitive survival. And what people regard as necessary to their primitive survival varies according to income level, so that most middle to upper middle classes would consider having to live without olive oil an absolute outrage. I mean, one of the things that people start hoarding and therefore becomes unavailable is [00 roll. This is a major crisis. Indeed. And one that you examine in the book when we have a shortage of it. You explore americas collapse through this one family, and its not the first time youve explored big issues through one family. I wonder why you did that. Well, i think its a good route in to an issue, and one of the things that happens when an economy breaks down is that civil structures break down, and relationships between people break down. On many different levels. As a nation, you can stop functioning, as a city or a neighbourhood you can stop functioning, and as a family you can stop functioning. And you put enough stresses on people, and i do design the plot so that little by little, everyone ends up in the same house. Yes. And they dont get along, right . So thats a festival for fiction. There is one character in this book, nollie, who is a bestselling writer, like you, who has lived away from the United States for several decades, like you, and indeed her name is an anagram of lionel. Why did you want to insert yourself in the novel . Well, partly for fun. Id Written Enough Books By then, ifigured id earned a little self reference. Did you enjoyed . I had a ball with it. I used all the truly atrocious working titles of my real books for the titles of her books, and shes an exercise fanatic, and annoys everyone by doing star jumps on an upperfloor, pound, pound, pound. And you do them . Yes. Although by this time shes 72 and really doesnt have a hope in hell of looking any better as a consequence so it was partlyjust to take the mickey out of myself. But it was also, and there was a slight political intention in that this book, i have to confess, in some ways, economically anyway, demonises the baby boomer generation, of which i am a member. And so i was putting myself in the book partly to admit, well, im the kind of person that younger generations are going to have to carry, and so it was a kind of mea culpa. The mandibles is your 12th novel. Youd been Writing Novels and getting published and reviewed, and then you had this an enormous success with we need to talk about kevin. Is it true, by the way, that that book was turned down by 30 publishers . In the uk, yes. It was also turned down by 20 different agents in the United States. So what kept you going . Uh. Bloody mindedness. Spite. Ok, you were determined. I will show them and you did. It certainly wasnt artistic fervour. And venue, as i say, it was this enormous success. Is that only a blessing, or does it bring its own pressures with it . Well, for awhile, it did oblige me to revisit a book that i felt i had moved on from. And that got a little bit trying, although i always had to be mindful not to complain, because all my professional life, i had been waiting for a book to hit it big, so once i got what i claimed i wanted, i had to keep my mouth shut. Im still proud of that book. Every once in awhile i have to go back to it and read a scene or a passage, and sometimes i think, hmm, not so bad. You tackle some pretty big subject in your books, including this one. And youve written about the Health Care System in america and obesity, to name a couple of others. How do you pick your subjects . Ijust look for something that i have a strong reaction to, you know. And im not necessarily obliged in my own book to pick something controversial or in the headlines. Although i sometimes do. But im just looking for something that i have a strong emotional reaction to. Lionel shriver, you always give us plenty to talk about. Thank you so much. Pleasure. Good evening. We have quite a lot of dry settled weather in the forecast for the week ahead. Some slight variations. Some showers in the far south east of england. They should clear overnight. Rain in scotland and northern ireland. Clear and dry elsewhere. A chilly night. In the countryside it will be just the few degrees above freezing. Monday is going to be a pretty nice day, particularly in the south and east. Temperatures could be 15 or 16. Further north, more than of cloud. Many having a decent dry day with fairly light winds. Monday into tuesday, the winds pic up in the north. A windy spell of weather in the far north of scotland. Rain working its way across northern part of the uk. Still mild and dry. Cloudier and breezier by tuesday with temperatures of 11 to 15 degrees. Goodbye. This is bbc news. Im martine croxall. The headlines at 11 00 the brexit secretary urges mps to back the bill for exiting the eu to pave the way for the triggering of article 50. What we cant have is either house of parliament reversing the decision of the british people. Gunfire. Explosion. Weve heard three car bombs going on in the distance, weve also had a lot incoming mortarfire, you can hear now the sounds of battle. The iraqi Army Continues to make gains against so called islamic state. Following a night of violence in rotterdam, turkeys president warns the netherlands it will pay the price for expelling his foreign minister. At least 48 people have been killed in a landslide at a vast rubbish dump in ethiopia
vimarsana.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.