Episode details

Radio 4,06 Aug 2026,42 mins
Review Show: Irvine Welsh's new novel and Glenn Close's new film
Front RowAvailable for over a year
Suzi Feay and John-Paul Stonard join Samira to review: Can Nothing Save Us?, the new novel from Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, a state-of-the-nation thriller set in the US. The Summer Book, a new film starring Glenn Close and based on the beloved novel by Moomins creator Tove Jansson. And Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam at the Royal Academy, featuring paintings by the 19th century painter who specialised in pictures of fairies, killed his own father and spent the rest of his life in Bethlem and then Broadmoor psychiatric institutions. Plus the Guardian's Stephanie Convery discusses the news that AI companies have been buying up rare books and 'destructively scanning' them - removing their spines, scanning, then shredding them - in order to train their large language models. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Tim Bano
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