Book Cafe 8 June

Radio Scotland's Book Cafe asks the question. What do you do if you can’t get your novel published? You could follow Tim Clare’s example and write about the experience of not getting a book deal, and get that published instead. We’ll be talking about his book ‘We Can’t all be Astronauts’ and finding out from bookshop owners Roz De La Hey and Vanessa Robertson, who both have publishing connections, whether his descriptions of the world of literature are correct. Jen Campbell is another aspiring author but she’s also the creator of a prize winning readers’ group. How do to the online experiences of today’s book lovers compare with library visits of the last century. Tune in to hear one woman’s recollections of the Campbell Library in Pollockshaws. All that plus more from The Book Detectives

BBC Book Cafe 25 May

This week on the Book Cafe we have some interesting stuff, mostly about language. Are our teenagers suffering from ‘word poverty’ despite the fact that a new word becomes part of the language every 98 minutes? Linguist David Crystal gives his thoughts. And are soap operas responsible for pupils describing Shakespearean characters as ‘high maintenance’ who need to ‘move on’? River City’s Libby McArthur takes up the challenge of defending ‘soap speak’. Who do the crime writers turn to when they need advice on police techniques and forensic routines – ex coppers Tom Wood and Karen Campbell reveal the kind of questions they get asked by authors wanting to get their facts straight.

I've also just heard from Sarah Kersley, whose bookshop in Brazil I featured at the start of May, will also be on the show. The power of the t'internet!

Book Cafe 18 May

Roll out those beach towels…the summer is just about here! But what will we all be reading on the beach & in the airports this year? The Book Cafe will be previewing all the major fiction releases across Scotland in the next few months… What do the large retailers think will be the most popular? Any hidden gems we haven’t previously heard about?

Clare English will also chat to one of the world’s top rare book dealers Rick Gekoski – who has been plied with alcohol by Graham Greene, threatened with a law suit by J. D. Salinger, berated by Ted Hughes, and helped J.R.R Tolkien move house…

Plus a look at international crime fiction and a report from the Christian Aid book sale in Edinburgh.

Radio Scotland's Book Cafe 11 May

A great show is in store on Monday with the legendary journalist, broadcaster and sixties icon, Dame Joan Bakewell. She's now added novelist to her list of talents. In Monday's Book Café, recorded at Glasgow's Aye Write Festival, she talks to Clare English about her book 'All The Nice Girls' and about her life and career, which included a brief spell as the model for Tampax!

BBC Radio Scotland Book Cafe 20 April

Steve Vander Ark, author of The Lexicon -the first encyclopedia to the entire Harry Potter series - chats to The Book Cafe about having to change his book after JK Rowling took him to court for copyright infringement. She may have won the case, but a revised version of The Lexicon has recently been published. The show will also look at what do commuters read on the train between Edinburgh and Glasgow? And if they don’t read - what do people do?

American writer Wells Tower is putting the short story back on the map - his debut collection Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned has won him many adoring fans, and it's receiving rave reviews on both sides of the pond. There's also s piece about how writers cope with a deep involvement or emotional attachment to their subjects. Does writing a diary or going clubbing keep you sane when your subject matter becomes over powering? Finally Gillian Philip chats about her new compelling teen drama, Crossing the Line.

The Book Detectives on The Book Cafe on BBC Radio Scotland

Next Monday the Book Cafe on BBC Scotland launches ‘The Book Detectives’ giving their listeners the chance to find out how to track down lost books. They’ve the heart warming tale of three generations of women who wanted to find the sequel to a children’s book and how they managed to find a copy in time for Mother’s Day. But just who was the author and why did he disappear without trace? Children’s writer Shirley Hughes will bethere to talk about her latest volume which is aimed at graphic novel loving adults and Jayne Ramage of the Watermill will be on hand to explain how she’s made children’s book groups such a success in Aberfeldy. You can e mail The Book Detectives with your queries - thebookcafe@bbc.co.uk

Radio Scotland's Book Cafe (26 January)

On this week's Book Café, we find out if traditional fairytales are just too scary, sad and un-PC for little children - or do they in fact stimulate emotional intelligence? And why has Russia taken our national poet to their hearts - two Scottish teens compare their Burns experience to two teenagers in Russia. Also, as the Kolkata Book Fair approaches, we find out why they've put Scotland in such a pivotal position. Kathleen Kent travels back 9 generations telling Clare why the witch hunts of Salem had such personal resonance…and we take a look at Mexican writer Roberto Bolano who has found literary acclaim with the epic 2666 after his death.

Radio Scotland's Book Cafe 19 January

On the BBC Radio Scotland's Book Cafe this week there is.

Is fiction dead? Does the deluge of celebrity titles hitting the bookshelves threaten to wipe out good fictional novels. Clare English provokes heated debate with the "world's finest literary critic" James Wood alongside authors Clare Messud and Sally Vickers and Scotland on Sunday's Stuart Kelly.

You can listen online as well as listen again.