Month: March 2012

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Start the Week - Middle Age: David Bainbridge, Deborah Moggach, Simon Armitage and Claudia Hammond

Andrew Marr celebrates middle age with the scientist David Bainbridge, who dismisses any suggestion of mid-life crisis, to argue that there's much more to middle age than just a period between youth and being old. The poet Simon Armitage asks in 'Knowing what we Know Now', whether we'd choose to live our life backwards once we got to the mid point, but the writer Deborah Moggach suggests there's a gender divide to reaching 50. And the psychologist Claudia Hammond discusses perceptions of time, and explores why we're so obsessed with its passing. Producer: Katy Hickman.

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Start the Week - Middle Age: David Bainbridge, Deborah Moggach, Simon Armitage and Claudia Hammond

Andrew Marr celebrates middle age with the scientist David Bainbridge, who dismisses any suggestion of mid-life crisis, to argue that there's much more to middle age than just a period between youth and being old. The poet Simon Armitage asks in 'Knowing what we Know Now', whether we'd choose to live our life backwards once we got to the mid point, but the writer Deborah Moggach suggests there's a gender divide to reaching 50. And the psychologist Claudia Hammond discusses perceptions of time, and explores why we're so obsessed with its passing. Producer: Katy Hickman.

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World Book Club - Jonathan S Foer – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Harriett Gilbert talks this month to American writer Jonathan Safran Foer about his novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Set in the aftermath of 9/11, it is the story of a young boy coming to terms with the tragedy of his father's death in the World Trade Centre.

After finding a mysterious key left behind in his Dad's closet, Oskar sets out across New York hoping to find some answers.

Both a meditation on pain, loss and the healing power of love - as well as an examination of the psyche of post 9/11 New York - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a novel that lingers in the mind.

(Image: Jonathan S Foer. Credit: Giuseppe Aliprandi)