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Start the Week - Austerity: Antony Gormley, David Kynaston and Anna Coote

On Start the Week, Andrew Marr begins the new year with a look at austerity. Anna Coote argues that it's time to embrace a new set of values that are not dependent on high rolling consumerism and, as unemployment rises, to share out the working hours more evenly. The great chronicler of Austerity Britain of the fifties, David Kynaston, explores whether there are any lessons to be learnt from earlier decades of thrift and dissent. The artist Antony Gormley discusses a new collaboration in which he explores the idea of survival in a world in which we are bombarded with information but have very little direct control. And Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times columnist, looks at at how Ireland is dealing with its 5th austerity budget and asks if there are lessons we can learn from the fate of the Celtic Tiger. Producer: Katy Hickman.

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World Book Club - Witi Ihimaera – The Whale Rider

Acclaimed Maori writer Witi Ihimaera talks to Harriett Gilbert and a group of readers at the Cheltenham Literary Festival about his magical, lore-laden novel, The Whale Rider.

It tells the haunting story of a spirited Maori girl, her tribe and their mysteriously intertwined destinies. Kahu, a 12-year-old girl struggles to become the chief of her tribe but her grandfather Koro, whose attention she craves, believes that this is a role reserved for males only. Kahu will not be ignored and in her quest she finds a unique ally: the whale rider himself, from whom she has inherited the ability to communicate with whales.

Once this sacred gift is revealed, will Kahu be able to assume her rightful position and lead her tribe to a bold new future?

(Image: Witi Ihimaera 2015) (Credit: XAVIER LEOTY/AFP/Getty Images)