Some intriguing literary whispers did the rounds yesterday. Both the Telegraph and the Observer carried the story of Anne Robinson’s imminent leap from quiz-master to literary chat-shown host. And today confirmation of such an unlikely move was confirmed by the BBC: My Life In Books, a new daily show hosted by the queen of mean is set to hit our screens with confirmed guests like the Duchess of Devonshire, P.D. James, Giles Coren and Sir Trevor McDonald.
As Vanessa Thorpe points out in her Observer piece, My Life in Books is one among a clutch of new bookish shows coming from the BBC in the next few weeks: Stephen Fry’s new series Planet Word, (similar, one imagines, to his wonderful radio show Fry’s English Delight) , Sebastian Faulks’s Faulks on Fiction, and My Life in Books being the most notable of the new ‘Free Your Imagination – Books on the BBC’ venture.
On further inspection, however, other less star-studded programmes sound like they might be well worth a watch too: The Birth of the British Novel with Henry Hitchings on the political and revolutionary effect of the novel and The Beauty of Old Books both on BBC Four. For general culture-lovers, meanwhile, BBC Two promises the more listings-friendly Impressionism hosted by Waldemar Januszczak or The Art of Travel – A History of Watercolours with Shelia Hancock.
The Beeb has a habit of hosting seasons like this every couple of years. Anyone remember the Poetry Season a while back? Lauren Laverne fluently reciting Keats, Armando Iannucci’s wonderful hour on Milton and Simon Schama hymning the praises of Donne. Top-notch stuff. Let’s just hope this 2011 run is as good.
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