Front Row - 08/09/2009

Jim Naughtie, chairman of the judges for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for fiction, and literary critic Peter Kemp comment on the shortlist of six authors: AS Byatt, JM Coetzee, Adam Foulds, Hilary Mantel, Simon Mawer and Sarah Waters. The Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave has just published his first novel in 20 years, having recently turned his hand to screenwriting for The Proposition, and composing and performing soundtracks to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and the new film The Road. Cave discusses The Death of Bunny Munro, a tale of one man's road to ruin, and its rather unsavoury protagonist. The September 2007 edition of fashion bible Vogue was the single largest edition of the magazine ever published. RJ Cutler's film, The September Issue, follows the magazine's staff and editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who is thought to be the inspiration behind Meryl Streep's character in The Devil Wears Prada. Marie O'Riordan, former editor of Marie Claire, reviews. The master tapes of all The Beatles' studio albums are held in a secret vault by EMI. But over the last four years, every recording has been meticulously dusted down and remastered, track by track, ready for a worldwide release of new CD editions. John Wilson visits Abbey Road studio and talks to the engineers who were entrusted with the task of polishing pop's Crown Jewels. Julie Cullen reports from the ceremony for the Mercury Prize for best album of the year, at the Grovesnor Hotel in London.