Front Row - 23/01/2009

Presented by Kirsty Lang. Cape Town-born actor, director and writer Antony Sher talks to Kirsty about the resonance of The Tempest in his birthplace and how African ritual releases the magic of Shakespeare's last play. Writer and former Time Out editor Laura Lee Davies joins Kirsty to discuss Bruce Springsteen's new album, Working On A Dream. Novelist Andrew Martin and the director of the Warwick Prize, Prof David Morley, consider the merits of literary prizes and prize-giving. Kirsty talks to author Lawrence Hill about his historical novel, The Book of Negroes, which won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. They discuss the significance of the novel's title, which was changed for an American audience, and the research involved in writing a slave narrative.