Midweek - 07/07/2010

This week Libby Purves is joined by Fergus Beeley, Sandra Newman, Cameron Addicott and Adina Tal. Fergus Beeley is a wildlife filmmaker. He presents The Monkey-Eating Eagle of the Orinoco, part of the BBC's Natural World series, which follows the fortunes of him and his team as they spend the best part of eighteen months at the top of a rainforest tree making a film about the Harpy Eagle, one the most ferocious of all eagles, plucking large monkeys off the canopy trees. Sandra Newman is an acclaimed novelist, shortlisted for the Guardian first book award. Her new book is a memoir, 'Changeling' about her adoption and subsequent discovery of her birth parents: a NASA scientist and a novelist. Her story is full of ups and downs, from the suicide of her adoptive mother, to a stint as a professional gambler and finally to her new status as a writer. 'Changeling' is published by Chatto and Windus. Cameron Addicott worked as an undercover investigator with HM Customs and SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) for twenty years. In his book 'The Interceptor' he tells of his work as a surveillance operative, hunting down the UK's most dangerous criminals, starting with the interception and decoding of phone calls to car chases around the M25 and drug busts in roadside cafes. His book 'The Interceptor' is published by Penguin. Adina Tal is the President of Nalaga'at (which means "Do Touch" in Hebrew), the world's only professional deaf-blind group of actors, based in Tel Aviv. The company's show, "Not by Bread Alone", is part of LIFT - the London International Festival of Theatre.