Night Waves - William Dalrymple/The Power of Yes/Madeleine Bunting/Hanan Al-Shaykh

Celebrated travel writer William Dalrymple talks to Rana Mitter about his new book Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, which follows his previous works on India such as White Mughals and City Djinns. Dalrymple discusses the nine stories he has woven into an Indian Canterbury Tales and the deep holiness that still pertains in a country feted for its burgeoning modernity. Rana is joined by Susannah Clapp for a review David Hare's new play The Power of Yes, written as a 'rapid response' to the current global financial crisis. Journalist Madeleine Bunting explains why the acre of land in Yorkshire her father bought after the Second World War that she inherited has brought her closer to an understanding of the human need to be connected to a place. And Hanan Al-Shaykh discusses Arab women's fiction, exploring how a wave of female writers are breaking new stylistic ground and some old taboos as they struggle to find translation for the Western market.