The Book Café - 10/01/2011

Wilbert Rideau became an award-winning journalist while serving time on death row in America's most violent jail. An African American imprisoned during the civil rights ferment of Louisiana in 1961 for the killing of a white woman, he was released after 44 years when his conviction was changed from murder to manslaughter. He's now written a memoir. Wilbert will join us to explain how developing the habit of reading in jail first made him realise the enormity of his crime and set him on the path to a more meaningful life. A hot tip for your New Year reading: a Motherwell reading group reviews Tessa Hadley's The London Train. Far Flung Fiction- we're going to be sending books out into the world and seeing where they end up. And The Art of Book Reviewing: The Scotsman's Lee Randall and Ralph Blumenau, top reviewer with Amazon, discuss the etiquette, the pitfalls, the famous bust-ups and divided loyalties associated with the apparently simple matter of saying whether or not a book is any good. Produced by Serena Field.