Episode: Ep271: Open Book: BJ Novak - The Book With No Pictures

The actor and comedian BJ Novak has written his first children's book. The Book With No Pictures is, as its title suggests, text-only. Despite this it must be doing something right because it's topped the New York Times bestseller list. BJ Novak talks to Mariella about why he chose to omit the illustrations - even on the cover. Peter Walker from New Zealand and Australian writer Evie Wyld have each written about the legacy of the Vietnam war in their fiction. They talk to Mariella about the impact of that war on Antipodean fiction, a war some feel has been partly written out of their countries' history. Ben Elton, novelist, stand-up, writer of musicals, co-creator of Blackadder, shares the Book He'd Never Lend, a comic masterpiece which he loves for its refreshing lack of cynicism.