Up Next
15:30 - 16:00
Brain of Britain
Brain of Britain - Heat 6, 2026
16:00 - 16:10
Witness History
The making of the Third Man: A film noir classic
16:10 - 16:54
Understand
1. The Language of Neurodiversity
16:54 - 16:57
Shipping Forecast
30/08/2026
16:57 - 17:00
Weather
30/08/2026
17:00 - 17:15
Six O'Clock News
30/08/2026
17:15 - 18:00
Pick of the Week
Jay Hulme
18:00 - 18:15
The Archers
30/08/2026
18:15 - 18:45
Illuminated
Bouncing off the Walls: A Prison Soundscape
The New York writer and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Colson Whitehead, speaks to Take Four Books about his latest novel, Cool Machine, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other books. In three interlinking stories, Cool Machine - the final instalment in Colson's Harlem Trilogy - showcases the grit and grandeur of 1980s New York through its underground wheeler-dealer protagonist, Ray Carney, who runs a furniture business on 125th Street with a lucrative side hustle.
For his three influences Colson chose: Junky by William Burroughs (1953); One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967); and The Hunter by Richard Stark (1962). Richard Stark was the pen name of Donald Edwin Westlake.
This episode was recorded at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was an BBC Audio Scotland production.