Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Sunday 29 April 2012 4:06 pm

Germaine Greer – Shakespeare’s Wife

Fresh insights into Shakespeare (and especially how scholars have misinterpreted him in the past) are provided by Germaine Greer’s examination of the life of his wife Anne.

Germaine talks to Linda Hardy.

Image courtesy of New Zealand International Arts Festival.

Sunday 10 June 2012 4:06 pm

Where were you in 72?

Three leading feminists – Germaine Greer, Sandra Coney and Marilyn Waring  – examine how the place of women has changed in the last 40 years.

In 1972 Germaine Greer – author of The Female Eunuch (1970) – took New Zealand by storm, bringing her views which challenged social orthodoxies to a wide public. Sandra Coney is a health campaigner best known for her co-authorship of The Unfortunate Experiment – alleging women at Auckland’s National Women’s Hospital had been experimented on without their consent. Marilyn Waring is a human rights and environmental activist, writer and academic. In 1975 Waring, at 23, was the youngest member of the New Zealand Parliament.

Judy McGregor chairs this lively session.

Sandra Coney, Germaine Greer, Marilyn Waring

Sunday 17 June 2012 4:06 pm

The life and times of Germaine Greer

A personal conversation with a major literary figure of the last 40 years about her upbringing, and how she came to write some of the influential books she has created.

Australian writer, academic and journalist Germaine Greer is widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of our time. Her ideas have courted controversy since the publication of her bestseller

The Female Eunuch (1970), remains one of the most influential texts of the feminist movement. Among her many other books are Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility, The Change: Ageing and the Menopause and Shakespeare’s Wife. Germaine Greer has a distinguished academic career in Britain and the USA.

She talks with Lydia Wevers.

Germaine Greer

Sunday 24 June 4:06 pm

Examining Place

Denise Mina writes about the gritty streets of Glasgow and Ron Rash the remote Appalachian Mountains. They explore how location infuses their very different work.

Location plays an essential role in the novels of Denise Mina (the gritty streets of Glasgow) and Ron Rash (the moody and rugged Appalachian Mountains), and they explore the differences and similarities in their approaches.

Denise Mina was born in Glasgow where her nine novels are set. They include the award-winning Garnethill trilogy and the series centred on 1980s journalist Paddy Meehan as she negotiates the macho Glasgow of that era.

Ron Rash lives in America’s Appalachian Mountains. His novels, including The New York Times bestseller Serena, have earned him comparisons to John Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy. Rash’s latest novel, The Cove, is set in Appalachia during the Great War.

Ron and Denise talk to Paul Diamond.

Denise Mina, Ron Rash.

Sunday 1 July 4:06 pm

New Zealand Crime

Three of New Zealand’s most prominent crime writers – Paul Cleave, Vanda Symon and Paul Thomas – discuss how their stories are affected by their distinctly New Zealand setting.

Paul Cleave’s Christchurch-set thrillers are critically acclaimed worldwide. His debut, The Cleaner, is one of the biggest selling novels to come out of New Zealand.

Paul Thomas dragged local murder mysteries into modernity with popular thrillers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After a decade-long hiatus, Thomas returns with Death on Demand.

Called ‘New Zealand’s contemporary Queen of Crime’ by the NZ Listener, Vanda Symon is the creator of the bestselling Sam Shephard novels, set in Otago and Southland; the latest in the series is Bound.

They talk with Craig Sisterson.

Paul Cleave, Vanda Symon, Paul Thomas