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Alan Garner鈥檚 10th novel, Treacle Walker, may be one of the shortest books to make the Booker Prize shortlist but once read the slim volume which explores the nature of time weighs on the reader鈥檚 mind. Alan talks to Nick Ahad about the creation of Treacle Walker and what鈥檚 it like to be the oldest author ever to be nominated for the UK鈥檚 most celebrated literary prize.

Monteverdi鈥檚 opera, Orfeo, is regarded as the first great opera and while there have been numerous productions since its premiere in 1607 none of those have attempted the approach being taken by Opera North this week. Monteverdi鈥檚 opera is being recreated through a collaboration between Indian and Western classical music traditions. The co-music directors - composer and sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun and conductor and harpsichordist Laurence Cummings - along with the opera鈥檚 director, Anna Himali Howard, join Nick to discuss why Monteverdi鈥檚 opera provides the perfect gateway to a new form of music storytelling.

When Baz Luhrmann was a young theatre and opera director he had the opportunity to assist Peter Brook on his epic production of the Mahabharata, which Brook was staging in a quarry in Australia. Luhrmann tells Nick Ahad that he didn't have much to do he did a good deal of observing, and that he learned a great deal.

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Production Co-ordinator: Lewis Reeves

Main image: Alan Garner
Photographer鈥檚 credit: David Heke