New Saturday spot for Radio 4's 'Meet the Author'

Genre fiction, non-fiction and books which "are causing a stir, a story in the book world" will all be candidates for the new "Meet the Author" interview series, now conducted by veteran broadcaster James Naughtie who has replaced Nick Higham.

The interviews will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme, running every Saturday morning in the 7.30a.m. to 8.00a.m. segment, as well as the BBC News Channel.

The new series kicked off last weekend (5th March) with a five minute piece with novelist and film director Neil Jordan, in which Jordan revealed he was in talks with Amazon, who has acquired film rights, over directing an adaptation of his new novel The Drowned Detective (Bloomsbury).

Naughtie told The Bookseller: "In my transition from 'Today' presenter to being a special correspondent for BBC news, one of the things the BBC wanted me to do is to take on some responsibility for books - I've presented 'Bookclub' [also on Radio 4] since it began in 1998. And there was a feeling that there was a nice rhythm to the idea of a weekly interview on 'Today' on a Saturday, which could be combined with a slot on the BBC news channel."

Saturday "just feels right, the programme always strives to have a few more reflective pieces on Saturdays" and means the author interview is "less likely to be hit by the pellmell rush of daily news and events [than during the week days] - though we can never guarantee that," Naughtie said. "The idea is to mix established authors with new authors, certainly some non–fiction as well as fiction – [in a slot] where people who are interested in books at any level will find something that interests them. Given the very substantial audience on 'Today', it is a very good niche."

BBC arts correspondent Rebecca Jones will take over when Naughtie has other commitments, but it will mainly be in Naughtie's hands. Promising "some big names" in upcoming weeks, he said: "I'm very excited about it. We'll have a mixture of different kinds of writers, genres, fact/fiction, maybe someone not very well known  but who has an interesting story to tell. It'll be tied to a new book in the main, but we may also cover books which are causing a stir, a story in the book world," he said. "Without being too Pollyanna-ish about it, it's part of the BBC's commitment to a breadth of arts coverage." He added: "I read a lot, and I read a lot of biography and history, and a lot of fiction and pulp fiction – I enjoy crime fiction, a lot of US fiction, I've got very wide tastes. I'm devoted to books."   

Producer Terry O'Neill is working with Naughtie on the "Meet the Author" slot.

Naughtie's own second novel, Paris Spring (Head of Zeus), a Cold War thriller set during the Paris student uprisings in 1968, is out in April.