On the 80th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's powerful political satire Animal Farm, we hear about the author's motivations and the power of his storytelling from Professor Jean Seaton, director of the Orwell Foundation.
Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov is perhaps most famous for his book Death and the Penguin. He lives and works in a war zone. En route from home in Kyiv to Edinburgh Book Festival, he spoke to Audrey Carville about the risks involved in writing political satire.
Orwell Prize winner Sally Hayden (My Fourth Time We Drowned) and EU Prize for Literature winner Jan Carson (The Firestarters) discuss whether their writing is political and how books can change the world.