Showing titles in Art of Storytelling

Welcome to the fifth series of The Graham Norton Book Club where we’re all about the stories – reading them, listening to them, talking about them. We have a stellar line-up of authors including two Booker Prize winners – George Saunders and Aravind Adiga, whose The White Tiger has become a smash hit TV show, just like Slow Horses whose creator, Mick Herron, opens our new season. We also feature best-sellers such as Juno Dawson, Kamila Shamsie, Kiley Reid, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and pay homage to the late, great Terry Pratchett.

Welcome to The Graham Norton Book Club where each week Graham talks to a top author, hears from a famous voice behind a brilliant audiobook and gets the best book recommends from his stellar co-presenters, Alex Clark and Sara Collins. He also weighs up the pros and cons of the book of the week with his passionate band of book clubbers and finds out what’s hot and what’s hotter in the book charts. If you like books, you’ll love this. Come and join the club.

From the Stone Age to the Greek Tragedies, from Shakespeare to Robin Hood, we have always had our heroes. The hero is at the centre of formative myths in every culture and persists to this day in world-conquering books, films and TV shows. But why do these characters continue to inspire us, and why are they so central to storytelling? Scalpel-sharp on the roots of storytelling and enlightening on the history and science of myth, The Hero is essential listening for anyone trying to write or understand fiction.

The Memory Palace is a collection of tiny, crystalline historical tales that come across like luminous short fiction, and, like Nate DiMeo’s acclaimed podcast of the same name, conjure lost moments and forgotten figures who are calling out across time to be remembered. For fifteen years, Nate DiMeo has turned to the past to make sense of the way we live today, finding beauty and meaning in history’s dustier corners, holding things up to the light and weaving facts, keen insight, wit, and poignant observation into unforgettable tales.

As a young boy growing up on the outskirts of Dublin, the stage and screen legend sought refuge in a world of imagination among the fields and hills near his home, at the edge of a rapidly encroaching city. Moving between sensual recollection of childhood in a now almost vanished Ireland and commentary on stardom, the actor-writer returned to Broadway and Audible to reflect on a life’s journey.

Welcome to the fourth series of The Graham Norton Book Club where we’re all about the stories – reading them, listening to them, talking about them. We’ve got some of the biggest names in books including Oscar-nominated Room and The Wonder author Emma Donoghue, Oprah-picked, youngest ever Booker-nominated, Leila Mottley, best-selling thriller writer, David Baldacci, Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, national treasure Alan Bennett and more.

We all love stories. But why do we tell them? And why do all stories function in an eerily similar way? John Yorke, creator of the BBC Writers' Academy, has brought a vast array of drama to British screens. Here he takes us on a journey to the heart of storytelling, revealing that there truly is a unifying shape to narrative forms - one that echoes the fairytale journey into the woods and, like any great art, comes from deep within. From ancient myths to big-budget blockbusters, he gets to the root of the stories that are all around us, every day.

The Graham Norton Book Club is back. We’re still all about the stories – reading them, writing then, listening to them, talking about them - and in our new series we’re featuring some of the world’s best storytellers including Margaret Atwood, Matt Haig, Walter Mosley, Lisa Taddeo and Val McDermid.

The book draws on history and sociology, and more personally on the author's early career as a professional cellist, as well as on his later work as a city planner and social thinker. It traces the evolution of performing spaces in the city; the emergence of actors, musicians, and dancers as independent artists; the inequality between performer and spectator; the uneasy relations between artistic creation and social and religious ritual; the uses and abuses of acting by politicians. The Janus-faced art of performing is both destructive and civilizing.

Graham chats to top authors, goes behind the mic with famous audiobook narrators and talks – and argues! – about the book of the week with his passionate band of virtual book clubbers. Plus, if you’re wondering what to read next, each edition is jam packed with ideas and recommendations from Graham and co-presenters, Alex Clark and Sara Collins. What are you waiting for? Come and join the club!

Whether he was introducing the latest iPad or delivering a keynote presentation, Steve Jobs electrified audiences with his incomparable style and showmanship. He didn’t just convey information in his presentations; he told a story, painted a picture, and shared a vision. He gave his audience a transformative experience that was unique, inspiring, and unforgettable. Now you can do it too, by learning the specific techniques that made Jobs the most captivating communicator on the world stage.

Simple, straightforward advice from both sides of the microphone on becoming an audio book narrator - what it takes and how to do it! Sales and production of audio books are booming. It seems that in our busy, multitasking lives, people are hungry for more and more recorded books. In this audio book, two of the best in the business - award-winning narrator and member of the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame Lorelei King and award-winning and Grammy-nominated producer/director Ali Muirden - tell all about what goes into audio book narration and what you can do to prepare yourself for a career in this industry.

You are a multitude of stories. Every joy and heartbreak, every disappointment and dizzying high, has the makings of an unforgettable story. Whether your goal is to deliver the perfect wedding toast, give a moving eulogy, ace a job interview or simply connect more deeply to those around you, The Moth is here to help. In this book, the Moth team reveal the secrets of their time-honed process and use examples from beloved storytellers like Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Gilbert, Nikesh Shukla, Sarfraz Manzoor and more.

A five-time Moth GrandSLAM winner and bestselling novelist shows how to tell a great story - and why doing so matters. Whether we realize it or not, we are always telling stories. On a first date or job interview, at a sales presentation or therapy appointment, with family or friends, we are constantly narrating events and interpreting emotions and actions. In this compelling book, storyteller extraordinaire Matthew Dicks presents wonderfully straightforward and engaging tips and techniques for constructing, telling, and polishing stories that will hold the attention of your audience (no matter how big or small).

The creator of Deadwood and NYPD Blue reflects on his tumultuous life, driven by a nearly insatiable creative energy and a matching penchant for self-destruction. Like Milch's best screenwriting, Life's Work explores how chance encounters, self-deception and luck shape the people we become, and wrestles with what it means to have felt and caused pain, even and especially with those we love, and how you keep living.

Practical and instructive, Egri provides a framework for writers to analyze and enhance their work. Numerous examples from classical and contemporary literature illustrate his principles, making the book a theoretical guide and hands-on manual for improving storytelling skills. "The Art of Dramatic Writing" has left a lasting impact, influencing generations of writers and remaining a staple in creative writing programs. Its enduring relevance lies in its timeless principles, applicable across genres and mediums.

Welcome to our third series of The Graham Norton Book Club where stories - reading them, writing them, listening to them, talking about them – are still front and centre. We’re featuring some of the world’s best-known and best-loved authors – like Maggie O’Farrell, Ann Cleeves, Jilly Cooper, NK Jemisin and Jonathan Coe.

Rock and Roll is history.

Ashling is every busy parent’s dream: a professional nanny with experience and a warm, sunny attitude. But from the moment Mary hires her to look after her young children, things start to feel just a little...off. Are Mary’s stressful work schedule and lack of sleep playing games with her own sanity, or has she welcomed an unstable troublemaker into her home?

"Writing is structure,” William Goldman said, but too often aspiring writers plunge into their work without grasping this fundamental principle. Story structure is one of the most important concepts for a writer to understand - and ironically, one of the least frequently taught. In this book, New York Times best-selling author William Bernhardt explains the elements that make stories work, using examples spanning from Gilgamesh to The Hunger Games.