John of John by Douglas Stuart

But first book news, and we should mention Geoff because we've done a bit of a lead up to this, the Women's Prize winners have been announced.

And drumroll, the Women's Prize for Fiction was won by Virginia Evans for The Correspondent.

And the Women's Prize for Nonfiction was won by Lise Doucet for The Finest Hotel in Kabul, A People's History of Afghanistan.

So I haven't read the nonfiction, but I did read The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, which was, I thought, really good.

It's a debut.

So I don't know how rare it is for a debut to win the Women's Prize, but it is quite commercial.

So it fits with that.

I'm not surprised that it would win that prize.

And it's a retired judge writing letters.

She sort of likes communicating old school things.

with letters and it's comical, but there's also a very sad story that is revealed as the book goes on.

Yeah, it's quite, I wouldn't say eccentric, but she's quite an eccentric character.

And so it's quite idiosyncratic.

It's been very popular.

So everyone I've recommended it to has loved it.

I didn't completely love it, but I can see that it's a, I think a deserving winner and she sounds delightful and she's so thrilled.

I'm assuming you haven't read the correspondent.

I haven't.

I've heard about it.

I was sort of curious about books that are made up of made up letters.

It sounded a bit lightweight.

Did you find it lightweight or does it raise some bigger themes? Does it get more profound?

Yes, I wouldn't say lightweight.

I think there's an intelligence behind it, but it is a bit sentimental for my taste and I won't spoil anything, but there's a storyline, there's a plot line that really tweaks the emotions in a way that I think is... a bit too sentimental.

So I won't say cheap, but it's sort of a very surefire way to get people emotional.