With Hallowe'en upon us, Charlie Higson reads from his chilling new novel for children, The Enemy, in which grown-ups have been wiped out or turned into zombies by a killer virus, and talks to Michelle Pauli about running the book past his 10-year-old son, killing off his characters, and why children are intrigued by horror.
This week also sees the announcement of the shortlist for the Guardian first book award. Samantha Harvey reads from her novel, The Wilderness, and speaks to Claire Armitstead about it in the first of a series of interviews with the shortlisted authors.
Finally, in the wake of two urban literary festivals - the Hay Festival at Kings Place in London and Rainy City Stories in Manchester – Jackie Kay joins the Guardian books podcast panel to discuss the place of writing in city life, and the metropolitan centres of literature in the UK today.
Reading list
The Enemy by Charlie Higson (Pufffin)
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (Granta)
An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah (Faber)
The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape)
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen (Harvill Secker)
A Swamp Full of Dollars by Michael Peel (IB Tauris)
