Taffy Thomas is a one-time fire-eater who has just been appointed the UK's first laureate of storytelling. He joins us on this week's podcast to explain how a personal catastrophe in his mid 30s set him on course for a new life as a weaver of yarns. He also explains why lying is a noble art, why storytelling is undergoing a renaissance and how it is not just for the very young – but can be just as valuable to those at the end of their lives.
Stories of a different kind throng Michael Peel's book A Swamp Full of Dollars, just shortlisted for the Guardian first book award. He tracks the malignant effect of oil from the west African mangrove swamps to Europe's corporate headquarters, and shows how the hostage-taking bandits he encountered in the Nigerian delta were ultimately less dangerous than the politicians who have creamed off the country's oil wealth and the banks who have helped them do it. He explains why the whole world needs to sit up and listen to Nigeria's story.
Finally, David Vann talks about Legend of a Suicide, the novel that survived rejection by all the big US publishing houses to become one of the fiction sensations of the year.
Elsewhere on guardian.co.uk, join Tim Radford in a discussion of Primo Levi's The Periodic Table. It was awarded – in a very informal vote – the title of the best science book ever written, but what makes it a science book at all?
Reading list
A Swamp Full of Dollars, by Michael Peel (IB Tauris)
Legend of a Suicide, by David Vann (Penguin)
