麻豆社

As Jane Austen turns 250, Austen biographer and writer Dr Paula Byrne is joined by prominent thinkers, writers and directors who tell her about their encounters with the famous author. Each of her guests has been shaped and changed by Austen. Paula's guests inspire her own reflections about Austen's life and works. Today it's the turn of Booker Prize winner Marlon James.

Marlon James first encountered Austen at sixth form college in Jamaica - his teacher said he envied Marlon and his classmates because they were getting to meet Austen for the first time. She's a writer who's never far from Marlon and it's her complicated characters he loves the most. He tells Paula how she shaped the way he imagined characters in his Booker winning novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. Paula and Marlon discuss Austen's villains - from Wickham in Pride and Prejudice to Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility to Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park. For Marlon, Austen doesn't write caricatures but complex figures who reflect the society in which they lived. Paula argues how important it is to understand Austen as a Georgian - that she's too often imagined as a Victorian writer. Marlon and Paula explore how Austen enjoys her villains, how much she judges her so-called baddies and whether they ever really get their comeuppance.

Presenter: Dr Paula Byrne
Reader: Gemma Whelan
Producer: Camellia Sinclair