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Zara’s Spiritual Life guest this week is the bestselling author Jane Fallon. She reflects on her Catholic upbringing and her career as a successful TV producer – on shows such as Eastenders - and fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming an author. She also talks about life with her partner of more than 40 years, comedian Ricky Gervais, and her latest novel, Welcome to the Neighbourhood.

A suitcase of drawings and poems that documented life in a Czech concentration camp by the Jewish artist Peter Kien have finally been put on display. The collection was hidden during the war by his partner Helga Wolfenstein and later seized by communist authorities. Zara speaks to Helga’s daughter Judy King about its personal and global significance following Holocaust Memorial Day.

Pitlochry’s 22nd Winter Words Festival commences this February, celebrating writers and performers from across Scotland, including poet, playwright and former City of Edinburgh makar Hannah Lavery, who joins Zara to discuss her new collection: Everything Everyday: A Year of Empty Promises.

Zara’s Faith Forum panel this week includes environmental scientist Laura Anderson; Professor of Religious and Cultural Education Bob Davis; and lawyer and member of Scotland’s Sikh community, Rupa Mooker.

They reflect on some of the major stories from the week, including: drawing red lines when it comes to authoritarianism, following fatal shootings by ICE agents in Minnesota.
The panel also considers what the appointment of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury says about women in faith leadership roles and the power of public confession following actor Natasha Lyonne’s admission of relapse.