Bookmarked: Memories, Margaret & Bears, oh my!

Book Talk

Where do writers find their inspiration? As Ryan Van Winkle discovers in this edition of Bookmarked: pretty much anywhere, and not necessarily where you'd expect. Denise Mina found it in a commonplace object that nobody else wanted, spinning a Treasures tale of surprising emotional depth around a battered tea tin that once belonged to her grandmother. For Damian Barr, author of Maggie and Me, it was in memories so powerful he felt he needed to write the book 'or burst'. For her novel Bear Witness, Mandy Haggith was inspired by nature, an ancient myth and the slow re-introduction of once-indigenous species. Hear Mina read her Treasures story and talk about what tea means to her; learn how Margaret Thatcher and her policies impacted a young Barr (for better and for worse) and learn what makes bears so fascinating and so necessary to the world and why we should be welcoming them back to Scotland.