Radio Previews

Whoever said reading books will become extinct in these information-saturated times is far off the mark, if this week's radio line-up is representative of our continuing interest in all things literary.

While novelist Colm Toibin begins a stint as the new presenter of BBC Radio 3's Book Abroad (see Saturday highlights, below), the collection of short stories by Irish women writers, If Only (Poolbeg, 1997) fills the Women's Hour drama slot this week (BBC Radio 4, Monday to Friday, 10.45 a.m.) Starting on Monday with Maeve Binchy's Taxi-Men Are Invisible, stories by Katy Hayes, Mary Maher, Sheila Barrett and Jennifer Johnston will be read throughout the week.

Sara Lefanu hosts the first in a new series, A Good Read (BBC Radio 4, Tuesday, 4.30 p.m.) with guest biographer Richard Holmes and writer Hilary Mantel. The idea is that each contributor chooses what he/she considers to be a good read. Meanwhile, listeners can test their own literary knowledge in The Write Stuff (BBC Radio 4, Wednesday 1.30 p.m.). James Walton chairs this literary quiz with novelist Nigel Williams joining with regular captains Sebastian Faulks and John Walsh.

Then there's always The Book on One for a brief literary escape during a mundane weekday (RTE Radio 1, Monday - Friday, 2.45 p.m.). This week's Book on One features Edna O'Brien reading excerpts from her own short story, Mrs Rheinhardt.

Moving to things poetic, Austin Clarke's son, Dardis Clarke, talks about his memories of growing up in Templeogue, Dublin, and the literary world of the 1930s and 1940s, of which his poet father was a part. This is the first of a new, 11 part series of Thomas Davis lectures entitled (RTE Radio 1, Monday, 9.02 p.m.) to mark the 25th anniversary of Clarke's death.

Finally, the joy of books and the bookshop is the theme of Through the Looking Glass (RTE Radio 1, Wednesday 7.35p.m.), a promising new series presented by Richard Beirne and Sheila O'Callaghan.