Alternative facts that are not fa cts. Alternative facts that are not facts. I interviewed earlier a political scientist in washington who said it is not a short step from this to suppression of the media in america. This is extremist language iiow. America. This is extremist language now. I saw the interview and i was interested. He said donald trump had affinities with president erdogan in turkey and egypt. It might be an extreme comparison, and. Turkey has more journalists locked up than any other nation in the world per capita. Somebody so keen to exclude people who disagree with him, he is pernicious. We can still reporters journalists and the bbc who has been excluded will continue to report what is going on and maybe rather than focusing on the briefing, you report on what is happening the substance of it, and that way you can hold people to account and so unless he goes down the road of those People Who Lock people up, it isa those People Who Lock people up, it is a long way from suppression. Very quickly, back to the times newspaper. Scrap use by dates on milk. It says to use the sniff test. You can drink it until it starts to smell not very pleasant. You told me earlier about Scraping Mould off staff. Stuff. It is not the government about to do something it is telling us to do something obvious. We waste 100 million pints a year because of the sell by date. We throw away £700 of food a year, the equivalent of 500 meals. In a nation where lots of people are struggling and using food banks and a world where many are starving, Thatis A World where many are starving, that is terrible. We have to leave it there. Thanks. That is it for now. Ill be back at 11 for a full News Bulletin and well be taking a second look at the papers with our guests at 11. 30. Next, its meet the author. Sara baume has written a novel that deals with one of greatest contemporary problems, and perhaps her own experience too the feeling of loss, maybe hopelessness, among young people who think that the opportunity theyd been brought up to believe in is an illusion. Her book a line made by walking uses artwork as a structure. She was an art student herself in ireland and the story is told by narrator frankie, who struggles with Mental Illness and sees little hope. Its a dark story, but a compelling one. Welcome. The theme of this story, this book, is a problem, i suppose, thats very, very familiar and troubling to many people at this moment. Yeah. I think we live in an age where we grow up much slower. Definitely my generation. Its funny, i think about this quite often now, my parents were married and having kids at my age. But its totally acceptable that in your early 30s youre still. Im still doing exactly what i did as a child only, id like to think, a slightly more sophisticated version. Ive had some wonderful responses from parents. Thats interesting. Yeah. Saying that theyre going to give this book to their kids, presumably to help them but their kids are in their 20s. How do you think it might help them . I suppose only to know that youre not the only person who feels like this. I think its something i touch on in the book without passing any judgment. Frankie, the narrator, feels very lost and disilussioned feels very lost and disillusioned in a quite normal way because society is set up to make us feel our lives are incomplete and that this is a problem. To what extent is there an autobiographical element in the novel . To a great extent. It started actually with a Nonfiction Essay that i wrote when i was in college and it was structured around photographs of dead animals that i was taking, the idea that this character is stranded in the irish countryside, feels very lost and alone and feels as though everything is dying and nature becomes a kind of metaphor for that. She notices. Its like the way when youre pregnant, not that ive ever been pregnant, but you suddenly see people who are pregnant, keep seeing women who are pregnant. She keeps finding these dead animals because she notices them, i suppose. That builds the landscape around her. You were an art student and the visual arts are very important to you, you see the world in a sense through that artistic lens. Its interesting that you use artwork as a framework for the story. Did thatjust come naturally . It did because i suppose it came out of the characters own mind. Shes a former art student who is struggling to be an artist and she is concerned that now that shes finished formal education that she wont learn anything any more and so shes testing herself on the artworks that she knows and at the same time trying to find meaning for her life in the only way she knows how, through examining artworks. Its a weird idea, really, isnt it, that learning stops when formal education ends, because it should actually be the other way round and we should all know that and understand it and look forward to it. Learning through life. Yeah, thats mostjobs result in an ending of that. I am very coloured by the fact that i graduated during the irish recession. I think its still a problem in irish society, we are all very qualified but there are so few opportunities. You end up in dead end jobs and learning ends. Narrator frankie has all kinds of problems and you touch on something that is on many peoples minds, the prevalence of Mental Illness of various kinds, for which there is no immediate help, not much prospect of escape. I think were more aware of that now than we were a generation ago, arent we . I suppose we are. We grow up slower and when we are lost and disillusioned, there is now medication for that, which is the easiest way. Im not the novelist in a polemic, and i dont stand injudgment over people that take medication. Its very deliberate, that, isnt it . Frankie is very resistant. The book draws to a certain conclusion and its left for the reader to decide whether she was right to be resistant or not, i suppose. What do you think of frankie . Rewriting this book recently, it grew from this essay that was written when i was 25, 26, which is the age frankie is in the novel, and then rewriting it recently there were so many things that frustrated me about her and so many things that i was tempted to cut because i wouldnt think like that any more. Then i realised that this is my 25 year old self. Frankie isnt the me now and wouldnt make the decisions id make now. And you have to let her be herself. Yes, precisely. She became a character and not me at all. She needs to make her own mistakes without you intervening. Yes, and needs for people to decide for themselves. What did it tell you about your 25 year old self, rewriting this . I was very self absorbed and i think that is again a sign of the times. Different perspectives. The book deals a lot with the death of the grandmother. At the time, i was interested in tackling that. I am still interested in that. We hear a lot about the death of a spouse and grief from that point of view. Not so much about grandparents. Since the book, in the last year, my father has died. That was a huge dislocation. They say that you do not really grow up until one of your parents dies and i think thats true. I made a big shift in that time period myself. Frankie seems very self absorbed and her world is very small and the ego, the ego, the ego. I think you need a certain amount of if youre going to pursue the arts. Do you think that people are more alone now, they have to be more self reliant if theyre going to make their way . Yes, i tend to write about lonely characters. That is what interests me and it is an endless subject. There are many different types of loneliness. The narrator in my first book was an older man. This is a book more about the loneliness of failure or the loneliness of having perceived that you have failed when really your life has hardly begun. Would you like people when they put the book down to feel more optimistic about life, or do you suspect that they might feel a wee bit gloomy . I hope that the artworks will. Lift them. Well, lift them in a way or get people to look at smaller details more closely. Is that where you find your solace . It is. Nature is a big thing in both books. This is not a new wave, it is the mindfulness thing, just slowing down and looking at things more closely. Agnes martin, the painter, said, i have a very mind and i worked hard for it. In Todays Society theres a lot to be said about a quiet mind. Frankies mind certainly isnt. Perhaps if people think more about their ownjumping perhaps if people think more about their own jumping thoughts. You dont think about that when youre writing. I know what i learned. Lets hear it for a quiet mind. Yes. Sara baume, thank you very much. A mixed bag of whether early on. This is the scene in glasgow. Heavy rain running down the streets. There we re rain running down the streets. There were breaks in the cloud and sunshine coming and going for some. Todays weather was down to storm ewan. Named by the Irish Meteorological Service because that is where the main impact was inspected to be. Still got some strong winds in the north of scotland. We see showers coming in on the south westerly breeze, which keeps temperatures up for most places. Turning colder in scotland, may be part of england. From early tomorrow we have showers coming in on the breeze, which will be heavy and there will be thunder. They will contain rain, hailand and there will be thunder. They will contain rain, hail and sleet and snow over higher ground. Sunshine between the showers, the best of that on the east of scotland. A cold day. Single figuresjust that on the east of scotland. A cold day. Single figures just about everywhere. As we get on through monday night into tuesday, low pressure in charge. Keeping things settled. It will be a cold start for central areas and a widespread frost. A bright start to the day. Thickening cloud, showers coming down from the north and west through the day and it will be windy with temperatures struggling after a cold and frosty start. Tuesday night, cloud and rain south. Isobars ease and we see a temporary ridge of High Pressure that will bring a settle start in central and eastern parts. We are looking to the south west for the next area of rain to spread in on wednesday and it will get to the london area and up into north wales and the midlands. The rain will fizzle out on thursday, leaving behind a lot of cloud, but turning milder. This is bbc news. The headlines at 11 what are the solutions to your problems . You will get a chance to hear it. Jeremy corbyn admits labour hasnt done enough to rebuild trust with voters, but tells the party to remain united. Lam i am carrying on as leader because i am determined that we will deliver Social Justice in this am determined that we will deliver socialjustice in this country. The Home Secretary backs up a warning that britain faces a sustained and serious level of Terror Threat from islamist extremists. Food aid begins to arrive in south sudan, in the region where a famine has taken hold, according to the un. The Blockbuster Films vying to be winners on hollywoods big night. The oscars are just a few hours away
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