Chris Brookmyre, The Ships Cat and Tide Lines

Thirty years ago, in 1996, Chris Brookmyre published his debut novel, Quite Ugly One Morning, establishing him as one of the country’s leading crime writers. Over his career, Chris has won multiple awards, including the McIlvanney Prize twice, and sold over two million books in the UK alone. Thirty years on, he’s once again revisiting the protagonist of his debut, Jack Parlabane, about whom there’s now a whole series of novels. His new book is Quite Ugly One Evening, and he joins Len to tell her more.

Robert Robertson, the lead singer of folk-pop band Tide Lines, chats about their catchy new single, Alright. The band are currently celebrating a decade together, and there’s news of the very special final gig of the current tour, which is happening in Glasgow in September.

And Alex Howard will be along to talk about his new novel, The Ship’s Cat, in which a stray called Archie stows away and travels the Med and beyond by sea. It’s been described as ‘The Odyssey - with cats.’