Wendy Holden and Jane Thynne are both former journalists turned authors. In fact, they both worked in newsrooms together back in the 1980s.

In this episode, they bring their journalistic competitiveness to the Book Off, but who will triumph?

They also discuss their new novels, their fascination with WW2, why we need to keep telling historic stories and how fun research can be. They also give us some brilliant reading recommendations too!

THE BOOK OFF

'Little Women' by Louisa May Alcott

VS

'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy' by John Le Carre

Here's a little more on Wendy and Jane's books:

The Teacher Of Auschwitz by Wendy Holden

At the dark heart of the Holocaust, there was a wooden hut whose walls were painted with cartoons; a place where children sang, staged plays and wrote poetry. Safely inside, but still in the shadow of the chimneys, they were given better food, kept free of vermin, and were even taught meditation to imagine full stomachs and a day without fear. The man who became their guiding light was a young Jewish prisoner named Fredy Hirsch.

But being a teacher in such a brutal concentration camp was no mean feat. Whether it was begging the SS for better provisions, or hiding his homosexuality from his persecutors, he risked his life every day for one thing: to protect the children from the mortal danger they all faced.

Time is running out for Fredy and the hundreds of children in his care. Can he find a way to teach them the one lesson they really need to know: how to survive?

Midnight In Vienna by Jane Thynne

As war looms over Britain and there is talk of gas masks and blackout, people are understandably jumpy and anxious. Stella Fry, who's been working in Vienna for a Jewish family, returns home with no job and a broken heart. She answers an advertisement from a famous mystery writer, Hubert Newman, who needs a manuscript typed. She takes on the job and is shocked the next day to learn of the writer's sudden, unexplained death. She is even more surprised when, twenty-four hours later, she receives Newman's manuscript and reads the Dedication:

To Stella, spotter of mistakes.

Harry Fox, formerly of Special Branch and brilliant at surveillance, has been suspended for some undisclosed misdemeanor. He has his own reasons for being interested in Hubert Newman. He approaches Stella Fry to share his belief that the writer's death was no accident.

What's more, since she was the last person to see Newman, she could be in danger herself.

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