Political literature with Andrew Marr and Roger Scruton – books podcast

September is the season of party political conferences in the UK and, this year, it has also been the month of the Scottish independence referendum. So we've devoted this podcast to politics in literature.

The former BBC political editor Andrew Marr turns to fiction with Head of State, a novel which looks ahead to another impending referendum – David Cameron's promised vote over Britain's membership of the European Union. He joins us to introduce his send-up of the political establishment, to uncover some of the score-settling hidden in its pages, and to explain why – after years forensically analysing the political class – he has chosen to make his fictional debut with "an entertainment".

We then move on to the serious business of what it means to be a conservative, with the philosopher Roger Scruton, who relives the embarrassment of being a youth with right-wing views and tells us why, in maturity, he is convinced that conservatism is so much more than "just another ism".

Reading list

Head of State by Andrew Marr (Fourth Estate)
How to be a Conservative by Roger Scruton (Bloomsbury)