but how are the pillownauts themselves getting on? you're slightly upside down so it's not like literally hanging upside down but there's a weird distribution of sensation in your body. after a while ijust got used to it and then you didn't really have any discomfort. itjust feels like you're lying in bed. i watched an entire netflix series yesterday. that got me through the day. today, i've more freedom with my arms so i'll be writing my thesis. mars and earth are neighbours but it is estimated it could still take nine months for us to get there. with scientists wanting humans on mars by the 2030s, they are working to make sure our bodies can withstand the journey. all the money's being funnelled into these long—term bed rest projects at the moment, because we're rapidly trying to develop the best interventions we can to make sure if we get an astronaut to mars, that they can perform their duties. after three days in bed, there will be three days of rehab to observe the return—to—earth effect. a small step in the world of space

exploration but all part of the giant leap toward manned missions to mars. hannah meredith, bbc news, nottingham. three days in bed and then three days of rehab from being in bed. where do i sign up? hello, a lot of crisp sunshine but also snow showers. you have been sending lots of beautiful pictures. this is a nice one from molly in antrim, northern ireland. continuing snow showers this evening and into tomorrow. this moved over us last night, rattling windows in the north with severe gales. look at the showers streaming off the atlantic. they will continue to night and into western areas, and northern areas, but the east and south will be clear and cold to night and the winds will

drop out and temperatures will fall. -2' drop out and temperatures will fall. -2, -3 drop out and temperatures will fall. —2, —3 in city centres, elsewhere possibly as low as minus five. monday morning cold and frosty. a lot of sunshine around a monday night, more bad weather on the way. this is bbc news. our latest headlines. oxfam admitted they "failed in moral leadership", the government is warning uk charities that taxpayer funding will be withdrawn if they fail to co—operate with the authorities in cases of sexual exploitation by staff. reports from russia say a passenger aircraft with 71 people on board has crashed shortly after taking off from domodedovo airport in moscow. it's believed all on board have died. the foreign secretary, boris johnson, has met the leader of myanmar, aung san suu kyi, for talks that included the issue of the rojingya muslims. nearly 700,000 of them have crossed the border

into neighbouring bangladesh, after a crackdown by the burmese military. a report commissioned by a group of mps is warning of major problems faced by children in england whose parents drink too much. almost a fifth of children reported feeling embarrassed by seeing their parent drunk. more at the top of the hour. now on bbc news, talking books. welcome to talking books here at the cheltenham literary festival. a celebration of more than 1000 of the world's finest writers, poets, performers and politicians. today i'm talking to the bestselling irish writer roddy doyle. he made his name 30 years ago with his debut novel the commitments, which was later turned into a hugely successful film and then a stage show. since then he has gone on to write more than 20 books for adults and children, including paddy clarke ha ha ha, which won the booker prize in 1993.

his latest novel is called smile, and in it, he says, he hopes to shock and surprise people. roddy doyle, you have been writing for three decades. so there is a lot to talk about. but i'd like to start bang up—to—date with your latest novel smile, which is about a middle—aged man, victor, looking back on his schooldays as dark and disturbing memories begin to emerge. what was the starting point for the novel? i went to a christian brothers school in dublin, started in 1971, when i was 13. and that is a school run by the catholic church? yes, by the christian brothers, they are called. and a lot...

for more than 100 years, a lot of working—class, lower—middle—class boys would have gone to these schools. it was a strange place to go into, having been to a state school at primary level, to go into this very violent, weird, eccentric environment. quite early on, a christian brother, probably in his late 30s, i don't really know, wearing the soutane, like a dress, at the front of the room. friday afternoon, we were trying to persuade him not to give us homework. and he said to me, roddy doyle, i can never resist your smile. and the ground, after a second or so, hoping he hadn't said that to me, the ground in front of me just opened and yawned. in a way, i hoped i could fall into it, because i knew there were consequences. that he had said this to me in front of 33, 3a other boys, and that i was going to be branded.

and the word gay did not exist, really. it was not in the air, in the way it is now, in ireland in1971, so i was the queer, i was the homo. and just to be clear, that man never touched me, or never told me to stay back after class. there was nothing overtly sinister about it, but it was so inappropriate. i did not know the word back then, but it was so inappropriate. i made more of it, much more of it in the novel than actually occurred, but it is one of those memories. if a memory has a camera angle, it is the exact same memory for the last 50 years or so, just less than 50 years. and it did not haunt me. i got a bit of slagging about it, as we say in ireland. and now and again somebody would say, smile at him, smile at him. and i would be telling them no in words to that effect. but the memory was there. i think because of all the stories that had been in the air in ireland

over the past couple of decades about abuse and the catholic church. ijust thought i will somehow or other take that little moment in my life and somehow fashion a story. i was hoping i could surprise or maybe shock people by telling this particular story. i wonder if you mightjust read a short extract that does involve the incident you have been talking about. and this violent man with the desperate dan hair liked me. i knew this. everybody knew this, because of something he said more than two years before, when i was 13. victor ford, i can never resist your smile. it was like a line from a film in a very wrong place. i knew i was doomed. it had been one of murphy's happy days and we were at him to let us off homework for the weekend. it was friday afternoon and the sun was heating the room, spreading the smell. the school was right beside the sea and we could hear the tide behind the yard wall.

go on, brother, s‘il vous plait, brother, we'll pray for you on sunday, brother. he listened to us and grinned. it was a grin, not a smile. the word inappropriate did not appear until years later, but the grin was inappropriate. it was all inappropriate. he was being taunted and teased by a room of boys and he was loving it. then he said it. victor ford, i can never resist your smile. there was silence. as you said, you were never abused, but do you think any of your friends were? i have asked several people i would have met over the years, do you think anything happened? and they say, oh, yeah. you were beaten, weren't you? i was, yes. but i was one of many. yes, i was. iwas... corporal punishment was legal back then. it was here, too. it was made illegal i think in 1981, when ijust started my own career as a teacher. so in primary school, i would have been slapped occasionally, but everybody was slapped. when i went to this place there was a level of violence

that was extraordinary. it was unpredictable. a teacher could explode at any moment. and it would involve... a lot of the teachers had leather straps. three on each hand would leave you shaking for a day, at least. i recall one teacher who was not even a teacher of mine came into the room and i can't even remember what we were doing. something utterly harmless. none of his business. as a teacher myself years later, none of his business, hauled out four of us and i was cute enough to get to the back of the queue, thinking he would be exhausted by the time he came to me, but he wasn't. i will never forget the pain. never, everforget the pain. the desk had metal legs and i remember putting my hands on the legs to cool the hands down. it worked to a degree, but my hands were still sweating. later on in the day, you know.

i did nothing to deserve it. i feel bad saying this, because there were terrific teachers there as well. you are almost 60. smile is your 11th novel. why write about it now? i really don't know is the honest answer, well, it is an honest answer. i don't know. when i started the book, i think it is memory. i suppose as we get older we gather more memories. our children get older and memories become vital and it's a strange moment when you realise a memory you think you share with someone is not a shared memory. it's also fascinating. i listen to people i know who were in the room at the same time as something occurred and i am sitting back listening to a different version, but it is their version. so memory and its fragility has always interested me and i think more so as i get older. there is that.

also the notion of friendship among men, which to me is one of the great sources of joy. when i started writing about the schooldays i knew at least a big chunk of the book was here. has it been cathartic? no, not at all. that is an easy answer! i don't believe in that stuff! there has been, and you mentioned it earlier, there has been talk in recent years about institutionalised child abuse in ireland and i wondered, as an irish writer, did you feel a duty or responsibility to address the issue? not at all. i do not think in those terms and if i had a list of social issues i now must address, i would be... 0h, way off the track that i should be on when i am writing a novel. no. i don't feel any responsibility whatsoever. but having decided to write a book that included this subject, for example, or dealt with this subject matter, my responsibility was to do it as well as i possibly

could and also to do it in a way as a novelist that could still surprise. i had just written a film script recently about a homeless woman, but she is a woman who happens to be homeless, if that makes sense, and that's the plot. but without the woman, you know, she's at the core of the story. but she's much more important than the adjective that describes her currently. ireland seems to be a constant source of inspiration for you. roddy doyle books don't tend to travel much beyond ireland. why is that? well, pg wodehouse's novels don't stray much beyond his back garden, really, do they? i have written one novel that was set in america, because it had to be because the protagonist got out of ireland, so in a way it is about him getting his way

back into ireland. it's a small country, but, there is more than enough to write about. the commitments, a story about a bunch of young kids forming a band, it's a universal story, itjust happens to be set in dublin. that is where the ice is nice and thick for me. if i'm walking across the lake, i'm not going to fall in, because i know the accent. i know the corner they are on. i know what shop they go in to buy something. i know that shop. and that is my research. i have always lived in dublin and i have always lived in a certain corner of dublin. the north—east of dublin. even though i might not mention it, i know the sea is very close to where all the characters are. and i know the seagulls can be heard in the morning and in the evening. and i sometimes mention them. and i know the geese come in at this time of year and they leave in april.

and we love seeing them going over our heads. you mention your first novel the commitments, which you wrote while you were teaching. you taught english and geography in a secondary school for 1h years. am i right your pupils nicknamed you punk doyle? yes. why was that? i had an earring and i wore doc martens and it was 1979, that kind of era, so punk was big. and i got my own classroom and there was a poster of the clash. and i added the smiths. and i had a friend who promoted gigs and he gave me a poster so i thought it was a good alternative to jane austen or somebody like that. or the map of ireland. you know, jane austen on one side and the map of ireland. there is a vision of hell! it was just an alternative. doyle is a common name in ireland, the sixth most common name and there were four doyles on the staff. one of the others was called dozy. so i think i got away quite well there. i would rather be called punk doyle. while you were teaching

you were writing. had you always wanted to be a writer? the itch was there and i did a little bit of writing when i was a student but teaching was the great opportunity. i did not have a family at the time, so as a secondary teacher in ireland i had june, july and august off, so that is a quarter of the year. and you are never more than seven weeks away from the mid—term break. so there was plenty of time, leaving aside evening time. so a greatjob to start off with. the first four novels were written while i was a teacher. the commitments was self—published in 1987, about this group of young dubliners who form a soul band. it became something of a cult classic, in no part due to the musician elvis costello. what was that about? well, if i remember right, there was a very good music magazine called hot press. and they weren't impressed with the book. a bad review, an interview that was a bit of a disaster, as well. and that was a disappointment,

because i liked hot press. but then, i can't remember, some anniversary edition of hot press, they asked elvis costello to write, because he was living in dublin at the time, and they asked him to write something about his early years. in the article, i cannot remember the words, he said if you want to know what it was like read the commitments. and that was a great endorsement. and of course the film, which came out in 1991, gave it even extra life. it was this tremendous success. what was it like for you? it was marvellous, but also overpowering. to go from being a teacher who has written books and, now and again, might be in a newspaper being interviewed, to being a very reluctant celebrity, for example, or a household name, i didn't like it. it was a little overpowering and i was worried at that stage i might be defined by this for the rest of my life —

the man who wrote the commitments. it is not a healthy way to be, at that stage of your life, to be almost consigned to it — the past before you begin. i felt a little bit that way when i won the booker prize. in 1993 you won the booker prize with paddy clarke ha ha ha. suddenly you are the literary equivalent of u2 in ireland. for a while, yes. i'm delighted that i won it and still am. a brilliant compliment to get. i thought i will never escape from this bloody thing, either. it seems mean—spirited. aren't you lucky to be trying to escape from those two huge successes? i know i am lucky, but when i finish a book i almost throw it over my shoulder and get going on another one. i've relaxed a bit now in recent years, but at the time... i've written for children, too. the last few years, i go into a cafe

in dublin buying a coffee and a tall lad behind the counter with a big beard says, are you roddy doyle? i say, i am. he says, i loved the giggler treatment when i was a kid. a big adult, six foot seven. tattooed, covered. and he is telling me it is one of his favourite books. it's really lovely. i think that made me feel a bit gentler towards everything i have done. i suppose i am at that stage of my life or career where i don't feel i have to escape from the past. if somebody says, oh, i really like the commitments, i will accept the compliment, rather than bat it away. one of the things that seems to me to define a roddy doyle novel is the dialogue, which is so realistic. i'm thinking of your second novel, the snapper, which is about a young woman who gets pregnant outside of wedlock. you're there with her in the kitchen when she tells her parents. you're with her in the pub

when she tells her friends. you make it seem and sound effortless. how much work really goes into it? a lot. it takes a lot of work to make something seem effortless. there is a lot of trial and error, stopping, starting. taking out a word because it seems like you are tripping over it rather than reciting it. i take out a word and see if i can replace it, or rewrite the sentence completely. are you always listening to people? not professionally. in dublin, often you don't have a choice. it's not an option. silence as an entity is quite rare. people talk to each other all the time. the ones i love are upstairs on the bus when you hear half—conversations. people talking to somebody else on the phone, i love those ones. because i fill in the gaps. yes, i can't think of... i've heard things that struck me

as being funny and bizarre. i might come home and tell the family but i can't think once of hearing somebody say something that i jotted down and said, i'll use that. because it would end up being a punch line in a way that a situation comedy might. that you're dragging the audience towards that line. so if it doesn't serve a purpose in the story, i would not bother saving it. they are always talking in the snapper. they are also always laughing. it struck me as a very happy book. yes, i think it was colm toibin who said it was the first and only example of a happy family in irish literature! that was deliberate. this is a family that works, with their flaws. i read it recently because i have done a stage adaptation that is going on in dublin next year. i was quite shocked in many ways. there is a level of violence in it i didn't know was there. it wasn't in my memory. but things that were acceptable 30 years ago when i started the book

would be utterly unacceptable now. really quite a shock. some of the attitudes have shifted and changed. there are things in it that are rooted to its time. but it's a happy family. and yet some of your novels seem to have this bleak streak. i am thinking about paddy clarke, this ten—year—old boy, whose verve for life seems to crumble as his parents‘ marriage disintegrates. i wondered where that pessimism comes from. i don't know. i'd find if i was in the company of a 50—year—old man who is utterly optimistic, i would find it completely unbearable. give me pessimism every day! it's part of the package, isn't it? we all know we die. we're mortal. therefore there has to be pessimism. unless you are looking forward with giddy delight to what might be coming.

to me, this is it. it was like the official picture is every house had mammy, daddy, and in the irish situation in the ‘60s, 6.2 children, or 11.2 children. there were four children in my house. there would have been five, except one of the children died. that was not a big family by any means. i remember there were houses where there was a father by himself, there were a lot of women by themselves. the father was away working in south america. that was the official story. so the notion of that family's structure, while it was the standard one, was not universal. i was just working with that when i started paddy clarke. the book ends with the break—up of the parents‘ marriage. we don't know what happens after that. how is he?

i haven't a clue. because he is a fictional character. would you ever write about him in adulthood? no. i wouldn't have the remotest interest. it's one of the few stand—alone books i've written. i think it's a much better book left alone. you touched on your own family and you did capture your parents‘ memories in a memoir rory and ita. why did you want to do that? well, my children were very young and i thought if the worst happened... and my parents died while they were very young they would be left not knowing much about their grandparents. my mother for a example was born in 1925. her mother died in 1928, when my mother was three. she knew virtually nothing about her. she didn't know her surname. i don't think there was a photograph. didn't know where she came from.

didn't know where her family were. i witnessed my mother discovering that side of her family when she was in her 50s. she found out she had a whole family living in long island in new york. did you ever wonder whether the general public would actually be interested in reading about them? i don't know what the general public is. i never thought it was going to be angela's ashes. it wasn't going to be a global phenomenon by any means. but i thought it would have a validity. they were great storytellers and very descriptive. my mother's memory is very precise. my father's is more general and he embellishes. so he had vivid memories of his birth. whereas my mother would limit herself to what actually happened. they worked well as a team. i was enjoying it and i sent early chapters to my publisher and he loved them, so that was enough for me. as i said at the beginning, you have been writing for 30 years. does it get easier?

no. and that's good. no, it is never habitual. it is always work, work i love. 11 novels in and working on the 12th, and that is hard, coming up with something again fresh. i have always accepted the fact i am getting older, therefore the camera angle is different and there is material to write about i would never have anticipated before. we shall look forward to your 12th novel. roddy doyle, it has been so good to talk to you. thanks very much. it has been a beautiful day across

most of the uk. blue skies, cold, crisp weather, and it will be staying cold and crisp to night but still wintry showers around, mostly affecting northern areas. right now, low pressure that crossed last night, the gales in the north, in the wake of it, a lot of wintry showers. caribbean on the cold air strea m showers. caribbean on the cold air stream from iceland. here are the wintry showers pushed by the wind and they will continue across scotla nd and they will continue across scotland and possibly the north—west of england, and there will be covering in the night so for some there will be a fresh covering of snow. in the south it will be clear. pretty much everywhere temperatures willdip pretty much everywhere temperatures will dip below freezing and in rural areas down to minus five. monday, a

lot of sunshine and starting on a frosty note. a weather system is approaching. that will not reach us until later in the day. for most of monday, a lot of sunshine, lighter winds, the odd lorry. 5—6d. monday evening, the weather front approaches, the winds will freshen up approaches, the winds will freshen up to gale force, blowing hard around western coasts and the irish sea and rain will fall as snow across ireland and many parts of northern ireland, scotland and the hills of wales and the pennines will get snow is so a messy picture on tuesday with snow across scotland. across the pennines. in the south it looks like mostly rain. tuesday afternoon, the weather front in eastern counties. tuesday afternoon in the west, we have sunshine but

cold. the front moves out of the way and we have another midweek. low pressure. this will draw in slightly milderairand if pressure. this will draw in slightly milder air and if snow falls, it will mostly be across the tops of the pennines and across scotland. to the pennines and across scotland. to the south, gale force winds and outbreaks of rain. not a pretty picture on wednesday. this is bbc news. the headlines at 5pm. a russian passenger plane carrying 71 people has crashed shortly after taking off from moscow. everybody on board has been killed. the government warns uk charities that funding will be withdrawn if they fail to co—operate with the authorities in cases of sexual exploitation by staff. the sector has to step up in terms of tackling what is an industry that has been targeted by individuals. by paedophiles. yes. they are targeting this because of the chaos that we work in. the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, holds talks in myanmar about the return

of rohingya muslims. also in the next hour: great britain's andrew musgrave makes history at the winter olympics in pyeongchang — finishing seventh. he had been in silver