we are in london and talking with hermione lee author and president of the college of oxford. and another topic, does she fit into this virginia woolf and edith wharton mix? >> i'm not sure that biographers any more than fiction writers do things according to a plan. i have an interest in women writers and an american literature and and very interested in these strong independent of original women who don't get easily classified as feminist or, you know, but i actually think that they are different kind of novelists and what links them together is a passion that and rather stringent interest in language. they want to use the best possible language. >> what are you currently working on? >> i just finished a biography called penelope fitzgerald who became known in the state's for the blue flower that came out in the year 1996, i think maybe 1997 in america. she started very late. she was the daughter of a very distinguished and interesting family. her uncle was a convert to catholicism and her father was the editor of a british magazine and so she had a very clever professional

. >> we have been talking with hermione lee on book tv here in london. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> now from london book tv interviewed charnel emmerson author of two books, 1913 in search of the world view this is about half an hour. booktv is pleased to have with us charles emmerson has written a couple bucks his most recent 1913 in search of the world before the great war just coming out this year. mr. emmerson, what was the world like in 1913, and i know that is a generic question. >> the short answer is the world was a lot more today than likely it tend to think it was highly globalized and very modern. we tend to think of the world in europe to look at through the prism of first world war. we tend to look at it in black-and-white or sepia so while trying to do with the book is to bring back the color if you like as it appeared to be the people at that time. >> how do you approach 1913 in your book? >> by traveling around the world which is what people could do in 1913 so i'll get 23 different cities around the world stag in londo the w