The Festival Verb

Ian McMillan peers into the pop-up tent that is 'festival' writing with Murray Lachlan Young - he introduces new fiction from Louise Welsh, new poetry from William Letford and Hollie McNish joins the programme to explore, in conversation with Dr Peter Mackay, the kind of festive language and rituals associated with Scots Gaelic literature.

Ian is also joined by Professor Sarah Churchwell to unpick the language of the great American novelist Philip Roth - who died this week - and to celebrate not only the meaning, but the sound and texture of Roth's sentences. Roth's best-known novels include the darkly comic 'Portnoy's Complaint' and the Pulitzer Prize winning 'American Pastoral'.