'The Two Roberts' by Damian Barr

Sara welcomes author and broadcaster Damian Barr to the Book Club, to chat about his new novel 'The Two Roberts'.

They discuss how he first discovered the real-life characters (artists Bobby MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun) and what drew him to them.

He was actually writing something else but had to stop and turn his attention to their story, because he was so taken with the love between them and how brave they both were.

There's a bit of ceramics chat (Damian reveals that his husband has a second love - his kiln!) and there's a bit of hazy recollection of them both being in 'Soho in the 90s' too.

Damian also gives us a couple of cracking book recommendations - and - we hear a little clip from the audiobook of The Two Roberts as well.

Here's a little more about the book:

Scotland, 1933. Bobby MacBryde is on his way. After years grafting at Lees Boot Factory, he's off to the Glasgow School of Art, to his future. On his first day he will meet another Robert, a quiet man with loose dark curls - and never leave his side.

Together they will spend every penny and every minute devouring Glasgow - its botanical gardens, the Barras market, a whole hidden city - all the while loving each other behind closed doors. With the world on the brink of war, their unrivalled talent will take them to Paris, Rome, London. They will become stars as the bombs fall, hosting wild parties with the likes of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Elizabeth Smart. But the brightest stars burn fastest.

Stunningly reimagined, The Two Roberts is a profoundly moving story of devotion and obsession, art and class. It is a love letter to MacBryde and Colquhoun, the almost-forgotten artists who tried to change the way the world sees - and paid a devastating price.