I listened to Mark Lawson talking to Margaret Atwood earlier this evening on BBC Radio 4's arts programme, Front Row.

I really like to hear the ubiquitous and extremely well read Mark Lawson on the radio. And it was especially interesting tonight because I admire Margaret Atwood's novels so much. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/frontrow/past_programmes.shtml

She has a surprisingly monotonous and unattractive speaking voice, but the sparkle of her vocabulary and the originality and intelligence of her ideas more than make up for the unmusical sound, and she also leavens it with little witticisms and infectious chuckles.

I was pleased to learn that she is nearing the end of another of her books, though she gave no clues about its content.

And I was very gratified to hear that she does not regard the present as a post-feminist era. - Not by any manner of means! - The thoughtful author of "The Handmaid's Tale" knows only too well how women are held back and discriminated against still, and that it is only in certain pockets and in certain occupations that women have achieved what might be called equality of treatment with men.

Her first stage play, The Penelopiad, opens at The Swan Theatre in Stratford on Thursday 2nd August 2007.

She is, apparently, being spoken of as a likely winner of the Nobel Prize. - I think she would be a popular choice.