Guest details for Saturday Morning 28 August 2010

8:15 Val McDermid

Scottish writer Val McDermid has been writing successful "tartan noir" novels since 1984, and was the 2010 recipient of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award which honours outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing. Her new book is Trick of the Dark (Hachette, ISBN: 9781408702000).

9:05 Celia Lashlie

Researcher and social justice advocate Celia Lashlie was the first woman prison officer to work in a male prison in New Zealand, and managed Christchurch Women's Prison. She is the author of two best-selling books; her new book, The Power of Mothers: Releasing Our Children (HarperCollins, ISBN: 978-1-86950-800-5), looks at offenders, mothers and state agencies.

10:05 Don Eigler

Don Eigler is a physicist and IBM Fellow at the IBM Almaden Research Center in California. In 1989 he achieved a landmark in humankind's ability to build small structures by demonstrating the ability to manipulate individual atoms with atomic-scale precision, using a low temperature ultra high vacuum scanning tunneling microscope that he designed and built. For this and other work he was awarded, together with Nadrian Seeman, the Kavli Prize for Nanoscience in 2010. Don is a member of the International Advisory Board for the MacDiarmid Institute, and is being hosted by the University of Canterbury, for a talk, Playing With Atoms (on 1 September) and a presentation to Christchurch high school students (31 August).

10:40 Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon is one of the most successful living composers in America. She was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, and her Percussion Concerto, which requires the soloist to play about 20 instruments, won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. It will make its debut in New Zealand, featuring Scottish percussion star Colin Currie, as part of the national tour by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in September.

11:05 Fernando Peire

Fernando Peire joined famous London restaurant The Ivy in 1990 as Senior Maitre d'Hotel, a position he held for eight years. In 1999 he re-launched Quo Vadis in Soho before moving to Spain and undertaking consultancy work. He is now director of The Ivy Restaurant and The Club at The Ivy, and presents the new television series The Restaurant Inspector. Fernando visited New Zealand for Restaurant Association Telecom MasterClasses in Auckland and Wellington.

11:40 Diana Noonan

Catlins-based author Diana Noonan has written over a hundred books for young readers of all ages, and was the editor of The School Journal for eight years. Her new illustrated guide, The Tui New Zealand Kids Garden (Penguin, ISBN: 978-0-14320-498-5) is co-authored with Keith Olsen.

Music played during the programme

The Coral: Falling All Around You
From the 2010 album: Butterfly House
(Deltasonic)
Played at around 8.55

Los Lobos: Yo Canto
From the 2010 album: Tin Can Trust
(Shout! Factory)
Played at around 9:05

Jennifer Higdon: Blue Cathedral
From the 2003 album: Rainbow Body
(Telarc)
Played at around 10:40

Larsen B: The Gold Cup
From the 2010 album: Musketeer
(Old Radio Tunes)
Played at around 11:45

Studio operators

Line producer: Sean McKenna
Wellington engineer: Carol Jones
Dunedin engineer: Rod Morgan