Exit the King, Man Booker Longlist, Tony Walsh, Nick Drnaso

Published: July 24, 2018, 7:04 p.m.

Playwright Patrick Marber and actress Indira Varma on Exit the King, Marber's adaptation for the National Theatre of the Romanian absurdist drama by Eug\xe8ne Ionesco, in which Varma stars as Queen Marguerite alongside Rhys Ifans' King, about to make his final exit.

John talks to Nick Drnaso, the first graphic novelist to be longlisted for the Man Booker prize, and critics Arifa Akbar and Toby Lichtig comment on the longlist as a whole. For the full list see below.

Poet Tony Walsh, whose poem This is the Place poignantly captured the feelings of the public following last year's Manchester Arena bomb, has written a new poem for the Imperial War Museum North in Salford, part of a season marking the centenary of the final year of the First World War.

The 2018 Man Booker Longlist

Belinda Bauer (UK) Snap (Bantam Press)\nAnna Burns (UK) Milkman (Faber & Faber)\nNick Drnaso (USA) Sabrina (Granta Books)\nEsi Edugyan (Canada) Washington Black (Serpent's Tail)\nGuy Gunaratne (UK) In Our Mad And Furious City (Tinder Press)\nDaisy Johnson (UK) Everything Under (Jonathan Cape)\nRachel Kushner (USA) The Mars Room (Jonathan Cape)\nSophie Mackintosh (UK) The Water Cure (Hamish Hamilton)\nMichael Ondaatje (Canada) Warlight (Jonathan Cape)\nRichard Powers (USA) The Overstory (Willian Heinemann)\nRobin Robertson (UK) The Long Take (Picador)\nSally Rooney (Ireland) Normal People (Faber & Faber)\nDonal Ryan (Ireland) From A Low And Quiet Sea (Doubleday Ireland)

Presenter: John Wilson\nProducer: Timothy Prosser.