Jim Flynn
'Intellectual giant' Prof Jim Flynn dies
Internationally renowned University of Otago Emeritus Professor Jim Flynn died this week aged 86. Audio
The New Torchlight List: Best Books & Authors
It's Jim's final countdown and he rates the authors from the very best, through to those he wants to read more of, promising authors, those not quite good enough, the unpromising - and the just plain… Audio
The New Torchlight List - Asia and the Middle East
This chapter of The New Torchlight List takes in a big geographical area and a variety of cultures. Audio
The New Torchlight List: Africa
Jim agrees with Wallace's love for Disgrace, by South African writer J.M. Coetzee - though Jim says Coetzee's "not brilliant". He describes the Cairo trilogy by Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Naguib… Audio
The New Torchlight List - New Zealand and Australia
For the book, The New Torchlight List - In Search of the Best Modern Authors, Otago University Emeritus Professor of Politics Jim Flynn read and rated 400 books, mostly by modern novelists. In this… Audio
The New Torchlight List: New Zealand & Australia
Jim Flynn and Wallace Chapman discuss Australasian literature.
Wallace takes on Jim over Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries - too long, says Jim. Not so, says Wallace. Jim says Catton can write but she… Audio
The New Torchlight List: Europe
Jim Flynn tells Wallace Chapman that Italian Umberto Eco's best work is The Name of the Rose but this comes with a warning as Eco "loves to demonstrate his learning. The plot is interrupted by long… Audio
The New Torchlight List: Ireland
Jim Flynn and Wallace Chapman discuss modern Irish literature. Jim rates John Banville's "wonderful style", but is less enamoured with John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The sex in Edna… Audio
The New Torchlight List: Britain
Some of Jim's favourite writers feature in this episode - V.S. Naipaul and Kazuo Ishiguro who, he says, is "perhaps the greatest novelist of our generation. His work is going to make him one of few… Audio
The New Torchlight List: South America
Jim and Wallace discuss South American writers, including the politics and the passion reflected in the great writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - recommending the memorable Love in the Time of Cholera… Audio
The New Torchlight List: North America
Jim Flynn discusses North American authors and tells Wallace Chapman that everyone must read Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. He also highly rates Philip Roth and Toni Morrison, but Wallace and Jim… Audio
The New Torchlight List: The Need to Read
Jim Flynn is a world expert on human intelligence, and the author of many ground-breaking books on intelligence, philosophy and politics. He came from a poor family and owes all his success to reading… Audio
Ideas for 12 August 2012: Jim Flynn
Jim Flynn is arguably New Zealand’s foremost moral philosopher. His pioneering work on IQs has changed the way we think about intelligence. Professor Flynn reflects on his life and influences and… Audio
Jim Flynn - Middle East
The Torchlight List - Around the World in 200 Books. Middle East: V.S. Naipaul - Among the Belivers : An Islamic Journey & Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples, Robert Fisk -… Audio
Jim Flynn - India
The Torchlight List - Around the World in 200 Books. India: Salman Rushdie - Satanic Verses & Midnight's Children, Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy, V.S. Naipaul - India: An Area of Darkness & India: A… Audio
Jim Flynn - Africa
The Torchlight List - Around the World in 200 Books. Africa: Alan Paton - Cry, The Beloved Country, Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart & A Man of the People, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow… Audio
Jim Flynn - China
The Torchlight List - Around the World in 200 Books. China: Jung Chang - Wild Swans, Wang Lan - The Blue and the Black, Yiyun Li - The Vagrants, Wang Shuo - Please Don't Call Me Human. Audio
Jim Flynn - Russia
The Torchlight List - Around the World in 200 Books. Russia: The Seagull, by Anton Chekov, War and Peace, & Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, The Family Moskat, by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Dead Souls, by… Audio
Jim Flynn - Germany
The Torchlight List - Around the World in 200 Books. Germany: The Loyal Subject (or Man of Straw), by Heinrich Mann, The Magic Mountain, and Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann, Defying Hitler, by… Audio
Jim Flynn - France
The Torchlight List: Around the World in 200 Books: France: Victor Hugo - Les Miserables; Emile Zola - The Kill; Gustave Flaubert - Madam Bovary; Albert Camus - The Plague; Frederick Forsyth - The Day… Audio