Cassie McCullagh

If you can't have that as a structure, why turn up?

That's what you're there for.

Yeah, that's what I thought myself.

Yeah, it is.

So the first half of the book, she keeps talking about her sister and it's not until this big kind of reveal that you realise that she's been talking about a chimpanzee and it's really heartbreaking.

Do you remember, Kate, when that book came out, you had a copy of it on your desk?

I got to interview the author.

Oh, did you?

Oh, there you go.

But this girl came in, I think she was doing work experience or something.

She was about 16 and she sort of, her eyes lit up when she saw it on your desk and said, oh, everyone's reading that at school.

She was so excited.

And you gave her a copy, Kate, you softy.

I did.

So now on the bookshelf, a novel that takes us right inside that conflict.

Not just its policies or even theological debates, but how it played out in the daily lives and in the bodies of ordinary people.

The book is called The Burning Chambers and it's by best-selling English writer Kate Moss.

Back to this new novel, though, Kate, both you and Fiona Lowe have read it for us.

What exactly is going on in France in this story?

It's a tricky thing to do because telling a history like this is complicated and there are sort of basic facts, I suppose, you have to use as milestones.