In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.

But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA

was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.

Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day,

who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA.

Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. This is the BBC.

Hello, today I'm joined by the author John McGregor, whose novels include, if nobody speaks of remarkable things,

even the dogs, which won the International Dublin Literary Award and most recently Reservoir 13.

And with John is Cathy Rensenbrink, erstwhile books editor of the bookseller magazine,

and author of two non-fiction books, the last act of love about the life and death of her brother,

and this year's A Manual for Heartache.

Kathy, would you start us off with your good read? It is what?

It's Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively, and I've been in thrall to this book for years and years. I reread it quite often. It's about Claudia

Hampton. She's a historian, and she's dying. And as she lies in her hospital bed being

patronised by nurses who call her deer and try to plump up her pillows.

She decides to compose one last history of the world and she thinks back to all the

significant relationships in her life and to the central, important love affair that happened

during the Second World War.

Why do you keep rereading it? Why do you love it so much?

I mean, it's a short book, which I like. It's about an interesting and unconventional

woman, which I like. Most of my favourite books have a wartime setting. And I've often

interrogated myself as to why this is. I think it's because during wars, people down tools

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