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. BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.

Hello, we go on several voyages of exploration today, setting sail for that eternally fascinating

territory where real people and fiction collide. Large helpings of hubris lead a succession of

real and imagined protagonists as we delve into four

reissued historical novels by the late Dame Beryl Bainbridge. First though, a novel from the

Australian writer Kate Grenville is always cause for excitement. And in her latest, a room made of

leaves. Grenville brings the reader in on a kind of

literary hoax. A fictional memoir of a real woman, early Australian settler Elizabeth MacArthur.

The novel traces her life from her rather forlorn childhood in rural Devon, to her journey to fulfilled and fulfilling womanhood in Australia,

where she became the real brains behind the development of the marino wool industry,

even though history has nonetheless given her husband all of the glory.

But the novel's emotional pulse lies in Elizabeth's discovery of uncharted territory

in her own self, resulting in a passionate relationship which changed the course of her life.

In this extract, Grenville narrates to the reader her own moment of authorial discovery.

Some time ago, during the renovation of a historic house in Sydney, a tin box, sealed with wax and wrapped in oiled canvas, was found wedged under a beam in the roof cavity.

The house was Elizabeth Farm, where Elizabeth MacArthur, wife of the notorious early

settler John MacArthur, lived until her death in 1850.

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