They say the things that don’t kill you make you stronger. And it is probably true. But that doesn’t make the hard stuff any easier. This week: stories of people staying in the game despite being dealt a lousy hand. We’ll open a few brutal rejection letters from publishers to authors who went on to make the publishers look pretty stupid. Novelist and radio producer Gary Bryson joins us to talk about his very fine first novel and the odds stacked against its young protagonist. Lana Penrose is along to tell us how she coped with the disintegration of her marriage, and about the therapeutic qualities of rock ‘n roll. And we’ll discover a world of sacrifice and struggle laced with hedonism in the work of British writer Alan Sillitoe.

Read The Examiner's report on famous writers' rejections here

Gary Bryson, Turtle, Allen and Unwin - interviewed by Benedict Taylor; music: Kevin MacLeod (first broadcast November 2008)

Lana Penrose, Kickstart My Heart, Penguin - interviewed by Rochelle Fernandez; music: Kevin MacLeod

Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - reviewed by Ben Falkenmire (first broadcast August 2008)