Books and Authors: Recent Episodes
BBC Radio 4
This podcast features Open Book and A Good Read. Open Book talks to authors about their work. In A Good Read Harriett Gilbert discusses favourite books.
Guests discuss books they love. This time:
Loving and Giving by Molly Keane, chosen by podcaster and Archers actor Susie RiddellThe Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, chosen by education activist Dr Vee KativhuThe Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilbert
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sarah GoodmanJoin us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
A sharing of book recommendations and lively discussion. Harriett Gilbert is joined by children's author Lauren Child and musician David McAlmont to talk about books they love by George Orwell, Elizabeth Strout and Alan Bennett.
The books are:Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout, chosen by Lauren ChildBurmese Days by George Orwell, chosen by David McAlmontKilling Time by Alan Bennett, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally HeavenJoin us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
Writer, actor and comedian Cariad Lloyd and writer Geoff Dyer join Harriett Gilbert for an enthusiastic and robust discussion about favourite books.
The books are:The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard, chosen by Geoff DyerQuestion 7 by Richard Flanagan, chosen by Harriett GilbertThe Others by Sheena Kalayil, chosen by Cariad Lloyd
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Eliza LomasJoin us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, chosen by Joanne HarrisMother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, chosen by Harriett GilbertAkhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz, chosen by Islam Issa
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Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven
The classicist and the author talk about books they love with presenter Harriett Gilbert. One of the books is eerily prescient about the state of the world today.
The books are:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, chosen by classicist Daisy DunnRogue Male by Geoffrey Household, chosen by podcaster and author Andrew Hunter MurrayA Life's Music by Andreï Makine, translated by Geoffrey Strachan, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilbert
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Beth O'DeaJoin us over on instagram @agoodreadbbc
Photo credit: Timothy Foster
A special episode of A Good Read, recorded live at the Hay Festival. The books are:
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe, chosen by psychotherapist and artist Philippa PerryAll Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills, chosen by presenter and writer Stuart MaconieLuka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilbert
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie AyreJoin us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
Photo credit: Pal Hansen
Two Scottish crime writers choose books by:Iain Banks (Espedair Street)Muriel Spark (Memento Mori)
And Harriett's choice is Summer by Edith Wharton
Producer: Maggie Ayre BBC Audio Bristol
Photo credit: Julie Broadfoot
The books are:
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, chosen by Harriet TyceAgent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre, chosen by Matt EdmondsonCluny Brown by Margery Sharp, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
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Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven
Photo credit: Suki Dhanda
Three books that deal with the intricacies of relationships and marriage.
Not That Sort of Girl by Mary WesleyAftermath by Rachel CuskThree Days In June by Anne Tyler
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre
This time the community clothing entrepreneur and host of The Great British Sewing Bee Patrick Grant chooses his favourite book along with fellow guest anthropologist and broadcaster Mary-Ann Ochota.
The books are:
Parsnips Buttered by Joe LycettThe Flow by Amy Jane Beer Heatwave by Penelope Lively
Produced in Bristol by Maggie Ayre
Newsreader Maryam Moshiri and Red Dwarf creator Doug Naylor discuss their chosen books, including Bridget Jones's Diary, with Harriett Gilbert.
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, chosen by Maryam Moshiri
Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell, chosen by Doug Naylor
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
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Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven
THE LIVES AND LOVES OF A SHE DEVIL by Fay Weldon, chosen by Victoria PileTHE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway, chosen by Julian BagginiCLEAR by Carys Davies, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Comedy writer and director Victoria Pile joins philosopher and author Julian Baggini to talk about their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. On the menu is a feminist revenge novel that is as dark as it is funny, a classic Hemingway novella that casts us out to sea, and an evocative short story set on a remote island off Scotland.
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Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley
This week's books are:How to Measure a Cow by Margaret Forster (chosen by Lolita Chakrabarti)The House of God by Samuel Shem (chosen by Guy Leschziner)A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir (chosen by Harriett Gilbert)
The producer is Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio BristolJoin us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
The children's author Frank Cottrell-Boyce and the author of Wild Swans and Big Sister Little Sister Red Sister Jung Chang choose their good reads.
Where Should We Run To by Alan Garner chosen by Frank Cottrell-BoyceDeath of A Naturalist by Seamus Heaney chosen by Harriett GilbertHans Christian Andersen's Fairytales chosen by Jung Chang
Produced in Bristol by Maggie Ayre
This week's books are:
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie, chosen by crime writer Martin EdwardsAt Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien, chosen by sociologist, bioethicist and comedian Tom ShakespeareThursday Night Widows by Claudia Pineiro, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven
Photo credit: Belinda Mason
This week's books are:Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler chosen by Maria Balshaw.The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol (translated by Isabel Hapgood) chosen by Léa Ypi.Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans chosen by Harriett Gilbert.
The producer is Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol. Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
Photo credit: Erdem Moralioglu
This week's books are:
Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucie McKnight Hardy, chosen by comedian Robin IncePnin by Vladimir Nabokov, chosen by Harriett GilbertEsther Waters by George Moore, chosen by writer Philip Hensher
Producer Sally Heaven, BBC Audio Bristol
This week's books are:Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner chosen by the Welsh poet and writer Gwyneth LewisThe LIving Mountain by Nan Shepherd picked by author Annabel AbbsEmma by Jane Austen chosen by Harriett Gilbert ahead of the writer's 250th birthday in December 2025
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Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre
Photo credit: Edward Brown
Michelle Ogundehin is a broadcaster, magazine editor and author also known as a presenter on TV's Interior Design Masters. She and author Lisa St Aubin de Terán give their book recommendations. Michelle's is 4000 Weeks: Time Management For Mortals by Oliver Burkeman which she says has helped her simplify her life. Lisa chooses Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix the powerful retelling of the 2021 incident in which 27 people drowned in the English Channel attempting to make the crossing from France. It's a fictionalised account of a real event told from the perspective of the French Coastguard blamed for not taking adequate action.Harriett's choice is The Party by Tessa Hadley set in post war Bristol.
Have your say on any of these books on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
Producer: Maggie Ayre
WEDLOCK: HOW GEORGIAN BRITAIN'S WORST HUSBAND MET HIS MATCH by Wendy Moore, chosen by Kate Lister GRAYSON PERRY: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG GIRL by Wendy Jones, chosen by Harriett GilbertPLASTIC EMOTIONS by Shiromi Pinto, chosen by Roma Agrawal
Structural engineer Roma Agrawal, known for her work on buildings such as the Shard in London, and historian Kate Lister, who specialises in the history of sex, join Harriett Gilbert to share their favourite books. Kate's choice is Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match by Wendy Moore, a gripping biography that tells the true story of Mary Eleanor Bowes's distrastrous marriage to Andrew Robinson Stoney, one of the wealthiest women in 18th-century Britain. Roma’s pick is Plastic Emotions by Shiromi Pinto, a novel inspired by the life of Minnette de Silva, Sri Lanka’s pioneering modernist architect, exploring love, politics and creativity in a time of upheaval. And Harriett brings Grayson Perry: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl by Wendy Jones, a candid and colourful account of the artist’s early life and identity.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Eliza LomasJoin the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc
Photo credit: Steve Ullathorne
THE YEARS by Annie Ernaux chosen by Richard BensonTHE CORNER THAT HELD THEM by Sylvia Townsend Warner chosen by Amy SackvilleCOFFEE AND CIGARETTES by Ferdinand von Schirach chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Writer and former editor of the Face Richard Benson talks to fellow writer Amy Sackville and presenter Harriett Gilbert about favourite books.Richard chooses The Years by Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux, saying it brings back memories of his French penpal's bohemian mother. Amy's choice of The Corner that Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner, about convent life in the 1300s, isn't as dry as that might sound, and Harriett's pick is Coffee and Cigarettes by German criminal defence lawyer Ferdinand von Schirach.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally HeavenJoin the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc
FUNDAMENTALLY by Nussaibah Younis, chosen by Julia ShawYOUR LIFE IS MANUFACTURED by Tim Minshall, chosen by Hayaatun SillemROSARITA by Anita Desai, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Criminal psychologist Julia Shaw joins engineer Hayaatun Sillem to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Julia's choice, Fundamentally, is a bold debut novel by Nussaibah Younis which sparks a bit of debate. Younis writes a comedy story about an academic who takes a UN job in Iraq to lead a deradicalisation program for ISIS women. Hayaatun puts forward a very different book, a non-fiction by Tim Minshall, Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge. His book Your Life is Manufactured reveals the seismic impact that manufacturing has both on our lives and on the natural world. Finally, Harriett's choice is a haunting novella called Rosarita by Anita Desai, an unsettling riddle that follows a young Indian woman's quest through Mexico to find out more about her mother.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley
Two books featuring teenage killers feature this time. Nicola Sturgeon MSP votes for Elif Shafak's Honour as her good read. It details the reasons behind the so-called honour killing carried out by a young Turkish Kurd living in London in the 1970s. Nicola says it provides valuable cultural insight into the reasons behind a particular form of violence against women.His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet is set in the feudal system of the Highlands in the late 1800s where crofters were at the mercy of the local Laird and his staff. Roddy's father is barely eking out a living from a small patch of land near Applecross. When his family's livelihood is threatened by a local man exerting his power over them, Roddy commits a brutal triple murder. Harriett enjoys it because it traces the events leading up to the event and Roddy's subsequent trial posing the question of whether he is legally insane or criminally violent.Something gentler is Alistair McGowan's choice. Fair Stood The Wind For France is HE Bates' wartime novel of an RAF airman crash landing in occupied France. As he recovers from his injuries he falls for the daughter of a farming family who take him in. Alistair believes Bates to be one of the finest English writers of last century but being best known for The Darling Buds of May says he's often overlooked.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre
Photo credit: Charlotte Hadden
THE STONE DIARIES by Carol Shields, chosen by Tom CoxHOW TO WRITE A THESIS by Umberto Eco, chosen by Sophie ScottPARADISE by Abdulrazak Gurnah, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Writer Tom Cox joins neuroscientist Sophie Scott to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Tom's choice is the 1995 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Stone Diaries. Following the story of one woman’s life from birth to death, the novel also charts the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. Sophie puts forward a very different book, a non-fiction by Italian writer and academic, How to Write a Thesis. It first appeared on Italian bookshelves back in 1977, but still rings true for many. And finally, Harriett's choice is a historical novel called Paradise by the Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah, which is both a coming-of-age story, and a tale of the corruption against the backdrop of European colonialism in East Africa.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley
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OPEN by Andre AgassiSONIC YOUTH SLEPT ON MY FLOOR by Dave HaslamTHE SECRET HOURS by Mick Herron
Television and radio broadcaster Chris Tarrant nominates the autobiography of tennis legend Andre Agassi, and novelist Mike Gayle has gone for Dave Haslam’s memoir of his time spent DJing at Manchester’s famous Hacienda. Harriett is hoping the two of them will enjoy an espionage novel by Slow Horses author Mick Herron.
Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven
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BEAR by Marian Engel, chosen by novelist Sarah WatersTHE TRUE BELIEVER by Eric Hoffer, chosen by film editor Walter MurchTHE VISITOR by Maeve Brennan, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilber
Sarah Waters, acclaimed author of Fingersmith and The Night Watch, and Walter Murch, legendary film editor of Apocalypse Now and The English Patient choose the books they love.
Sarah's choice is a cinematic novel set in Northern Canada. Bear by Marian Engel is the unusual tale of a woman's friendship and subsequent sexual relationship with a bear when she travels to a remote island for the summer.
The True Believer is a remarkably prescient examination of mass movements from 1951. Author Eric Hoffer examines political fanaticism throughout the ages. Walter Murch chose it because he says so much of it rings true in today's fractured world.
Harriett's choice is the story of different generations of women in an unhappy home in Ireland. Maeve Brennan's novella The Visitor is a haunting tale of a chilly tight-lipped Dublin home.
Producer: Maggie Ayre, BBC Audio Bristol
Photo: Charlie Hopkinson
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Augusten Burroughs, chosen by Rob RinderTHE ODD WOMAN AND THE CITY by Vivian Gornick, chosen by Harriett GilbertEARTHLINGS by Sayaka Murata, chosen by Juno Dawson
The barrister, television presenter and writer Rob Rinder and author Juno Dawson talk books with Harriett Gilbert. Juno Dawson selects Sayaka Murata's Earthlings, the follow-up to her cult hit Convenience Store Woman. Rob Rinder advocates for Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs' memoir of a deeply bizarre childhood, and Harriett has gone for The Odd Woman and the City, Vivian Gornick's essays celebrating New York.
Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven
Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc
Photo credit: Ollie Rosser
OBLIVION by Héctor Abad, chosen by Colm TóibínFLESH by David Szalay, chosen by Zadie SmithCALL ME BY YOUR NAME by André Aciman, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Authors and good friends Zadie Smith and Colm Tóibín join Harriett Gilbert to share books they love. For a longer edition of this episode, check out the A Good Read podcast.
Colm Tóibín chooses Oblivion, a memoir by Colombian writer Héctor Abad. It’s a deeply moving tribute to Abad’s father – a warm, generous, and witty man who was a doctor, university professor, and tireless human rights campaigner. His life was tragically cut short when he was murdered by paramilitaries in Medellín in 1987. What do the others make of this powerful portrait of love and loss?
Next, Zadie Smith recommends Flesh, a taut and compelling novel by Hungarian-British author David Szalay. The story follows István, a Hungarian man whose life takes a picaresque turn – from the army to prison, and eventually to London, where he works as a security guard for a wealthy family. As he becomes entangled in their world in unexpected ways, do the others find the novel as gripping as she does?
Finally, Harriett Gilbert brings Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman, the novel that inspired the acclaimed film starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer. Set during a languid summer on the Italian Riviera, it captures the intense infatuation between Elio and Oliver. But how does the novel compare to the much-loved film?
Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including The Master, The Magician, Brooklyn, and Long Island, the latter now out in paperback. And Zadie Smith has written six novels, among them White Teeth, Swing Time, and her most recent, The Fraud.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
THE TRUCE by Primo Levi, chosen by Horatio Clare THE SUN DOES SHINE by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin, chosen by Joanna Hardy-SusskindSULA by Toni Morrison, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Writer Horatio Clare joins criminal defence barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Horatio's choice is a book he returns to every winter, The Truce, in which writer Primo Levi recounts his survivor's journey home to from Auschwitz across a war-torn Europe. Joanna puts forward another powerful autobiography, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, in which Anthony Ray Hinton recounts his time on death row after being wrongly accused of murder. And finally, Harriett's choice is an early novel by Toni Morrison, called Sula, which follows the turbulent friendship of two girls as they grow into adulthood within a poor but close-knit community in Ohio.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley
Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbcPhoto Credit: Ivan Weiss
ALL FOURS by Miranda July, chosen by Desiree AkhavanUNTRUE by Wednesday Martin, chosen by Rosie WilbyDRAGON TALK by Fleur Adcock, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Filmmaker and writer Desiree Akhavan joins comedian, writer and podcaster Rosie Wilby as they discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Desiree's choice is All Fours by Miranda July, a novel about a perimenopausal woman's sexual awakening on an unusual road trip. By coincidence, Rosie Wilby chooses a non-fiction book which looks at research into women's sexuality, Untrue by Wednesday Martin. Harriett's choice is a volume of poetry by Fleur Adcock, dealing with matters of family and childhood.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally HeavenJoin the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbcPhoto credit Cecila Frugiuele
THE IRON AGE by Arja KajermoA SHORT STAY IN HELL by Steven L PeckSTONE YARD DEVOTIONAL by Charlotte Wood
James Rebanks is a farmer from the Lake District as well as author of The Shepherd's Life. His new book The Place of Tides is about his time in Norway learning from an elderly woman who cared for eider ducks on a remote island. His book choice is The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo, a Finnish novel about rural life in the 1950s, told from the perspective of a young girl. James finds it speaks to his northern sensibility as it documents the hard life of an impoverished farming family in post war Finland.
Kiri Pritchard-McLean is a multi-award winning Welsh comedian, satirist and writer. Her choice is A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L Peck about a Mormon condemned to exist in Hell for millennia. Kiri says it's a book bursting with ideas about life and its meaning.
Harriett picks Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood set in a religious retreat outside of Sydney where a woman has come to reassess her life.
There's plenty of lively and good natured disagreement about the books. Listen here and add your thoughts to our Instagram Book Club @agoodreadbbc
Producer: Maggie Ayre
NAUSEA by Jean-Paul SartreGO WENT GONE by Jenny ErpenbeckLAURUS by Evgeny Vodolazkin
Budgie is best known as the drummer with Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, as well as The Slits. His memoir The Absence: Memoirs of A Banshee is published in July 2025. Together with the Korean novelist Juhea Kim he chooses his favourite book to discuss with Harriett Gilbert. His choice is Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre because he it resonated with him as a young man finding his place in the world.
Juhea Kim is the author of two critically acclaimed novels - Beasts of A Little Land and City of Night Birds. Juhea's choice is set in 15th century Russia and is the story of Arseny, a healer who makes a pilgrimage through plague ridden Europe to Jerusalem. Laurus by Evgeny Vodolazkin is a densely packed novel that deals with fundamental questions about the purpose of life and death. It's also extremely humorous in parts.
Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck is Harriett's choice. Set in Berlin, it is the story of a newly retired German Professor and how he becomes involved with a group of African asylum seekers trapped within a bureaucratic system that bounces them back and forth between Italy and Germany with no resolution in sight.
It's produced by Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio in Bristol
Photo credit Billy & Hells
WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT by Sarah Winman, chosen by Harry TrevaldwynTHE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho, chosen by Xantoné BlacqJAMES by Percival Everett, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Music producer and composer Xantoné Blacq joins actor and writer Harry Trevaldwyn to share the books they love with presenter Harriett Gilbert.
First up, Harry brings to the table a book by The Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah Winman. A book about childhood and growing up, friendships and families, triumph and tragedy and everything in between. When God Was a Rabbit celebrates the magic of the everyday for Harry, but what do the others think of it?
Next up, Xantoné chooses The Alchemist by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, which since publication in 1988 has become a widely translated international bestseller. A blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore, Xantoné finds it an incredibly motivational read. Are Harry and Harriett also inspired by it?
Finally, Harriett puts forward Percival Everett's most recent book, the 2024 Booker Prize nominated 'James'. Both funny and horrifying, soulful and thrilling, Everett reframes the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. Harriett is blown away by it - do the others agree?
Producer: Becky Ripley
Photo credit CK Morrison
BIG SWISS by Jen Beagin, chosen by Nussaibah YounisA HEART SO WHITE by Javier Marías, chosen by Josh CohenTHE END OF EDDY by Edouard Louis, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Big Swiss is a 29-year-old gynecologist who has never had an orgasm. Greta Work is an audio transcriber for a sex therapist who is infatuated by one of his clients. After an encounter at the dog park, they strike up an affair. Nussaibah calls this one of the funniest books she's ever read. What do the others think? A Heart So White, by the Spanish author Javier Marias and recommended by Josh, has a shocking opening page. What unravels after is a harrowing tale of family secrets and their resonances through different generations. First published in 1992. Finally, The End of Eddy, Harriett's pick, was a sensation when it was first published in France in 2014. An autobiographical novel of a violent and mostly difficult childhood, it also can be read as a portrait of a poor, rural community in Northern France.
Josh Cohen is a psychoanalyst and writer, whose many books include Not Working: Why We Have to Stop; How to Live: What to Do and, most recently, All the Rage: Why Anger Drives the World.
Nussaibah Younis is an expert on contemporary Iraq who for several years advised the Iraqi government on de-radicalising women affiliated with ISIS. Nussaibah’s debut novel Fundamentally was shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Produced by Eliza Lomas, for BBC Audio Bristol.
AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST by Iain Pears, chosen by Peter KosminskyHEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING by Will Arbery, chosen by Jack ThornePERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Thorne and Kosminsky are great friends, but don't fully agree on the books discussed. Topics raised by their choices include toxic masculinity, empathy, and whether or not Succession is a great TV series.
Peter has chosen An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears, a restoration murder mystery told by four unreliable narrators. Jack advocates for Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery, a play about four right-wing Catholics meeting at a college reunion. Harriett has gone for Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, a satire telling the tale of a millennial couple living in fashionable Berlin.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally HeavenJoin the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbcPhoto credit Antonio Olmos
EDUCATED by Tara Westover, chosen by Jenny KleemanTHE WREN, THE WREN by Anne Enright, chosen by Harriett GilbertGIVING UP THE GHOST by Hilary Mantel, chosen by Sam Knight
Journalist and broadcaster Jenny Kleeman (of Radio 4's The Gift and author of The Price of Life) chooses Tara Westover's memoir Educated, which caused a sensation when it was first published. It's about her childhood growing up in an isolated Mormon family in rural Idaho, who were preparing for the end of the world, and didn't believe in school, doctors or medicine. It's about how she studied her way out of a difficult upbringing, eventually earning a PhD at Cambridge University.
Sam Knight (staff writer at the New Yorker and author of The Premonitions Bureau) also picks a memoir, but of a very different kind. He goes for Hilary Mantel's beguiling Giving Up The Ghost. In it, she explores the real, and imaginary, ghosts of her life - the illnesses that have haunted her body, the family she would never have, and the art of writing.
Harriett Gilbert brings a work of fiction by a writer she loves, the Irish writer Anne Enright. They discuss her latest novel The Wren, The Wren, a story which speaks about the inheritance of trauma and the price of love.
Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in BristolJoin the conversation @agoodreadbbc Instagram
Nihal has chosen Amma, the debut novel by Sri Lankan writer Saraid de Silva, which he compares to meeting someone on a train and having a long, intense conversation. Elif Shafak's choice, however, You're Embarrassing Yourself by Desiree Akhavan, he describes as more like a hilarious night in a pub. Harriett has gone for The Second Murderer by Denise Mina, a Philip Marlowe novel. But is there a need to add to Raymond Chandler's canon?
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally HeavenJoin the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc
THE COUNTRY OF OTHERS by Leïla Slimani, chosen by Tatty MacleodTHE MAN WHO ATE EVERYTHING by Jeffrey Steingarten, chosen by Tim SpectorORBITAL by Samantha Harvey, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Comedian Tatty Macleod chooses a novel by French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, the first volume of a new trilogy telling the saga of a French-Moroccan family between 1946 and 2016.
Scientist and food writer Professor Tim Spector chooses an award-winning collection of essays by food writer and critic Jeffrey Steingarten. His impassioned, funny, and mouth-watering anecdotes are all bound by a gluttonous curiosity that too often tips into obsession.
And Harriett Gilbert chooses a novella by Samantha Harvey called Orbital. Set on the International Space Station, it follows six astronauts as they reflect on life back down on Earth, in all its fury and glory.
Producer: Becky Ripley
In this final edition of Open Book, Johny Pitts and Chris Power celebrate some of the outstanding novels from the last twenty six years.
They are joined by Kamila Shamsie, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2018 for her novel Home Fire. Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton, and one of this year's Booker Prize judges. Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre, and previous chair of the International Booker.
Kamila, Sara and Ted pick out some of the books, including Wolf Hall, Lincoln in the Bardo and On Beauty, which have stood out for them: books they'd recommend to others, and re-read again and again.
Producer: Kirsten Locke
Books List:
Best of Friends – Kamila ShamsieBurnt Shadows – Kamila ShamsieHome Fire – Kamila ShamsieThe Confessions of Frannie Langton – Sara CollinsIn the City by the Sea – Kamila ShamsieWolf Hall – Hilary MantelLincoln in the Bardo – George SaundersCloud Atlas – David MitchellKlara and the Sun – Kazuo IshiguroSeasonal Quartet – Ali SmithThe Bee Sting – Paul MurrayMaps for Lost Lovers – Nadeem AslamIn Memoriam – Alice WinnOn Beauty – Zadie Smith
REASONS TO STAY ALIVE by Matt Haig, chosen by Ali WoodsELENA KNOWS by Claudia Piñeiro, chosen by Fee MakTHE DETAILS by Ia Genberg, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Comedian Ali Woods chooses a memoir by Matt Haig based on his experiences of living with depression and anxiety disorder. Moving, funny and incredibly honest, Reasons to Stay Alive is a book which blasts open the way in which we talk about depression.
Presenter and DJ Fee Mak chooses a novel by Claudia Piñeiro called Elena Knows, following a day in the life of Elena, a 63-year-old woman struggling to come to terms with both her own illness and the death of her daughter.
And Harriett Gilbert chooses a short Swedish novel by Ia Genberg called The Details, exploring the relationships that define us, and the small but profound details that stay with us.
Producer: Becky Ripley
Elif Shafak discusses her new novel. Hanna Pylväinen on writing about the Arctic Circle.
DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver, chosen by Rachel ParrisDID YE HEAR MAMMY DIED? by Séamas O'Reilly, chosen by Harriett GilbertBOTH NOT HALF by Jassa Ahluwalia, chosen by Sonali Shah
Comedian and musician Rachel Parris and broadcaster and presenter Sonali Shah join Harriett Gilbert to read each other's favourite books.
Rachel Parris (Late Night Mash, Austentatious) chooses Barbara Kingsolver's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead, which is based on David Copperfield and boldly takes on America's opioid crisis.
Sonali Shah (Escape to the Country, Pilgrimage, Magic FM) picks Both Not Half: A Radical New Approach to Mixed Heritage Identity by the actor Jassa Ahluwalia, who had always described himself as 'half Indian, half English'. So he decided to come up with a new way of thinking about all kinds of individuality.
Harriett brings a wonderfully funny and loving memoir by the Irish writer Séamas O'Reilly: Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?
Producer: Beth O'Dea for BBC Audio in BristolJoin the conversation @agoodreadbbc Instagram
RADIO ROMANCE by Garrison Keillor, chosen by Sarah PhelpsPERSEPOLIS by Marjane Satrapi, chosen by Irenosen OkojieABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER by Rose Tremain, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Two authors pick books they love with Harriett Gilbert.
Screenwriter, playwright and television producer Sarah Phelps (The Sixth Commandment, A Very British Scandal, EastEnders) brings us the trials and tribulations of a small-town radio station in the Midwest. Told with humour and irony, but also packs a punch.
Novelist and short story writer Irenosen Okojie (Hag, Butterfly Fish, Speak Gigantular) chooses Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, an autobiographical graphic novel charting the writer's childhood in Iran, set against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution, before her move to Austria.
Harriett Gilbert brings Absolutely and Forever by Rose Tremain, a story about the all-consuming power of first love, set 1960s London.
Produced by Sally Heaven for BBC Audio BristolJoin the conversation on Instagram @bbcagoodread
BOOKS:
WISHFUL DRINKING by CARRIE FISHERFORBIDDEN NOTEBOOK by ALBA DE CESPEDESYELLOWFACE by REBECCA F KUANG
Harriett's guests today are comedian and writer Helen Lederer known for so many roles including as Catrionia in Absolutely Fabulous. Recently she has published her memoir Not That I'm Bitter and set up the Comedy Writing In Print Prize. She has opted for the hugely witty and knowing memoir Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher detailing her tumultuous life as the child of two Hollywood stars who often couldn't separate fantasy from reality.Ilaria Bernardini is an Italian novelist and screenwriter. She is currently working on Bernardo Bertolucci’s final script which Ilaria co-wrote with hi -The Echo Chamber. Her choice is the seminal feminist Italian novel Forbidden Notebook by the Italian-Cuban writer Alba de Cespedes about the inner life of an Italian housewife and Mama of the family.Harriett's choice is Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang - a cautionary tale for our times of plagiarism, cultural appropriation, social media storms and more.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
Writer and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth has chosen EF Benson's entertaining tale of competitive snobbery in the 1920s, Mapp and Lucia. In a contrasting choice, neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow advocates for Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, a story of a Ghanaian family transplanted to Alabama which takes in neuroscience and opiate addiction. Harriett has gone for a real crowd-pleaser in E. Nesbit's The Railway Children and all three enjoy a bit of nostalgia for the times when children could run free having adventures around the railway.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven.
VOICES IN THE EVENING by Natalia Ginzburg (trans. DM Low), chosen by Tessa HadleyTHE ZONE OF INTEREST by Martin Amis (trans. Jessica Moore), chosen by Sebastian FaulksEASTBOUND by Maylis de Kerangal, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Two authors pick books they love with Harriett Gilbert.
Tessa Hadley (Late In The Day, Free Love, After The Funeral) takes us to post-war Italy with Voices In The Evening by Natalia Ginzburg. The drama, suffering and fascism are in the past, but traumas surface in the day-to-day, with first loves and lost chances.
Sebastian Faulks (Birdsong, Human Traces, The Seventh Son) chooses The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis, after watching the hit film by Jonathan Glazer and wanting to read the book it was inspired by. The haunting novel follows a Nazi officer who has become enamoured with the Auschwitz camp commandant's wife, and goes inside the minds of the commandant, who lives with his family right next to the concentration camp.
Harriett Gilbert brings Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, a gripping novella set on the Trans-Siberian Railway, with a chance encounter between a desperate Russian conscript and a French woman.
Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio BristolJoin the conversation on Instagram @bbcagoodread
Recorded at the Hay Festival
SHUGGIE BAIN by Douglas StewartON THE BLACK HILL by Bruce ChatwinAGAINST NATURE by Joris-Karl Huysmans
Harriett Gilbert takes to the stage in the BBC Marquee at the Hay Festival for a special edition of the programme recorded in front of an audience.Actor and writer Doon Mackichan known for her outrageous character Cathy in the sitcom Two Doors Down chooses Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart as her good read. It's a touching but heartbreaking tale of a young Glaswegian boy's desperate efforts to save his mother Agnes from the alcoholism that ruins and degrades her. It won the Booker Prize in 2020.As we're in Wales Harriett's fitting choice is Bruce Chatwin's On The Black Hill an account of rural Welsh life in the mid 20th century. It's the story of two brothers' lives over 80 years and their connection to land and community.Bruce Robinson actor, director and writer of the hit film Withnail and I which has been adapted for stage chooses a book that features in the final scene of the film. The I character places two books in a suitcase at the end of the film, one of which is A Rebours - Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans. Bruce confesses that he's not the book's biggest fan but the ensuing discussion provides an entertaining insight into books we might read when we're younger and how differently we feel about them in later life. It's the story of an eccentric recluse Jean des Esseintes in 19th century France who loathes people and creates a fantasy world for himself but ultimately suffers from his self-inflicted pretentious ennui."I wish I hadn't chosen this book" proclaims Bruce Robinson as he introduces it. "I wish you hadn't chosen it" agrees Doon Mackichan. They then elicit a lot of audience laughter from their deconstruction of this seminal French novel that all three find pretentious.
This is a longer version of the broadcast programme.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
Shahidha Bari discusses EM Forster's A Passage to India with Neel Mukherjee, Elizabeth Lowry and Dr Chris Mourant.
ABSENT IN THE SPRING by Agatha Christie (writing as Mary Westmacott) (HarperCollins), chosen by Simon BrettIN THE GARDEN OF THE FUGITIVES by Ceridwen Dovey (Penguin), chosen by Denise MinaHIDE MY EYES by Margery Allingham (Penguin), chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Crime writers Denise Mina and Simon Brett join Harriett Gilbert to read each other's favourite books.
Simon chooses Agatha Christie under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, with Absent In The Spring. It’s a story without any detective and one that, perhaps, reveals a more personal side to Christie's writing.
Denise picks the novel In the Garden of the Fugitives by South African-Australian author Ceridwen Dovey, an epistolary novel which begins with a letter that breaks seventeen years of silence between a rich, elderly man with a broken heart and his former protegee, a young South African filmmaker.
And for the occasion of having two crime authors, Harriett Gilbert picks a golden age crime book, Hide My Eyes by Margery Allingham, where private detective Albert Campion finds himself hunting down a serial killer.
Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in BristolJoin the conversation @agoodreadbbc Instagram
QUARTET IN AUTUMN by Barbara Pym, chosen by Samantha HarveyMRS CALIBAN by Rachel Ingalls, chosen by Harriett GilbertPHARMACOPOEIA: A DUNGENESS NOTEBOOK by Derek Jarman, chosen by Darran Anderson
Two award-winning writers share books they love with Harriett Gilbert.
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
Historian and author Kathryn Hughes and No Such Thing As a Fish presenter Dan Schreiber recommend favourite books to Harriett Gilbert. Kathryn chooses Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes, an exploration of the French writer's life in the form of a novel. Dan's choice is very different - John Higgs taking on the conceptual artists and chart toppers The KLF. Harriett has gone for Michael Ondaatje's novel Warlight, set in a murky and mysterious post-war London.
Presenter: Harriett Gilbert
Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven
Octavia Bright talks to Maggie Nelson about Like Love, an anthology of essays which explore art and friendship and criticism. And a new prize for climate fiction.
Presenter: Octavia BrightProducer: Nicola Holloway
Sinéad Gleeson is a writer, broadcaster and editor of three anthologies of Irish writing. Her collection of essays, Constellations: Reflections from Life won Non Fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 Irish Book Awards, and now publishes her debut novel, Hagstone.
Hagstone is set on a remote island of the coast of Ireland, it tells the story of Nell an artist whose work takes inspiration from the landscape and folklore. When she receives an invitation to create a piece of art from the Inions, a reclusive commune of women living sustainably on the island, things begin to unravel. Sinead discusses the precarity of living as an artist, the folklore which infuses Hagstone and dedicating the book to the late activist and artist Sinead O' Connor.
The Book Makers by Adam Smyth is a celebration of five hundred and fifty years of the printed book, told through the lives of eighteen extraordinary people. The printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders - who took the book in radical new directions. We hear about the binder who created Shakespeare's First Folio, a 16th century Dutch printer who created bestsellers on Fleet Street and the Cut and Paste Bible sisters who made art from the gospels.
And Kick the Latch author Kathryn Scanlan discusses her love of Moyra Davey’s Long Life: Cool White, Photographs and Essays.
Book List – Sunday 21 March
Hagstone by Sinéad GleesonThe Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers by Sinéad GleesonThe Glass Shore edited by Sinéad GleesonConstellations: Reflections from Life by Sinéad GleesonKick the Latch by Kathryn ScanlanLong Life Cool White: Photographs by Moyra DaveyThe Book Makers by Adam Smyth
US author Percival Everett talks about his new novel, James - a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, told from the point of view of runaway slave, Jim.
Plus, writing openly about the challenges of motherhood, and doing so with humour. Shahidha talks to two authors who have done just that, in the short story form: Naomi Wood, winner of the BBC Short Story Award, and author of a new collection, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, and to Helen Simpson who has written stories about motherhood in books such as Motherhood, and Hey Yeah Right Get A Life over 20 years previously.
Presenter: Shahidha BariProducer: Emma Wallace
Alex Clark talks to Andrew O’Hagan about his new book Caledonian Road. Told over the course of a year, Caledonian Road follows art historian and public intellectual Campbell Flynn as a friendship with a young student calls into question the complacency of his much-cherished liberal credentials. With an epic Dickensian cast from drill artists to the wealthy Russian oligarchs in bed with British politicians, the book spools out to encompass a wide canvas of contemporary British life.
Alex also talks to the Australian writer Helen Garner as three books from her back catalogue have been reissued: The Monkey Grip, chronicling a young mother’s life in bohemian Melbourne in the 1970s; This House of Grief, a true crime story of a murderous father; and her most widely renowned novel, The Children’s Bach, which takes us into the lives of a family turned upside down by the forces of sexual desire and the impulse toward freedom.
And, DJ turned novelist, Annie Macmanus shares the Book She'd Never Lend
THE RED PARTS by Maggie Nelson (Vintage), chosen by Carol Morley INVISIBLE CITIES by Italo Calvino (Vintage), chosen by Will Hislop ORDINARY PEOPLE by Diana Evans (Vintage), chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Film director Carol Morley chooses a memoir called The Red Parts, in which author Maggie Nelson tries to make sense of the horror, grief and scepticism of her own aunt's murder trial. A book that blurs the boundaries between personal memoir, psychoanalysis and true crime.
Comedian Will Hislop chooses Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, which transports us to 55 different fictional reincarnations of Venice through a series of beautifully detailed and occasionally absurd vignettes. Calvino's prose poems are ordered by theme and, as a reader, you can choose how you want to navigate his matrix of the chapters.
Harriett's choice takes us to London with a novel by Diana Evans called Ordinary People, in which two couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning, an intimate study of identity, parenthood and the fragility of love.
Presenter: Harriett Gilbert Producer: Becky Ripley
Alex Clark talks to novelist Jonathan Buckley about his novel, Tell.
The story is told as a monologue by an unnamed narrator, the gardener of self-made businessman and would-be art collector, Curtis Doyle. Doyle has gone missing from his Scottish estate and many stories about his rags to riches life are being constructed. Tell is a novel concerned with the nature of storytelling, narrative form and the inherent unreliability of memory.
Critic and writer Lauren Oyler and fiction editor of the TLS, Toby Lichtig, discuss the impact of online reviewing on professional literary criticism.Plus David Baddiel on his ten years of writing books for children.
JUST KIDS by Patti Smith, chosen by Lindsey HilsumMAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor E. Frankl (trans. Ilse Lasch), chosen by Christopher EcclestonTOWARDS THE END OF THE MORNING by Michael Frayn, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
The television journalist and actor share favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.
Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor of Channel 4 News, loves Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids, her account of coming to New York as a young woman and of her relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It's a coming-of-age story set against the heady backdrop of 1970s counterculture; it's a story of becoming an artist; and it's a love story that turns into an elegy.
The actor Christopher Eccleston chooses Man's Search for Meaning, the psychotherapist Viktor Frankl's account of his time in Nazi concentration camps and how those experiences informed his belief that man's deepest need is to search for meaning and purpose. It's a powerful book about retaining one's humanity in the face of unimaginable suffering and degradation.
And Harriett Gilbert chooses Towards the End of the Morning, Michael Frayn's 1967 satire about journalists working on a newspaper during the heyday of Fleet Street.
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
CHESS by Stefan Zweig (Faber), chosen by Katy Hessel MAUD MARTHA by Gwendolyn Brooks (Penguin), chosen by Amy Blakemore THE PIER FALLS by Mark Haddon (Vintage), chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Art historian Katy Hessel chooses a book that she read in one sitting because she couldn't put it down: Chess by Stefan Zweig. A novella about the limitless possibilities of the game, and of the human mind.
Author Amy Blakemore chooses Maud Martha by the American poet Gwendolyn Brookes, a story of a life told with such a brevity and beauty of prose that it is almost poetry.
Harriett's choice is a collection of short stories called The Pier Falls by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon, who is not afraid to disturb.
Presenter: Harriett Gilbert Producer: Becky Ripley
"Last night I dreamt of Manderley again..." begins Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier one of the most well-loved novels of the 20th century. As part of the Daphne du Maurier: Double Exposure season on Radio 4, Open Book looks again at her hugely popular novels to reveal the enduring qualities and appeal of her writing.
From the pirates, smugglers and bewitching Cornish wilds of Jamaica Inn and Frenchman’s Creek, to the gender politics and class commentary of Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, du Maurier’s reputation as a romance novelist misrepresented the true breadth of her work. Octavia Bright is joined by Olivia Laing, author of The Lonely City, Funny Weather and Crudo; novelist, short story writer and Cornish resident Wyl Menmuir and Dr Laura Varnam of Oxford University, an expert on du Maurier’s life and work, to strip away some of the undermining labels she struggled to shake in her lifetime.
ON WRITING by Stephen King, chosen by Kathryn WilliamsTHE BITCH by Pilar Quintana (translated by Lisa Dillman), chosen by Harriett GilbertON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute, chosen by Andrew McMillan
The singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams loves books about the craft of writing and her choice of a good read is 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft', by the master of horror, Stephen King. The book gave her practical tools and advice which helped her to write her debut novel, The Ormering Tide. She also loves what we learn about King's life - from his flatulent childhood nanny to the devastating 1999 accident which almost ended his life.
Harriett's choice this week is The Bitch by Colombian author Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. In a village on the Pacific coast of Colombia, between wild jungle and wild seas, a childless woman develops a complicated relationship with an orphaned puppy.
And the poet and novelist Andrew McMillan chooses On the Beach by Nevil Shute. In Australia, a group of people try to come to terms with the end of the world. A nuclear war has wiped out all life in the northern hemisphere and the radiation is drifting steadily south. What would you do if you knew that you, and everyone you know, had only months to live?
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
Madeleine Gray on her witty, heartbreaking novel, Green Dot, about a young woman's affair
The artist Chantal Joffe picks I Capture The Castle, the English classic by Dodie Smith. Set in 1930s rural England, it relates the adventures of an eccentric family over the course of about a year. It's a book Chantal has come back to again and again, ever since she was a teenager. Séamas O'Reilly champions the Irish novel, A Goat's Song by Dermot Healy, which he argues deserves to be more widely known. And Harriett Gilbert recommends a graphic memoir by the cartoonist Alison Bechdel, called The Secret to Superhuman Strength.
Chantal Joffe is an artist known for her often larger-than-life-sized paintings, of women and children in particular, which have been shown in solo exhibitions around the world. Séamas O'Reilly is a columnist for the Observer whose memoir is Did Ye Hear Mammy Die.
Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbcProduced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio
Artist Cornelia Parker is with the chef Jeremy Lee and presenter Harriett Gilbert, to pick their all-time favourite books.
Cornelia chooses South by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the story of his extraordinary journey to Antarctica. Jeremy is a fan of the food writer Elizabeth David, and recommends her book of essays, Omelette and a Glass of Wine. Finally Harriett Gilbert suggests the novel Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie, centred on two American academics' escapades in London.
Cornelia has recently had solo shows at the Tate Britain and the Metropolitan Museum of New York; Jeremy is chef-proprietor of Quo Vadis restaurant in Soho and author of Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many.
Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbcProduced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio
Cases to baffle and intrigue. What to expect from BBC Radio 4 and 4 Extra’s treasure trove of murder mysteries. Available only on BBC Sounds.
Octavia Bright talks to Ann Patchett about her captivating new novel. Tom Lake is the story of a young actor Lara under the spell of a future Hollywood star, but it is also about how she retells that story in later life to her adult daughters, and the power of storytelling itself.
Two masters of historical fiction, Laura Shepherd-Robinson and S. J. Parris (aka Stephanie Merritt) discuss the allure of magic and mysticism in their latest books set either side of the Enlightenment.
Plus Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah recalls the enchanting tale behind the book he'd never lend.
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham
Author and cultural critic Olivia Laing, whose books include The Lonely City, Funny Weather and Everybody, is joined by fashion writer and curator Charlie Porter, of What Artists Wear and Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion, and presenter Harriett Gilbert, to talk about the books they love.
Olivia recommends Bad Blood by literary critic Lorna Sage - a memoir of her eccentric childhood and adolescence in 1940s rural Wales. Charlie loves Honey From A Weed by Patience Gray, a cookbook which exalts local knowledge and seasonal cooking, taking readers to a time and place far removed from modern life. And Harriett brings The English Understand Wool, a 2022 novella by American author Helen DeWitt, which takes unexpected twists and turns and which Harriett argues, merits reading more than once.
Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio
Johny Pitts speaks to Megan Nolan about her new novel, Ordinary Human Failings. The book explores the demonization of an Irish family and tabloid journalism in nineties London following a shocking tragedy.
Plus what is the best crime fiction out there this summer? Vaseem Khan, incoming chair of the Crime Writers Association, and critic Laura Wilson give their tips, from hot new psychological thrillers to reissued classics.
And Val McDermid chooses a very modern-feeling 1940s whodunit for her Book I'd Never Lend.
Book List – Sunday 16 July and Thursday 20 July
Ordinary Human Failing by Megan Nolan Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan Grave Expectations by Alice Bell The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson Kill For Me Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh The Wheel of Doll by Jonathan Ames Alchemy by SJ Parris The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey
Biologist and author Merlin Sheldrake (of 'Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures') is joined by the science journalist Jo Marchant (of 'Human Cosmos' and 'Cure') and presenter Harriett Gilbert.
Merlin picks 'The Age of Wonder' by Richard Holmes, a biographical portrait of scientific innovators in the late 18th century. In this historical book. Holmes explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain, and how it became an age of great discovery.
Jo's choice, 'You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto', is by computer scientist and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier. In this prescient book from 2010, Jaron delves into the digital world, examining what went wrong in its development, and how we might fix these problems.
And Harriett recommends the classic, magical children's novel, 'The Sword In The Stone' by T. H. White, which she argues merits re-reading as an adult.
Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol. Comment on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
The comedian and the writer talk to Harriett about favourite books, including one of Orwell's less well known novels, Coming Up for Air, chosen by Hal after he played the central character in a one man show. Daisy has gone for Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin, and Harriett loves Jenny Diski's Stranger on a Train, a travel memoir by someone who is not too keen on travel.
Producer Sally Heaven
Tragicomic Writing with Paul Murray plus guests Josie Long, Katherine Heiny & Jen Beagin
Journalist, broadcaster and author Zing Tsjeng and poet Yomi Ṣode join presenter Harriett Gilbert to talk about the books they love.
Zing chooses a book set in the heart of New York City's queer community. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters is centred on the lives of Reece, a trans woman, her ex Ames, and her ex's new lover, Katrina. Yomi recommends Caleb Azumah Nelson's debut book, Open Water, a lyrical romance story set in South East London. And Harriett's choice is Intimacies, a novel by Katie Kitamura, where the main character is an interpreter at the International Court in The Hague, where unease bubbles below the surface of the novel's cool narration.
Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas
Johny Pitts talks to the debut novelist about The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa
The author of the Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series, Donna Leon, is joined by writer-entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan and the presenter Harriett Gilbert.Donna has chosen a book by an author she greatly admires, Ross MacDonald, who she read before she became a writer herself. His 1971 noir novel, The Underground Man, follows a detective as he tries to track down a missing child, whilst a mysterious fire rages through the hills of Southern California. Margaret loves Butcher's Crossing, the lesser-known book by John Williams, the author of Stoner. Set in 1871, this is about a young Harvard drop-out who heads out into the American West to discover a new way of living and which Margaret describes as an 'anti-Western' novel. Meanwhile Harriett's choice is A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, which follows a mother's struggle to protect her children as Bangladesh fights for independence.Produced by Eliza Lomas.Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc
Author Katherine May and poet Liz Berry talk about their favourite books with Harriett.
Psychotherapist writer Philippa Perry and Professor of Neuroscience Anil Seth join Harriett Gilbert to talk about books they love.Anil Seth, who explores consciousness and the self in his book Being You, recommends Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, where our near-future world is seen through the eyes of an Artificial Friend. Philippa Perry's choice is A Stranger City by Linda Grant, a novel with a mystery at its heart and is about how lives interweave in the city. And Harriett Gilbert loves the non-fiction book Being Mortal by American surgeon Atul Gawande, which asks what medicine is for in the face of death.Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbcProduced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol
Columnist at The Times James Marriott and arts journalist for The Guardian Jude Rogers discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.James picks The Past by Tessa Hadley, a contemporary novel about family, place and the modern world encroaching upon the old; Jude recommends Border Country by Raymond Williams, a semi-autobiographical story of a man returning home to his small village on the Welsh borders, and how it's changed over a century; and Harriett loves A Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt, about a woman re-examining her life in after her husband's rejection.Do you agree with their assessments? Join us on Instagram @agoodreadbbcProduced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.
Chris Power talks to Aleksandar Hemon about his new novel The World and All That It Holds
Art historian Kate Bryan and comedian Mark Steel talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Kate loves Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing, an inspiring collection of essays which make a case for why art matters. Mark is a big fan of Stalin Ate My Homework by Alexei Sayle, a comedic memoir about growing up in a Jewish atheist communist family in Liverpool. And Harriett puts forward Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, in which a present-day story converges with ancient rituals to provoke a discussion about how far we have come from the “primitive minds” of our ancestors.Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbcProduced by Becky Ripley
Monica Heisey talks to Johny Pitts about her debut novel about divorce in your twenties
Books about tidying, music and addiction, and a desire to write are this week's choices.
Comedians Heidi Regan and Neil Delamere discuss their favourite all-time books with Harriett Gilbert. Heidi chooses a non-fiction book on the cult of positive thinking by the late Barbara Ehrenreich, called Smile or Die. Neil suggests a novel by Ronan Hession about two unambitious friends in their thirties; Leonard and Hungry Paul, and Harriett picks the novella Foster by Irish writer Claire Keegan, who has recently been nominated for the 2022 Booker Prize. Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol Join the conversation on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
The comedian Ria Lina - who's appeared on the BBC’s Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week - joins Otegha Uwagba - author of Little Black Book, Whites and We Need to Talk About Money - to talk to Harriett Gilbert about the books they love.
Ria chooses Moll Flanders, the 18th-century classic by Daniel Defoe. Otegha picks the popular romance story Like Water for Chocolate by Mexican author Laura Esquivel and Harriett Gilbert brings a book about motherhood; Making Babies by Anne Enright.
Produced by Eliza Lomas Comment on Instagram at @agoodreadbbc
Two writers who cover crime, football and music share their favourite books with Harriett
Maggie O'Farrell, Graphic Novels with Lizzy Stewart and Posy Simmonds, plus Anuradha Roy
Maggie O'Farrell, Graphic Novels with Lizzy Stewart and Posy Simmonds, plus Anuradha Roy
Maggie O'Farrell, Graphic Novels with Lizzy Stewart and Posy Simmonds, plus Anuradha Roy
Writer Salena Godden chooses Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys, a book she's re-read many times and returns to now – older, wiser and with even greater empathy for its protagonist.
Author-illustrator Rob Biddulph recommends When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle, named Children’s Fiction Book of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards, which brought him to tears and conjures London in the Blitz so vividly.
Presenter Harriett Gilbert picks Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore, the story of a heart transplanted from one life to another.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sarah Goodman.
Columnist Melanie Reid adores This is Not About Me by Janice Galloway, a tragicomic account of her turbulent childhood in mid-century Scotland. Presenter Harriett Gilbert thinks John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a true masterpiece, and sports broadcaster (and famous dog owner) Andrew Cotter recommends The Wild Places by fellow mountain-lover Robert Macfarlane.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sarah Goodman.
Sophie Hannah and Viv Groskop join Harriett Gilbert to talk about books they love.
Sophie, an Agatha Christie expert and superfan, recommends The Rose and the Yew Tree, a book – misleadingly billed as a romance, she says – that Christie wrote under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. She claims it can rival any detective novel for suspense and intrigue. Will Harriett and Viv agree?
Harriett champions Dame Eileen Atkin’s recent memoir Will She Do? which charts the first 30 years of the actor's life, including her time as a child soubrette, performing in working men’s clubs as ‘Baby Eileen’.
Writer, podcaster and stand-up Viv Groskop recalls her time living in Russia in the 1990s and explains why she thinks The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov, a 1920s satire about science gone very wrong, will become increasingly relevant in the months and years ahead.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sarah Goodman.
The broadcaster Petroc Trelawny, host of the Radio 3 Breakfast show, and the crime writer Stuart MacBride, author of the bestselling Logan McRae and Ash Henderson crime thrillers, talk to Harriett Gilbert about books they love.
Petroc's choice is dystopian J. B. Ballard novel The Drought, Stuart's is the Hollywood memoir by David Niven, The Moon's A Balloon, and Harriett's is Borges and Me by Jay Parini.
Produced by Eliza Lomas. Comment on instagram at @agoodreadbbc
Johny Pitts discusses time with three writers who have explored it in very different ways
CHVRCHES frontwoman Lauren Mayberry and comedian Rob Deering share their favourite books.
Johny Pitts talks to Trinidadian author Ayanna Lloyd Banwo about her debut novel When We Were Birds. It is a carefully crafted story set in the backstreets of Trinidad, where a young man called Darwin has newly arrived in the city of Port Angeles looking for a fresh start and his lost father. He’s forced to shed his Rastafarian faith in order to pick up the only work going, as a gravedigger in a sprawling cemetery full of secrets. In a parallel story, Yejide lives with her dying mother in an old house on a hill and is about to inherit a super-natural ancestral power passed on down through the women of the family. The novel blends myth, magic, and indigenous wisdom with everyday struggle and is, ultimately, a passionate love story between two lost souls.
Alex Preston's latest novel Winchelsea is set in the 18th century as a young woman enters into the cut throat world of smugglers in a quest to avenge her father’s death. And today he takes us through the stormy relationship some of our literary smugglers have had with the truth and the real smugglers that inspired them…
We’ll be exploring the exquisite racial riddle at the heart of Toni Morrison’s first and only short story, Recitatif, with the author of An American Marriage and Silver Sparrow, Tayari Jones as it's published in hardback for the first time.
The natural world, leadership styles aboard a submarine and sibling rivalry in Scotland.
The gardener and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh and the Yorkshire shepherdess choose books
Gary Shteyngart's tragic comedy set in lockdown, Richard Beard on Time, East Side Voices
Elizabeth Day and Johny Pitts look back at highlights of their first year at Open Book.
Comedian and writer Liam Williams and musician Kate Stables pick their favourite books.
The artist Kaffe Fassett and musician Andy Summers ex The Police choose books they love
Friends, sisters and serial killers all feature in the book choices for this week. Writer and stand-up comedian Athena Kugblenu picks 'My Sister the Serial Killer' by Oyinkan Braithwaite, a darkly comic tale which is as much about sibling rivalry as it is about murder. Nell Dunn's memoir about love and friendship, 'The Muse', is Harriett Gilbert's pick. And Pope Lonergan selects 'African Psycho' by Alain Mabanckou for its challenging portrayal of a frustrated and violent protagonist.
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Toby Field Follow our instagram book group @agoodreadbbc
The NHS palliative care doctor and author Rachel Clarke (Breathtaking, Dear Life) and the barrister and author Mohsin Zaidi (A Dutiful Boy) share the books that inspire them with presenter Harriett Gilbert.
Rachel chooses The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, a memoir about locked-in syndrome by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Mohsin picks a collection of essays, speeches, and poems by African-American author and poet Audre Lorde, Your Silence Will Not Protect You. And Harriett shares with them a crime novel, Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell.
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol, Eliza Lomas. Follow our instagram book group @agoodreadbbc
Writers Musa Okwonga (One of Them, Striking Out) and Sophie Heawood (The Hungover Games) share their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Musa chooses The Bone Readers by Jacob Ross, a crime novel set in the Caribbean. Sophie picks Lunch Poems, a collection by Frank O'Hara written on the streets of New York and Harriett introduces them to An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel, written before her Booker-winning Wolf Hall trilogy.
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol, Eliza Lomas. comment on instagram at @agoodreadbbc
Pianist and broadcaster Neil Brand actor/comedian Tiff Stevenson choose books they love
Rabih Alameddine, English PEN at 100 with Philippe Sands and Elif Shafak, Editors' Pick
Johny Pitts explores the 20s with Alison MacLeod, Bill Goldstein, James Clammer & Jo Hamya
Chris Power talks to author of The Country of Others. Plus nonfiction books on motherhood
Elizabeth Day talks to Zakiya Dalila Harris about her debut novel, The Other Black Girl
Tears, hope and identity. The comedian, the Radio 1 presenter, and their favourite books.
Elizabeth Day talks to the writer Jhumpa Lahiri, whose latest novel, Whereabouts, was originally written in Italian, a language she learned in her 40s. Whereabouts tells the story of an unnamed middle-aged woman who meanders through a Northern Italian city, sharing her observations on everything from having a manicure to walking a friend’s dog. Lahiri builds up a mosaic of such moments, interspersing them with deeper glimpses into the woman’s relationship with her parents and the sudden death of her father when she was 15. Jhumpa Lahiri has long been interested in themes of dislocation and belonging, the daughter of Bengali immigrants who moved to New York, her first book, The Interpreter of Maladies, was a short story collection which won a Pulitzer Prize.
The programme also explores the life and writing of the English mid century writer Barbara Pym. Best known for her novels, Excellent Women, Jane and Prudence, and A Glass of Blessings, Pym created sharp observational comedies in which little happens, but a great deal is conveyed. Paula Byrne has written an illuminating new biography, The Adventures of Miss Pym, and talks to Elizabeth about the connections between her tumultuous life and her writing, and they are joined by the writer and lifelong Pym fan, Philip Hensher.
Johny Pitts talks to Jon McGregor about his latest novel Lean Fall Stand, inspired by a trip to Antarctica. Opening with sparse, barely describable landscape in the midst of a storm, it follows Robert "Doc" Wright's recovery in the aftermath and sensitively examines heroism, modern masculinity and the failure of words.
Chester Himes is an often overlooked favour of his Black American contemporaries Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright and James Baldwin, despite also attempting to carve out a literary career in Paris. With his better-known Harlem detective series being reissued, his biographer Lawrence P. Jackson and crime writer Dreda Say Mitchell discuss his prescient legacy.
And looking ahead to next month, Francesca Main of Phoenix Books chooses a multi-generational story of love, family and Indian history as her Editor's Tip.
BOOK LIST: Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem by Chester Himes Lonely Crusade by Chester Himes Cast the First Stone by Chester Himes If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes Chester B Himes: A Biography by Lawrence P Jackson Shelter by Lawrence P Jackson China Room by Sunjeev Sahota
Elizabeth Day talks to Chris Power, writer of the short story collection Mothers, about his debut novel A Lonely Man. Robert Prowe is a struggling writer living in Berlin with his wife and two young daughters. One night he meets Patrick, a stranger with a story to tell, who is a ghostwriter for a Russian oligarch who is now being followed. Robert finds himself seduced by Patrick's dramatic story, wondering if it might provide the inspiration he needs for his own novel, and becomes caught up in a paranoid world of threats that may or, may not, be real.
Swipe Right is Radio 4's series of short stories written by young writers under 30; Caleb Nelson, Bryan Washington, Naoise Dolan, Rebecca Watson, and Beth O'Leary. The series explores relationships and sex in the modern world, characters searching for love in a myriad of ways. Novelists Beth O'Leary, Flatshare, The Switch, and Okechukwu Nzelu, The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, share their thoughts of the joys and challenges of writing love stories in an online world.
And Trisha Sakhlecha whose novel Can You See Me Now is a pacey, psychological thriller exploring female friendship against a backdrop of Indian politics, sends a literary postcard from Delhi.
Book List
A Lonely Man by Chris Power The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary The Switch by Beth O’Leary The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney by Okechukwu Nzelu The Fourth Hand by John Irving Less by Andrew Sean Greer The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang Can you see me now by Trisha Sackhlecha We That Are Young by Preti Taneja Society by Mahesh Rao The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
Johny Pitts visits his local bookshop, Review in Peckham, as it prepares to reopen and talks to manager Ben Pope about missing bookseller recommendations
Naomi Ishiguro discusses her debut novel Common Ground, about a friendship across a cultural divide and the importance of open space for everyone.
And we reflect on making room in our homes for Spring. Do books count as clutter? Eleanor Ray and Jess Kidd, two authors who have written about hoarding, discuss.
Chess, drugs and dentistry- the two writers chat to Harriett about their favourite books
Actor Adjoa Andoh, Bridgerton's Lady Danbury, and CBeebies presenter Andy Day share books
Husband & wife team - the Radio 1 Breakfast host and the writer talk up their top reads.
Elizabeth Day talks to Pulitzer Prize winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen about The Committed
The actress and the environmentalist talk about much loved books with Harriett Gilbert.
The poet and the comedian talk climbing, science fiction, and love with Harriett Gilbert.
Bryan Washington, Natalie Haynes, Trauma in fiction with Rebecca Watson & Peter Ho Davies
Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, & Professor Lucie Green, presenter on The Sky At Night, discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.
Johny Pits asks writers Carys Bray and Diana McCaulay how stories offer hope and motivate action to address environmental crisis
Poet Vanessa Kisuule and environmental writer Jonathon Porritt talk books with Harriett.
Chris Power talks to Jonathan Coe about bringing Billy Wilder to life in his new novel.
Daliso can't believe Jonathan's never read a fantasy novel before his choice, Seventh Son
Armando Iannucci and John Mullan on Dickens; John Lanchester; new Black British writing
Romance in Marseilles, Butterfly Politics & This is Pleasure.Harriett Gilbert talks books
Jennifer Makumbi, New Dutch Writing, Barbara Kingsolver and Wild Swimming in literature
Sara Collins speaks to Sarah Moss about history, holidays and her new novel Summerwater
Journalist and author Nicholas Lezard and former Radio 4 controller Gwyneth Williams introduce their favourite reads to Harriett Gilbert. Nicholas chooses Watt by Samuel Beckett, a comic novel unlike any other. Gwyneth's favourite is The Leopard, Lampedusa's classic tale of Sicilian aristocracy, and Harriett champions The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, a story of grief, writing and dogs. Producer Sally Heaven. Join our instagram book club: @agoodreadbbc
Comedian Sarah Keyworth and author Lissa Evans talk about books they love with Harriett Gilbert. Sarah chooses Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed, Lissa picks Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks and Harriett shines a light on Lady into Fox by David Garnett. Producer: Becky Ripley. Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc
Val McDermid and Martha Lane Fox talk to Harriett Gilbert about books they really love.
Natalie Carter & Melissa Cummings-Quarry (Black Girls Book Club) talk books with Harriett
Petina Gappah. Plus Henry Porter on adventure writing and the joys of fictional journeys.
Authors Gail Honeyman and Mavis Cheek talk to Harriett Gilbert about the books they love.
Harriett Gilbert talks to Syima Aslam and Stig Abell about books they love - all classics
Nick Hornby and Carlo Rovelli tell Harriett Gilbert about the books they love the most.
Deepa Anappara and Rob Doyle on their new novels; Helen Fielding's book she'd never lend
Comedian Russell Kane and novelist Sarah Perry talk favourite books with Harriett Gilbert
Nemone Metaxas and Raymond Antrobus talk favourite books with presenter Harriett Gilbert.
The Romany writer and broadcaster Damian Le Bas and author Amy Liptrot choose a good read
Kathy O'Shaughnessy talks to Mariella about her novel charting the life of George Eliot.
Andrew Michael Hurley talks to Mariella Frostrup about new folk horror novel Starve Acre
Emma Donoghue discusses her new novel Akin, plus a discussion of the best fiction spies.
Dana Czapnik discusses her debut The Falconer and two writers talk about the Black Death.
Benjamin Myers on his latest The Offing, and Proust's In Search of Lost Time discussed.
David Nicholls on his new novel Sweet Sorrow and a reader's guide to Elizabeth Hardwick
Award-winning poet Ocean Vuong discusses his debut novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Nicci Gerrard and Gary Younge join Harriett Gilbert to talk about their favourite books.
Irish author Kevin Barry, winner of the Impac Award and the Goldsmiths Prize, discusses his new novel Night Boat to Tangier, a dark comedy billed as Waiting For Godot meets In Bruges.
Novelist and journalist Molly Flatt, who writes about culture and technology for the Bookseller, discusses a growing trend for book versions of successful podcasts.
25 years since the death of Derek Jarman, Mariella is joined by writers Philip Hoare and Mike Parker to explore queer nature writing, a genre concerned with the push and pull of the natural world, from a queer perspective.
Mia Couto and Wayétu Moore discuss two new African novels exploring colonialism and myth
Damian Barr, Candice Carty Williams, Beckett's novels and Julián Fuks literary postcard.
Taylor Jenkins Reid talks about her novel Daisy Jones & The Six. Also we discuss the best older characters in fiction and Reading Clinic suggests books for someone on death row.
Nicola Walker and Sarah Ann Kennedy discuss their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.
Harriett Gilbert talks favourite books with the comedian and broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika and the cartoonist-author Martin Rowson. Ayesha chooses a novel from Italy: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Martin picks Let's Kill Uncle by Rohan O'Grady, and Harriett's choice is In The Skin of A Lion by Michael Ondaatje.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
The actors Sarah Hadland (Miranda, That Mitchell and Webb Look) and Russell Tovey (Being Human, The History Boys) recommend favourite books to presenter Harriett Gilbert. Sarah's choice is French hit The Elegance of The Hedgehog. Russell's is Close Range: Brokeback Mountain, made into a film with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal and Harriett's is The Naked Civil Servant.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
Whitney Scharer discusses her novel about the love affair between Lee Miller and Man Ray.
Harriet Gilbert invites singer Tracy Thorne and writer Maggie O'Farrell to choose a book.
Comedian Lucy Porter and writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books.
Lucy Porter's voice will be well-known to Radio 4 listeners as a regular on the News Quiz, the Now Show and The Unbelievable Truth. On TV she has appeared on Live at the Apollo, QI, Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. She is also a successful comedy writer. Frank Cottrell-Boyce's credits as screenwriter include Welcome to Sarajevo, Hilary and Jackie and 24 Hour Party People. He is also an award-winning author of novels for children, including Millions, Framed and Cosmic.
Their good reads are Letters from a Lost Uncle by Mervyn Peake, Truckers by Terry Pratchett and Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett.
Producer: Mair Bosworth.
Comedian Gráinne Maguire and alternative history author John Higgs talk to presenter Harriett Gilbert about books they really love. Gráinne chooses Elaine Dundy’s first novel The Dud Avocado, the delightfully funny adventures of a young woman in 1950s Paris. John picks The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent, a history of the world in cultural ideas which offers a brand new way of understanding civilisation and the future. Harriett’s choice is dark wartime novel The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge.
Producer: Beth O'Dea
SAS thriller writer Andy McNab and spoken word artist George the Poet choose a good read
Exploring literary responses to the Great War in the immediate aftermath of the Armistice. The University of Leicester's Victoria Stewart, and biographer Jean Moorcroft Wilson, discuss the ways that fiction reflected the horror of war in the decade after 1918.
Novelist Richard T. Kelly considers the pitfalls of including real people in works of fiction.
Bestselling novelist Maria Dahvana Headley explains why Beowulf felt like the appropriate framework through which to explore race, class and violence in contemporary America.
And Managing Director of Waterstones James Daunt helps Open Book to launch a new series looking at the challenges of making bookselling pay.
Harriett Gilbert talks favourite books with guests, comedians Sindhu Vee and Phil Wang.
Colombian novelist Hector Abad joins Mariella Frostrup to discuss ideas of inheritance and escape in his new family saga The Farm. And Laura Purcell reflects on what soaring horror fiction sales can tell us about contemporary anxieties.
Harriett Gilbert discusses favourite books with the writers Nikesh Shukla and Leone Ross. Nikesh's choice is Amateur; a real-life account of testing one’s masculinity in the boxing ring by Thomas Page McBee. Leone's is Cane, the largely forgotten African-American classic by Jean Toomer and Harriett's is a divisive modern classic, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
Lavinia Greenlaw on her new book In the City of Love's Dreams and Venezuelan literature.
Open Book on the majesty of trees with Richard Powers, Melissa Harrison and Jessica J Lee
A special edition exploring book criticism and asking whether using critical tools can make us better readers. Mariella Frostrup is joined on stage at the Edinburgh International Book Festival by critic Alan Taylor, book podcast host Books&Rhymes, novelists Kaite Welsh and Sarah Moss, and Sarah Dillon from Cambridge University to explore the current state of book reviewing, the explosion of conversations about books online and on social media, the role of the professional reviewer and whether we can all learn useful critical tools to help us read well, and enrich our reading experience.
Mariella Frostrup and guests consider what makes them such popular fictional locations.
Actor Anne-Marie Duff and author Louise O'Neill join Harriett Gilbert for a discussion about favourite books. Anne-Marie Duff has starred in films including On Chesil Beach, Sufragette and Elizabeth I, and on TV in Shameless and From Darkness. Louise O'Neill's prize-winning novels include Only Ever Yours and Asking for It, and her latest book is a feminist take on The Little Mermaid called The Surface Breaks.
Anne-Marie chooses Nights At The Circus, the classic feminist novel by Angela Carter (Vintage), Louise puts forward a memoir about seventeen brushes with death by Irish author Maggie O'Farrell; I Am I Am I Am (Tinder Press), and Harriett recommends Conversations With Friends (Faber), a critically-acclaimed debut novel by another Irish author, Sally Rooney.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
Daisy Johnson and Stella Tillyard on the inspiration of the Fens and literary festivals.
Harriett Gilbert and guests talk favourite books, including Arnold Bennett's The Card, Dylan Thomas' Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog and Daniyal Mueenuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. Her guests are journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Samira Ahmed, presenter of BBC1's Newswatch and Radio 4's Front Row. And comedian Elis James, known for starring in the BBC3 sitcoms Crims and Josh and a familiar face on panel-shows such as Mock the Week and 8 out of 10 Cats.
Producer: Becky Ripley.
Michael Donker on his debut novel and Jackie Kay on how poet Audrey Lorde inspired her.
Harriett Gilbert and guests talk favourite books in an all-female line-up, including Meg Wolitzer's The Wife, Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen and Carol Ann Duffy's collection Meantime. Her guests are comedy actress and writer Isy Suttie, series regular on Peep Show and Shameless and author of a memoir called The Actual One. And comedian Lolly Adefope, the Observer's "rising star of comedy" whose TV work includes Loaded, Taskmaster and, along with Isy, Channel 4's sitcom Damned.
Producer: Becky Ripley.
Loyd Grossman and Skin from rock band Skunk Anansie talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Chosen books include Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham and The Underground Railroad by Colston Whitehead.
Producer: Sally Heaven.
Loyd Grossman and Skin from rock band Skunk Anansie talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Chosen books include Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham and The Underground Railroad by Colston Whitehead. Producer Sally Heaven.
Hanan Al-Shaykh and Nada Awar Jarrar on writing about Beirut close up and from a distance
Harriett Gilbert and guests talk favourite books, including Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, Never Mind by Edward St Aubyn (the first in his Patrick Melrose series) & The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Her guests are the journalist and broadcaster Tony Parsons, who started his career at the NME and went on to write Man and Boy and later the bestselling DC Max Wolfe thriller series. And Olly Mann, presenter of award-winning podcasts and radio programmes including Answer Me This!, The Modern Mann and BBC Radio 4's The Male Room and Four Thought.
Producer: Mair Bosworth
Two former doctors join Harriett Gilbert to talk about their favourite books. Adam Kay is a writer and comedian whose first book, This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, was published to great acclaim in 2017. Farrah Jarral is a writer and broadcaster who was, until recently, a London GP.
The good reads up for discussion are Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris and I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson.
Producer: Mair Bosworth.
Comic actor and writer Robert Webb and award-winning journalist Hugo Rifkind talk about favourite books with presenter Harriett Gilbert.
Robert's choice is East Anglican based fictional tale Waterland by Graham Swift. Hugo picks the Douglas Adams classic Life, The Universe and Everything, and Harriett brings Sam Miller's Fathers to the table.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
Diana Evans discusses her new novel, Ordinary People and how to stage literary classics.
Comedians Phill Jupitus and Robin Ince talk to Harriett Gilbert about books they love. Phill's is Dada: Art and Anti-Art by Hans Richter, the founder of the punk art movement. Robin's is Soviet-era science fiction: Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the book on which Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker was based. Lastly, Harriett introduces them to a dark and compelling new crime novel in which the protagonists are children: Dodgers by Bill Beverly.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
Crime writers Abir Mukherjee Val McDermid and Graeme Macrae Burnet on a tour of Kolkata.
Harriett Gilbert's guests are writer Bernardine Evaristo and comedian Jolyon Rubinstein.
Bernardine's choice is Come Let Us Sing Anyway by Leone Ross and Jolyon's favourite is Any Human Heart by William Boyd, and Harriett introduces her guests to An English Murder by Cyril Hare.
James Wood discusses his new book, Upstate and we discuss the joys of being a bookworm.
Harriett Gilbert, Joanna Trollope and Sabrina Mahfouz talk about their favourite books.
Joanna chooses The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald. Sabrina's choice is Omar Robert Hamilton's The City Always Wins, and Harriett's is Terms and Conditions by Ysenda Maxtone Graham.
Materials engineer and presenter Mark Miodownik and Diana Henry, the food writer for the Sunday Telegraph, tell Harriett Gilbert about the books they love. Books tossed into the discussion are: The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton and The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
Hadley Freeman (Guardian columnist and author of Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned from Eighties Movies and Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies) and Sathnam Sanghera (Times columnist and author of Marriage Material and The Boy With The Topknot) talk favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Choices include Spring by David Szalay, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank and A Cat, a Man, and Two Women by Junichiro Tanizaki. Produced by Mair Bosworth
Broadcaster Steph McGovern and comedian Jayde Adams talk about books with Harriett Gilbert. Their choices are, Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Ann Cleeves' The Seagull, from the Vera series, and Postcards from the Edge by the late actress Carrie Fisher.
Producer Sally Heaven.
Harriett Gilbert talks to comedian Jake Yapp, whose condensed satires include Radio 4 in 4 Minutes, and Ruby Tandoh, runner-up in The Great British Bake Off and cookery writer, about their favourite books.
Jake's is Nicholas Again by René Goscinny (author of Asterix) and Jean-Jacques Sempé, translated by Anthea Bell. Ruby loves Nora Ephron's essays I Remember Nothing: and other reflections, written at the end of her life. And Harriett introduces them to On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, which reminds Jake for some reason of the TV series Lost...
Producer Beth O'Dea.
Stephen Fry and Alan Davies reunite in the studio to debate their all-time favourite books with presenter Harriett Gilbert. Expect philosophical musings and a fair bit of silliness from these comedy polymaths and former QI partners in crime.
Fears for the future are discussed through Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel A Brave New World, reflections on the past come with J.M Coetzee's memoir Boyhood, and for some light relief, Muriel Spark's centenary is celebrated in a humorous take on the publishing world, in A Far Cry From Kensington. But who picks what?
Producer: Eliza Lomas.
Leila Slimane discusses her new novel and the iimportance of translating foreign fiction
Comedian Alexei Sayle and novelist Meg Rosoff trade favourite books with Harriett Gilbert
Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel A Visit From The Goon Squad. Her new book Manhattan Beach is set largely during the Second World war, her heroine is the first ever female diver employed to mend warships. She talks to Mariella Frostrup about turning her hand to historical fiction, and her literary interest in twins. Also on the programme, Jen Campbell calls for better depiction of people with disabilities in fiction; biographer Helen Smith talks about Edward Garnett - man of letters and supportive editor to DH Lawrence and Joseph Conrad among others and Adam Haslett reveals the book he'd never lend.
Writers Jon McGregor and Cathy Rentzenbrink talk favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.
Mariella Frostrup talks to celebrated American novelist Celeste Ng, whose new book Little Fires Everywhere explores what happens when a calm and ordinary suburb is disrupted by the arrival of a new residents - a teenage girl and her artistic mother. Ian Rankin shares his passion for Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow and we hear from the Sharjah Book Fair which has just closed its doors in the UEA. While the Icelandic crime writer novelist Lilja Sigurdardottir explains why the financial crash of 2008 inspired many authors to explore the society's underbelly.
Jenny Colgan & Steven Camden (Polarbear) talk about brilliant books with Harriett Gilbert
Graeme Macrae Burnet joins Alex Clark to discuss his novel The Accident on the A35, a new literary crime thriller. He describes the book as 'a fiction within a fiction', claiming to be not the author but the translator.
Also on the programme, the life and work of South African writer Olive Schreiner, literary news from Chile and Lucy Hughes-Hallett, one of this year's judges, discusses the Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer Award of the Year Award.
Mariella Frostrup celebrates the 40th anniversary of the classic travel book In Patagonia. She's joined by the Observer theatre critic Susannah Clapp, who edited the book, and travel writer William Dalrymple who both admire its ground breaking mix of memoir, history and reportage.
Also on the programme, Nathan Englander talks about his new novel Dinner at the Centre of the Earth. Best known for his short story collections this is a spy thriller and a love story based around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sandi Toksvig discusses her tale for children set in the American Midwest in the mid nineteenth century, and Dennis Glover on the difficulties of fictionalizing George Orwell, a larger than life character who seems to have been misrepresented in fiction.
Omar El Akkad's debut novel American War has won rave reviews in the states. In it he imagines a future America where the country has been ravaged by climate change and a second Civil War breaks out over fossil fuels. He talks to Mariella Frostrup about his dystopian vision.
Also on the programme, Icelandic writer Sjon, and Ted Hodgkinson discuss their new anthology of short stories from the Nordic region, and best selling writer novelist Elizabeth Kostova reveals the book she'd never lend.
Sally Lindsay and Jonathan Harvey talk about the books they love with Harriett Gilbert.
Alan Hollinghurst on his new novel and Denise Mina and Max Porter discuss ghost stories.
Helen Sedgwick discusses her new novel The Growing Season; Australian writers to watch.
Kamila Shamsie and David Vann discuss their own interpretations of classic Greek myths.
Fredrik Backman is an internationally bestselling author whose A Man Called Ove has sold more than 3 million copies. His new novel, The Scandal, is set in an isolated Swedish town where the future is looking bright, until one brutal act threatens that future prosperity. Fredrik Backman talks to Mariella Frostrup.