Books And Authors

The Ethics of Writing Crime

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.

Tess Gunty on The Rabbit Hutch; Jackie Kay on the writing of Jamaica Kincaid

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.

Summer Reading and Benjamin Wood

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.

Johny Pitts returns to his home city to explore Sheffield's literary landscapes

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

Dr Alex George and Ella Al Shamahi choose books they love

Revisiting the 1990s

The comedian and the writer discuss favourite books

Johny Pitts discusses time with three writers who have explored it in very different ways

The novelist and the podcaster propose favourite books for discussion

Johny Pitts talks to author of Either/Or, sequel to the 2017 bestseller The Idiot

Omid Djalili and Nikita Lalwani choose books they love

Johny Pitts talks to Benjamin Myers about his new book, The Perfect Golden Circle.

Chris Power talks to Atticus Lish about his new novel, The War for Gloria.

Neurodiversity

Elizabeth Day talks to David Whitehouse about his new creative nonfiction

Julian Barnes; How Words Get Good; Bangkok Postcard