The broadcaster and writer Muriel Gray champions The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton because she believes books that deal with the supernatural are often unfairly dismissed as unworthy of literary praise. But she says you can't argue with a Pulitzer Prize winning author such as Wharton who decided to write a collection of ghost stories as a way of overcoming her own fears. As well as being disturbing and downright spooky the stories contain a lot of social commentary about the values and prejudic...
Nov 15, 2021•29 min
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...
Nov 02, 2021•28 min
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 insta...
Oct 26, 2021•28 min
Mona Arshi is a poet and novelist. Her choice of book is Summer Book by Tove Jansson which of which she says: "I'm glad it exists in the world". She loves its simplicity and quietness in its exploration of the relationship between a grandmother and a young girl and the unspoken grief that exists between them as they spend the summer on an island off the coast of Finland. Malaika Kegode chooses a book with a very different take on family: White Oleander by Janet Fitch about a young girl Astrid an...
Oct 19, 2021•29 min
As part of Radio 4's Day of the Scientist Harriett Gilbert asks two scientists and broadcasters to choose a book on a science theme. Adam Rutherford chooses Kazuo Ishiguro's dystopian love story Never Let Me Go. Dr Farrah Jarral says when she first read the novella she has chosen - Octavia Butler's Bloodchild - it blew her mind dealing as it does with interspecies procreation and with underlying themes of control and power imbalance. Harriett Gilbert's choice is Piranesi by Susanna Clarke in whi...
Oct 12, 2021•29 min
Neil Brand the silent film accompanist and presenter of BBC4's Sound of Cinema chooses a book he loved as a teenager: England Their England by A.G. Macdonell. He calls it 'social history by the backdoor'. Published in 1933 its fictional Scots character Donald Cameron is commissioned by a Welsh publisher to write a book about the English from a foreigner's viewpoint. It is a satirical take on an England of the past but still throws up ideas of national identity that are relevant today. Tiff Steve...
Oct 05, 2021•28 min
The host of the Brown Girls Do It Too podcast Poppy Jay and the writer of Mamma Mia Catherine Johnson join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books. They talk about moggies, a wrestling princess and grief... Catherine chooses George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo, Harriett goes for Doris Lessing's On Cats and Poppy tells us why Judy Corbalis' children's book The Wrestling Princess still stands as her favourite of all time. Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Caitlin Hobbs Join our Instag...
Aug 03, 2021•28 min
Vanessa Redgrave is 'in love with' Rachel Holmes' biography of Sylvia Pankhurst, Eileen Atkins has chosen a very different biography, Oliver Soden's imagining of the life of Jeoffrey, the cat who lived with the poet Christopher Smart 250 years ago. Harriett goes even further back in time with her selection, The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín. Tell us what you think of these books on Instagram: agoodreadbbc Produced by Sally Heaven for BBC Audio in Bristol
Jul 20, 2021•28 min
Lloyd Cole is a singer/songwriter whose hits with his band The Commotions include Perfect Skin. His choice of A Good Read is The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. For him it's all about the smart dialogue and lavish use of similes. Francis Macdonald's pick is the autobiography of the Scottish comedian Limmy: Surprisingly Down to Earth and Very Funny. While he admits Limmy's work and persona is 'marmite' to people - they either love him or hate him - he says the book covers a lot of important topics...
Jul 07, 2021•29 min
The Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis chooses Margaret Atwood's treatise on debt - Payback: Debt & The Shadow Side of Wealth as his go to book for students of economics. It examines money lending throughout the ages and how it has been portrayed in classic literature. Patrick McGrath's choice is a novel by Nigel Balchin set during the London Blitz: Darkness Falls From The Air which he loves for its humour and for its stoic main character Bill Sarratt, a civil servant whose attempts to get an...
Jun 29, 2021•28 min
Janey Godley's choice is a thriller Remember Me This Way by Sabine Durrant. It's a page turner with a neat twist and tackles coercive behaviour in an interesting way. And it features a dog called Howard. Janey says it has made her think differently about her own mother's relationship with a controlling man. Mayflies by Andrew O Hagan is Harriett's choice. It's an 80s tale of male friendship through music set in Ayrshire and Manchester and following two of the young men into adulthood. Mel Hudson...
Jun 24, 2021•29 min
Jason Watkins chooses Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark as his good read, and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown champions a book with some similar themes, The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Harriett's selection is The People on Privilege Hill, Jane Gardam's book of short stories. Join in the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc Producer Sally Heaven
Jun 15, 2021•28 min
Comedian and writer Isy Suttie and the Radio 1 presenter and author Vick Hope are A Good Read's guests. Vick loves Zadie Smith's Swing Time, Isy chooses Patrick Suskind's The Pigeon and we hear why Harriett's choice of the Young Adult book A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness has her guests in tears. Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Caitlin Hobbs Join our Instagram book club: @agoodreadbbc
Jun 08, 2021•28 min
Telegraph writer and podcaster Bryony Gordon is with poet and author Hollie McNish on this week's A Good Read. Bryony loves Rachel’s Holiday by her writing hero Marian Keyes; Hollie hoped the The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis would improve her chess; and Harriett Gilbert finds both absurdity and pain in Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe. Producer: Sarah Goodman This is the last in our current series of A Good Read, but you can keep in touch with us and find many more book ideas on Instagram...
Mar 30, 2021•28 min
Actor Adjoa Andoh, Bridgerton's Lady Danbury, and the CBeebies presenter Andy Day share the books that inspire them. Adjoa is full of admiration for the remarkable women in Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna and Andy is fascinated by the transformation that occurs in Dibs in Search of Self: Personality Development in Play Therapy by Virginia M. Axline. Meanwhile, presenter Harriett Gilbert heartily recommends Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by poet Kate Clanchy. Producer: Sarah Goodman...
Mar 23, 2021•28 min
Harriett is joined by a husband-and-wife team: Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast show and Radio 4's Rewinder, and Bella Mackie, author and Vogue columnist. Bella loves Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, Harriett chooses The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré and Greg picks Right Ho, Jeeves! He says it’s the funniest PG Wodehouse novel. But why did it make Bella think he was the right man for her? Producer: Sarah Goodman Join our Instagram book club: @agoodreadbbc...
Mar 17, 2021•28 min
Jane Hill chooses The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale, and Harriett's choice, Murder in Notting Hill by Mark Olden, takes place a hundred years later, in a very different part of British society. Derek Owusu isn't sure whether Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzerald really is a good read after all. Producer Sally Heaven Get involved on Instagram: @agoodreadbbc
Mar 09, 2021•28 min
Comedian Twayna Mayne proposes Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric. Books blogger Simon Savidge (and his mum) both love An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, and Harriett choose Actress by Anne Enright. Producer Sally Heaven Join the conversation on Instagram: @agoodreadbbc
Mar 02, 2021•28 min
Writer and drag performer Amrou Al-Kadhi and TV executive Peter Bazalgette join Harriett to dsicuss favourite books by Laura Cumming, Leila Slimani and Katherine Heiny. On Chapel Sands by Laura Cumming Publisher: Vintage Lullaby by Leila Slimani Publisher: Faber Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny Publisher: 4th Estate First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2021.
Feb 23, 2021•28 min
Actor Tobias Menzies and crime writer Gytha Lodge join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by Rachel Cusk, Judith Kerr, and Helen Garner. Transit by Rachel Cusk Publisher: Jonathan Cape ( Faber) The Spare Room by Helen Garner Publisher: Canongate Canons The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s Books First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2021.
Feb 16, 2021•28 min
Actress Tuppence Middleton and environmentalist Matthew Shribman join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by Thomas Bernhard, Italo Calvino, Deborah Levy. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino Publisher: Vintage [Translator: Ann Goldstein] The Loser by Thomas Bernhard Publisher: Faber [Translator: Jack Dawson] Hot Milk by Deborah Levy Publisher: Penguin First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2021.
Feb 09, 2021•28 min
Poet Helen Mort and comedian Mo Omar join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by M. John Harrison, Nnedi Okorafor and Nicole Krauss. Climbers by M. John Harrison Publisher: Gollancz Binti by Nnedi Okorafor Publisher: Tor.com A History of Love by Nicole Krauss Publisher: Penguin First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2021.
Feb 02, 2021•28 min
Journalist Clive Myrie and critic Boyd Tonkin nominate favourite books. Clive, fresh from covering the US election, has chosen Steinbeck's tale of the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath. Boyd recommends Hadji Murat, the last work of Leo Tolstoy, and Harriett goes for the political thriller Red April by Peruvian writer Santiago Roncagliolo. Join the conversation on Instagram at agoodreadbbc Producer Sally Heaven
Dec 01, 2020•28 min
Writer Alexander McCall Smith and UCL's Department of Space & Climate Physics, Professor Lucie Green, join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Somerset Maugham, John Higgs and Lewis Carroll. The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham Publisher: Heinemann Watling Street by John Higgs Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Publisher: Macmillan First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2020.
Nov 24, 2020•28 min
Poet Vanessa Kisuule and environmental writer Jonathon Porritt join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by John Hersey, Nick Drnaso and Helen Dunmore. Hiroshima by John Hersey Publisher: Penguin Sabrina by Nick Drnaso Publisher: Granta Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore Publisher: Bloodaxe First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2020.
Nov 16, 2020•28 min
Travel and food writer Yasmin Khan and novelist David Mitchell join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by Anne Tyler, Madeline Miller and Ryszard Kapuściński. Circe by Madeline Miller Publisher: Bloomsbury Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuściński Publisher: Penguin Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler Publisher: Penguin First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2020.
Nov 10, 2020•28 min
Comedian Arabella Weir and novelist Deborah Levy join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Paul Beatty, Marguerite Duras and Evan S Connell. The Sellout by Paul Beatty Publisher: One World The Lover by Marguerite Duras Publisher: Everyman's Library (translator: Barbara Bray) Mrs Bridge by Evan S Connell Publisher: Penguin First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2020.
Nov 03, 2020•28 min
Writer Jonathan Safran Foer and comedian Daliso Chaponda join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Natalia Ginzburg, Richard Brautigan, Orson Scott Card. The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg Translator: Dick Davis Publisher: Daunt Books Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan Publisher: Canongate Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card Publisher: Tor Books First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2020.
Oct 27, 2020•28 min
Broadcaster Mark Radcliffe and playwright Patricia Cumper join Harriett Gilbert to nominate their favourite book by Toni Morrison, Elizabeth Strout and Helene Hanff. From 2020. Beloved by Toni Morrison Publisher: Vintage Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout Publisher: Viking 84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff Publisher: Virago First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2020.
Oct 20, 2020•28 min
Writer Johny Pitts and barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman join Harriett to discuss their favourite books by Claude McKay, CA MacKinnon and Mary Gaitskill Romance in Marseilles by Claude McKay Pub: Penguin Butterfly Politics by Catharine A MacKinnon Pub: Belknap Press This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill Pub: Serpents Tail First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2020.
Oct 13, 2020•28 min
