World Book Club - podcast cover

World Book Club

BBC World Servicewww.bbc.co.uk

The world's great authors discuss their best-known novel.

Episodes

Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss his novel The Death of Artemio Cruz.

Jun 15, 200527 minTranscript available on Metacast

Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby talks to an audience about his book about being an Arsenal football fan Fever Pitch. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

May 28, 200526 minTranscript available on Metacast

Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy

Vikram Seth joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss his novel A Suitable Boy. Presented by Harriett Gilbert. Recorded May 2005. (Photo: BBC)

May 09, 200527 minTranscript available on Metacast

Ian McEwan - Atonement

Ian McEwan discusses his 20th century familiy saga about the need for atonement

Mar 26, 200527 minTranscript available on Metacast

Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith talks to an audience about her novel 'White Teeth'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Feb 19, 200527 minTranscript available on Metacast

PD James

P.D. James joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss her novel 'Original Sin'. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert.

Jan 25, 200527 minTranscript available on Metacast

Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist

Writer Paulo Coelho talks about his book The Alchemist which has been translated into dozens of languages and has sold over 27 million copies worldwide. Presented by Harriett Gilbert. (Photo: Paulo Coelho, 2010) (Credit: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Dec 12, 200424 minTranscript available on Metacast

Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro joins Harriett Gilbert and an audience of World Service listeners to discuss his classic novel The Remains Of The Day. (Photo: Kazuo Ishiguro. Credit: Jeff Overs/BBC)

Nov 04, 200427 minTranscript available on Metacast

Anita Desai - Fasting, Feasting

Anita Desai joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss her 1999 novel 'Fasting, Feasting'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert. Broadcast in September 2004. (Photo: Anita Desai) (Credit: Jerry Bauer)

Sep 30, 200427 minTranscript available on Metacast

Roddy Doyle

Roddy Doyle talks about his novel The Commitments. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Sep 13, 200427 minTranscript available on Metacast

Amoz Oz

Amos Oz joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss his novel 'My Michael'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Sep 02, 200427 minTranscript available on Metacast

Gillian Slovo

South African novelist, Gillian Slovo talks about her novel 'Red Dust'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Jul 29, 200427 minTranscript available on Metacast

Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss her novel 'Girl With A Pearl Earring'. Image: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, Credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

May 20, 200427 minTranscript available on Metacast

Martin Cruz Smith

Author Martin Cruz Smith talks about his novel Gorky Park. Presented by Harriett Gilbert from California in a special co-production with San Francisco radio station KALW

Feb 24, 200427 minTranscript available on Metacast

Amy Tan

Amy Tan joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss her novel The Joy Luck Club.

Jan 29, 200427 minTranscript available on Metacast

Isabelle Allende - The House of Spirits

Chilean novelist Isabel Allende joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss her novel 'The House of the Spirits'. First broadcast in November 2003. (Photo credit: Lori Barra.)

Nov 26, 200327 minTranscript available on Metacast

Frederick Forsyth - The Day of the Jackal

Frederick Forsyth joins an audience of World Service listners to discuss his novel 'The Day of the Jackal'. Introduced by Harriett Gilbert. First broadcast in October 2003. (Photo: Frederick Forsyth outside his home in Ireland, 1978) (Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Oct 23, 200327 minTranscript available on Metacast

Peter Carey

Peter Carey joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss his novel 'Oscar and Lucinda'. Introduced by Harriett Gilbert.

Sep 25, 200327 minTranscript available on Metacast

Ruth Rendell - A Judgement in Stone

Popular British crime writer Ruth Rendell talked to the programme about her work, including that written under her pseudonym Barbara Vine. Ruth Rendell died in May 2015. (Photo: Ruth Rendell) (Credit:Seth Wenig/Reuters)

Aug 28, 200327 minTranscript available on Metacast

Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes joins a World Service audience to discuss his novel 'Flaubert's Parrot'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Jul 31, 200326 minTranscript available on Metacast

Jung Chang

Prize winning Chinese writer Jung Chang joins a World Service audience to discuss her novel 'Wild Swans'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Jun 14, 200327 minTranscript available on Metacast

Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic

Author Terry Pratchett talking about The Colour Of Magic in 2003, one of his Discworld series. Terry died in March 2015. The World Book Club was presented by Harriett Gilbert. Photo: Terry Pratchett Credit: PA

May 29, 200335 minTranscript available on Metacast

Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The novel explores themes of women in subjugation, and the various means by which they gain agency. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert.

Apr 08, 200327 minTranscript available on Metacast

Doris Lessing

The British author Doris Lessing died on 17 November at the age of 94. As a tribute the BBC World Service revisits Doris Lessing’s discussion with Harriett Gilbert from a 2003 edition of World Book Club, when she talked about her debut novel The Grass is Singing, which was published in 1950. In an introduction to the original interview, Harriett remembers her encounters with Doris Lessing with affection and reminds us of the fact that she became the oldest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literatur...

Feb 11, 200324 minTranscript available on Metacast

Hanif Kureishi

Hanif Kureishi joins a World Service audience to discuss his book 'The Buddha of Suburbia'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Feb 03, 200324 minTranscript available on Metacast

V S Naipaul - A House for Mr Biswas

Nobel Prize winner V. S Naipaul discussess his book 'A House for Mr Biswas' with an audience of World Service listeners. Presented by Harriett Gilbert. (Photo: VS Naipaul, Credit: Press Association)

Jan 04, 200327 minTranscript available on Metacast

Ben Okri

Nigerian born writer Ben Okri discusses his novel The Famished Road. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert.

Dec 31, 200224 minTranscript available on Metacast

Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things

Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy talks to the programme about winning the Booker Prize in 1997 for The God of Small Things. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert. (First broadcast December 2002) (Photo: Arundhati Roy) (Credit: HOCINE ZAOURAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Dec 02, 200224 minTranscript available on Metacast

Martin Amis - Money: A Suicide Note

Martin Amis joins an audience of World Service listeners to answer questions about his novel Money. Broadcast in October 2002. (Photo: Martin Amis, 2006. Credit: BBC)

Oct 08, 200224 minTranscript available on Metacast

Stephen King

What makes Stephen King, not only the Master of Horror, but more than that? (Image: Stephen King speaking in 2009. Credit: Mike Segar/Reuters)

Aug 27, 200224 minTranscript available on Metacast
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