Open Book: Claire Messud
Claire Messud, Kafka and Jiaming Tang.
Episodes
Books and Authors
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.
Episodes
A Good Read: Samantha Harvey and Darran Anderson
QUARTET IN AUTUMN by Barbara Pym, chosen by Samantha Harvey MRS CALIBAN by Rachel Ingalls, chosen by Harriett Gilbert PHARMACOPOEIA: 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
A Good Read: Dan Schreiber and Kathryn Hughes
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 f...
Open Book - Maggie Nelson
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 Bright Producer: Nicola Holloway
Open Book - Sarah Perry
Sarah Perry talks to Shahidha Bari about her new novel, Enlightenment
Open Book - Hari Kunzru
Hari Kunzru talks to Shahidha Bari about his new novel, Blue Ruin
Open Book - Sunjeev Sahota
Sunjeev Sahota talks to Alex Clark about his new novel, The Spoiled Heart
Open Book - Sinéad Gleeson
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 re...
Open Book - Percival Everett
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 ...
Open Book - Andrew O'Hagan and Helen Garner
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 tal...
A Good Read - Carol Morley and Will Hislop
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 choos...
Open Book: Carys Davies, Annie Ernaux
Carys Davies on her new novel, Clear. Plus Annie Ernaux and photography
Open Book - Jonathan Buckley, Lit Crit and David Baddiel
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...
A Good Read: Christopher Eccleston and Lindsey Hilsum
JUST KIDS by Patti Smith, chosen by Lindsey Hilsum MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor E. Frankl (trans. Ilse Lasch), chosen by Christopher Eccleston TOWARDS 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 Rob...
A Good Read - Katy Hessel and Amy Blakemore
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 w...
Open Book - Daphne du Maurier
"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 ...
A Good Read: Andrew McMillan and Kathryn Williams
ON WRITING by Stephen King, chosen by Kathryn Williams THE BITCH by Pilar Quintana (translated by Lisa Dillman), chosen by Harriett Gilbert ON 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 lo...
A Good Read Paterson Joseph and Richard Coles
More books worth reading chosen by well known guests
Kate Davies
Kate Davies talks to Chris Power about her new novel, Nuclear Family.
A Good Read: Anjana Vasan and Anne-Marie Imafidon
An actor and singer and a computer scientist and author pick their favourite books.
Sheila Heti
Sheila Heti on her new experimental book, Alphabetical Diaries.
A Good Read: Joe Talbot and Nancy Medina
The frontman of Idles and the artistic director of Bristol Old Vic share book choices.
Madeleine Gray
Madeleine Gray on her witty, heartbreaking novel, Green Dot, about a young woman's affair
A Good Read: Rachel Brown-Finnis and Anna Bogutskaya
a former professional footballer and a film critic pick their favourite books.
A Good Read: Ian Rankin & Colin MacIntyre
The crime writer and the singer aka Mull Historical Society choose favourite books
Michael Cunningham
Michael Cunningham speaks to Johny Pitts about his new novel, Day.
Gerald Murnane
Gerald Murnane talks to Chris Power about his writing life.
Hisham Matar
Pulitzer Prize winning author, Hisham Matar, discusses his new novel My Friends.
Endings and New Beginnings
Chris Power is joined by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Aminatta Forna & Lucy Caldwell
The Year in Fiction
Chris Power shares some of the highlights of the year on Open Book.