A Good Read

Beauty journalist Sali Hughes and author John Niven join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Steve Tesich, Nora Ephron and Fred Vargas.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Karoo by Steve Tesich

Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand by Fred Vargas

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2017.

Fiona Melrose discusses her new book, Johannesburg and Kaite Welsh on transgender fiction

Elizabeth Day discusses her new book, The Party and Patrick Ness's Queer Icon.

TV presenters Stacey Dooley and author Gaia Vince join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by Laline Paull, Jon McGregor and Elizabeth Strout.

The Bees by Laline Paull

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2017.

Matt Haig on time travel and Val McDermid discusses Virginia Woolf's Orlando.

Theatre director/writer/actor Kathy Burke and comedian Tom Allen join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by Patrick Hamilton, John Walters and Barbara Pym.

Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton

Role Models by John Walters

Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2017.

Actor Bill Paterson and tech philosopher Tom Chatfield join Harriett Gilbert' to discuss their favourite books by Christopher Hitchens, Terry Pratchett and Dava Sobel.

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2017.

Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press and Misha Glenny on The Master and Margarita

Harriett Gilbert talks favourite books with music presenter Verity Sharp and table tennis champion turned author Matthew Syed. Their books are The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson and Chéri by Colette. These spark deeply-felt argument over whether planting trees can save the earth and also insights into the ideal of getting back to the land, the process of ageing for women who've lived by their looks and the peculiar nature of British reserve as observed by the son of an immigrant. Books as the jumping-off point for ideas..

Thomas Keneally discusses his latest novel, Crimes of the Father