A Good Read

Mariella Frostrup talks to Donal Ryan about All We Shall Know

Mariella Frostrup talks to author Jonathan Safran Foer

Mariella Frostrup investigates crime writing from the heart of the Edinburgh Festival. Crime today ranges from psychological thrillers to so-called Cosy Crime whodunnits. With more choice than ever before, why are writers still drawn to expanding and re-inventing the genre and what’s its appeal for readers?

Mariella is joined by doyenne of the genre, Val McDermid, who publishes her thirtieth novel Out of Bounds this month. Her cold case investigator DCI Karen Pirie returns with gusto to discover the truth behind complex questions of family and identity. Also on stage are two relative newcomers in the field. Lucy Ribchester whose novel The Amber Shadows is a thrilling, mystery adventure set in the secret world of Bletchley Park and Abir Mukherjee's A Rising Man takes us to steamy Calcutta at the time of the British Raj.

Mariella Frostrup with Raja Alem, Richard T Kelly and Benjamin Markovits and Nick Barley

Mariella Frostrup talks to Colin Thubron

Mariella Frostrup explores contemporary literature from Italy

Open Book - Evelyn Waugh, DBC Pierre, a literary postcard from Sweden

Actor Christopher Biggins and comedian Jenny Eclair join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by Richard Yates, Dominick Dunne and Muriel Spark.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

People Like Us by Dominick Dunne

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2016.

Horrid Henry creator Francesca Simon and Welsh comedian Lloyd Langford join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by Madeleine L'Engle, Richard Brautigan and Georges Simenon

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

So The Wind Won't Blow it All Away by Richard Brautigan

The Train by Georges Simenon.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2016.

Mariella Frostrup on Children's Literature with Frank Cottrell Boyce and Bali Rai