A Good Read

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - comedian, Frankie Boyle and actress, Maureen Lipman - discuss their favourite books by Michael Blakemore, Barbara Trapido and Joseph Heller.

Stage Blood by Michael Blakemore

Something Happened by Joseph Heller

Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2015.

David Lodge is a novelist, critic and academic and now he's written a memoir. He talks to Mariella Frostrup about a lifetime in literature.

Canadian writer Emma Hooper on her first book, Etta and Otto and Russell and James - which created a publishers' bidding war last year. And the mystery surrounding Elena Ferrante.

Acclaimed American novelist Ben Lerner on his playful second novel 10:04 which tackles questions of time, identity and story writing.

Sir Richard Eyre's distinguished career as a director encompasses both theatre and film. He ran the National Theatre in London for ten years and also created acclaimed productions of Guys and Dolls and Mary Poppins. For the big screen he's directed Notes on a Scandal and Iris. He talks to Mariella Frostrup about his five favourite books, and how they shaped his life.

Christmas, with all its tradition and rituals and emotion, has always provided a rich source of material for writers. In this programme Mariella Frostrup and her guests John Mullan and Jessie Burton explore what it offers twentieth century novelists; from James Joyce and his argumentative Christmas lunch in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man via Patrick Hamilton's bleak 1940's boarding house Christmas Eve in The Slaves of Solitude, to Bridget Jones, in the 1990s, having to return home to her family yet again - still single. And Jonathan Franzen discusses his prize winning book The Corrections which is all about a mother, Enid Lambert, trying to persuade her grown up children to come home for one last Christmas.

The actor and comedian BJ Novak has written his first children's book. The Book With No Pictures is, as its title suggests, text-only. Despite this it must be doing something right because it's topped the New York Times bestseller list. BJ Novak talks to Mariella about why he chose to omit the illustrations - even on the cover.

Harriet Gilbert and her guests - comedians, Sean Lock and Roisin Conaty - discuss their favourite books by Margaret Atwood, Jim Thompson and Beryl Bainbridge.

The Getaway by Jim Thompson

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Every Man for Himself by Beryl Bainbridge

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.

Mariella Frostrup talks to Mal Peet about his latest book The Murdstone Trilogy, his first novel for adults.

Dawn O'Porter and Graham Fellows, AKA John Shuttleworth, talk with Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books.

Green Girl by Kate Zambreno

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

The Blessing by Nancy Mitford

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.