A Good Read

Victoria Hislop has edited a new anthology of women's short stories called The Story. From Helen Simpson to Angela Carter, she explains how she chose her 100 favourites.

Jo Nesbo on his new Harry Hole thriller Police, we go in search of buried gems as Mariella Frostrup discusses pirate literature and Frank Tallis on the book he'd never lend.

Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer prize winning novelist on her latest book The Lowland, mountaineering literature and revamping the classics pulp fiction style.

Glenn Patterson takes Mariella Frostrup around Belfast - the city that has inspired and informed his novels.

Patrick Gales takes Mariella Frostrup around the Cornish landscape that has inspired and informed his novels.

Open Book’s summer series on Literary Landscapes begins at the Haweswater Dam. It’s a charged, vital, visceral landscape – immortalised by writers since Wordsworth first wrote about daffodils. Mariella's literary guide to the area this week is award winning writer Sarah Hall.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - writers Lynne Truss and Diran Adebayo discuss their favourite books by Paul Theroux, Nick Barlay and Michael Ondaatje

Sir Vidia's Shadow:

Hooky Gear by Nick Barlay

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2013.

Mariella Frostrup talks to Grace McCleen about her new novel The Professor of Poetry and on the centenary of her birth, James Runcie celebrates the life and works of Barbara Pym.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - actor and writer, Meera Syal and psychoanalyst and author, Stephen Grosz - discuss favourite books by Anton Chekov, Katherine Boo and Agatha Christie.

The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories (1896-1904) by Anton Chekhov

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum by Katherine Boo

The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2013.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - Deacon Blue frontman Ricky Ross and Countryfile reporter Tom Heap - discuss favourite books by Philip Kerr, Ron Ferguson and Elizabeth Taylor.

March Violets by Philip Kerr (this edition is part of the Omnibus called Berlin Noir)

Mole Under the Fence: Conversations with Roland Wallis by Ron Ferguson with Mark Chater

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2013.