A Good Read

Aminatta Forna discusses her latest novel The Hired Man. Mariella delves into the state of the Russian literary scene with Russian Booker winning author Mikhail Shishkin and publisher and editor Natasha Perova. And in the year of the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Water-Babies, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst describes the eccentric life of its author and why he feels it still remains a fantastic story for children.

Harriett Gilbertt and her guests - ex-Blue Peter presenter, Konnie Huq and Hue and Cry's Pat Kane - discuss books by Patrick Hamilton, Richard Sennett and Herman Koch.

The Dinner by Herman Koch

The Craftsman by Richard Sennett

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.

Kate Atkinson talks to Mariella Frostrup about her new book Life After Life. We discuss classic and modern Western novels with Michael Carlson and novelist Ace Atkins. And Graham Sharpe, Media Relations Director of William Hill, shows how betting on the winning author of a literary prize can be more difficult than picking a winning horse at the races.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - writer, Bernadine Evaristo and former BBC Business Editor, Robert Peston - discuss their favourite books by Irene Sabatini, Jessica Mitford and Sian Busby.

The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.

Novelist A L Kennedy talks to Mariella Frostrup about her book On Writing which is based on her Guardian blog. Pankaj Mishra and Sri Lankan novelist Roma Tearne discuss how much literature can play a role in exposing human rights violations. And author Justin Cartwright provides a Readers' Guide to the Nobel Prize and twice Man Booker winning writer J M Coetzee, as he publishes his new novel The Childhood of Jesus.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - poet, Daljit Nagra and radio critic, Susan Jeffrey - discuss their favourite books by Edna O'Brien, Margery Allingham and an anonymous author.

A Woman in Berlin (Anon)

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien

Coroner's Pidgin by Margery Allingham

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - TV presenter, Alistair Appleton and Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of the department of Psychiatry at Cambridge - discuss favourite books by Patrick Gayle, Ian McEwan and Michael Innes.

Notes From an Exhibition by Patrick Gale

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

Operation Pax by Michael Innes

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2013.

Mariella Frostrup talks to Maggie O'Farrell about her new novel Instructions For A Heatwave, set during the drought of 1976 when it didn't rain in the UK for 16 weeks. With over a quarter of adults in the UK officially classed as obese, writers Jami Attenberg and Michael Kimball discuss the way in which fiction is responding to a world of fast food, compulsive eating and morbid obesity. And journalist and ex-editor of The Bookseller Neill Denny looks at how one of the UK's most iconic retailers, WH Smiths - over a quarter of whose sales are books - is surviving the the recession.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - writers, Sarah Moss and Francis Spufford. - discuss their favourite books by Dorothy Wordsworth, TH White and Penelope Fitzgerald.

The Grasmere Journals by Dorothy Wordsworth

Mistress Masham's Repose by TH White

Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2013.

Mariella Frostrup discusses what defines a Jewish novel with stand up comedian, tv presenter & novelist David Baddiel and writer & broadaster Naomi Alderman, as Jewish Book week begins in London. Jim Crace talks about his new novel Harvest, which will also be his last as he has announced he is retiring as a novelist. And Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri explains why, after setting three novels in his native Calcutta, he has turned to non-fiction in his new account of the city.