A Good Read

In the final part of her history of women's writing Mariella Frostup considers developments in female fiction since the publication of Bridge Jones's Diary in 1996. What is the state of writing by women a century after women achieved emancipation? Is the idea of women's writing outmoded now, where does `chick lit' fit in, and is feminism a concept which young female novelists consider central to their work? The programme also asks whether the literary establishment itself is suffering from gender bias.

Harriett Gilbert talks to Alexander Waugh and Xanthe Clay about their favourite books.

Letters Between a Father and Son by VS Naipaul

Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book by Jane Grigson

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

Producer Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

In the third instalment of her history of women's twentieth-century writing, A Book of One's Own, Mariella investigates the era of sexual liberation in the 1960s & 70s and how it ignited feminist fiction. She also traces the explosion in feminist literary theory. And as this year's Harrogate Crime Writing Festival ends, Mariella asks if the genre has become too gory.

Harriett Gilbert talks to polymath Raymond Tallis and political journalist Allegra Stratton about their favourite books.

Giving up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel

The Walk by Robert Walser

What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt

Producer Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Mariella presents the second part of her series examining the history of women's writing in the last hundred years. This week, she explores fiction of the 1930s and 40s - a time when the vote had been won but sexual inequality was still rife. Plus as the bicentenary of William Makepeace Thackeray's birth approaches, comedian Al Murray tells us about his great, great, great grandfather and why Vanity Fair is still as relevant today as it was when it was first written in 1848.

Satirical writer John O'Farrell and historian Juliet Barker talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books - all of which use an unusual blend of fact and fiction.

They evoke the lives of the Brontes, the worst civilian disaster of World War II and the British mandate in Palestine.

The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan

The Report by Jessica Francis Kane

Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz

Producer Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Mariella presents the first in a four part series examining the history of women's writing in the last hundred years. In A Book of One's Own: How Women Wrote The Twentieth Century, she speaks to leading novelists, critics and publishers to trace the evolution of women's emancipation in fiction. Part 1 explores the literature of the suffrage movement with the aid of Shirley Williams - daughter of the iconic feminist author Vera Brittain - and asks why the names of so many groundbreaking suffrage writers have been erased from our literary history.

Fay Weldon, Louise Welsh and Harriett Gilbert discuss favourite books by Lionel Shriver, HG Wells and Jean Rhys.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Fay Weldon's choice: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Producer: Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli and comedian Simon Evans talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books.

Harriett Gilbert discusses favourite paperbacks with writer Fleur Adcock and comedian Laura Solon. Their choices include a modern classic by Evelyn Waugh and two coming-of-age novels, one set in France and the other in the north of England.

Harriett Gilbert's choice: The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden

Laura Solon's choice: Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

Fleur Adcock's choice: Bilgewater by Jane Gardam

Producer: Christine Hall