Harriett Gilbert and her guests - former head of MI5 Eliza Manningham-Buller and Turkish author Elif Shafak - discuss their books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alison Lurie and Michael Chabon.

‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

‘The War Between the Tates’ by Alison Lurie

‘Gentlemen of the Road’ by Michael Chabon

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - journalist, Janet Street Porter, and crime writer, Martina Cole - discuss their favourite books by Curtis Sittenfeld, Maurice Druon and Muriel Spark.

'The Iron King' by Maurice Druon

'The Ballad of Peckham Rye' by Muriel Spark

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - comedian, Adam Hills and psychologist, Steven Pinker - discuss their favourite books by Albert Camus, Richard Bach and Jonathan Livingston.

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

The Outsider by Albert Camus

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - actress and author, Dame Sheila Hancock and journalist, Cosmo Landesman - discuss their favourite books by Toby Young, John Williams and Sylvia Townsend Warner.

Stoner by John Williams

How To Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - broadcaster, Jeremy Paxman and classicist, Dame Mary Beard - discuss their favourite books by Natalie Zemon Davis, Ben Fountain and Graham Greene.

Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene

The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Paralympian Ade Adepitan and comedian Dominic Holland talk books with Harriett Gilbert. Books under discussion are: Sue Townsend's delicious tale of teenage angst, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, In Cold Blood, Truman Capote's 'non-fiction novel' about the murders of four family members in a Kansas farmhouse in 1959 and Roddy Doyle's The Snapper, a comic portrayal of an unplanned pregnancy. Harriett and her two guests talk about the both the comedy and the poignancy to be found in novels about a working class Dublin family and a pompous teenager in 1980s Ashby de-la-Zouch. They debate the mind and motives of a psychopath and Truman Capote's views on the death penalty.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights organisation Liberty, and Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane, talk about their favourite reads with Harriett Gilbert. Books under discussion are Evelyn Waugh's satire on the Anglo-American relationship staged in and around an LA funeral business, The Loved One, Rachel Holmes' biography of Eleanor Marx, and the children's classic, Charlotte's Web. Conversation ranges from our attitudes to death, to strong women who make bad relationship choices, to what makes great children's literature.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - actors, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Steve Oram - discuss favourite books by Annie Proulx, John Steinbeck and Martin Amis.

Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories by Annie Proulx

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Experience by Martin Amis

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - comedian Al Murray, aka The Pub Landlord, and Egyptian political economist, Tarek Osman - discuss their favourite books by Naguib Mahfouz, Philip Roth and Joseph Heller.

Children of The Alley by Naguib Mahfouz

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Everyman by Philip Roth

Harriett Gilbert and her guest - former MP, Edwina Currie and actor, Nicholas Le Provost - discuss their favourite books by Beryl Bainbridge, Dorothy Whipple and Azar Nafisi.

'An Awfully Big Adventure’ by Beryl Bainbridge.

‘The Priory’ by Dorothy Whipple.

‘Lolita in Tehran’ by Azar Nafisi.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2014.