Chef Rick Stein and Michael Dobbs, author of House of Cards, recommend favourite books to presenter Harriett Gilbert.

Lord Dobbs' choice is Train to Trieste by Domnica Radulescu, a powerful love story set in Ceausescu's Romania.

Then Harriett Gilbert brings something completely different to the table: Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.

Producer: Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2011.

The classicist Mary Beard and writer Bidisha talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books, in an edition recorded in front of an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Books discussed:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

The Odyssey by Homer

Producer: Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2011.

Former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo joins short story writer Sara Maitland and presenter Harriett Gilbert to talk about the books they love, and share their enthusiasm for their choices.

Their favourite books cover the globe from Venezuela to Edinburgh to Steep in Hampshire, where Michael Morpurgo and the subject of his book both lived. He chooses Under Storm's Wing by Helen Thomas, a collection of her memoirs and letters about life with one of Britain's best-loved poets.

Sara Maitland's book, House-Bound by Winifred Peck, is described by all three as a real oddity, a book unlike any other - but a rather good oddity.

And Harriett Gilbert picks The Sickness by Alberto Barrera Tyszka, a slender novel about a man with a terminal illness, which turns out to be surprisingly gripping.

Producer: Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

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.

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.

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.

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

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - actor Bill Paterson and travel writer Dea Birkett - discuss favourite paperback books by Bernhard Schlink, John Steinbeck and Richard Holme.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Footsteps by Richard Holmes

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2011.