Bookclub

Bookclub episodes:

• 04.07.2024

  Clare Chambers: Small Pleasures

  Clare Chambers talks to James Naughtie and readers about her bestselling novel, Small Pleasures. Set in the London suburbs in the 1950s, it tells the story of Jean Swinney, a journalist who is asked to investigate a letter sent...

  
• 03.03.2024

  Ann Cleeves: Hidden Depths

  Bookclub travels to Northumberland to meet best-selling crime writer Ann Cleeves. She joins James Naughtie and listeners to discuss her novel, Hidden Depths: Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets out to solve two murders which are apparently linked,...

  
• 02.04.2024

  Graeme Macrae Burnet: His Bloody Project

  Graeme Macrae Burnet joins James Naughtie and readers to reveal the secrets behind his award-winning historical novel, His Bloody Project. Set in the Scottish Highlands in 1869, His Bloody Project explores crime, justice and retribution through the...

  
• 01.07.2024

  The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, with Elly Griffiths

  Marking 200 years since the birth of Wilkie Collins, crime writer, and Collins admirer, Elly Griffiths discusses one of his best known works -The Moonstone - with James Naughtie and a group of readers. Upcoming recording Wednesday 24th...

  
• 12.03.2023

  Donal Ryan: The Spinning Heart

  Donal Ryan discusses his book The Spinning Heart with a group of readers, It's a powerful, moving novel told through twenty one individual voices. Set in Ireland in the immediate aftermath of the Celtic Tiger 'boom' years, each character...

  
• 11.05.2023

  Katherine Heiny: Standard Deviation

  Katherine Heiny answers readers questions about Standard Deviation, her hilarious novel about marriage, parenting and the road not travelled. Audra is married to Graham, who is divorced from Elspeth. While Audra is sociable, loving, outspoken, tactless, kind...

  
• 10.01.2023

  Bernardine Evaristo: Mr Loverman

  Bernardine Evaristo joins James Naughtie and readers to discuss Mr Loverman, her 2013 novel about Barrington Walker, a married man with a secret life. Ever since his teens in Antigua, Barry has been in love with Morris and despite...

  
• 09.03.2023

  Denise Mina: The Long Drop

  James Naughtie is joined by Denise Mina to talk about her book The Long Drop. This intriguing true-crime story is set in 1950s Glasgow when notorious serial killer Peter Manuel spread fear throughout the city. The...

  
• 08.06.2023

  Mick Herron: Slow Horses

  Mick Herron answers readers' questions about his novel, Slow Horses, the first in his hugely popular Slough House series. In it we meet the 'Slow Horses’ for the first time; failed spies who instead of being pensioned off, find...

  
• 07.02.2023

  Julian Barnes: Arthur and George

  To mark our 25th anniversary, Julian Barnes returns to Bookclub. He’s answering readers' questions about his Booker-shortlisted novel Arthur and George. It's based on real events and tells the story of Arthur Conan...

  
• 06.04.2023

  Mary Lawson: Crow Lake

  Mary Lawson joins James Naughtie and a group of readers to answer questions about her novel, Crow Lake. An international bestseller, it tells the story of four siblings, orphaned by a road accident who have to find a new...

  
• 05.07.2023

  Sarah Winman: Tin Man

  James Naughtie and readers are joined by novelist Sarah Winman, answering questions about her novel Tin Man. It's a moving and intimate portrait of three characters, Michael, Ellis and Annie. They variously fall in love, and fall out of touch,...

  
• 04.02.2023

  Tan Twan Eng: The Garden of Evening Mists

  Tan Twan Eng talks to James Naughtie and a group of readers about The Garden of Evening Mists. A lyrical novel set largely in 1950s Malay (now Malaysia), it tells the story of Yun Ling, imprisoned by...

  
• 03.05.2023

  Nadifa Mohamed: The Fortune Men

  Nadifa Mohamed joins James Naughtie and readers to talk about her award-winning novel The Fortune Men. Set in Cardiff in the 1950s, the novel is based on the real-life trial of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali seaman accused of...

  
• 02.05.2023

  Cal Flyn: Islands of Abandonment

  James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Cal Flyn about her acclaimed book, Islands of Abandonment, an exploration of places which have been reclaimed by nature. She talks about her travels to Cyprus, the Orkney Islands,...

  
• 01.01.2023

  Ross King: Brunelleschi's Dome

  Historian Ross King answers listener questions about his book Brunelleschi's Dome. An incredible story of one man's determination to build an apparently impossible structure, it's a tale of ingenuity, artistic rivalries, and single-minded obsession. Although building had started on ...

  
• 12.04.2022

  AJ Pearce: Dear Mrs Bird

  James Naughtie is joined by writer A J Pearce and a group of listeners, as she answers their questions about her bestselling novel Dear Mrs Bird. Set in London in the 1940s, it’s the story of Emmy who has...

  
• 11.06.2022

  Juan Gabriel Vasquez: The Sound of Things Falling

  Juan Gabriel Vasquez answers audience questions about The Sound of Things Falling. Set in Colombia, the novel examines the personal and private impact of the drug wars that ravaged the country during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. It's...

  
• 10.02.2022

  Curtis Sittenfeld: American Wife

  Curtis Sittenfeld answers listener questions about American Wife, a novel which follows Alice Lindgren's path from school librarian to First Lady, and is based on the life of former First Lady Laura Bush. Our next recording is at...

  
• 09.26.2022

  Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies

  In a special programme first broadcast in 2013, Hilary Mantel discusses Bring Up the Bodies, her second Man Booker Prize-winning novel with James Naughtie and his Bookclub audience. England, 1535. A one-time mercenary, master-politician, lawyer and doting father, Thomas Cromwell...

  
• 09.04.2022

  Kathleen Jamie: Selected Poems

  Bookclub travels to Edinburgh where Scotland's Makar Kathleen Jamie answers readers questions about her Selected Poems, and her writing life. Many poems here celebrate the natural world; Kathleen Jamie writes about animals and plants with a forensic and...

  
• 08.07.2022

  Kevin Barry

  For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, James Naughtie is joined by an in-person audience who are putting their questions to Kevin Barry, about his novel Night Boat To Tangier. It’s a darkly comic, melancholy novel about...

  
• 07.03.2022

  John Preston: The Dig

  John Preston talks to a group of readers about his novel The Dig, a fictional take on the excavations at Sutton Hoo. Set in the summer of 1939, with war looming, the novel re-imagines this celebrated discovery of Anglo-Saxon treasure,...

  
• 06.05.2022

  Diana Evans

  Diana Evans answers listener questions about Ordinary People, her page-turner of a novel about contemporary black middle class experience in the London of today. An absorbing tale of two couples and their family, the novel documents their struggles with identity,...

  
• 05.01.2022

  Nick Harkaway

  Nick Harkaway answers listener questions about his extraordinary novel Angelmaker. A blend of fantasy, thriller and adventure the novel tells the stories of a young, disillusioned clock maker Joe Spork, former spy, ninety year old Edie Bannister,...

  
• 04.03.2022

  Karen Joy Fowler

  Novelist Karen Joy Fowler joins James Naughtie to answer listener questions about her Booker shortlisted novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, a surprising story about an unusual family, and the lasting impact of an unconventional childhood. Narrator Rosemary looks...

  
• 03.06.2022

  Sarah Moss

  Sarah Moss joins James Naughtie to answer listener questions about her novel The Tidal Zone - a story of healthcare, parenting, and the echoes of the past. Adam and Emma are parents to 15 year old Miriam and...

  
• 02.07.2022

  Stacey Halls

  James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Stacey Halls about her novel The Foundling, set in 18th century London. It's the story of Bess, who gives up her new born baby to the Foundling Hospital. When Bess returns...

  
• 01.02.2022

  Abir Mukherjee

  James Naughtie and Bookclub readers talk to Abir Mukherjee about A Rising Man, the first in his Wyndham and Bannerjee detective series, set in Calcutta during the time of the Raj. Sam Wyndham is new to the police...

  
• 12.05.2021

  Rachel Joyce: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

  James Naughtie is joined by bestselling writer Rachel Joyce who is answering listener questions about The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. This moving, heartwarming story follows Harold as one day he impulsively sets off on a walk from Devon to...

  
• 11.07.2021

  Maja Lunde - The History of Bees

  The History of Bees by Maja Lunde is set in three different times and in three different countries - nineteenth century England, present day Ohio and Beijing at the end of the 21st century. Each storyline considers...

  
• 10.03.2021

  Anthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot See

  Anthony Doerr talks to James Naughtie and a group of readers about his novel All the Light We Cannot See, which won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Set largely in St Malo in the 1940's, It tells the twin...

  
• 09.05.2021

  Lissa Evans - Old Baggage

  Lissa Evans talks to James Naughtie and a group of her readers about her novel Old Baggage. Set in 1928, it tells the story of Matilda Simpkin, who was an activist during the Women’s Suffrage Campaign. Jailed five times, Mattie...

  
• 08.01.2021

  Tahmima Anam - A Golden Age

  A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam is set fifty years ago, during the Bangladesh War of Independence. The conflict is seen through the eyes of Rehana, a fiercely protective mother, whose children join the fighting. Rehana, though...

  
• 07.04.2021

  Francis Spufford - Golden Hill

  Francis Spufford’s novel Golden Hill won the Costa Book Award, the Ondaatje Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize and was shortlisted for a host of others. It’s been described by critics as ‘a crackerjack novel of old Manhattan’, ‘Like a...

  
• 06.06.2021

  Melissa Harrison - All Among the Barley

  Melissa Harrison is an acclaimed nature writer, novelist and podcaster. She joins James Naughtie and a group of her readers to discuss her novel All Among the Barley, set in Suffolk in the mid 1930’s. Centring on the experiences of...

  
• 05.04.2021

  Liane Moriarty - Big Little Lies

  James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Australian author Liane Moriarty about her New York Times bestselling novel Big Little Lies. Set in the sunny world of Pirriwee Public Primary School in the beautiful North Shore area of...

  
• 04.04.2021

  Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow

  James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Amor Towles about his bestselling novel A Gentleman in Moscow. The 30 year story of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov takes in the sweep of Russian history from the period just after...

  
• 03.07.2021

  Kei Miller - The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion

  James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to award winning poet, novelist and essayist Kei Miller about his Forward Prize Winning poetry collection The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion. The collection is set on Jamaica and...

  
• 02.08.2021

  Tana French - The Wych Elm

  James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to acclaimed Irish crime writer Tana French about her novel The Wych Elm, which was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2018, and a Best Book of 2018 by NPR,...

  
• 01.03.2021

  Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go

  Kazuo Ishiguro, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, discusses his novel Never Let Me Go with James Naughtie and a group of invited readers. In one of the most acclaimed novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro tells the story...

  
• 12.06.2020

  David Vann - Legend of a Suicide

  David Vann discusses his novel Legend of a Suicide with James Naughtie and this month's group of readers. Legend of a Suicide is an intimate and profound account of a family tragedy, told in six linked stories that deal with...

  
• 11.01.2020

  Tayari Jones - An American Marriage

  Tayari Jones discusses An American Marriage, which won the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019. The novel tells the story of Roy and Celestial, a newly wed and successful African-American couple in Atlanta whose marriage is tested when the husband...

  
• 10.04.2020

  Joseph O'Connor - Star of the Sea

  Joseph O'Connor talks about his novel of Irish emigration at the time of the Famine, Star of the Sea with James Naughtie and readers. In the winter of 1847, the Star of the Sea sets sails from Ireland for New...

  
• 09.06.2020

  Oyinkan Braithwaite - My Sister, The Serial Killer

  Oyinkan Braithwaite talks about her novel My Sister, The Serial Killer, a story full of deadpan wit and dark humour about two sisters in Lagos. Korede is bitter and jealous of her beautiful sister Ayoola, who is the favourite child....

  
• 08.10.2020

  Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

  James Naughtie and Louise Welsh discussed Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

  
• 08.02.2020

  Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

  August's edition is a Classic Bookclub - Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped - and is part of BBC Radio 4's ongoing support for students during the Covid-19 crisis. In the absence of Stevenson, our guide to the book is author Louise...

  
• 07.05.2020

  Scott Turow - Presumed Innocent

  Scott Turow talks about his first thriller, Presumed Innocent, with James Naughtie and a group of readers. The novel was first published in Britain in 1987 and Scott's books have since sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. The...

  
• 06.07.2020

  Max Porter - Lanny

  Max Porter talks about his highly acclaimed novel Lanny, which was nominated for the Booker Prize 2019, and recently released in paperback. Max is one of the most exciting literary talents to emerge in recent years, with Lanny...

  
• 05.03.2020

  Rebecca Solnit - The Faraway Nearby

  Rebecca Solnit is a leading American essayist and writer. She talks to James Naughtie and a group of invited readers about The Faraway Nearby, her recollections of her mother's advancing Alzheimer's and the power of storytelling. One summer, as their...