Read Like a Writer

Shaun Bythell runs The Bookshop, Wigtown, and is the author of The Diary of a Bookseller which documents, with wry humour, the realities of running a secondhand bookshop in Wigtown, western Scotland: the customers, staff and passersby who fill his pages are amusing, infuriating and all too real. He selects books to recommend across fiction and non-fiction, children's and cookbooks and explains why running your own bookshop means you rarely get the chance to browse in others' shops.

The Diary of a Bookseller is published by Profile Books and is out now.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ambrose Parry is the pen name of Chris Brookmyre (award-winning author of the Jack Parlabane books) and consultant anaesthetist Marisa Haetzman. In this episode, Anna Fielding talks to the couple about their first book together: The Way of All Flesh, a story of murder in 19th century Edinburgh. They also discuss some of their favourite books and their love for the independent bookshop The Watermill in Aberfeldy. Books discussed in this episode:

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson: Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

Any Human Heart by William Boyd

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Remarkable women from history solve modern day problems in E. Foley & B. Coates's new book, What Would Boudicca Do? Think Frida Kahlo on style, Cleopatra on sibling rivalry and Boudicca on sticking up for yourself. Liz and Beth talk about their favourite feminist reads, their love for indie bookshop Foyles and books they can't wait to dive into.

What Would Boudicca Do? is published by Faber & Faber, and is out now.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matt Haig's most recent book, Notes on a Nervous Planet, is about how to stay human and sane in the ever more hectic age in which we live. In the first ever episode of Read Like a Writer, he talks mental health, City Books (his local independent bookshop in Brighton), and some of his own favourite books with Anna Fielding. Notes on a Nervous Planet is published by Canongate - order your copy from a UK independent bookshop here. Books discussed this episode:

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

Boy by Roald Dahl

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.