Read On - The Audiobook Show from RNIB

By RNIB Connect RadioSociety & Culture Arts Books Fiction

Read On - The Audiobook Show from RNIB episodes

October 02 496: Best Kept Secrets for Travelers With Sight Loss with Lynn Jensen
Best Kept Secrets for Travelers With Sight Loss lets people who are blind or have low vision enjoy travel with less fear and uncertainty. Robert Kirkwood talks to its author Lynn Jensen about some great travel tips. We also hear about the first blind travel writer and find some new books in the RNIB Library.
58 min
September 25 495: Wigtown Book Festival Gems
Today we look forward to The Wigtown Book Festival, (which starts on the day this episode is first broadcast) by listening to some authors I've previously talked to in Scotland's Book Town including, Maggie O'Farrell on The Marriage Portrait, Kathryn Harkup on Superspy Science, Alex von Tunzelmann on Fallen Idols, Estelle Paranque on Fire, Blood and Gold and Rory Cellan Jones on Ruskin Park, plus we find some new books in the RNIB Library.
58 min
September 18 494: Stories of Love
This week on Read On, we're celebrating love in all its complicated forms.
Robert Kirkwood chats to Fiona Lucas about her deeply emotional novel Always and Only You, a story of love, secrets and second chances. Then Jenny Ashcroft joins us to talk about The Echoes of Love, an epic historical romance set in Crete, where a young love story is tested by war, loyalty and betrayal. And finally, Yael van der Wouden discusses her acclaimed debut The Safekeep, an unsettling tale of desire, obsession, secrets and revenge.
Plus, as always, we head to the RNIB Library to discover some brand new books.
58 min
September 11 493: Val McDermid and Jo Sharp, plus RNIB Talk and Support Book Clubs
This week on Read On, Robert Kirkwood watches Jo Sharp and her wife Val McDermid record the introduction to the brand new book in the Darkland Tales series, This Door of the Seas at the Canongate studios in Edinburgh and chats with them about the book.
We also chat about Book Club Day UK - September the 11th - by finding out about RNIB's Talk and Support book clubs from both a club member and a volunteer facilitator.
All that plus some new books in the RNIB library.
58 min
September 04 492: Damian Barr, Amanda Barrie and Percival Everett
In today's Read On we talk to Damian Barr about his novel The Two Roberts and we hear from Coronation Street and Carry On actress Amanda Barrie about her memoir I'm Still Here - My 90 Years and we find a link between those two books. We also find some new books in the RNIB Library and get a Books Of My Life from the winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Percival Everett.
58 min
August 28 491: Crime Books
This week on Read On we investigate some different styles of crime. Anita Frank discusses her WW1 historical fiction murder mystery thriller, The Good Liars, we get cosy with Josie Lloyd in Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency, and from the archive a listen back to the creator of Inspector Morse, Colin Dexter.
Plus we find new books in the RNIB Library.
58 min
August 21 490: The RHS Sandringham Talking Books Garden with Lynda La Plante, Richard Osman and more
Today we revisit the RHS Sandringham Flower Show to hear about RNIB's Talking Books Garden. With Toby Davey we hear from the people behind it, some visitor reactions, and hear exclusive audio recorded for the garden from Richard Osman and Lynda La Plante
58 min
August 14 489: Gavin Francis, Stephen McGinty & Darren McGarvey - Boswell Book Festival
This episode of Read On contains subject matter that some listeners may find upsetting.
Today Robert Kirkwood is recording on location at the Boswell Book Festival with Gavin Francis on The Unfragile Mind - Making Sense of Mental Health, Stephen McGinty on One Morning in March - Dunblane and the Shooting that Changed Britain and Darren McGarvey on Trauma Industrial Complex - The Dangers of Oversharing in a Digital World.
Plus in the spirt of Boswell, we find some new biographies in the RNIB Library
58 min
August 07 488: History Books with Lucy Worsley, Kate Williams plus Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen
Today on Read On we revisit some favourite historians with Lucy Worsley on Jane Austen, Kate Williams on Rival Queens plus Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen on the history of libraries.
Plus we find some new books in the RNIB Library
58 min
July 31 487: Dame Harriet Walter & Dougie Donnelly - Boswell Book Festival
Two very different authors this week on Read On, although with one thing in common, they both narrated the audio versions of the books they were speaking about at the Boswell Book Festival. Dougie Donnelly tells Robert Kirkwood about Recorded Highlights - My Life in Sport, and Dame Harriet Walter gives new scenes to some of Shakespeare's female characters in She Speaks!
Plus we find some fiction and biography in the RNIB Library.
58 min