Susie Dent and Louise Minchin join Joe Haddow this week for a war of the words.

Both guests have had incredible careers in TV (Susie recently celebrated 30 years of being on Countdown and Louise spent 20 years on BBC Breakfast's red sofa) and both have written non-fiction before, but have now turned their hand to novels.

Susie say's her book, Guilty By Definition, is more of a linguistic mystery than a murder mystery, whilst Louise's book, Isolation Island, is a page-turning thriller.

They discuss their love of Agatha Christie, why they both gravitated towards the crime genre and how hard they found the shift from writing non-fiction to fiction.

As well as giving us some brilliant book recommendations, they also discuss their love of...cemeteries. YEP!

THE BOOK OFF

'Red Love' by Maxim Leo

VS

'Rebecca' by Daphne Du Maurier

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More on our guests:

Susie Dent is a writer and broadcaster on language. She recently celebrated 30 years as co-presenter and resident word expert on ‘Countdown’ - and regularly appears on the show’s comedy sister ‘8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown’. She is the author of several non-fiction books, and her debut novel is ‘Guilty By Definition’

Louise Minchin spent twenty-years on BBC Breakfast’s red sofa, as well as being the main news anchor on the BBC News Channel. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of reality shows, including I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Time Crashers and Celebrity Masterchef – as well as presenting on BBC Radio 5 Live too. She is the author of two books of non-fiction, and her debut novel is ‘Isolation Island’

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