You're Booked

For our very, very special Christmas extravaganza we visit the Cornwall home of the brilliant Nina Stibbe. Nina is the celebrated author of the beloved memoir Love Nina, plus the novels Paradise Lodge and Man at the Helm. Her collection of festive stories An Almost Perfect Christmas is an ideal gift at any time of year. We talked about funny books, Harry Potter, suspect driving instructors and, of course, Adrian Mole.

BOOKS (Click on the titles to find out more)

Nina Stibbe - Love Nina

Nina Stibbe - Man at the Helm

Nina Stibbe - Paradise Lodge

Nina Stibbe - An Almost Perfect Christmas

Nina Stibbe - Reasons To Be Cheerful

Margaret Drabble - The Millstone

Edna O'Brien - The Country Girls

Tina Brown - The Vanity Fair Diaries

Lissa Evans - Old Baggage

JK Rowling - Harry Potter Complete Collection

Sue Townsend - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

David Sedaris - Calypso

David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day

David Sedaris - Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls

Patrick Gale - Take Nothing With You

Andy Stanton - You're a Bad Man Mr Gum

Jeff Kinney - Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Roger Hargreaves - Mr Men

Lucy Mangan - Bookworm

Julia Donaldson - Room on the Broom

Garth Jennings - The Wildest Cowboy

Lucia Berlin - A Manual For Cleaning Women

George & Weedon Grossmith - Diary of a Nobody

Paul Ewen - Francis Plug - How To Be a Public Author

Caitlin Moran - How To Build a Girl

Jackie Collins - The World is Full of Married Men

Colleen McCullough - The Thorn Birds

Andrew Sean Greer - Less

DM Thomas - The White Hotel

Edward St Aubyn - The Patrick Melrose Novels

Anthony Powell - Dance To The Music of Time

Maria Semple - Where'd You Go Bernadette?

Katherine Heiny - Standard Deviation

Elizabeth McKenzie - The Portable Veblen

Gail Honeyman - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

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We're heading, once more, to leafy, lovely North London to meet the author, journalist and podcast supremo Elizabeth Day. Elizabeth is the author of four novels and will soon release her first memoir, based on her massively successful podcast How To Fail. While snooping around her (small but perfectly formed) flat, we discussed being nosey, literary heroines, EM Forster related tattoos and learning the facts of life from The Thorn Birds.

BOOKS (Click on the links for more)

Elizabeth Day - The Party

Elizabeth Day - How To Fail

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Cazalet Chronicle

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Sea Change

Elizabeth Jane Howard - After Julius

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Long View

Elizabeth Day - Scissors, Paper, Stone

Judy Blume - Forever

Judy Blume - Deenie

Elizabeth Day - Home Fires

Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway

TC Boyle - The Terranauts

Neel Mukherjee - The Lives of Others

Alasdair Gray - Lanark

Muriel Spark - Momento Mori

Muriel Spark - The Girls of Slender Means

Aldous Huxley - Beyond the Mexique Bay

Aldous Huxley - Two or Three Graces

Tara Westover - Educated

Simon Reid-Henry - Fidel & Che

Sally Field - In Pieces

Sophie Mackintosh - The Water Cure

Lily Allen - My Thoughts Exactly

James O'Brien - How To Be Right

Damian Dibben - Tomorrow

Leila Slimani - Adele

Colleen McCullough - The Thorn Birds

Barbara Taylor Bradford - A Woman of Substance

John Banville - The Sea

Barbara Kingsolver - Unsheltered

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This week we're in a top secret London interrogation room location with Nikesh Shukla, the author, broadcaster and essayist. His third novel, The One Who Wrote Destiny was published to great acclaim this Spring. Nikesh is also the creator and editor of the bestselling essay collection The Good Immigrant. We talked to him about childhood reads, early inspirations and literary annoyances (n.b. if you're Jonathan Franzen you might not want to listen to this one).

BOOKS

Nikesh Shukla - The One Who Wrote Destiny

Nikesh Shukla (ed) - The Good Immigrant

Nikesh Shukla - Run Riot

Nikesh Shukla - Meat Space

Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment

Sue Townsend - Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

Aidan McFarlane, Ann McPherson - The Diary of a Teenage Health Freak

Gary Paulsen - Hatchet

Hanif Kureishi - The Buddha of Suburbia

Charles Dickens - Bleak House

Jonathan Franzen - Freedom

Howard Jacobson - The Finkler Question

Howard Jacobson - Zoo Time

James Ellroy - Dudley Smith Trio

AL Kennedy - The Little Snake

Harper Lee - Go Set a Watchman

Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird

Hari Kunzru - White Tears

Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie - The Wicked + The Divine

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This week, we're off to Cambridge, home of some of the greatest scientific minds - and pens - known to human existence. from Charles Darwin to Douglas Adams and this week's guest, romantic comedy writer and zombie lit lover Lucy Vine. Lucy comes from a family of writers, and she tells us about an early run in with Roald Dahl, her surprisingly scatological filing system and her belief that no-one is too grand for Dan Brown. We were also joined by a puppy posse - listen out for Ivy, Teddy and Sonny.

BOOKS

Lucy Vine - What Fresh Hell?

Lucy Vine - Hot Mess

Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Deborah Frances-White - The Guilty Feminist

Sarah Silverman - The Bedwetter

AA Milne - Winnie The Pooh

John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids

Jon Ronson - So You've Been Publicly Shamed

HG Wells - The Time Machine

Gabrielle Fernie - Lush

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen - Oh My God What a Complete Aisling

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's Diary

Dolly Alderton - Everything I Know About Love

Louise O'Neill - The Surface Breaks

Sophie Kinsella - The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic

Nora Ephron - Heartburn

Sarah Hodgson - Modern Dog Parenting

Piers Morgan - Don't You Know Who I Am?

Simon Amstell - Help

Daisy Johnson - Everything Under

Cat Marnell - How To Murder Your Life

David Nicholls - One Day

Lionel Shriver - We Need To Talk About Kevin

Sylvia Waugh - The Mennyms

Robert C O'Brien - The Silver Crown

Richard Adams - Watership Down

Cecelia Ahern - Roar

Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code

Caitlin Moran - How To Build a Girl

Lena Dunham - Not That Kind of Girl

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For episode 4 we're heading to Ashford - the home of the Eurostar, Vic Reeves, Bob Holness and the journalistic power couple Stuart Heritage and Robyn Wilder. Stuart is the author of the brilliantly funny memoir Don't Be a Dick Pete, Robyn writes a weekly parenting column for The Pool and they both host the excellent Naughty Step podcast. We huddled around their kitchen table to discuss comedy cookbooks, Misty comics and upsetting Paul Hollywood.

BOOKS

Stuart Heritage - Don't Be a Dick Pete

Various - Lonely Planet Trans-Siberian Railway

JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Belle de Jour - Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl

Belle de Jour - Playing the Game

Ben Myers - The Book of Fuck

Coolio - Cookin' With Coolio

Tove Jansson - Moomins Cookbook

Paul Hollywood - Bread

Sarah Gomes Harris - Sarah and Duck

Lucy M Boston - Children of Green Knowe

CS Lewis - Complete Chronicles of Narnia

Lucy Mangan - Bookworm

Judith Kerr - Tiger Who Came To Tea

VC Andrews - Flowers in the Attic

Judy Blume - Then Again Maybe I Won't

Christina Patterson - The Art of Not Falling Apart

Graham Greene - Brighton Rock

George Orwell - 1984

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment

Simone Cave - Coping With Two

Various - Babies: Mumsnet Guide

Harvey MD Karp - Happiest Baby on the Block

Michael Rosen - You're Thinking About Doughnuts

J Maarten Troost - Sex Lives of Cannibals

EL James - 50 Shades Trilogy

Marian Keyes - The Break

Philip Pullman - Belle Sauvage

George RR Martin - Song of Ice and Fire

Noah Hawley - Before The Fall

Dolly Alderton - Everything I Know About Love

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It's Muswell Hill for Ep 3, not far from the desks of Alan Bennett, Zadie Smith, and today’s guest Sarra Manning. Sarra is a bestselling, prolific novelist, literary editor of Red, alumni of several top teen mags and one of the most prolific readers around. She told us she got rid of 800 books before our visit, just so we could move freely around her flat. But there were tons of treasure left including a precious collection of rare Noel Streatfeilds, a copy of proto bonkbuster Lace, a gorgeous collection of vintage Chalet Schools with an origin story that will make you weep, and tales about books she’s bought, borrowed and stolen.

BOOKS

Sarra Manning - Unsticky

Sarra Manning - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

Sarra Manning - Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp

Thackeray - Vanity Fair

Francesca Lia Block - Weetzie Bat

Charles Creed - Maid to Measure

Ginette Spanier - It Isn't All Mink

Anne Scott-James - In The Mink

Edna Woolman Chase - Always in Vogue

Ernestine Carter - With Tongue in Chic

Sylvia Plath - Bell Jar

JD Salinger - Franny and Zooey

JD Salinger - Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters

William Burroughs - Cities of the Red Night

Jilly Cooper - Harriet

Silwyn Williams - Give Me Back My Pride

Pam Lyons - He Was Bad

Judy Blume - Forever

Judy Blume - Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself

EM Brent Dyer - Gay From China at the Chalet School

EM Brent Dyer - Lavender Laughs at the Chalet School

Jilly Cooper - Imogen

Shirley Conran - Lace

Judith Krantz - Princess Daisy

Judith Krantz - I'll Take Manhattan

Jilly Cooper - Riders

Judy Blume - Are You There God It's Me Margaret

Blake Nelson - Girl

Sarra Manning - Guitar Girl

James Salter & Kay Salter - Life Is Meals

EM Delafield - Diary of a Provincial Lady

Emily St. John Mandel - Station 11

Susan Scarlett - Clothes Pegs

Noel Streatfeild - Myra Carrol

Noel Streatfeild - Saplings

Marjorie Hillis - Live Alone & Like It

Janey Scott - Sara Gay Model Girl

Fred Vermorel - Starlust

Frederick Carter - London at Night

Francis Marshall - London West

Mary R Richardson - Laugh a Defiance

Lorna Hill - Dream of Sadlers Wells 

Georgette Heyer - Regency Buck

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For Episode 2, we’re off to Falmouth, Cornwall. The Wild West has been inspiring writers for 100s of years, from Du Maurier to DH Lawrence and it’s the home of our very special guest, Cathy Rentzenbrink. Many readers will be familiar with Cathy from her bestselling memoir, The Last Act Of Love and her beautiful book, A Manual For Heartache. So you might not associate Cathy with comedy – but she’s fiercely funny. Her books will make you cry, but her conversation will definitely make you laugh. Cathy also talks, openly and honestly, about how books saved her life…

BOOKS

Cathy Rentzenbrink - The Last Act of Love

Cathy Rentzenbrink - A Manual For Heartache

Hilary Mantel - Giving Up the Ghost

Julian Barnes - Nothing to Be Frightened Of 

Barbara Trapido - Brother of the More Famous Jack

Erica Jong - Fear of Flying

Nancy Mitford - Pursuit of Love

DH Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's Lover

DH Lawrence - Women in Love

DH Lawrence - The Rainbow

Jane Austen - Emma

Jane Austen - Mansfield Park

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Zadie Smith - Feel Free

Jon Ronson - So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Caroline Kepnes - You

Julian Barnes - Flaubert's Parrot

Julian Barnes - A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters

Mary Wesley - Not That Sort of Girl

Nora Ephron - Heartburn

Nora Ephron - Scribble Scribble

LM Montgomery - Emily of New Moon

LM Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables

LM Montgomery - Anne of the Island

LM Montgomery - Anne of Avonlea

LM Montgomery - Complete Journals

Susan Coolidge - What Katy Did

Susan Coolidge - Clover

Lucy Mangan - Bookworm

Georgette Heyer - Frederica

Alberto Manguel - History of Reading

Beryl E Escott - Heroines of SOE

Agatha Christie - The Clocks

WE Johns - Biggles

Jeff Kinney - Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Andy Griffiths - 13-Story Treehouse

John Niven - Kill Your Friends

David Nicholls - One Day

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's Diary

Sue Townsend - Secret Diary of Adrian Mole

Ryan Holiday - Daily Stoic

Various - Assassin's Cloak

William Boyd - Any Human Heart

Rachel Joyce - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Louisa May Alcott - Little Women

JK Rowling - Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

Tom Palmer - Armistice Runner

AJ Pearce - Dear Mrs Bird

Lissa Evans - Their Finest Hour and a Half

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Episode one takes place in leafy, literary North London, a place that has inspired many Very Important Pens – including those belonging to Virginia Woolf, JG Ballard, and that of our very first guest Dolly Alderton.

Dolly, the author of Everything I Know About Love, the co-presenter of chart topping podcast The High Low and the Sunday Times columnist, is a voracious reader. Her book filled flat yielded some serious treasures, with a library featuring names fit to grace the guest list of the ultimate paper party, from JB Priestley to…Rod Stewart. Dolly told us about the intimacy of reading and writing, the reality of sharing so much of your life with strangers and why she’ll never stop reading love stories. It must be said that she's a host nonpareil - she makes the greatest cup of coffee in the capital.

THIS WEEK'S BOOKS

Dolly Alderton - Everything I Know About Love

Alex Comfort - The Joy of Sex

Judy Blume - Forever

Chris Kraus - I Love Dick

Stefan Bollman - Women Who Read Are Dangerous

Pauline Reage - The Story of O

Rachael Oakes-Ash - Good Girls Do Swallow

Matt Haig - Reasons To Stay Alive

JB Priestley - Delight

Various - Modern Delight

Rod Stewart - Rod: The Autobiography

Cherie Curry - Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway

Ottessa Moshfegh - My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Lynn Barber - How To Improve Your Man in Bed

Woody Allen - Without Feathers

Tina Brown - The Vanity Fair Diaries

Derek Walcott - The Poetry of Derek Walcott

Viv Albertine - To Throw Away Unopened

Viv Albertine - Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys

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Welcome to You're Booked, the podcast for literary nosy parkers.

Join your Book Inspector, Daisy Buchanan, as she enters the homes of your favourite authors and snoops around their bookshelves. She'll uncover forbidden reads, books borrowed and never returned, bad reading habits, those embarrassing tomes hidden at the back of the pile and formative literary experiences.

Take a listen to a few choice moments from some upcoming episodes featuring Dolly Alderton, Nina Stibbe, Nikesh Shukla and Lucy Vine.

The first episode of You're Booked with special guest Dolly Alderton, will be out soon.

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