Books and Authors

Sinéad Gleeson is a writer, broadcaster and editor of three anthologies of Irish writing. Her collection of essays, Constellations: Reflections from Life won Non Fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 Irish Book Awards, and now publishes her debut novel, Hagstone.

Hagstone is set on a remote island of the coast of Ireland, it tells the story of Nell an artist whose work takes inspiration from the landscape and folklore. When she receives an invitation to create a piece of art from the Inions, a reclusive commune of women living sustainably on the island, things begin to unravel. Sinead discusses the precarity of living as an artist, the folklore which infuses Hagstone and dedicating the book to the late activist and artist Sinead O' Connor.

The Book Makers by Adam Smyth is a celebration of five hundred and fifty years of the printed book, told through the lives of eighteen extraordinary people. The printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders - who took the book in radical new directions. We hear about the binder who created Shakespeare's First Folio, a 16th century Dutch printer who created bestsellers on Fleet Street and the Cut and Paste Bible sisters who made art from the gospels.

And Kick the Latch author Kathryn Scanlan discusses her love of Moyra Davey’s Long Life: Cool White, Photographs and Essays.

Book List – Sunday 21 March

Hagstone by Sinéad Gleeson The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers by Sinéad Gleeson The Glass Shore edited by Sinéad Gleeson Constellations: Reflections from Life by Sinéad Gleeson Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan Long Life Cool White: Photographs by Moyra Davey The Book Makers by Adam Smyth

US author Percival Everett talks about his new novel, James - a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, told from the point of view of runaway slave, Jim.

Plus, writing openly about the challenges of motherhood, and doing so with humour. Shahidha talks to two authors who have done just that, in the short story form: Naomi Wood, winner of the BBC Short Story Award, and author of a new collection, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, and to Helen Simpson who has written stories about motherhood in books such as Motherhood, and Hey Yeah Right Get A Life over 20 years previously.

Presenter: Shahidha Bari Producer: Emma Wallace

The University of East Anglia's Creative Writing MA turns 50.

Poorna Bell and Tony Law join Harriett Gilbert to talk about their favourite books.

Emma Donoghue discusses her new novel Akin, plus a discussion of the best fiction spies.

Edith Bowman and Harry Baker discuss their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.

Radiohead's bassist Colin Greenwood and comedian Joanne McNally recommend great books.

Dana Czapnik discusses her debut The Falconer and two writers talk about the Black Death.

Ann Patchett, Jia Tolentino and USA book picks with Jonathan Lee and Zack Graham.

Robert Harris discusses his new novel and reflects on 30 years of writing fiction.

Deborah Levy on her bestselling new novel, The Man Who Saw Everything.

A special edition of Open Book from the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Benjamin Myers on his latest The Offing, and Proust's In Search of Lost Time discussed.

Colm Tóibín reflects on the fathers of Irish greats and US bestseller Mary Beth Keane

David Nicholls on his new novel Sweet Sorrow and a reader's guide to Elizabeth Hardwick

Pam Hogg and Mark Billingham choose their books worth reading.

Award-winning poet Ocean Vuong discusses his debut novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Dolly Alderton and Clare Mackintosh talk about books they love to Harriett Gilbert.

On the centenary of her birth Open Book celebrates the novels of Iris Murdoch

Harriett Gilbert talks to Dom Joly and Kate Hamer about their favourite books.

Mathew Baynton and Aasmah Mir choose favourite books to recommend to Harriett Gilbert.

Will Eaves discusses Murmur, his award-winning novel about Alan Turing

Nicci Gerrard and Gary Younge join Harriett Gilbert to talk about their favourite books.

Irish author Kevin Barry, winner of the Impac Award and the Goldsmiths Prize, discusses his new novel Night Boat to Tangier, a dark comedy billed as Waiting For Godot meets In Bruges.

Novelist and journalist Molly Flatt, who writes about culture and technology for the Bookseller, discusses a growing trend for book versions of successful podcasts.

25 years since the death of Derek Jarman, Mariella is joined by writers Philip Hoare and Mike Parker to explore queer nature writing, a genre concerned with the push and pull of the natural world, from a queer perspective.

Cathy Newman and Jeffery Deaver discuss their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.

Carolina Setterwall and the pleasures of re-reading. With Mariella Frostrup.

Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Hannah Peel share the books they love with Harriett Gilbert.

Pajtim Statovci on his novel Crossing and we explore the work of Gerald Murnane

Stephen Morris and Pippa Evans tell presenter Harriett Gilbert about books they love.

Mia Couto and Wayétu Moore discuss two new African novels exploring colonialism and myth

Ben Smith and Julia Blackburn on Doggerland; Ghana's literary scene; Rosie Price

Bernardine Evaristo discusses her polyphonic new novel Girl, Woman, Other.

An exploration of the rich heritage and bright future of working class writing.

Ali Smith on her new novel, Spring, Easter Eggs in fiction and books to live by

Damian Barr, Candice Carty Williams, Beckett's novels and Julián Fuks literary postcard.

Taylor Jenkins Reid talks about her novel Daisy Jones & The Six. Also we discuss the best older characters in fiction and Reading Clinic suggests books for someone on death row.

Nicola Walker and Sarah Ann Kennedy discuss their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.

Siri Hustvedt discusses her new novel Memories of the Future.

Harriett Gilbert talks favourite books with the comedian and broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika and the cartoonist-author Martin Rowson. Ayesha chooses a novel from Italy: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Martin picks Let's Kill Uncle by Rohan O'Grady, and Harriett's choice is In The Skin of A Lion by Michael Ondaatje.

Producer: Eliza Lomas

Max Porter discusses his new novel Lanny.

The actors Sarah Hadland (Miranda, That Mitchell and Webb Look) and Russell Tovey (Being Human, The History Boys) recommend favourite books to presenter Harriett Gilbert. Sarah's choice is French hit The Elegance of The Hedgehog. Russell's is Close Range: Brokeback Mountain, made into a film with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal and Harriett's is The Naked Civil Servant.

Producer: Eliza Lomas

What Makes a Jewish Book; Colm Tóibín on Natalia Ginzburg; Censorship in Kuwait

Harriett Gilbert talks about books with poet Lemn Sissay and novelist Mick Herron.

Rev. Kate Bottley and Ken Cheng talk about the books they love with Harriett Gilbert.

Whitney Scharer discusses her novel about the love affair between Lee Miller and Man Ray.

Harriet Gilbert invites singer Tracy Thorne and writer Maggie O'Farrell to choose a book.

Barristers turned crime writers, Mohammed Hanif on Catch 22, Emma Darwin

Comedian Lucy Porter and writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books.

Lucy Porter's voice will be well-known to Radio 4 listeners as a regular on the News Quiz, the Now Show and The Unbelievable Truth. On TV she has appeared on Live at the Apollo, QI, Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. She is also a successful comedy writer. Frank Cottrell-Boyce's credits as screenwriter include Welcome to Sarajevo, Hilary and Jackie and 24 Hour Party People. He is also an award-winning author of novels for children, including Millions, Framed and Cosmic.

Their good reads are Letters from a Lost Uncle by Mervyn Peake, Truckers by Terry Pratchett and Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett.

Producer: Mair Bosworth.

Kristen Roupenian on her new short story collection

Naturalist Brett Westwood and author Kamal Ahmed talk books with Harriett Gilbert.

Writer Scarlett Curtis and comedian Catherine Bohart talk books with Harriett Gilbert.

Chloe Aridjis, Adam Foulds and Leo Benedictus, Gay's the Word Bookshop at 40

A special programme celebrating the breadth and power of writing from the Caribbean

Oyinkan Braithwaite, Books as clutter, Kafka's legacy, True crime in fiction

Open Book explores the legacy of the American writer John Steinbeck

Festive short stories, Hangovers in fiction, Christmas novels, Book choices for 2019

Joyce Carol Oates, Wind in the Willows, October Books and orphans in literature

Donald S Murray, Lyrics and poetry, publishing in Iceland and Greenland

Comedian Gráinne Maguire and alternative history author John Higgs talk to presenter Harriett Gilbert about books they really love. Gráinne chooses Elaine Dundy’s first novel The Dud Avocado, the delightfully funny adventures of a young woman in 1950s Paris. John picks The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent, a history of the world in cultural ideas which offers a brand new way of understanding civilisation and the future. Harriett’s choice is dark wartime novel The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge.

Producer: Beth O'Dea

Lee Child, Southall-set thrillers, crime picks for teenagers

SAS thriller writer Andy McNab and spoken word artist George the Poet choose a good read

Barbara Kingsolver, Northern Irish writing, India’s gay fiction

Barbara Kingsolver discusses her new novel Unsheltered with Mariella Frostrup.

Harriett Gilbert is joined by authors Kamila Shamsie and Jeffrey Archer

Exploring literary responses to the Great War in the immediate aftermath of the Armistice. The University of Leicester's Victoria Stewart, and biographer Jean Moorcroft Wilson, discuss the ways that fiction reflected the horror of war in the decade after 1918.

Novelist Richard T. Kelly considers the pitfalls of including real people in works of fiction.

Bestselling novelist Maria Dahvana Headley explains why Beowulf felt like the appropriate framework through which to explore race, class and violence in contemporary America.

And Managing Director of Waterstones James Daunt helps Open Book to launch a new series looking at the challenges of making bookselling pay.

Katie Derham and Matt Haig talk about their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.

Harriett Gilbert talks favourite books with guests, comedians Sindhu Vee and Phil Wang.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah on his short story debut, Friday Black and Minette Walters

Actor and comedian Liz Carr and Kate Williams select a favourite read

Liane Moriarty, best-selling author of Big Little Lies, discusses her latest novel.

Comedian and actor Ben Miller and writer Danny Wallace choose their favourite books.

Colombian novelist Hector Abad joins Mariella Frostrup to discuss ideas of inheritance and escape in his new family saga The Farm. And Laura Purcell reflects on what soaring horror fiction sales can tell us about contemporary anxieties.

Grace Dent and Sian Harries talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books.

Harriett Gilbert discusses favourite books with the writers Nikesh Shukla and Leone Ross. Nikesh's choice is Amateur; a real-life account of testing one’s masculinity in the boxing ring by Thomas Page McBee. Leone's is Cane, the largely forgotten African-American classic by Jean Toomer and Harriett's is a divisive modern classic, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

Producer: Eliza Lomas

Open Book celebrates 20 years with Mariella Frostrup in front of a live audience.

Gail Jones, revisiting iconic literary detectives and crime fiction of the 1930's.

Australian author Gail Jones discusses her new book The Death of Noah Glass

Lavinia Greenlaw on her new book In the City of Love's Dreams and Venezuelan literature.

John Boyne on his new novel, and ode to Mrs Gaskell and six of the best Sci Fi novels.

Open Book on the majesty of trees with Richard Powers, Melissa Harrison and Jessica J Lee

A special edition exploring book criticism and asking whether using critical tools can make us better readers. Mariella Frostrup is joined on stage at the Edinburgh International Book Festival by critic Alan Taylor, book podcast host Books&Rhymes, novelists Kaite Welsh and Sarah Moss, and Sarah Dillon from Cambridge University to explore the current state of book reviewing, the explosion of conversations about books online and on social media, the role of the professional reviewer and whether we can all learn useful critical tools to help us read well, and enrich our reading experience.

Claire Fuller discusses her new novel, Bitter Orange and Neil Gaiman on Hope Mirrlees

Daisy Johnson, The literary appeal of the Fens, Book festival etiquette

Mariella Frostrup and guests consider what makes them such popular fictional locations.

Actor Anne-Marie Duff and author Louise O'Neill join Harriett Gilbert for a discussion about favourite books. Anne-Marie Duff has starred in films including On Chesil Beach, Sufragette and Elizabeth I, and on TV in Shameless and From Darkness. Louise O'Neill's prize-winning novels include Only Ever Yours and Asking for It, and her latest book is a feminist take on The Little Mermaid called The Surface Breaks.

Anne-Marie chooses Nights At The Circus, the classic feminist novel by Angela Carter (Vintage), Louise puts forward a memoir about seventeen brushes with death by Irish author Maggie O'Farrell; I Am I Am I Am (Tinder Press), and Harriett recommends Conversations With Friends (Faber), a critically-acclaimed debut novel by another Irish author, Sally Rooney.

Producer: Eliza Lomas

Daisy Johnson and Stella Tillyard on the inspiration of the Fens and literary festivals.

Harriett Gilbert and guests talk favourite books, including Arnold Bennett's The Card, Dylan Thomas' Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog and Daniyal Mueenuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. Her guests are journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Samira Ahmed, presenter of BBC1's Newswatch and Radio 4's Front Row. And comedian Elis James, known for starring in the BBC3 sitcoms Crims and Josh and a familiar face on panel-shows such as Mock the Week and 8 out of 10 Cats.

Producer: Becky Ripley.

Michael Donker on his debut novel and Jackie Kay on how poet Audrey Lorde inspired her.

Harriett Gilbert and guests talk favourite books in an all-female line-up, including Meg Wolitzer's The Wife, Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen and Carol Ann Duffy's collection Meantime. Her guests are comedy actress and writer Isy Suttie, series regular on Peep Show and Shameless and author of a memoir called The Actual One. And comedian Lolly Adefope, the Observer's "rising star of comedy" whose TV work includes Loaded, Taskmaster and, along with Isy, Channel 4's sitcom Damned.

Producer: Becky Ripley.

Plus the Wellcome Collection's Kirty Topiwala on how fiction has approached the NHS

Loyd Grossman and Skin from rock band Skunk Anansie talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Chosen books include Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham and The Underground Railroad by Colston Whitehead. Producer: Sally Heaven.

Loyd Grossman and Skin from rock band Skunk Anansie talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Chosen books include Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham and The Underground Railroad by Colston Whitehead. Producer Sally Heaven.

Hanan Al-Shaykh and Nada Awar Jarrar on writing about Beirut close up and from a distance

Harriett Gilbert and guests talk favourite books, including Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, Never Mind by Edward St Aubyn (the first in his Patrick Melrose series) & The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Her guests are the journalist and broadcaster Tony Parsons, who started his career at the NME and went on to write Man and Boy and later the bestselling DC Max Wolfe thriller series. And Olly Mann, presenter of award-winning podcasts and radio programmes including Answer Me This!, The Modern Mann and BBC Radio 4's The Male Room and Four Thought.

Producer: Mair Bosworth

Michael Ondaatje, Nell Dunn on her book, Talking to Women and a postcard from Croatia.

Two former doctors join Harriett Gilbert to talk about their favourite books. Adam Kay is a writer and comedian whose first book, This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, was published to great acclaim in 2017. Farrah Jarral is a writer and broadcaster who was, until recently, a London GP.

The good reads up for discussion are Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris and I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson.

Producer: Mair Bosworth.

Cressida Connolly, posthumous short stories and a literary postcard from Iraq.

Comic actor and writer Robert Webb and award-winning journalist Hugo Rifkind talk about favourite books with presenter Harriett Gilbert. Robert's choice is East Anglican based fictional tale Waterland by Graham Swift. Hugo picks the Douglas Adams classic Life, The Universe and Everything, and Harriett brings Sam Miller's Fathers to the table. Producer Beth O'Dea.

Fiona Kidman discusses her new book, All Day at the Movies.