A Good Read

Lively conversation around three book choices. Presenter Harriett Gilbert talks to two guests about books they love

EUPHORIA by Lily King HUNGER PAINS by Derek Owusu LOVED AND MISSED by Susie Boyt

Selina Brown has written three children's picture books. She is the founder and CEO of the Black British Book Festival. Her book recommendation is Hunger Pains by Derek Owusu - a novel that puts the growing trend of male obsession with appearance and fitness under the spotlight.

Fellow guest Andrea Wulf is author of eight books, including the Founding Gardeners and The Invention of Nature. Her latest, The Traveller, is about the life of ethnographer George Forster, She chooses the novel chooses Euphoria by Lily King. It's based on the life of the life of the American explorer and anthropologist Margaret Mead.

Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt is Harriett's choice - a poignant story about the fierce love of a grandmother who brings up her troubled daughter's child.

Producer: Maggie Ayre, BBC Audio Bristol Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

Photo credit: Antonina Gern

Guests discuss books they love. This time: 

Loving and Giving by Molly Keane, chosen by podcaster and Archers actor Susie Riddell The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, chosen by education activist Dr Vee Kativhu The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilbert

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sarah Goodman Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

A sharing of book recommendations and lively discussion. Harriett Gilbert is joined by children's author Lauren Child and musician David McAlmont to talk about books they love by George Orwell, Elizabeth Strout and Alan Bennett.

The books are: Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout, chosen by Lauren Child Burmese Days by George Orwell, chosen by David McAlmont Killing Time by Alan Bennett, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

Writer, actor and comedian Cariad Lloyd and writer Geoff Dyer join Harriett Gilbert for an enthusiastic and robust discussion about favourite books.

The books are: The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard, chosen by Geoff Dyer Question 7 by Richard Flanagan, chosen by Harriett Gilbert The Others by Sheena Kalayil, chosen by Cariad Lloyd

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, chosen by Joanne Harris Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, chosen by Harriett Gilbert Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz, chosen by Islam Issa

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Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven

The classicist and the author talk about books they love with presenter Harriett Gilbert. One of the books is eerily prescient about the state of the world today.

The books are:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, chosen by classicist Daisy Dunn Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household, chosen by podcaster and author Andrew Hunter Murray A Life's Music by Andreï Makine, translated by Geoffrey Strachan, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilbert

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Photo credit: Timothy Foster

A special episode of A Good Read, recorded live at the Hay Festival. The books are:

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe, chosen by psychotherapist and artist Philippa Perry All Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills, chosen by presenter and writer Stuart Maconie Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilbert

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

Photo credit: Pal Hansen

Two Scottish crime writers choose books by: Iain Banks (Espedair Street) Muriel Spark (Memento Mori)

And Harriett's choice is Summer by Edith Wharton

Producer: Maggie Ayre BBC Audio Bristol

Photo credit: Julie Broadfoot

The books are:

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, chosen by Harriet Tyce Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre, chosen by Matt Edmondson Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

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Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven

Photo credit: Suki Dhanda

Three books that deal with the intricacies of relationships and marriage.

Not That Sort of Girl by Mary Wesley Aftermath by Rachel Cusk Three Days In June by Anne Tyler

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This time the community clothing entrepreneur and host of The Great British Sewing Bee Patrick Grant chooses his favourite book along with fellow guest anthropologist and broadcaster Mary-Ann Ochota.

The books are:

Parsnips Buttered by Joe Lycett The Flow by Amy Jane Beer Heatwave by Penelope Lively

Produced in Bristol by Maggie Ayre

Newsreader Maryam Moshiri and Red Dwarf creator Doug Naylor discuss their chosen books, including Bridget Jones's Diary, with Harriett Gilbert.

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, chosen by Maryam Moshiri

Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell, chosen by Doug Naylor

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

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Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven

THE LIVES AND LOVES OF A SHE DEVIL by Fay Weldon, chosen by Victoria Pile THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway, chosen by Julian Baggini CLEAR by Carys Davies, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Comedy writer and director Victoria Pile joins philosopher and author Julian Baggini to talk about their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. On the menu is a feminist revenge novel that is as dark as it is funny, a classic Hemingway novella that casts us out to sea, and an evocative short story set on a remote island off Scotland.

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This week's books are: How to Measure a Cow by Margaret Forster (chosen by Lolita Chakrabarti) The House of God by Samuel Shem (chosen by Guy Leschziner) A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir (chosen by Harriett Gilbert)

The producer is Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

The children's author Frank Cottrell-Boyce and the author of Wild Swans and Big Sister Little Sister Red Sister Jung Chang choose their good reads.

Where Should We Run To by Alan Garner chosen by Frank Cottrell-Boyce Death of A Naturalist by Seamus Heaney chosen by Harriett Gilbert Hans Christian Andersen's Fairytales chosen by Jung Chang

Produced in Bristol by Maggie Ayre

This week's books are:

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie, chosen by crime writer Martin Edwards At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien, chosen by sociologist, bioethicist and comedian Tom Shakespeare Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Pineiro, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

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Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven

Photo credit: Belinda Mason

This week's books are: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler chosen by Maria Balshaw. The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol (translated by Isabel Hapgood) chosen by Léa Ypi. Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans chosen by Harriett Gilbert.

The producer is Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol. Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

Photo credit: Erdem Moralioglu

This week's books are:

Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucie McKnight Hardy, chosen by comedian Robin Ince Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov, chosen by Harriett Gilbert Esther Waters by George Moore, chosen by writer Philip Hensher

Producer Sally Heaven, BBC Audio Bristol

This week's books are: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner chosen by the Welsh poet and writer Gwyneth Lewis The LIving Mountain by Nan Shepherd picked by author Annabel Abbs Emma by Jane Austen chosen by Harriett Gilbert ahead of the writer's 250th birthday in December 2025

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Michelle Ogundehin is a broadcaster, magazine editor and author also known as a presenter on TV's Interior Design Masters. She and author Lisa St Aubin de Terán give their book recommendations. Michelle's is 4000 Weeks: Time Management For Mortals by Oliver Burkeman which she says has helped her simplify her life. Lisa chooses Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix the powerful retelling of the 2021 incident in which 27 people drowned in the English Channel attempting to make the crossing from France. It's a fictionalised account of a real event told from the perspective of the French Coastguard blamed for not taking adequate action. Harriett's choice is The Party by Tessa Hadley set in post war Bristol.

Have your say on any of these books on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

Producer: Maggie Ayre

WEDLOCK: HOW GEORGIAN BRITAIN'S WORST HUSBAND MET HIS MATCH by Wendy Moore, chosen by Kate Lister GRAYSON PERRY: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG GIRL by Wendy Jones, chosen by Harriett Gilbert PLASTIC EMOTIONS by Shiromi Pinto, chosen by Roma Agrawal

Structural engineer Roma Agrawal, known for her work on buildings such as the Shard in London, and historian Kate Lister, who specialises in the history of sex, join Harriett Gilbert to share their favourite books. Kate's choice is Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match by Wendy Moore, a gripping biography that tells the true story of Mary Eleanor Bowes's distrastrous marriage to Andrew Robinson Stoney, one of the wealthiest women in 18th-century Britain. Roma’s pick is Plastic Emotions by Shiromi Pinto, a novel inspired by the life of Minnette de Silva, Sri Lanka’s pioneering modernist architect, exploring love, politics and creativity in a time of upheaval. And Harriett brings Grayson Perry: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl by Wendy Jones, a candid and colourful account of the artist’s early life and identity.

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Photo credit: Steve Ullathorne

THE YEARS by Annie Ernaux chosen by Richard Benson THE CORNER THAT HELD THEM by Sylvia Townsend Warner chosen by Amy Sackville COFFEE AND CIGARETTES by Ferdinand von Schirach chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Writer and former editor of the Face Richard Benson talks to fellow writer Amy Sackville and presenter Harriett Gilbert about favourite books. Richard chooses The Years by Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux, saying it brings back memories of his French penpal's bohemian mother. Amy's choice of The Corner that Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner, about convent life in the 1300s, isn't as dry as that might sound, and Harriett's pick is Coffee and Cigarettes by German criminal defence lawyer Ferdinand von Schirach.

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FUNDAMENTALLY by Nussaibah Younis, chosen by Julia Shaw YOUR LIFE IS MANUFACTURED by Tim Minshall, chosen by Hayaatun Sillem ROSARITA by Anita Desai, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Criminal psychologist Julia Shaw joins engineer Hayaatun Sillem to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Julia's choice, Fundamentally, is a bold debut novel by Nussaibah Younis which sparks a bit of debate. Younis writes a comedy story about an academic who takes a UN job in Iraq to lead a deradicalisation program for ISIS women. Hayaatun puts forward a very different book, a non-fiction by Tim Minshall, Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge. His book Your Life is Manufactured reveals the seismic impact that manufacturing has both on our lives and on the natural world. Finally, Harriett's choice is a haunting novella called Rosarita by Anita Desai, an unsettling riddle that follows a young Indian woman's quest through Mexico to find out more about her mother.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley

Two books featuring teenage killers feature this time. Nicola Sturgeon MSP votes for Elif Shafak's Honour as her good read. It details the reasons behind the so-called honour killing carried out by a young Turkish Kurd living in London in the 1970s. Nicola says it provides valuable cultural insight into the reasons behind a particular form of violence against women. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet is set in the feudal system of the Highlands in the late 1800s where crofters were at the mercy of the local Laird and his staff. Roddy's father is barely eking out a living from a small patch of land near Applecross. When his family's livelihood is threatened by a local man exerting his power over them, Roddy commits a brutal triple murder. Harriett enjoys it because it traces the events leading up to the event and Roddy's subsequent trial posing the question of whether he is legally insane or criminally violent. Something gentler is Alistair McGowan's choice. Fair Stood The Wind For France is HE Bates' wartime novel of an RAF airman crash landing in occupied France. As he recovers from his injuries he falls for the daughter of a farming family who take him in. Alistair believes Bates to be one of the finest English writers of last century but being best known for The Darling Buds of May says he's often overlooked.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre

Photo credit: Charlotte Hadden

THE STONE DIARIES by Carol Shields, chosen by Tom Cox HOW TO WRITE A THESIS by Umberto Eco, chosen by Sophie Scott PARADISE by Abdulrazak Gurnah, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Writer Tom Cox joins neuroscientist Sophie Scott to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Tom's choice is the 1995 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Stone Diaries. Following the story of one woman’s life from birth to death, the novel also charts the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. Sophie puts forward a very different book, a non-fiction by Italian writer and academic, How to Write a Thesis. It first appeared on Italian bookshelves back in 1977, but still rings true for many. And finally, Harriett's choice is a historical novel called Paradise by the Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah, which is both a coming-of-age story, and a tale of the corruption against the backdrop of European colonialism in East Africa.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley

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OPEN by Andre Agassi SONIC YOUTH SLEPT ON MY FLOOR by Dave Haslam THE SECRET HOURS by Mick Herron

Television and radio broadcaster Chris Tarrant nominates the autobiography of tennis legend Andre Agassi, and novelist Mike Gayle has gone for Dave Haslam’s memoir of his time spent DJing at Manchester’s famous Hacienda. Harriett is hoping the two of them will enjoy an espionage novel by Slow Horses author Mick Herron.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

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BEAR by Marian Engel, chosen by novelist Sarah Waters THE TRUE BELIEVER by Eric Hoffer, chosen by film editor Walter Murch THE VISITOR by Maeve Brennan, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilber

Sarah Waters, acclaimed author of Fingersmith and The Night Watch, and Walter Murch, legendary film editor of Apocalypse Now and The English Patient choose the books they love.

Sarah's choice is a cinematic novel set in Northern Canada. Bear by Marian Engel is the unusual tale of a woman's friendship and subsequent sexual relationship with a bear when she travels to a remote island for the summer.

The True Believer is a remarkably prescient examination of mass movements from 1951. Author Eric Hoffer examines political fanaticism throughout the ages. Walter Murch chose it because he says so much of it rings true in today's fractured world.

Harriett's choice is the story of different generations of women in an unhappy home in Ireland. Maeve Brennan's novella The Visitor is a haunting tale of a chilly tight-lipped Dublin home.

Producer: Maggie Ayre, BBC Audio Bristol

Photo: Charlie Hopkinson

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Augusten Burroughs, chosen by Rob Rinder THE ODD WOMAN AND THE CITY by Vivian Gornick, chosen by Harriett Gilbert EARTHLINGS by Sayaka Murata, chosen by Juno Dawson

The barrister, television presenter and writer Rob Rinder and author Juno Dawson talk books with Harriett Gilbert. Juno Dawson selects Sayaka Murata's Earthlings, the follow-up to her cult hit Convenience Store Woman. Rob Rinder advocates for Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs' memoir of a deeply bizarre childhood, and Harriett has gone for The Odd Woman and the City, Vivian Gornick's essays celebrating New York.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

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Photo credit: Ollie Rosser

OBLIVION by Héctor Abad, chosen by Colm Tóibín FLESH by David Szalay, chosen by Zadie Smith CALL ME BY YOUR NAME by André Aciman, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Authors and good friends Zadie Smith and Colm Tóibín join Harriett Gilbert to share books they love. For a longer edition of this episode, check out the A Good Read podcast.

Colm Tóibín chooses Oblivion, a memoir by Colombian writer Héctor Abad. It’s a deeply moving tribute to Abad’s father – a warm, generous, and witty man who was a doctor, university professor, and tireless human rights campaigner. His life was tragically cut short when he was murdered by paramilitaries in Medellín in 1987. What do the others make of this powerful portrait of love and loss?

Next, Zadie Smith recommends Flesh, a taut and compelling novel by Hungarian-British author David Szalay. The story follows István, a Hungarian man whose life takes a picaresque turn – from the army to prison, and eventually to London, where he works as a security guard for a wealthy family. As he becomes entangled in their world in unexpected ways, do the others find the novel as gripping as she does?

Finally, Harriett Gilbert brings Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman, the novel that inspired the acclaimed film starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer. Set during a languid summer on the Italian Riviera, it captures the intense infatuation between Elio and Oliver. But how does the novel compare to the much-loved film?

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including The Master, The Magician, Brooklyn, and Long Island, the latter now out in paperback. And Zadie Smith has written six novels, among them White Teeth, Swing Time, and her most recent, The Fraud.

Producer: Eliza Lomas

THE TRUCE by Primo Levi, chosen by Horatio Clare THE SUN DOES SHINE by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin, chosen by Joanna Hardy-Susskind SULA by Toni Morrison, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Writer Horatio Clare joins criminal defence barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Horatio's choice is a book he returns to every winter, The Truce, in which writer Primo Levi recounts his survivor's journey home to from Auschwitz across a war-torn Europe. Joanna puts forward another powerful autobiography, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, in which Anthony Ray Hinton recounts his time on death row after being wrongly accused of murder. And finally, Harriett's choice is an early novel by Toni Morrison, called Sula, which follows the turbulent friendship of two girls as they grow into adulthood within a poor but close-knit community in Ohio.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley

Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc Photo Credit: Ivan Weiss

ALL FOURS by Miranda July, chosen by Desiree Akhavan UNTRUE by Wednesday Martin, chosen by Rosie Wilby DRAGON TALK by Fleur Adcock, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Filmmaker and writer Desiree Akhavan joins comedian, writer and podcaster Rosie Wilby as they discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Desiree's choice is All Fours by Miranda July, a novel about a perimenopausal woman's sexual awakening on an unusual road trip. By coincidence, Rosie Wilby chooses a non-fiction book which looks at research into women's sexuality, Untrue by Wednesday Martin. Harriett's choice is a volume of poetry by Fleur Adcock, dealing with matters of family and childhood.

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THE IRON AGE by Arja Kajermo A SHORT STAY IN HELL by Steven L Peck STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL by Charlotte Wood

James Rebanks is a farmer from the Lake District as well as author of The Shepherd's Life. His new book The Place of Tides is about his time in Norway learning from an elderly woman who cared for eider ducks on a remote island. His book choice is The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo, a Finnish novel about rural life in the 1950s, told from the perspective of a young girl. James finds it speaks to his northern sensibility as it documents the hard life of an impoverished farming family in post war Finland.

Kiri Pritchard-McLean is a multi-award winning Welsh comedian, satirist and writer. Her choice is A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L Peck about a Mormon condemned to exist in Hell for millennia. Kiri says it's a book bursting with ideas about life and its meaning.

Harriett picks Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood set in a religious retreat outside of Sydney where a woman has come to reassess her life.

There's plenty of lively and good natured disagreement about the books. Listen here and add your thoughts to our Instagram Book Club @agoodreadbbc

Producer: Maggie Ayre

NAUSEA by Jean-Paul Sartre GO WENT GONE by Jenny Erpenbeck LAURUS by Evgeny Vodolazkin

Budgie is best known as the drummer with Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, as well as The Slits. His memoir The Absence: Memoirs of A Banshee is published in July 2025. Together with the Korean novelist Juhea Kim he chooses his favourite book to discuss with Harriett Gilbert. His choice is Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre because he it resonated with him as a young man finding his place in the world.

Juhea Kim is the author of two critically acclaimed novels - Beasts of A Little Land and City of Night Birds. Juhea's choice is set in 15th century Russia and is the story of Arseny, a healer who makes a pilgrimage through plague ridden Europe to Jerusalem. Laurus by Evgeny Vodolazkin is a densely packed novel that deals with fundamental questions about the purpose of life and death. It's also extremely humorous in parts.

Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck is Harriett's choice. Set in Berlin, it is the story of a newly retired German Professor and how he becomes involved with a group of African asylum seekers trapped within a bureaucratic system that bounces them back and forth between Italy and Germany with no resolution in sight.

It's produced by Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio in Bristol

Photo credit Billy & Hells

WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT by Sarah Winman, chosen by Harry Trevaldwyn THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho, chosen by Xantoné Blacq JAMES by Percival Everett, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Music producer and composer Xantoné Blacq joins actor and writer Harry Trevaldwyn to share the books they love with presenter Harriett Gilbert.

First up, Harry brings to the table a book by The Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah Winman. A book about childhood and growing up, friendships and families, triumph and tragedy and everything in between. When God Was a Rabbit celebrates the magic of the everyday for Harry, but what do the others think of it?

Next up, Xantoné chooses The Alchemist by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, which since publication in 1988 has become a widely translated international bestseller. A blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore, Xantoné finds it an incredibly motivational read. Are Harry and Harriett also inspired by it?

Finally, Harriett puts forward Percival Everett's most recent book, the 2024 Booker Prize nominated 'James'. Both funny and horrifying, soulful and thrilling, Everett reframes the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. Harriett is blown away by it - do the others agree?

Producer: Becky Ripley

Photo credit CK Morrison

BIG SWISS by Jen Beagin, chosen by Nussaibah Younis A HEART SO WHITE by Javier Marías, chosen by Josh Cohen THE END OF EDDY by Edouard Louis, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Big Swiss is a 29-year-old gynecologist who has never had an orgasm. Greta Work is an audio transcriber for a sex therapist who is infatuated by one of his clients. After an encounter at the dog park, they strike up an affair. Nussaibah calls this one of the funniest books she's ever read. What do the others think? A Heart So White, by the Spanish author Javier Marias and recommended by Josh, has a shocking opening page. What unravels after is a harrowing tale of family secrets and their resonances through different generations. First published in 1992. Finally, The End of Eddy, Harriett's pick, was a sensation when it was first published in France in 2014. An autobiographical novel of a violent and mostly difficult childhood, it also can be read as a portrait of a poor, rural community in Northern France.

Josh Cohen is a psychoanalyst and writer, whose many books include Not Working: Why We Have to Stop; How to Live: What to Do and, most recently, All the Rage: Why Anger Drives the World.

Nussaibah Younis is an expert on contemporary Iraq who for several years advised the Iraqi government on de-radicalising women affiliated with ISIS. Nussaibah’s debut novel Fundamentally was shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Produced by Eliza Lomas, for BBC Audio Bristol.

AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST by Iain Pears, chosen by Peter Kosminsky HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING by Will Arbery, chosen by Jack Thorne PERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Thorne and Kosminsky are great friends, but don't fully agree on the books discussed. Topics raised by their choices include toxic masculinity, empathy, and whether or not Succession is a great TV series.

Peter has chosen An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears, a restoration murder mystery told by four unreliable narrators. Jack advocates for Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery, a play about four right-wing Catholics meeting at a college reunion. Harriett has gone for Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, a satire telling the tale of a millennial couple living in fashionable Berlin.

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Douglas Stuart author of Booker Prize winning novel Shuggie Bain chooses his favourite book - Train Dreams by Denis Johnson - a short novel encapsulating the history of America in the early 20th century through the life of a lonely man in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. He's joined by Radio 1 and The Voice Wales presenter Sian Eleri whose choice is I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman - a dystopian tale of a group of captive women. Harriett's choice is More Than I Love My Life by David Grossman which examines family trauma through the relationship of three generations of women. Strong themes of loneliness run through all three choices as well as questions about our humanity.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Photo credit Sarah Blesener

EVERYONE BRAVE IS FORGIVEN by Chris Cleave, chosen by Lucy Speed THE HUMAN FACTOR by Graham Greene, chosen by Harriett Gilbert 253 by Geoff Ryman, chosen by Sarah Mills

Former Eastenders and present-day Archers actor Lucy Speed and comedian Sarah Mills talk about books set in wartime London, a 1990s underground train, and Graham Greene's MI6.

Lucy's choice is Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave, Which tells the tale of Mary, a woman who becomes a teacher at the beginning of the war, only for her life to take some unexpected turns during the Blitz.

Sarah has selected 253 by Geoff Ryman, the novel originally published on the Internet which tells the stories of 253 passengers on a London Underground train. Harriett proposes a lesser known a Graham Greene novel, The Human Factor, which takes in apartheid South Africa and communism as well as espionage.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

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Photo: Louise Cole

Actor Nina Sosanya and prize winning poet and writer Joelle Taylor talk favourite books with Harriett.

Nina chooses Sally Jones and the False Rose by Jakob Wegelius, a children's novel with a mute gorilla engineer as its protagonist. The book appeals to Nina's love of engineering, and the city of Glasgow!

Joelle nominates Booker Prize winning The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka, about a man killed in the Sri Lankan civil war, seeking answers in the afterlife.

Harriett's choice is Tasting Sunlight by Ewald Arenz, a novel set in the German countryside at the tail end of summer, featuring two women with mysterious back stories.

Two of the choices are novels in translation, which prompts a chat about whether translated books are becoming more common.

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MOON TIGER by Penelope Lively, chosen by Sara Collins NUMBER GO UP: INSIDE CRYPTO'S WILD RISE AND STAGGERING FALL by Zeke Faux, chosen by Oliver Burkeman LORD JIM AT HOME by Dinah Brooke, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

"I'm writing a history of the world" - so begins the choice of novelist and broadcaster Sara Collins: Penelope Lively's Booker Prize-winning novel Moon Tiger. Claudia Hampton, a famous writer and historian, lies dying in a hospital bed, her mind flitting across the years of her remarkable life and the people she's known. Sara Collins loves the book's romance, its jagged structure, and its unlikeable heroine. Do the others agree? Sara is the author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton, which won the Costa First Novel Award and was adapted for television in 2023. She was one of the hosts of the How to Write a Book Podcast and is a former judge of the Booker Prize.

As a newspaper columnist, for many years Oliver Burkeman wrote This Column Will Change Your Life in The Guardian. He is the bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals and, more recently, Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts. His choice is a non-fiction book by the investigative journalist Zeke Faux about the characters who have made and lost billions in the wild and volatile world of cryptocurrency.

And Harriett's choice is Lord Jim at Home, a novel by Dinah Brooke. Giles Trenchard is born into a life of privilege, but also into a world of hidden cruelty and emotional deprivation. Everyone agrees it's brilliantly written, but how do Harriett's guests feel about its dark content?

Producer: Mair Bosworth

WHEN WE CEASE TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD by Benjamin Labatut (translated by Adrian Nathan West), chosen by Ted Hodgkinson ENTER GHOST by Isabella Hammad, chosen by Inua Ellams GHOSTING: A DOUBLE LIFE by Jennie Erdal, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

As Head of Literature and Spoken Word-programming at the Southbank Centre in London, writers and writing are at the heart of Ted Hodgkinson's work. In 2020 he chaired the judging panel of the International Booker Prize and he has judged many other awards, including the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. His choice of a good read is a slim, genre-defying book by Chilean author Benjamin Labatut which packs a huge punch. It's about the scientists and mathematicians whose work has shaped our world, and the unintended - sometimes horrifying - consequences of scientific advancement.

Inua Ellams is a playwright, poet and curator. His work includes Barber Shop Chronicles, The Half-God of Rainfall, and an updating of Chekhov's Three Sisters, set during the Biafran Civil War, and he's recently been announced as one of the writers of the next series of Dr Who. His choice is Isabella Hammad's 2023 novel Enter Ghost. After a disastrous love affair, British-Palestinian actress Sonia goes to stay with her sister in Haifa. Intending the visit as a holiday, she finds herself investigating her family's history and getting involved in a production of Hamlet, to be staged in the West Bank.

Presenter Harriett Gilbert's choice is Ghosting by Jennie Erdal. A fascinating account of Jennie's time as ghostwriter for 'Tiger' (the publisher Naim Attallah), penning everything from novels to love letters in his name.

Producer: Mair Bosworth

Photo copyright Tiu Makkonen.

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig, chosen by Julia Bradbury A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, chosen by Ramita Navai An Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilbert

TV presenter, author and walking enthusiast Julia Bradbury recommends a fiction book by Matt Haig, How to Stop Time, which brings to life the idea of living forever.

Award-winning British-Iranian investigative journalist, documentary maker and author Ramita Navai shares the epic novel A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, his Dickensian masterpiece of modern India.

And Harriett's choice is An Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, capturing four ladies' unforgettable holiday on the Italian Riviera.

Produced by Beth O'Dea for BBC Audio Bristol Follow us on instagram: agoodreadbbc

Photo credit David Venni

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind, translated by John E. Woods, chosen by Iszi Lawrence Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles, chosen by Joe Dunthorne Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilbert

Historical fiction author and broadcaster Iszi Lawrence adores the sensational novel Perfume, and has done since she was a teenager. For her, it immerses her in another world and is wonderfully cynical about the futility of chasing ultimate fulfilment through creating art and performing to a crowd.

The poet and novelist, author of Submarine, Joe Dunthorne chooses the forgotten cult classic Two Serious Ladies. It makes him happy because every sentence is a surprise, and that makes him want to write. But he admits that it's not for everyone.

And Harriett's choice is Oh William! by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout. Which prompts the discussion, can you love a book if you loathe the central character?

Produced by Beth O'Dea for BBC Audio Bristol Follow us on instagram: agoodreadbbc

Photo copyright Tom Medwell

Books featured:

True Grit by Charles Portis Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson

Nicci Gerrard and Sean French write collectively as Nicci French. They not only write together, they're also a married couple and they love to read.

Sean chooses True Grit by Charles Portis, better known for the film versions with John Wayne and Jeff Bridges. But Sean passionately believes that to really experience the brilliance of the story you have to read the book, in which the 14 year old female protagonist hires a gunslinger to track down her father's killer.

Harriett's choice is a story of mental illness and family fallout. Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason documents the life of Martha, who seems to be in permanent self-destruct mode and is unaware of the effects her behaviour have on those around her.

Nicci picks Tove Jansson's Moominland Midwinter, a book she read and loved as a child and continues to love today. Unlike Jansson's other books, which are set in summer, this story set in deep dark winter is a coming of age story about taking responsibility and conquering fears.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Photo copyright Johnny Ring

A PRIMATE'S MEMOIR (Love, Death and Baboons) by Robert Sapolsky, chosen by Professor Ben Garrod SOLDIER SAILOR by Claire Kilroy, chosen by Harriett Gilbert THE ABUNDANCE by Annie Dillard, chosen by Lucy Jones

Evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod (Professor at the University of East Anglia) chooses a book which he's read and gifted countless times, a book which inspired him to go out in the field and study chimpanzees himself: A Primate's Memoir by Robert Sapolsky. Robert is one of the leading primatologists and scientists today and this is his gripping, at times heartbreaking account of leaving the United States age twenty-one to study wild baboons in the Kenyan savannah.

Lucy Jones (author of Matrescence and Losing Eden) picks an author she has consistently loved for her child-like gift of wonder and close, detailed attention to the natural world. Lucy brings Annie Dillard's collection of essays, The Abundance, for the others to read.

And Harriett Gilbert recommends a fictional tale of early motherhood. A vivid, immersive monologue of a woman on the brink that keeps readers on the edge of their seats to the very end.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol Join the conversation @agoodreadbbc Instagram

TOKYO EXPRESS by Seichō Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, chosen by Sir Ian Blatchford THE LETTERS OF ABELARD AND HELOISE, translated by Betty Radice, chosen by Charles Fernyhough SOLDIERS OF SALAMIS by Javier Cercas, translated by Anne McLean, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Director of the Science Museum group and president of the Royal Literary Fund, Sir Ian Blatchford, chooses a cult classic from 1958 for his good read. A double love suicide wrapped up in suspicious government corruption and a whodunnit hinging on train timetables, Sir Ian makes the case for one of his favourite books.

Travelling to the middle ages for Charles Fernyhough's pick, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise were once much more widely known than they are today. Charles, an amateur medievalist alongside being an author, musician and Professor of Psychology at Durham University, recommends this book as one of the greatest love stories of all time. The letters of Heloise he especially believes should be celebrated, as they showcase a great early feminist philosopher and writer.

Presenter Harriett Gilbert's good read takes readers into the Spanish Civil War: Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas, from 2001. This is a book exploring the role of memory when unpicking the past, and asks questions about whether we can ever remember what really happened. What will the others make of it?

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol Join the book club on Instagram, @agoodreadbbc

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini, chosen by Abi Dare THE FIRE NEXT TIME by James Baldwin, chosen by Harriett Gilbert DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS by Julie Schumacher, chosen by Naomi Alderman

The Power author Naomi Alderman, and Nigerian writer Abi Dare discuss favourite books. Naomi chooses Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher, a series of hilarious letters written by a beleaguered academic. Abi champions A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini's tale of two women in Taliban governed Afghanistan and Harriett recommends James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, two immensely powerful essays.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven Follow us on Instagram: agoodreadbbc

Photo credit: Annabel Moeller

EDUCATED by Tara Westover, chosen by Jenny Kleeman THE WREN, THE WREN by Anne Enright, chosen by Harriett Gilbert GIVING UP THE GHOST by Hilary Mantel, chosen by Sam Knight

Journalist and broadcaster Jenny Kleeman (of Radio 4's The Gift and author of The Price of Life) chooses Tara Westover's memoir Educated, which caused a sensation when it was first published. It's about her childhood growing up in an isolated Mormon family in rural Idaho, who were preparing for the end of the world, and didn't believe in school, doctors or medicine. It's about how she studied her way out of a difficult upbringing, eventually earning a PhD at Cambridge University.

Sam Knight (staff writer at the New Yorker and author of The Premonitions Bureau) also picks a memoir, but of a very different kind. He goes for Hilary Mantel's beguiling Giving Up The Ghost. In it, she explores the real, and imaginary, ghosts of her life - the illnesses that have haunted her body, the family she would never have, and the art of writing.

Harriett Gilbert brings a work of fiction by a writer she loves, the Irish writer Anne Enright. They discuss her latest novel The Wren, The Wren, a story which speaks about the inheritance of trauma and the price of love.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol Join the conversation @agoodreadbbc Instagram

Nihal has chosen Amma, the debut novel by Sri Lankan writer Saraid de Silva, which he compares to meeting someone on a train and having a long, intense conversation. Elif Shafak's choice, however, You're Embarrassing Yourself by Desiree Akhavan, he describes as more like a hilarious night in a pub. Harriett has gone for The Second Murderer by Denise Mina, a Philip Marlowe novel. But is there a need to add to Raymond Chandler's canon?

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THE COUNTRY OF OTHERS by Leïla Slimani, chosen by Tatty Macleod THE MAN WHO ATE EVERYTHING by Jeffrey Steingarten, chosen by Tim Spector ORBITAL by Samantha Harvey, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Comedian Tatty Macleod chooses a novel by French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, the first volume of a new trilogy telling the saga of a French-Moroccan family between 1946 and 2016.

Scientist and food writer Professor Tim Spector chooses an award-winning collection of essays by food writer and critic Jeffrey Steingarten. His impassioned, funny, and mouth-watering anecdotes are all bound by a gluttonous curiosity that too often tips into obsession.

And Harriett Gilbert chooses a novella by Samantha Harvey called Orbital. Set on the International Space Station, it follows six astronauts as they reflect on life back down on Earth, in all its fury and glory.

Producer: Becky Ripley

REASONS TO STAY ALIVE by Matt Haig, chosen by Ali Woods ELENA KNOWS by Claudia Piñeiro, chosen by Fee Mak THE DETAILS by Ia Genberg, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Comedian Ali Woods chooses a memoir by Matt Haig based on his experiences of living with depression and anxiety disorder. Moving, funny and incredibly honest, Reasons to Stay Alive is a book which blasts open the way in which we talk about depression.

Presenter and DJ Fee Mak chooses a novel by Claudia Piñeiro called Elena Knows, following a day in the life of Elena, a 63-year-old woman struggling to come to terms with both her own illness and the death of her daughter.

And Harriett Gilbert chooses a short Swedish novel by Ia Genberg called The Details, exploring the relationships that define us, and the small but profound details that stay with us.

Producer: Becky Ripley

The Norwegian author of the hugely successful My Struggle books Karl Ove Knausgaard chooses The Names by Don de Lillo. It's set in Athens in the early 1980s with the main character being a risk analyst whose estranged wife is working there as an archeologist. It's a richly themed novel that feels very contemporary as well as prophetic. Amy Liptrot's book The Outrun is currently enjoying further success with the release of the film of the same name starring Saoirse Ronan. Her choice is Attrib by Eley Williams a collection of short stories on various themes including a poignant account of language loss through aphasia in The Alphabet. Harriett chooses Open Throat the story of a mountain lion forced ever closer to humans as wildfires sweep the Hollywood Hills. Henry Hoke's novel is based on an actual lion P22 that stalked Los Angelinos for many years before being captured and killed in 2022. Open Throat is a satire on American life from the perspective of a queer big cat.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

A new series begins at the Edinburgh International Book Festival with guests Irvine Welsh and Andrew O'Hagan. Irvine Welsh is best known as the author of Trainspotting. Andrew O'Hagan's Mayflies was recently made into a BBC TV series. The programme was recorded in front of an audience at the Dynamic Earth Centre. Irvine Welsh chooses a lesser known book - Brian by Jeremy Cooper. It's the story of a lonely man's redemption through his love of film. A membership of the BFI (British Film Institute) opens up his world and offers an escape from his humdrum existence working for the housing department of a North London council. By contrast Andrew chooses Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece of dual identity - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Again although it's set in London Andrew recognises the streets of Edinburgh's New Town in the book. Harriett brings the Australian writer Helen Garner's novel The Children's Bach for discussion. It's the story of family breakdown and the ensuing emotional fallout.

Produced by Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio Bristol

Photo credit: Desiree Adams / Penguin Random House

DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver, chosen by Rachel Parris DID YE HEAR MAMMY DIED? by Séamas O'Reilly, chosen by Harriett Gilbert BOTH NOT HALF by Jassa Ahluwalia, chosen by Sonali Shah

Comedian and musician Rachel Parris and broadcaster and presenter Sonali Shah join Harriett Gilbert to read each other's favourite books.

Rachel Parris (Late Night Mash, Austentatious) chooses Barbara Kingsolver's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead, which is based on David Copperfield and boldly takes on America's opioid crisis.

Sonali Shah (Escape to the Country, Pilgrimage, Magic FM) picks Both Not Half: A Radical New Approach to Mixed Heritage Identity by the actor Jassa Ahluwalia, who had always described himself as 'half Indian, half English'. So he decided to come up with a new way of thinking about all kinds of individuality.

Harriett brings a wonderfully funny and loving memoir by the Irish writer Séamas O'Reilly: Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?

Producer: Beth O'Dea for BBC Audio in Bristol Join the conversation @agoodreadbbc Instagram

RADIO ROMANCE by Garrison Keillor, chosen by Sarah Phelps PERSEPOLIS by Marjane Satrapi, chosen by Irenosen Okojie ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER by Rose Tremain, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Two authors pick books they love with Harriett Gilbert.

Screenwriter, playwright and television producer Sarah Phelps (The Sixth Commandment, A Very British Scandal, EastEnders) brings us the trials and tribulations of a small-town radio station in the Midwest. Told with humour and irony, but also packs a punch.

Novelist and short story writer Irenosen Okojie (Hag, Butterfly Fish, Speak Gigantular) chooses Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, an autobiographical graphic novel charting the writer's childhood in Iran, set against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution, before her move to Austria.

Harriett Gilbert brings Absolutely and Forever by Rose Tremain, a story about the all-consuming power of first love, set 1960s London.

Produced by Sally Heaven for BBC Audio Bristol Join the conversation on Instagram @bbcagoodread

BOOKS:

WISHFUL DRINKING by CARRIE FISHER FORBIDDEN NOTEBOOK by ALBA DE CESPEDES YELLOWFACE by REBECCA F KUANG

Harriett's guests today are comedian and writer Helen Lederer known for so many roles including as Catrionia in Absolutely Fabulous. Recently she has published her memoir Not That I'm Bitter and set up the Comedy Writing In Print Prize. She has opted for the hugely witty and knowing memoir Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher detailing her tumultuous life as the child of two Hollywood stars who often couldn't separate fantasy from reality. Ilaria Bernardini is an Italian novelist and screenwriter. She is currently working on Bernardo Bertolucci’s final script which Ilaria co-wrote with hi -The Echo Chamber. Her choice is the seminal feminist Italian novel Forbidden Notebook by the Italian-Cuban writer Alba de Cespedes about the inner life of an Italian housewife and Mama of the family. Harriett's choice is Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang - a cautionary tale for our times of plagiarism, cultural appropriation, social media storms and more.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Writer and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth has chosen EF Benson's entertaining tale of competitive snobbery in the 1920s, Mapp and Lucia. In a contrasting choice, neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow advocates for Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, a story of a Ghanaian family transplanted to Alabama which takes in neuroscience and opiate addiction. Harriett has gone for a real crowd-pleaser in E. Nesbit's The Railway Children and all three enjoy a bit of nostalgia for the times when children could run free having adventures around the railway. Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven.

VOICES IN THE EVENING by Natalia Ginzburg (trans. DM Low), chosen by Tessa Hadley THE ZONE OF INTEREST by Martin Amis (trans. Jessica Moore), chosen by Sebastian Faulks EASTBOUND by Maylis de Kerangal, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Two authors pick books they love with Harriett Gilbert.

Tessa Hadley (Late In The Day, Free Love, After The Funeral) takes us to post-war Italy with Voices In The Evening by Natalia Ginzburg. The drama, suffering and fascism are in the past, but traumas surface in the day-to-day, with first loves and lost chances.

Sebastian Faulks (Birdsong, Human Traces, The Seventh Son) chooses The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis, after watching the hit film by Jonathan Glazer and wanting to read the book it was inspired by. The haunting novel follows a Nazi officer who has become enamoured with the Auschwitz camp commandant's wife, and goes inside the minds of the commandant, who lives with his family right next to the concentration camp.

Harriett Gilbert brings Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, a gripping novella set on the Trans-Siberian Railway, with a chance encounter between a desperate Russian conscript and a French woman.

Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol Join the conversation on Instagram @bbcagoodread

Recorded at the Hay Festival

SHUGGIE BAIN by Douglas Stuart ON THE BLACK HILL by Bruce Chatwin AGAINST NATURE by Joris-Karl Huysmans

Harriett Gilbert takes to the stage in the BBC Marquee at the Hay Festival for a special edition of the programme recorded in front of an audience. Actor and writer Doon Mackichan known for her outrageous character Cathy in the sitcom Two Doors Down chooses Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart as her good read. It's a touching but heartbreaking tale of a young Glaswegian boy's desperate efforts to save his mother Agnes from the alcoholism that ruins and degrades her. It won the Booker Prize in 2020. As we're in Wales Harriett's fitting choice is Bruce Chatwin's On The Black Hill an account of rural Welsh life in the mid 20th century. It's the story of two brothers' lives over 80 years and their connection to land and community. Bruce Robinson actor, director and writer of the hit film Withnail and I which has been adapted for stage chooses a book that features in the final scene of the film. The I character places two books in a suitcase at the end of the film, one of which is A Rebours - Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans. Bruce confesses that he's not the book's biggest fan but the ensuing discussion provides an entertaining insight into books we might read when we're younger and how differently we feel about them in later life. It's the story of an eccentric recluse Jean des Esseintes in 19th century France who loathes people and creates a fantasy world for himself but ultimately suffers from his self-inflicted pretentious ennui. "I wish I hadn't chosen this book" proclaims Bruce Robinson as he introduces it. "I wish you hadn't chosen it" agrees Doon Mackichan. They then elicit a lot of audience laughter from their deconstruction of this seminal French novel that all three find pretentious.

A longer version of the programme is available as a podcast

Producer: Maggie Ayre

ABSENT IN THE SPRING by Agatha Christie (writing as Mary Westmacott) (HarperCollins), chosen by Simon Brett IN THE GARDEN OF THE FUGITIVES by Ceridwen Dovey (Penguin), chosen by Denise Mina HIDE MY EYES by Margery Allingham (Penguin), chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Crime writers Denise Mina and Simon Brett join Harriett Gilbert to read each other's favourite books.

Simon Brett (Charles Paris, Fethering and Mrs Pargeter detective series) chooses Agatha Christie under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, with Absent In The Spring. It’s a story without any detective and one that, perhaps, reveals a more personal side to Christie's writing.

Denise Mina (most recently: Three Fires, The Second Murderer) picks In the Garden of the Fugitives by South African-Australian author Ceridwen Dovey, an epistolary novel which begins with a letter that breaks seventeen years of silence between a rich, elderly man with a broken heart and his former protegee, a young South African filmmaker.

And for the occasion of having two crime authors, Harriett Gilbert picks a golden age crime book, Hide My Eyes by Margery Allingham, where private detective Albert Campion finds himself hunting down a serial killer.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol Join the conversation @agoodreadbbc Instagram

QUARTET IN AUTUMN by Barbara Pym, chosen by Samantha Harvey MRS CALIBAN by Rachel Ingalls, chosen by Harriett Gilbert PHARMACOPOEIA: A DUNGENESS NOTEBOOK by Derek Jarman, chosen by Darran Anderson

Two award-winning writers share books they love with Harriett Gilbert.

Samantha Harvey is the author of five novels, The Wilderness, All Is Song, Dear Thief ,The Western Wind and, most recently, Orbital. She is also the author of a memoir, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping. Her choice of a good read is a slim novel by Barbara Pym set in 1970s London about the lives of four single people in their sixties who work in an office together. Quartet in Autumn is sharply perceptive about the ways in which we hide from one other and from ourselves.

Darran Anderson is an Irish writer who lives in London. He is the author of Imaginary Cities: A Tour of Dream Cities, Nightmare Cities, and Everywhere in Between; a memoir, Inventory, about growing up during the Troubles; and the forthcoming In the Land of My Enemy. His choice, Pharmacopoeia, brings together fragments of the artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman's writing on nature, gardening and Prospect Cottage, his Victorian fisherman's hut on the shingle at Dungeness.

Harriett's choice is a fantastically strange novel by Rachel Ingalls, published in 1982. In Mrs Caliban, a grieving housewife in a loveless marriage embarks on a heady affair with a green-skinned frogman.

Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

Historian and author Kathryn Hughes and No Such Thing As a Fish presenter Dan Schreiber recommend favourite books to Harriett Gilbert. Kathryn chooses Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes, an exploration of the French writer's life in the form of a novel. Dan's choice is very different - John Higgs taking on the conceptual artists and chart toppers The KLF. Harriett has gone for Michael Ondaatje's novel Warlight, set in a murky and mysterious post-war London.

Presenter: Harriett Gilbert

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

THE RED PARTS by Maggie Nelson (Vintage), chosen by Carol Morley INVISIBLE CITIES by Italo Calvino (Vintage), chosen by Will Hislop ORDINARY PEOPLE by Diana Evans (Vintage), chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Film director Carol Morley chooses a memoir called The Red Parts, in which author Maggie Nelson tries to make sense of the horror, grief and scepticism of her own aunt's murder trial. A book that blurs the boundaries between personal memoir, psychoanalysis and true crime.

Comedian Will Hislop chooses Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, which transports us to 55 different fictional reincarnations of Venice through a series of beautifully detailed and occasionally absurd vignettes. Calvino's prose poems are ordered by theme and, as a reader, you can choose how you want to navigate his matrix of the chapters.

Harriett's choice takes us to London with a novel by Diana Evans called Ordinary People, in which two couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning, an intimate study of identity, parenthood and the fragility of love.

Presenter: Harriett Gilbert Producer: Becky Ripley

JUST KIDS by Patti Smith, chosen by Lindsey Hilsum MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor E. Frankl (trans. Ilse Lasch), chosen by Christopher Eccleston TOWARDS THE END OF THE MORNING by Michael Frayn, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

The television journalist and actor share favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.

Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor of Channel 4 News, loves Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids, her account of coming to New York as a young woman and of her relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It's a coming-of-age story set against the heady backdrop of 1970s counterculture; it's a story of becoming an artist; and it's a love story that turns into an elegy.

The actor Christopher Eccleston chooses Man's Search for Meaning, the psychotherapist Viktor Frankl's account of his time in Nazi concentration camps and how those experiences informed his belief that man's deepest need is to search for meaning and purpose. It's a powerful book about retaining one's humanity in the face of unimaginable suffering and degradation.

And Harriett Gilbert chooses Towards the End of the Morning, Michael Frayn's 1967 satire about journalists working on a newspaper during the heyday of Fleet Street.

Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

CHESS by Stefan Zweig (Faber), chosen by Katy Hessel MAUD MARTHA by Gwendolyn Brooks (Penguin), chosen by Amy Blakemore THE PIER FALLS by Mark Haddon (Vintage), chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Art historian Katy Hessel chooses a book that she read in one sitting because she couldn't put it down: Chess by Stefan Zweig. A novella about the limitless possibilities of the game, and of the human mind.

Author Amy Blakemore chooses Maud Martha by the American poet Gwendolyn Brookes, a story of a life told with such a brevity and beauty of prose that it is almost poetry.

Harriett's choice is a collection of short stories called The Pier Falls by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon, who is not afraid to disturb.

Photo credit: Lily Bertrand Webb Presenter: Harriett Gilbert Producer: Becky Ripley

ON WRITING by Stephen King, chosen by Kathryn Williams THE BITCH by Pilar Quintana (translated by Lisa Dillman), chosen by Harriett Gilbert ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute, chosen by Andrew McMillan

The singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams loves books about the craft of writing and her choice of a good read is 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft', by the master of horror, Stephen King. The book gave her practical tools and advice which helped her to write her debut novel, The Ormering Tide. She also loves what we learn about King's life - from his flatulent childhood nanny to the devastating 1999 accident which almost ended his life.

Harriett's choice this week is The Bitch by Colombian author Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. In a village on the Pacific coast of Colombia, between wild jungle and wild seas, a childless woman develops a complicated relationship with an orphaned puppy.

And the poet and novelist Andrew McMillan chooses On the Beach by Nevil Shute. In Australia, a group of people try to come to terms with the end of the world. A nuclear war has wiped out all life in the northern hemisphere and the radiation is drifting steadily south. What would you do if you knew that you, and everyone you know, had only months to live?

Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

THE LONELY LONDERS by Sam Selvon THE CHANGELING by Robin Jenkins A CRACK IN THE WALL by Claudia Peneiro

The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon traces the new lives of a group of hopeful immigrants from the West Indies in the late 1950s. Told with humour and pathos it's a favourite of actor Paterson Joseph. He regards it as the seminal book about Caribbean migration to Britain and applauds Selvon's bravery in writing it in patois.

Richard Coles loves the work of Scottish writer Robin Jenkins. The Changeling is the bleak and heartbreaking story of a well meaning but flawed middle class school teacher's attempt to 'save' a young boy from the slums of Glasgow. The Saviour Complex is something Richard says he's experienced many times and understands how it can lead to disaster.

A Crack In The Wall by Claudia Pineiro is Harriett's choice. It's a crime novel set in Buenos Aires centring around middle-aged architect Pedro, who's experiencing cracks in his own personal life, as well as in the city's architecture.

Producer: Maggie Ayre, BBC Audio Bristol

BESSIE SMITH by Jackie Kay (Faber) chosen by Anjana Vasan EDGE OF HERE by Kelechi Okafor (Trapeze) chosen by Anne-Marie Imafidon THE WIDOW COUDERC by Georges Simenon (Penguin) chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Star of 'Black Mirror', 'We Are Lady Parts' and 'Wicked Little Letters' Anjana Vasan chooses Jackie Kay's affectionate and personal biography of Blues legend, Bessie Smith.

Founder of Stemettes and author of 'She's In CTRL' Anne-Marie Imafidon picks Kelechi Okafor's science-fiction debut, which looks at the relationship between technology and society in the near-future.

Presenter Harriett Gilbert opts for Georges Simenon's tale of a couple in rural France where it's not exactly clear who's using whom.

Producer: Toby Field, for BBC Audio Bristol

Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic, Nancy Medina and IIdle band member Joe Talbot join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite choose books by Junot Diaz, Bell Hooks and Douglas Adams

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz Publisher: Faber

All About Love by Bell Hooks Publisher: William Morrow

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams Publisher: Pan

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2024.

CRYING IN H MART by Michelle Zauner, chosen by Anna Bogutskaya SKATING TO ANTARTICA by Jenni Diski, chosen by Harriett Gilbert THINKING ON MY FEET by Kate Humble, chosen by Rachel Brown-Finnis

Critic, author and podcaster Anna Bogutskaya chooses musician Michelle Zauner's account of growing up as one of the few Asian-American children in Eugene, Oregon, Crying in H Mart, which details her complex relationship with her mother.

Former England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis picks Kate Humble's book Thinking on My Feet. It's a book about travel, the outside world, and the act of putting one foot in front of another. Rachel came to it in lockdown and loved the opportunity to virtually go on so many walks with Kate.

Harriett's choice is Jenni Diski's account of a trip she took to the frozen south, but as ever with Diski it is a journey that is accompanied by reflections on the defining moments of her childhood and adult life, in Skating to Antarctica.

Presenter: Harriett Gilbert Producer: Toby Field for BBC Audio Bristol

THE GLASS PEARLS by Emeric Pressburger chosen by Ian Rankin WIDOW BASQUIAT by Jennifer Clement chosen by Colin MacIntyre THE PATIENCE STONE by Atiq Rahimi chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Rebus creator, Ian Rankin, expresses his admiration for filmmaker and novelist Emeric Pressburger's skilfully empathetic characterisation of a fleeing Nazi war criminal in his novel, The Glass Pearls. All the more impressive when you realise that Pressburger was a Hungarian Jew who'd had to flee Nazi Germany.

Mull Historical Society singer-songwriter, Colin MacIntyre, recommends Widow Basquiat by Jennifer Clement - the biography of the New York street artist Jean Michel Basquiat's long suffering girlfriend and muse Suzanne, documenting their life together in the New York art scene of the early 1980s, a time when hip-hop, New Wave and street art converged to make New York the edgy centre of a burgeoning arts scene.

Presenter Harriett Gilbert chooses The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi, a novel told from an Afghan woman's perspective, as she sits in one room praying over the comatose body of her wounded fighter husband. Battles rage outside, as she sits and prays for his recovery. But as time passes, her voice becomes louder and more powerful as her rage grows.

Producer: Maggie Ayre, BBC Audio Bristol

The artist Chantal Joffe picks I Capture The Castle, the English classic by Dodie Smith. Set in 1930s rural England, it relates the adventures of an eccentric family over the course of about a year. It's a book Chantal has come back to again and again, ever since she was a teenager. Séamas O'Reilly champions the Irish novel, A Goat's Song by Dermot Healy, which he argues deserves to be more widely known. And Harriett Gilbert recommends a graphic memoir by the cartoonist Alison Bechdel, called The Secret to Superhuman Strength.

Chantal Joffe is an artist known for her often larger-than-life-sized paintings, of women and children in particular, which have been shown in solo exhibitions around the world. Séamas O'Reilly is a columnist for the Observer whose memoir is Did Ye Hear Mammy Die.

Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio

Janet Ellis and Jason Arday join presenter Harriet Gilbert to discuss The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es; Rise, the memoir of South African rugby player Siya Kolisi and Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.

Three readers choose favourite books and discuss themes of war, rugby and tightrope walking.

Writer and former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis chooses The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es, the true story of a Dutch Jewish girl during the Second World War. Cambridge's youngest black professor Jason Arday champions Rise, the memoir of South African rugby player Siya Kolisi who went from a tough start in a township to the very top of his game. Harriett's choice, Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, tells the story of a tightrope walk between the twin towers and the lives unfolding on the ground below.

Producer Sally Heaven, BBC Audio Bristol

Journalist India Knight and writer Emma Dabiri talk to Harriett Gilbert about favourite books. India chooses The Tap Dancer by Andrew Barrow, while Harriett has gone for Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the novel Anne Tyler considers her best work. Emma champions Claire Keegan's short but powerful story, So Late in the Day. Themes of food and family emerge from all three books.

Producer for BBC Audio Sally Heaven

The violinist Nigel Kennedy is in the UK playing several concerts and takes time out to join Harriett Gilbert and actor Clare Perkins to talk about one of his favourite books. It's Confessions of A Mask by Yukio Mishima - the coming of age and sexual awakening story of a young boy in post war Japan. Nigel says he began exploring Japanese fiction and is interested in how many Japanese authors explore the inner lives of their characters.

Actor Clare Perkins goes for Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - a story she finds hopeful for humanity, despite being about a hostage situation where a group of party guests find themselves at the mercy of terrorists in an unnamed South American country.

Harriett opts for Franz Kafka's novella Metamorphosis - a story first published in 1915 about a young salesmen who wakes up one morning to find he has changed into a monstrous insect.

Photo of Nigel Kennedy: Carly Hyde

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Cressida Cowell MBE is the best-selling author illustrator of the How To Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once children's book series. Cressida's book choice is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan - the story of a fractious mother-daughter relationship between a first generation Chinese immigrant to the USA and her Americanised daughter.

Romy Gill MBE is a renowned Indian chef and travel writer. She is the author of two cook books. Her favourite book is The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, a novel that follows a similar theme of conflicting Eastern and Western cultures.

Harriett chooses the autobiography of actor Minnie Driver. Managing Expectations documents an unconventional and often difficult childhood in England and a successful Hollywood acting career, told with humour and self-deprecation.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

TV presenter Anneka Rice and writer Maureen Freely share favourite books. Maureen has chosen Marilynne Robinson's award winning Gilead, Anneka enjoyed Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mists, and Harriett is charmed by The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

Artist Cornelia Parker is with the chef Jeremy Lee and presenter Harriett Gilbert, to pick their all-time favourite books.

Cornelia chooses South by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the story of his extraordinary journey to Antarctica. Jeremy is a fan of the food writer Elizabeth David, and recommends her book of essays, Omelette and a Glass of Wine. Finally Harriett Gilbert suggests the novel Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie, centred on two American academics' escapades in London.

Cornelia has recently had solo shows at the Tate Britain and the Metropolitan Museum of New York; Jeremy is chef-proprietor of Quo Vadis restaurant in Soho and author of Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many.

Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio

The children's TV presenter and stand up comedian advocate for favourite books. Rhys Stevenson says the ending of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens made him pace up and down his kitchen, and Esther Manito fell in love with one particular character in Stepping Up by Sarah Turner. Harriett's choice is The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell, which also prompts passionate discussion about characters.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol is Sally Heaven

What does 'home' mean? The three book choices today reflect on what home means to different people. The crime writer Vaseem Khan chooses Deborah Moggach's much loved novel The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that sees a group of elderly English people going to live in a retirement home in India. As well as many hilarious misadventures the book also depicts the stark reality of getting old. Reverend Lucy Winkett of St James Church Picadilly in London chooses The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak the love story beween a Greek Cypriot man and a Turkish Cypriot woman in a country fractured by division in 1974. The story takes place mainly in contemporary London and examines the personal impact of displacement from one's homeland. And that's a theme that carried on in Harriett's choice which is We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo about a young girl who leaves her troubled homeland of Zimbabwe for a new life in America and finds herself better off materially but lacking the spiritual comfort of her home country.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Author and cultural critic Olivia Laing, whose books include The Lonely City, Funny Weather and Everybody, is joined by fashion writer and curator Charlie Porter, of What Artists Wear and Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion, and presenter Harriett Gilbert, to talk about the books they love.

Olivia recommends Bad Blood by literary critic Lorna Sage - a memoir of her eccentric childhood and adolescence in 1940s rural Wales. Charlie loves Honey From A Weed by Patience Gray, a cookbook which exalts local knowledge and seasonal cooking, taking readers to a time and place far removed from modern life. And Harriett brings The English Understand Wool, a 2022 novella by American author Helen DeWitt, which takes unexpected twists and turns and which Harriett argues, merits reading more than once.

Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio

Niamh Cusack chooses Lila by Marilynne Robinson part of a group of novels set around the fictional Iowa town of Gilead and centres on the gentle relationship between a poor young woman who has grown up drifting around the midwest and an elderly man of God, the Reverend John Ames. For Niamh the novel speaks to the loneliness of life but she also finds its humanity uplifting and inspiring. Crime writer Elly Griffiths' choice is Something In Disguise by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Ostensibly a semi comic family drama, Elly finds something more sinister in the book which she terms 'domestic noir'. Harriett has chosen Naples '44 - travel writer Norman Lewis' account of wartime Naples and the allied liberation of Southern Italy. There are differing opinions as to whether the book is a touching tribute to the warmth and resilience of the Neapolitan people at a desperate time or a rather patronising outdated view of Italy. What do you think? You can join in the discussion on our Instagram page @agoodreadbbc

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Nina Wadia is a well known face on British TV and film. She was part of the smash hit comedy Goodness Gracious Me and was a regular in EastEnders. Most recently she has been in The Outlaws. She's chosen a dark thriller set in Pakistan set in the world of courtesans and pimps. The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad. It's a disturbing read she says but a brilliant insight into a hidden world. Susanna Hoffs wrote songs and was lead singer with The Bangles. She is still recording and playing music but has recently published her first novel This Bird Has Flown. Her choice of book on A Good Read is an English novel set in the 1950s - Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers - a strange tale of a mysterious apparent immaculate conception being investigated by a female journalist. Harriett's choice is Blue Horses - a collection of poems by the late Mary Oliver. The verdict from all three - wonderful and life affirming.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Photo by Sam Irons

The actor-comedian and the poet advocate for their favourite books. Andi chooses The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary, Nikita loves Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden and Harriett goes for The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

Producer Sally Heaven

Biologist and author Merlin Sheldrake (of 'Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures') is joined by the science journalist Jo Marchant (of 'Human Cosmos' and 'Cure') and presenter Harriett Gilbert.

Merlin picks 'The Age of Wonder' by Richard Holmes, a biographical portrait of scientific innovators in the late 18th century. In this historical book. Holmes explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain, and how it became an age of great discovery.

Jo's choice, 'You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto', is by computer scientist and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier. In this prescient book from 2010, Jaron delves into the digital world, examining what went wrong in its development, and how we might fix these problems.

And Harriett recommends the classic, magical children's novel, 'The Sword In The Stone' by T. H. White, which she argues merits re-reading as an adult.

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The comedian and the writer talk to Harriett about favourite books, including one of Orwell's less well known novels, Coming Up for Air, chosen by Hal after he played the central character in a one man show. Daisy has gone for Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin, and Harriett loves Jenny Diski's Stranger on a Train, a travel memoir by someone who is not too keen on travel.

Producer Sally Heaven

Journalist, broadcaster and author Zing Tsjeng and poet Yomi Ṣode join presenter Harriett Gilbert to talk about the books they love.

Zing chooses a book set in the heart of New York City's queer community. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters is centred on the lives of Reece, a trans woman, her ex Ames, and her ex's new lover, Katrina. Yomi recommends Caleb Azumah Nelson's debut book, Open Water, a lyrical romance story set in South East London. And Harriett's choice is Intimacies, a novel by Katie Kitamura, where the main character is an interpreter at the International Court in The Hague, where unease bubbles below the surface of the novel's cool narration.

Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas

The two writers talk about their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Gill Hornby has chosen Commonwealth by Ann Patchett, which traces the lives of six step-siblings over a span of fifty years. Paul Burston loves Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, which helped him come out to his parents as a young man. Harriett's choice is Tin Man by Sarah Winman which describes the friendship of two men and a woman. While Tales of the City takes place before the advent of AIDS, in Tin Man the disease looms large.

Producer Sally Heaven Join the conversation on Instagram: @agoodreadbbc

The author of the Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series, Donna Leon, is joined by writer-entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan and the presenter Harriett Gilbert.

Donna has chosen a book by an author she greatly admires, Ross MacDonald, who she read before she became a writer herself. His 1971 noir novel, The Underground Man, follows a detective as he tries to track down a missing child, whilst a mysterious fire rages through the hills of Southern California. Margaret loves Butcher's Crossing, the lesser-known book by John Williams, the author of Stoner. Set in 1871, this is about a young Harvard drop-out who heads out into the American West to discover a new way of living and which Margaret describes as an 'anti-Western' novel. Meanwhile Harriett's choice is A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, which follows a mother's struggle to protect her children as Bangladesh fights for independence.

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Author Katherine May and poet Liz Berry talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Liz loves A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, a powerful blend of memoir and literary investigation where the past bleeds into the present. Katherine is inspired by These Wilds Beyond Our Fences by Bayo Akomolafe, framed as letters from the author to his young daughter as he tries to make sense of the world that she has been born into. And Harriett chooses Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, a triumphant feminist fable and sweet revenge comedy which celebrates the life and times of protagonist Elizabeth Zott.

Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Becky Ripley

The newsreader and the writer chat about books with Harriett. Sophie and Harriett's choices take on early colonialism on two different continents, in West by Cary Davies and Remembering Babylon by David Malouf respectively, and Patrick's choice of Howard's End by EM Forster brings us back to Blighty.

Producer Sally Heaven

The broadcaster and comedian discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Janet's choice is The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks, set in 1960s London, which was also Janet's stomping ground. Felicity loves Carlo Rovelli's Seven Lessons on Physics, which provokes much disagreement between the three women, none of whom studied much science at school. Harriett's choice is Hubert Mingarelli's A Meal in Winter, a moving and morally complex tale of three Nazi soldiers in wartime Poland.

Producer Sally Heaven

Psychotherapist writer Philippa Perry and Professor of Neuroscience Anil Seth join Harriett Gilbert to talk about books they love.

Anil Seth, who explores consciousness and the self in his book Being You, recommends Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, where our near-future world is seen through the eyes of an Artificial Friend. Philippa Perry's choice is A Stranger City by Linda Grant, a novel with a mystery at its heart and is about how lives interweave in the city. And Harriett Gilbert loves the non-fiction book Being Mortal by American surgeon Atul Gawande, which asks what medicine is for in the face of death.

Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol

Columnist at The Times James Marriott and arts journalist for The Guardian Jude Rogers discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.

James picks The Past by Tessa Hadley, a contemporary novel about family, place and the modern world encroaching upon the old; Jude recommends Border Country by Raymond Williams, a semi-autobiographical story of a man returning home to his small village on the Welsh borders, and how it's changed over a century; and Harriett loves A Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt, about a woman re-examining her life in after her husband's rejection.

Do you agree with their assessments? Join us on Instagram @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Art historian Kate Bryan and comedian Mark Steel talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Kate loves Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing, an inspiring collection of essays which make a case for why art matters. Mark is a big fan of Stalin Ate My Homework by Alexei Sayle, a comedic memoir about growing up in a Jewish atheist communist family in Liverpool. And Harriett puts forward Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, in which a present-day story converges with ancient rituals to provoke a discussion about how far we have come from the “primitive minds” of our ancestors.

Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Becky Ripley

This week broadcaster and writer Adrian Chiles and musician and sound artist Marty Ware join Harriett Gilbert with their reading suggestions. Martyn nominates A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess which he says has influenced his career as a musician. He even named his band Heaven 17 from a reference in the book. If you can get past the brutality and violence it's a novel that throws up many moral questions about the nature of good and evil. Both he and Adrian Chiles are fascinated by the use of Russian language throughout the book. Adrian Chiles chooses Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer. Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s it's a slow burn love story of a couple who meet at a writers' conference and begin exchanging letters that lead to a deepening friendship and feelings before they make their way to the glamour of New York City. Nina Simone's Gum by musician Warren Ellis receives a resounding Hooray and thumbs up from both Adrian and Martyn as Harriett's choice. It's an eclectic book about the importance and emotion of objects centred around Ellis' custodianship of a piece of chewing gum discarded by the singer Nina Simone at one of her final British concerts. Ellis spotted her take out the gum and put it on a towel on the piano before beginning her concert at the Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre which was being curated by Ellis' friend and bandmate Nick Cave. After the singer left the stage Warren Ellis jumped onto the stage and took the towel and kept it safe for twenty years in an almost shrine like setting before releasing it into the world and realising the emotional power such an object holds.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Maggie Ayre

Agnès Poirier, the French writer and broadcaster, and British-Nigerian novelist Nikki May introduce us to their favourite books. Nikki chooses a haunting novel about life after the breakdown of society following a flu pandemic. Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel was written well before Covid and was published in 2014. Although it depicts the collapse of civilisation it is not a grimly depressing post apocalyptic read. Centred on a group of travelling actors and musicians, the story flips back and forth to their lives before and after the virus making each character much rounder than had they merely been shown as a straggling bunch fighting off feral gangs and surviving against the odds. As a result the book is not only a thrilling adventure it's also moving and ultimately optimistic about the survival of beauty and the human spirit.

Agnès Poirier's choice is a collection of short stories by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. Agnès wants to make the case for the unsung heroes of the literary world - translators. She has loved Zweig's work since she was a teenager and was surprised to find he was little known in the UK, but quickly discovered that the limited translations of his work were old fashioned and not very good. But thanks to more recent English translations she is happy to see him being more widely recognised in the Anglophone world. Letter From An Unknown Woman is the title story and its account of a lifelong one-sided love affair sees the unknown woman devote her life to a handsome and rather caddish writer who barely notices her. For Agnès it's a universal story of unfulfilled longing that many young girls experience.

The Trees is Harriett's choice of a a good read and it's a novel that hits right between the eyes. Percival Everett sets it in Money Mississippi the town infamous for the brutal torture and murder of the young African American Emmett Till in 1955. The story revolves around the modern day lynching and murder of some of the white KKK descendants of Emmett Till's killers. Enter two African American detectives sent to Money to investigate the spate of ghastly killings. What is so unexpected about The Trees is the laugh out loud humour that cuts through despite its horrific subject matter. Ed and Jim, the two cops, are hilariously funny as is Everett's depiction of Southern redneck small town life.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Co-host of the 'Scummy Mummies' podcast Ellie Gibson and musician Frank Turner pick their favourite books to discuss with Harriett Gilbert. Ellie's choice is a manifesto about the benefits of order, 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying' by Marie Kondo. Frank's choice looks at mental health and addiction in the music industry, 'Bodies: Life and Death in Music' by Ian Winwood. Harriett chooses 'Indelicacy' by Amina Cain, a story about a woman searching for her place in the world which has been described by some as a "ghost story without a ghost".

Produced by Toby Field for BBC Audio, Bristol

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Comedian and author Shaparak Khorsandi and Anne Hegerty AKA "The Governess" on the ITV quiz show 'The Chase' discuss their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Shaparak's choice is about a university lecturer in South Africa who leaves his job after an affair with a student, 'Disgrace' by J.M. Coetzee. Anne selects a story about a musical, bohemian family that in part reminds her of her own family, 'The Fountain Overflows' by Rebecca West. Harriett picks 'Dear Reader' by Cathy Rentzenbrink, a memoir which serves as a love letter to literature.

Produced by Toby field for BBC Audio, Bristol

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