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BBC Radio 4

Find reading inspiration with favourite books chosen by our guests.

A Good Read

Journalist and critic James Walton and Lindsey Davis, creator of the ancient Roman detective Falco join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Richard Hughes, Nicholson Baker and Georgette Heyer. 

A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
Publisher: Vintage Classics

James Walton's choice
The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker
Publisher: Pocket Books

Royal Escape by Georgette Heyer
Publisher: Arrow Books

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2011.

James Walton and Lindsey Davis

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - politician, Lord Chris Smith and novelist, Mavis Cheek - discuss their favourite books by Robert Macfarlane, Frances Kay and Jackie Kay. 

Trumpet by Jackie Kay
Publisher: Picador

The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane 
Publisher: Granta Books
 
Micka by Frances Kay
Publisher: Picador

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2011.

Chris Smith and Mavis Cheek

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - actor Bill Paterson and travel writer Dea Birkett - discuss favourite paperback books by Bernhard Schlink, John Steinbeck and Richard Holme.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Publisher: Phoenix

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Publisher: Penguin Modern Classics

Footsteps by Richard Holmes
Publisher Harper Press

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2011.

Bill Paterson and Dea Birkett

Harriett Gilbert discusses favourite paperbacks with writer Fleur Adcock and comedian Laura Solon. Their choices include a modern classic by Evelyn Waugh and two coming-of-age novels, one set in France and the other in the north of England.

Harriett Gilbert's choice: The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
 Publ. Pan

 Laura Solon's choice: Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
 Publ. Penguin Modern

 Fleur Adcock's choice: Bilgewater by Jane Gardam
 Publ. Abacus Books

Producer: Christine Hall

Laura Solon and Fleur Adcock

Broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli and comedian Simon Evans talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. 
Producer Beth O'Dea.

Hardeep Singh Kohli, Simon Evans

Fay Weldon, Louise Welsh and Harriett Gilbert discuss favourite books by Lionel Shriver, HG Wells and Jean Rhys. 

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Publisher: Penguin

Fay Weldon's choice: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Publisher: Penguin

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Publisher: Serpent's Tail

Producer: Beth O'Dea 

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Fay Weldon and Louise Welsh

Satirical writer John O'Farrell and historian Juliet Barker talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books - all of which use an unusual blend of fact and fiction. 

They evoke the lives of the Brontes, the worst civilian disaster of World War II and the British mandate in Palestine. 

The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan
Publisher: Headline Review

The Report by Jessica Francis Kane
Publihser: Portobello Books

Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz
Publisher: Vintage

Producer Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Juliet Barker and John O'Farrell

Harriett Gilbert talks to polymath Raymond Tallis and political journalist Allegra Stratton about their favourite books. 

Giving up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
Publisher: Fourth Estate

The Walk by Robert Walser
Publisher: Serpent's Tail

What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
Publisher: Sceptre

Producer Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Raymond Tallis and Allegra Stratton

Harriett Gilbert talks to Alexander Waugh and Xanthe Clay about their favourite books.

Letters Between a Father and Son by VS Naipaul
Publisher: Picador

Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book by Jane Grigson
Publisher: Penguin

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Publisher: Penguin

Producer Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Alexander Waugh and Xanthe Clay

Former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo joins short story writer Sara Maitland and presenter Harriett Gilbert to talk about the books they love, and share their enthusiasm for their choices. 

Their favourite books cover the globe from Venezuela to Edinburgh to Steep in Hampshire, where Michael Morpurgo and the subject of his book both lived. He chooses Under Storm's Wing by Helen Thomas, a collection of her memoirs and letters about life with one of Britain's best-loved poets. 

Sara Maitland's book, House-Bound by Winifred Peck, is described by all three as a real oddity, a book unlike any other - but a rather good oddity. 

And Harriett Gilbert picks The Sickness by Alberto Barrera Tyszka, a slender novel about a man with a terminal illness, which turns out to be surprisingly gripping. 

Producer: Beth O'Dea

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Michael Morpurgo and Sara Maitland

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - writer, Bonnie Greer and scriptwriter, Simon Brett - discuss their favourite books by Alberto Méndez, Michael Green and Annie Proulx.

'Blind Sunflowers' by Alberto Mendez
Publisher: Arcadia Books

''The Art of Coarse Acting' by Michael Green
Publisher: Samuel French

'The Shipping News' by Annie Proulx
Publisher: Fourth Estate

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2012.

Bonnie Greer and Simon Brett

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