A Good Read

Latest Episodes:

Ria Lina and Otegha Uwagba Nov 01, 2022

Show notes

The comedian Ria Lina - who's appeared on the BBC’s Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week - joins Otegha Uwagba - author of Little Black Book, Whites and We Need to Talk About Money - to talk to Harriett Gilbert about the books they love.

Ria chooses Moll Flanders, the 18th-century classic by Daniel Defoe. Otegha picks the popular romance story Like Water for Chocolate by Mexican author Laura Esquivel and Harriett Gilbert brings a book about motherhood; Making Babies by Anne Enright.

Produced by Eliza Lomas Comment on Instagram at @agoodreadbbc

Patience Agbabi and Andy Miller Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

Poet Patience Agbabi and the writer and podcaster Andy Miller advocate for their favourite books. Andy wrote a memoir about reading fifty great books, so it can't have been an easy choice. He plumps for My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley. Patience loves The Animals in that Country, Laura Jean Mackay's novel which starts with a pandemic but soon moves in to less familiar territory. Harriett talks about A Month in Siena, Hisham Matar's memoir of art, architecture and life.

Producer Sally Heaven

Damian Barr and Ben Fergusson Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

Writers Damian Barr and Ben Fergusson recommend books to Harriett Gilbert. Damian chooses the second volume of Janice Galloway's memoir, All Made Up. Ben talks about The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen, and Harriett has gone for Hilary Spurling's biography of Sonia Orwell, The Girl from the Fiction Department.

Producer Sally Heaven

John Wilson and Chloe Petts Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

Broadcaster John Wilson and comedian Chloe Petts choose books to recommend to Harriett Gilbert. John has chosen Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, which features a character based on the other Elizabeth Taylor. Chloe has gone for The Topeka School by Ben Lerner and Harriett goes for Hilary Mantel's first novel, Every Day is Mother's Day.

Producer Sally Heaven

Duncan Campbell and Mark Hodkinson Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

Writers Duncan Campbell and Mark Hodkinson discuss their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Duncan chooses the Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm, a book on the ethics of journalism with a very provocative opening sentence. Mark has gone for Contempt, Italian novelist Alberto Moravia's portrait of a disintegrating marriage. Harriett stays in Italy and introduces The Beautiful Summer by César Pavese, a coming-of-age novel set in the 1930s.

Producer Sally Heaven follow us on instagram @agoodreadbbc

Salena Godden and Rob Biddulph Jul 26, 2022

Show notes

Writer Salena Godden chooses Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys, a book she's re-read many times and returns to now – older, wiser and with even greater empathy for its protagonist.

Author-illustrator Rob Biddulph recommends When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle, named Children’s Fiction Book of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards, which brought him to tears and conjures London in the Blitz so vividly.

Presenter Harriett Gilbert picks Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore, the story of a heart transplanted from one life to another.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sarah Goodman.

Melanie Reid and Andrew Cotter Jul 19, 2022

Show notes

Columnist Melanie Reid adores This is Not About Me by Janice Galloway, a tragicomic account of her turbulent childhood in mid-century Scotland. Presenter Harriett Gilbert thinks John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a true masterpiece, and sports broadcaster (and famous dog owner) Andrew Cotter recommends The Wild Places by fellow mountain-lover Robert Macfarlane.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sarah Goodman.

Sophie Hannah and Viv Groskop Jul 12, 2022

Show notes

Writer Sophie Hannah and journalist Viv Groskop join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Agatha Christie, Mikhail Bulgakov and Eileen Atkins.

The Rose and the Yew Tree by Agatha Christie (writing as Mary Westmacott) Publisher HarperCollins

Will She Do? by Dame Eileen Atkins Publisher Virago

The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov trans by Michael Glenny Publisher Vintage

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2022.

Petroc Trelawny and Stuart MacBride Jul 05, 2022

Show notes

The broadcaster Petroc Trelawny, host of the Radio 3 Breakfast show, and the crime writer Stuart MacBride, author of the bestselling Logan McRae and Ash Henderson crime thrillers, talk to Harriett Gilbert about books they love.

Petroc's choice is dystopian JG Ballard novel The Drought, Stuart's is the Hollywood memoir by David Niven, The Moon's A Balloon, and Harriett's is Borges and Me by Jay Parini.

Produced by Eliza Lomas. Comment on instagram at @agoodreadbbc

Dr Alex George and Ella Al-Shamahi Jun 29, 2022

Show notes

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a guide to spiritual enlightenment and preaches the importance of being in the moment. Alex George has found it an invaluable guide when he has suffered periods of anxiety and poor mental health. Ella Al-Shamahi chooses a first hand account of being imprisoned in Yemen by Abdulkader Al-Guneid, a medical doctor taken from his home and locked up for over a year for posting his political views about the conflict in Yemen on social media. She says Prison Time in Sana'a is a testament to inner strength as well as a guide to understanding a very complex if forgotten war. Harriett's choice is the Mermaid of Black Conch - a novel about the capture of a sea woman by white fishermen on a fictional Caribbean island. Little Mermaid it is not. Monique Roffey's mermaid has bad teeth and is full of sea lice.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

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