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    Arts

    A Good Read

    Find reading inspiration with favourite books chosen by our guests.

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    Copyright: © (C) BBC 2025

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    Latest Episodes:
    Kathryn Hughes and Dan Schreiber Jun 07, 2024
    Show notes

    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


    Carol Morley and Will Hislop Mar 26, 2024
    Show notes

    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


    Christopher Eccleston and Lindsey Hilsum Mar 19, 2024
    Show notes

    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


    Katy Hessel and Amy Blakemore Mar 12, 2024
    Show notes

    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


    Andrew McMillan and Kathryn Williams Mar 05, 2024
    Show notes

    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


    Paterson Joseph and Richard Coles Feb 28, 2024
    Show notes

    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


    Anjana Vasan and Anne-Marie Imafidon Feb 20, 2024
    Show notes

    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


    Joe Talbot and Nancy Medina Feb 13, 2024
    Show notes

    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.


    Rachel Brown-Finnis and Anna Bogutskaya Feb 06, 2024
    Show notes

    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


    Ian Rankin and Colin MacIntyre Jan 30, 2024
    Show notes

    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


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