A Good Read

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Chantal Joffe and Séamas O'Reilly Nov 28, 2023

Show notes

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 Nov 21, 2023

Show notes

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

India Knight and Emma Dabiri Nov 14, 2023

Show notes

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

Nigel Kennedy and Clare Perkins Nov 07, 2023

Show notes

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 and Romy Gill MBE Oct 31, 2023

Show notes

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

Anneka Rice and Maureen Freely Oct 24, 2023

Show notes

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

Cornelia Parker and Jeremy Lee Oct 17, 2023

Show notes

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

Rhys Stephenson and Esther Manito Oct 10, 2023

Show notes

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

Vaseem Khan and Lucy Winkett Oct 03, 2023

Show notes

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

Olivia Laing and Charlie Porter Jul 25, 2023

Show notes

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