Books and Authors

A special programme celebrating the breadth and power of writing from the Caribbean

Oyinkan Braithwaite, Books as clutter, Kafka's legacy, True crime in fiction

Open Book explores the legacy of the American writer John Steinbeck

Festive short stories, Hangovers in fiction, Christmas novels, Book choices for 2019

Joyce Carol Oates, Wind in the Willows, October Books and orphans in literature

Donald S Murray, Lyrics and poetry, publishing in Iceland and Greenland

Comedian Gráinne Maguire and alternative history author John Higgs talk to presenter Harriett Gilbert about books they really love. Gráinne chooses Elaine Dundy’s first novel The Dud Avocado, the delightfully funny adventures of a young woman in 1950s Paris. John picks The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent, a history of the world in cultural ideas which offers a brand new way of understanding civilisation and the future. Harriett’s choice is dark wartime novel The Dressmaker by Beryl...

Lee Child, Southall-set thrillers, crime picks for teenagers

SAS thriller writer Andy McNab and spoken word artist George the Poet choose a good read

Barbara Kingsolver, Northern Irish writing, India’s gay fiction

Barbara Kingsolver discusses her new novel Unsheltered with Mariella Frostrup.

Harriett Gilbert is joined by authors Kamila Shamsie and Jeffrey Archer

Exploring literary responses to the Great War in the immediate aftermath of the Armistice. The University of Leicester's Victoria Stewart, and biographer Jean Moorcroft Wilson, discuss the ways that fiction reflected the horror of war in the decade after 1918. Novelist Richard T. Kelly considers the pitfalls of including real people in works of fiction. Bestselling novelist Maria Dahvana Headley explains why Beowulf felt like the appropriate framework through which to explore race, class and...

Katie Derham and Matt Haig talk about their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.

Harriett Gilbert talks favourite books with guests, comedians Sindhu Vee and Phil Wang.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah on his short story debut, Friday Black and Minette Walters

Actor and comedian Liz Carr and Kate Williams select a favourite read

Liane Moriarty, best-selling author of Big Little Lies, discusses her latest novel.

Comedian and actor Ben Miller and writer Danny Wallace choose their favourite books.

Colombian novelist Hector Abad joins Mariella Frostrup to discuss ideas of inheritance and escape in his new family saga The Farm. And Laura Purcell reflects on what soaring horror fiction sales can tell us about contemporary anxieties.