Read On - The Audiobook Show from RNIB
RNIB Connect Radio
A weekly show all about audiobooks recorded at the RNIB Talking Book studios.
We talk to your favourite authors and narrators, along with reviews and news about new audiobooks.
Presented and produced by Robert Kirkwood, you'll find a new episode here every Friday at 1pm plus bonus content such as longer uncut interviews and episodes of our occasional extra show, The Book Group.
Talking Books is a free service from RNIB giving access to over 40,000 fiction and non fiction books for adults and children. Find out more by searching for RNIB Library.
Get involved and join the conversation by emailing radio@rnib.org.uk or find Robert on Twitter @Talking_Books
Other great podcast channels from RNIB Connect Radio
Connect - Our main channel with news, features and articles on sight loss.
Conversations - Blind and partially sighted people speaking about a wide range of topics.
Tech Talk - Technology for blind and partially sighted people.
Sport - See sport differently.
The Happy Hour - Mental health, mindfulness, and overall wellbeing.
Tracks of My Life - Take a journey through our guest's life.
Support - Other podcasts from RNIB.
TV Guide - Daily audio TV listings
We talk to your favourite authors and narrators, along with reviews and news about new audiobooks.
Presented and produced by Robert Kirkwood, you'll find a new episode here every Friday at 1pm plus bonus content such as longer uncut interviews and episodes of our occasional extra show, The Book Group.
Talking Books is a free service from RNIB giving access to over 40,000 fiction and non fiction books for adults and children. Find out more by searching for RNIB Library.
Get involved and join the conversation by emailing radio@rnib.org.uk or find Robert on Twitter @Talking_Books
Other great podcast channels from RNIB Connect Radio
Connect - Our main channel with news, features and articles on sight loss.
Conversations - Blind and partially sighted people speaking about a wide range of topics.
Tech Talk - Technology for blind and partially sighted people.
Sport - See sport differently.
The Happy Hour - Mental health, mindfulness, and overall wellbeing.
Tracks of My Life - Take a journey through our guest's life.
Support - Other podcasts from RNIB.
TV Guide - Daily audio TV listings
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 20, 2023 • 58min
343: Nigel Planer, Kate Mosse and Rory Cellan-Jones - Wigtown Book Festival
Three more authors interviewed at the Wigtown Book Festival in this week's show. Ex-BBC technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones tells Robert Kirkwood about his memoir Ruskin Park, we go swashbuckling with Kate Mosse and her book The Ghost Ship, and we time travel with actor and writer Nigel Planer as he tells us about Jeremiah Bourne in Time.Plus we find some new books entering the Talking Books Library.
Oct 13, 2023 • 58min
342: Maggie O'Farrell, Kathryn Harkup and Jo Caulfield - Wigtown Book Festival
In a second visit this year to Wigtown, Robert Kirkwood talks to comedian Jo Caulfield about her moving memoir The Funny Thing About Death, we get poisons, monsters and some secret lairs in Kathryn Harkup's Superspy Science and we take a trip during the Italian Renaissance with Maggie O'Farrell and her book, The Marriage Proposal.All that plus four new gems in the Talking Books library, one of which is narrated by Meryl Streep!
Oct 6, 2023 • 58min
341: Louise Doughty, Lynsey May, Stuart Paterson and Ruth Scurr - Wigtown Book Festival
This week Robert Kirkwood travels to Scotland's Book Town and talks to novelist Lynsey May about her debut book, Weak Teeth, Stuart Paterson reads his viral poem, Here's the Weather, historian Ruth Scurr talks about Napoleon: A Life told in Gardens and Shadow and author Louise Doughty talks about her brand new thriller, A Bird in Winter.Plus we find four new gems in the Talking Books Library.
Sep 29, 2023 • 58min
340: 20 Years of RNIB Connect Radio with Read On - Part 2
As RNIB Connect Radio turns 20, Read On this week looks back at some of the first authors, narrators and looks behind the scenes we've had on the show.Actor Allan Tall talks about preparing a Christopher Brookmyre book for narration and being thrown from his horse during the filming of Braveheart.Author Alan Bissett joins Robert Kirkwood after narrating his book, The Incredible Adam Spark.And former manager of the Talking Book Studios, Ian Turner, talks about all the famous narrators who recorded books exclusively for RNIB.Plus, as always, we find four new gems in the library
Sep 22, 2023 • 58min
339: M.A. Kuzniar - Upon A Frosted Star and Midnight in Everwood
This week author M.A. Kuzniar joins Robert Kirkwood to talk about her bestseller Midnight in Everwood, a magical retelling of The Nutcracker, and her brand-new book, Upon a Frosted Star where The Great Gatsby meets Swan Lake.
We also find some new gems in the RNIB Talking Books library.
Sep 15, 2023 • 58min
338: Ava Glass - Alias Emma: The Chase and The Traitor
Out now is Ava Glass’s second book in the Alia Emma series, The Traitor. Ava joins us to talk about her background as a journalist in America and with MI5 and MI6 in the UK and how it all shaped her main character.
We also hear some new books in the RNIB Talking Books Library.
Sep 8, 2023 • 58min
337: 20 Years of RNIB Connect Radio with Read On
As RNIB Connect Radio turns 20, Read On this week looks at books of the same vintage.
2003 was a great year for books with bestsellers including Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, The DaVinci Code and even The Atkins Diet. Robert Kirkwood picks five books from 2003 available from the Talking Books library, and we chat to authors Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots and Leaves), Mark Haddow (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time) and Bill Bryson (A Short History of Nearly Everything).
Plus, as always, we find some new gems in the library.
Sep 1, 2023 • 58min
336: Charlotte Levin - If I Let You Go
This week Robert Kirkwood is joined again by Charlotte Levin, who was last on the show with her debut novel, 'If I can't Have You' which was released at the height of lockdown. Now a few years later, Charlotte is back to discuss a gripping, darkly comic tale of searing loss, coercive control and the consequences of taking the wrong path, her new novel 'If I Let You Go' ... and also to blame Robert for her new, full blown, audiobook addiction
Plus we find four new gems in the Talking Books library.
Aug 25, 2023 • 58min
335: See Sport Differently
A sporty feel in today's show as we chat to commentator Mike Ingham about his book 'After Extra Time and Penalties: Memories of a BBC Football Correspondent' and why he had to narrate the audio version. John Carlin tells us about his book 'Playing the Enemy' and the Rugby World Cup Final that united South Africa, plus we find some old and new books about sport in the RNIB Talking Books library.
Aug 18, 2023 • 58min
334: Extreme Travel
In today's show, two extreme travellers. We hear about Royal Marine Commando Mick Dawson 'Rowing the Pacific' and his subsequent adventure with ex-marine Sparky Sparkes, who was not only a rowing novice, but also blind.Plus 25 years on, we revisit Chris Stewart, the eternal optimist. A man who flies to Spain, sees a peasant farm on the wrong side of the river and, with scarcely a second thought, hands over a cash deposit, as documented in 'Driving Over Lemons'Plus we find four new gems in the Talking Books Library.
