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
Jun 10, 2022 • 58min
275: Yoto Carnegie Medal: Katya Balen, Phil Earle & Sue Divin
This week we will be taking a look at more of the books short-listed for this year’s Yoto Carnegie Medal.
Katya Balen helps us find some inner-city wilderness and ponders our possessions in 'October, October'.
Phil Earle takes us to London during the blitz, where a gorilla changes the life of an angry boy in 'When the Sky Falls'.
Sue Divin looks to bridge sectarian divides in her Derry-based debut 'Guard Your Heart'.
And we return to Katya Balen for the Books of Your Life.
Jun 3, 2022 • 58min
274: Platinum Jubilee Special
This week we're celebrating The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
We hear about ‘Her Heart For a Compass’.
Robert Kirkwood discovers some Crown jewels in the RNIB Library.
Onjali Q Rauf takes us on a right royal adventure as ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class' struggles to keep a royal appointment.
Hannah Tausz celebrates some of the great reads from across The Commonwealth among the 70 titles selected for The Big Jubilee Read.
And we return to Sarah, Duchess of York, for the Books of Your Life.
May 27, 2022 • 58min
273: Boswell Book Festival 2022
Robert Kirkwood takes us to Dumfries House in Ayrshire for the Boswell Book Festival, the world's only festival of biography and memoir. We hear from Keith Brymer Jones, host of the Great Pottery Throwdown and author of Boy in a China Shop, Katherine McInnes tells us about the Snow Widows left behind by Scott's ill-fated South Pole mission, Andrew O'Hagan talks about his book Mayflies and his old job at Blind Veterans UK, Emma Soames edits her mother's diaries for Mary Churchill's War,Giles Milton has some Fascinating Footnotes from History, Frank Skinner and Denise Mina talk about retracing Johnson and Boswell's Grand Tour of Scotland, Lady Glenconner talks about her depiction in The Crown and narrating an audiobook at 89, and we return to Keith Brymer Jones for the books of his life.
May 20, 2022 • 58min
272: Yoto Carnegie Medal: Julian Sedgwick, Manjeet Mann &Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
The first of our Yoto Carnegie Medal specials!
Julian Sedgwick blends prose and manga to revisiting the aftermath of the Fukishima nuclear catastrophe in 'Tsunami Girl'.
Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock tackles teen issues in her series of short stories 'Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town'.
Manjeet Man explores the things we have in common, no matter where we come from, through her verse novel 'The Crossing'.
And we return to Julian Sedgwick for The Books of Your Life.
May 13, 2022 • 58min
271: Blind Authors: Fiona Scott-Barrett, Mark Hardie, Jill Fry and James Thurber
This week, we’re focussing on blind authors:
Fiona Scott-Barrett charts the journey of her book ‘The Exit Facility’ from first concept to fully accessible print and audiobook.84-year-old debut author Jill Fry describes what life was like for her as a low-vision child in her memoir ‘Born Too Soon’.Blind crime writer Mark Hardie shares some of the tricks of his trade.I dust off a gem written by a man who lost his sight when his brother shot him in the eye with an arrow!And we return to Fiona Scott-Barrett for the Books of Your Life.
May 6, 2022 • 58min
270: LD Lapinski, Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas and Lou Kuenzler
Ahead of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, we will be considering how children’s books approach some of the more sensitive topics life has to offer:
LD Lapinski takes us to a dark place in the final adventure with her Strangeworlds Travel Agency
Kwame Alexander gets poetic as he considers bereavement in his novel 'Rebound'.
Angie Thomas addresses gun violence and racism in her breath-taking debut 'The Hate U Give'.
Lou Kuenzler tells us how she approached writing a story aimed at giving early years readers a better understanding of sight loss.
And we return to LD Lapinski for the Books of Your Life.
Apr 29, 2022 • 58min
269: Louise Hare, Stuart Turton and Vicki Goldie
We’re investigating some novels inspired by the Golden Age of Crime-writing:
Louise Hare takes us onboard the Queen Mary for a transatlantic cruise with a side-order of murder, in her new book 'Miss Aldridge Regrets'.
Stuart Turton blends Agatha Christie, Cluedo, Groundhog Day and Quantum Leap then lets the murder and mayhem fizz, in his dazzling debut 'The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle'.
Vicki Goldie introduces us to her blind detective and reveals how he was inspired by both her husband and Agatha Christie!
And we return to Louise Hare for the Books of Your Life.
Apr 22, 2022 • 58min
268: T Orr Munro, Graeme Macrae Burnet and Emma Flint
This week we’ve got a crime scene special:
Former CSI T Orr Munro reveals how her work in the field informed her debut thriller 'Breakneck Point'.
Graeme Macrae Burnet discusses the real crime memoir that inspired him to write 'His Bloody Project'.
Emma Flint re-examines the evidence in one of the most notorious unsolved crimes in American history in her novel ‘Little Deaths’.
And we return to T Orr Munro for the Books of Your Life.
Apr 15, 2022 • 58min
267: Joanna Toye, Jane Clarke and Becky Wright
World War II may be over for the shop girls of Marlow’s, but as their creator Joanna Toye tells us, post-war Britain still has its battles, in 'Wedding Bells for the Victory Girls'.Children’s author Jane Clarke helps us celebrate Easter with some try-this-at-home experiments and an ostrich egg.And narrator Becky Wright reveals some of the highs and lows of her recording career.
Apr 8, 2022 • 58min
266: Spencer Leigh, Laura Barnett, Penny Melville-Brown and the Bookshop Band
This week there is a musical note to proceedings:As Bob Dylan turns 80, Spencer Leigh takes us back down some of the many routes taken by this most mercurial of musicians.We catch up with the Bookshop Band and hear how they condense tomes into tunes.Is it a book or an album? Well both actually; Laura Barnett discusses her multimedia novel 'Greatest Hits'.And Penny Melville-Brown helps us get in tune with Scandinavian crime fiction.
