A Good Read

Dawn O'Porter and Graham Fellows, AKA John Shuttleworth, talk with Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books.Green Girl by Kate ZambrenoSteppenwolf by Herman HesseThe Blessing by Nancy MitfordFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - food blogger, Jack Monroe and comic actor, Doon MacKichan - discuss favourite books by Bryce Courtenay, Jenny Offill and Juan Gabriel Vásquez. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay Publisher: Penguin Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill Publisher. Granta The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez Publisher: BloomsburyFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - historians Roy Foster and Andrew Roberts - discuss favourite books by John Harris, Hanif Kureishi and William Maxwell. Covenant with Death by John Harris Publisher: SphereThe Chateau by William Maxwell Publisher: VintageThe Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi Publisher: FaberFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - former head of MI5 Eliza Manningham-Buller and Turkish author Elif Shafak - discuss their books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alison Lurie and Michael Chabon.‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Publisher: Fourth Estate‘The War Between the Tates’ by Alison Lurie Publisher: Vintage ‘Gentlemen of the Road’ by Michael Chabon Publisher: SceptreFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - journalist, Janet Street Porter, and crime writer, Martina Cole - discuss their favourite books by Curtis Sittenfeld, Maurice Druon and Muriel Spark. 'American Wife' by Curtis Sittenfeld Publisher: Penguin'The Iron King' by Maurice Druon Publisher: Doubleday'The Ballad of Peckham Rye' by Muriel Spark Publisher: Harper CollinsFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - comedian, Adam Hills and psychologist, Steven Pinker - discuss their favourite books by Albert Camus, Richard Bach and Jonathan Livingston.Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach Publisher: Harper Collins (Harper NonFiction)The Elements of Style by Strunk and White Publisher: Longman now PearsonThe Outsider by Albert Camus Publisher: Penguin Modern ClassicsFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - actress and author, Dame Sheila Hancock and journalist, Cosmo Landesman - discuss their favourite books by Toby Young, John Williams and Sylvia Townsend Warner.Stoner by John Williams Publisher: VintageHow To Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young Publisher: AbacusLolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner Publisher: ViragoFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - broadcaster, Jeremy Paxman and classicist, Dame Mary Beard - discuss their favourite books by Natalie Zemon Davis, Ben Fountain and Graham Greene. Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain Publisher: CanongateTravels with my Aunt by Graham Greene Publisher: VintageThe Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis Publisher: Harvard University PressFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Paralympian Ade Adepitan and comedian Dominic Holland talk books with Harriett Gilbert. Books under discussion are: Sue Townsend's delicious tale of teenage angst, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, In Cold Blood, Truman Capote's 'non-fiction novel' about the murders of four family members in a Kansas farmhouse in 1959 and Roddy Doyle's The Snapper, a comic portrayal of an unplanned pregnancy. Harriett and her two guests talk about the both the comedy and the poignancy to be found in novels about a working class Dublin family and a pompous teenager in 1980s Ashby de-la-Zouch. They debate the mind and motives of a psychopath and Truman Capote's views on the death penalty. Producer Sally Heaven.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights organisation Liberty, and Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane, talk about their favourite reads with Harriett Gilbert. Books under discussion are Evelyn Waugh's satire on the Anglo-American relationship staged in and around an LA funeral business, The Loved One, Rachel Holmes' biography of Eleanor Marx, and the children's classic, Charlotte's Web. Conversation ranges from our attitudes to death, to strong women who make bad relationship choices, to what makes great children's literature. Producer Sally Heaven.