60 Weeks 60 Books

This week, the podcast takes a more optimistic turn, following in the footsteps of Simon Schama who delivers rich historical explorations on a grand scale. He is a magnetic writer, idiosyncratic and enjoyable as he displays his formidable breadth of knowledge and powers of synthesis in what remains an outstanding book, The Embarrassment of Riches. Even if you have not the slightest interest in 16t...

How Tzvetan Todorov's book about the concentration camps helped me come to terms with the full implications of our capacity for evil and find a way forward. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Goldhagen's controversial thesis about ordinary Germans and the Holocaust came out 27 years ago. Today, I invited my husband Peter for our look back at the impact of this landmark history book when we first read the book in 1996. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Northern Lights is a book that I return to regularly. It is an extraordinary adventure in its own right as well as a wondrous portal to worlds that are at once similar and very different to our own. Its heroes and villains are compelling, recognizable and dangerous, it is full of surprises and in amidst the action are deeper questions about what it is to be human and to be humane. Hosted on Acast....

It seems unfair that A Gathering Light, a winner of the Carnegie Award in 2003, is so little known. It is a terrific book, with a great heroine, plausible and considerable conflicts, murder, love and friendships. It captures totally the harshness of life in the early 20th century for farming families in the northeastern US, and also the impact of the modern world on places that might otherwise hav...

Tom Stoppard's plays do leave some people cold; he has been accused of too much intellect and not enough emotion. But Arcadia is a dazzling play that has a heart, balancing a sense of loss with optimism and a strong sense of possibility about the future. Rereading it, listening to the radio version, it still feels delightful and poignant in equal measure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

Anthony Trollope's narrative voice is particularly wry, sly and amused in this exploration of marriage, legitimacy and money. A cracking tale with a couple of very plausible and unpleasant villains, it stands up to multiple rereads. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before Dawkins was a combative and cranky commentator, he was a gifted researcher and academic. The Blind Watchmaker was for me, a game-changing book, and one that is worth re-reading. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are those who say that it is one of the most magnificent achievements in the English language, whilst others just feel it is seeing through a glass darkly, but the King James Version of the Bible is still worth revisiting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dorothy Dunnett was a magnificent writer - and definitely bears re-reading. In this episode, I explore just why the fifth book in the Lymond Chronicles is my favourite. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Wimsey first appeared in the early 20s, and by the time Strong Poison appeared in 1930, he was a definite success. Although the mystery is fairly straightforward, the roles given in particular to Miss Murchison and Miss Climpson, two middle-aged spinsters who are instrumental in resolving the crime, are original and interesting - Sayers broke new ground by depicting women as calm, capable an...

As global temperatures climb on land and in the sea, as wildfires rage and both the Arctic and Antarctic are melting, I remember an early warning voice, sadly disregarded despite achieving best-seller status in the mid 1980s. Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams is at once a meditation and a call to action which is more relevant than ever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Initially an academic, Jonathan Raban led a fairly unsettled life until his 50s when he moved to Seattle and became father to his only child. He died earlier this year, but his books live on. I am sure that I am not the only reader inspired by his example to look at the world with a clearer, cooler eye. His final book, Father and Son, will be published in September. But this episode focuses on Old...

Exploring the books that have shaped and changed me over the past 60 years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Exploring some of the aspects of George Eliot's rich life and why she absolutely outclasses Dickens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How old should Hamlet be? Why does it matter that he was a student at Wittenberg? And why is he more than a standard revenge hero from a standard revenge tragedy? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dickens definitely changed my life. First I loathed him, then I loved him, and if it hadn't been for Bleak House, I don't think I would have studied English at university. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Georgette Heyer rightly has many fans and continues to sell well. Here I explore why Frederica is my particular favorite, with its world-weary hero and bustling, managing heroine. Heyer began the tradition of the regency romance, and arguably, her books remain the best of the genre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we are taking a look at some of the tropes of the mass market bestsellers of the 1970s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Although not her most popular novel, Thunder on the Right was the first book of Mary Stewart's that I read. I have a feeling I acquired the tatty paperback in one of the dodgy second hand bookshops in Brighton's North Laines. Somewhere in a box, it still lurks! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An exploration of how Holden Caulfield provided solace and hope to a cynical 13 year old. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Edith Piaf's signature song is probably Non, je ne regrette rien, namechecked in the Simpsons, the Penthouse and Specsavers ads. Here, I take a look at her life and how the biography I originally trusted turned out to be highly unreliable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why Mills & Boon were and are a possible answer to the angst of the adolescent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At once a terrible and a great book, Margaret Mitchell's bestseller is at once a propulsive, immersive read, and an awkward apologia for the well-deserved death of a toxic society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jean Plaidy was one of the most popular and prolific of the 20th century's historical novelists. She still delivers a cracking good read! For me, she was a transition writer between children's historical fiction and the bodice rippers that dominated romance writing in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.