A Good Read

Harriett Gilbert is joined by actor David Morrissey and Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Trevor Phillips to discuss some of their favourite books. David Morrissey's choice is the 1934 crime classic 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' by James M Cain. Trevor Phillips chooses 'The War of the End of the World' by Peruvian Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. Harriett's choice this week is...

Harriett Gilbert is joined by the BBC's Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders and novelist and journalist Roisin McAuley to discuss favourite books. Stephanie Flanders' choice is 'The Great Crash 1929', a classic account of financial disaster by one of the twentieth century's most influential economists, John Kenneth Galbraith. A witty and elegant analysis which is compelling even to those who can't...

Christopher Frayling, Professor Emeritus at the Royal College of Art, and broadcaster Nikki Bedi talk to Harriett Gilbert about the books they love. Christopher's recommendation is a passionate political polemic: Ill Fares The Land: A Treatise On Our Present Discontents, by Tony Judt. Nikki picks The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, the story of a boy growing up in an Indian family in America. Harriett'...

Chef Rick Stein and Michael Dobbs, author of House of Cards, recommend favourite books to presenter Harriett Gilbert. Rick Stein talks about Lifting the Latch (A Life on the Land) by Sheila Stewart, which he enjoyed because it's set in the area of Oxfordshire in which he was born and spent his childhood. The true-life story of rural labourer Mont Abbott, It's been described as a rival to Lark Rise...

The classicist Mary Beard and writer Bidisha talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books, in an edition recorded in front of an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. Books discussed: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Publisher Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons Publisher The Odyssey by Homer Publisher Producer: Beth O'Dea First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2011.

Former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo joins short story writer Sara Maitland and presenter Harriett Gilbert to talk about the books they love, and share their enthusiasm for their choices. Their favourite books cover the globe from Venezuela to Edinburgh to Steep in Hampshire, where Michael Morpurgo and the subject of his book both lived. He chooses Under Storm's Wing by Helen Thomas, a coll...

Harriett Gilbert talks to Alexander Waugh and Xanthe Clay about their favourite books. Letters Between a Father and Son by VS Naipaul Publisher: Picador Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book by Jane Grigson Publisher: Penguin A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf Publisher: Penguin Producer Beth O'Dea First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Harriett Gilbert talks to polymath Raymond Tallis and political journalist Allegra Stratton about their favourite books. Giving up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel Publisher: Fourth Estate The Walk by Robert Walser Publisher: Serpent's Tail What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt Publisher: Sceptre Producer Beth O'Dea First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Satirical writer John O'Farrell and historian Juliet Barker talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books - all of which use an unusual blend of fact and fiction. They evoke the lives of the Brontes, the worst civilian disaster of World War II and the British mandate in Palestine. The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan Publisher: Headline Review The Report by Jessica Francis Kane Publihser: Por...

Fay Weldon, Louise Welsh and Harriett Gilbert discuss favourite books by Lionel Shriver, HG Wells and Jean Rhys. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Publisher: Penguin Fay Weldon's choice: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells Publisher: Penguin We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver Publisher: Serpent's Tail Producer: Beth O'Dea First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli and comedian Simon Evans talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Producer Beth O'Dea.

Harriett Gilbert discusses favourite paperbacks with writer Fleur Adcock and comedian Laura Solon. Their choices include a modern classic by Evelyn Waugh and two coming-of-age novels, one set in France and the other in the north of England. Harriett Gilbert's choice: The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden Publ. Pan Laura Solon's choice: Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh Publ. Penguin Modern Fleur Adc...

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - actor Bill Paterson and travel writer Dea Birkett - discuss favourite paperback books by Bernhard Schlink, John Steinbeck and Richard Holme. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink Publisher: Phoenix Cannery Row by John Steinbeck Publisher: Penguin Modern Classics Footsteps by Richard Holmes Publisher Harper Press First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2011.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests - politician, Lord Chris Smith and novelist, Mavis Cheek - discuss their favourite books by Robert Macfarlane, Frances Kay and Jackie Kay. Trumpet by Jackie Kay Publisher: Picador The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane Publisher: Granta Books Micka by Frances Kay Publisher: Picador First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2011.

Journalist and critic James Walton and Lindsey Davis, creator of the ancient Roman detective Falco join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Richard Hughes, Nicholson Baker and Georgette Heyer. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes Publisher: Vintage Classics James Walton's choice The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker Publisher: Pocket Books Royal Escape by Georgette Heyer Publisher: Arr...