The Bookshelf

Malcolm Knox’s Bluebird and Tim Winton’s Breath under scrutiny with surfwriter Stuart Nettle and documentary maker Johan Gabrielsson

On Sofie Laguna’s Infinite Splendours, Nardi Simpson’s Song of the Crocodile and Nicolas Mathieu’s And Their Children After Them with writers Sam Coley and Mykaela Saunders

Richard Flanagan's The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, Avni Doshi's Burnt Sugar, and Cassie meets bestselling author Ken Follett.

Writer Andrew O’Hagan on autobiographical fiction, an old copy of Dickens’ David Copperfield, why J M Barrie’s Peter Pan is so important, and other books that have shaped him and his latest novel, Mayflies

Trent Dalton's All Our Shimmering Skies, Marilynne Robinson's Jack, and Craig Silvey for Me, Myshelf and I.

Chris Riddell is an illustrator, cartoonist and novelist. Here, he discusses collaboration, reading, influences, poetry and why he draws political cartoons instead of shouting at the radio

Elena Ferrante's new novel The Lying Life of Adults, and the 1958 classic, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard

American novelist Sue Miller discusses both her latest novel, Monogamy, and the bookshelf that shaped her

On Craig Silvey’s Honeybee, Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom and Sue Miller’s Monogamy

Werewolves running nightclubs in Berlin, Supernatural Sydney, witches with attitude and a whole slew of terrific fantasy recommendations from writer Maria Lewis

On Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Ken Follett’s The Evening and the Morning and Edmund White’s A Saint from Texas

It was the Summer where everything changed: Meg Rosoff, her new novel and the bookshelf that made her

From dragons and mythical origin stories to adventures in the stars, fantasy and SF writer Christopher Paolini has plenty to say about how his genre works

Two writers on this podcast extra edition of the Bookshelf, both of whom write very broadly in a ‘Northern’ English tradition. Sarah Moss and Ian McGuire speak (separately) with Kate Evans

On Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies, Eley Williams’ The Liar’s Dictionary, Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words and Rose Tremain’s Islands of Mercy

Raymond E Feist on writing, and reading, fantasy fiction. World building, foundational texts, and how the genre has changed

Stage and screen actor Dugald Bruce Lockhart has now turned to fiction. Here, he reveals the books – and plays – that made him

The city of New York is coming alive, but its enemies are against it. Urban fantasy, overturning racist narratives, and some very large genre tentacles

Mauritian writer Kester Grant on her fantasy novel The Court of Miracles (inspired by Victor Hugo) and the books that have shaped her

Biographer, critic and novelist Nicholas Shakespeare on his latest novel (The Sandpit) and the books and writers that shaped him

On Jock Serong's The Burning Island, Sarah Moss's Summerwater and Ian McGuire's The Abstainer with writers Aoife Clifford and Emily Maguire

Michaela Kalowski and Kate Evans read Sam Coley’s State Highway One, Jasper Fforde’s The Constant Rabbit and Rebecca Dinerstein Knight’s Hex with writers Christopher Raja and Karina Kilmore

On Nicholas Shakespeare's The Sandpit, Nguyẽ̂n Phan Qué̂ Mai's The Mountains Sing and Amanda Lohrey's The Labyrinth

Imbi Neeme's The Spill, Victoria Hannan's Kokomo and Steven Conte's The Tolstoy Estate with writers Gina Inverarity and Roger Pulvers

The winner of this year's Miles Franklin's Literary Award, Tara June Winch's The Yield; and the debut novel of the benefactor of the Award, Miles Franklin' 1901 novel My Brilliant Career