Books and Authors BBC Radio 4
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- Society & Culture
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This podcast features Open Book and A Good Read. Open Book talks to authors about their work. In A Good Read Harriett Gilbert discusses favourite books.
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Carol Morley and Will Hislop
Film director Carol Morley and comedian Will Hislop discuss their favourite books.
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Open Book: Carys Davies, Annie Ernaux
Carys Davies on her new novel, Clear. Plus Annie Ernaux and photography
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Jonathan Buckley, Lit Crit and David Baddiel
Jonathan Buckley, Lit Crit and David Baddiel
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A Good Read: Christopher Eccleston and Lindsey Hilsum
JUST KIDS by Patti Smith, chosen by Lindsey Hilsum
MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor E. Frankl (trans. Ilse Lasch), chosen by Christopher Eccleston
TOWARDS THE END OF THE MORNING by Michael Frayn, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
The television journalist and actor share favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.
Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor of Channel 4 News, loves Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids, her account of coming to New York as a young woman and of her relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It's a coming-of-age story set against the heady backdrop of 1970s counterculture; it's a story of becoming an artist; and it's a love story that turns into an elegy.
The actor Christopher Eccleston chooses Man's Search for Meaning, the psychotherapist Viktor Frankl's account of his time in Nazi concentration camps and how those experiences informed his belief that man's deepest need is to search for meaning and purpose. It's a powerful book about retaining one's humanity in the face of unimaginable suffering and degradation.
And Harriett Gilbert chooses Towards the End of the Morning, Michael Frayn's 1967 satire about journalists working on a newspaper during the heyday of Fleet Street.
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
Customer Reviews
Feeds my Addiction
I enjoy the wide range of books discovered through these discussions. The guests vary so widely in how they interpret what is a a Good Read that I learn of books I’d never hear of elsewhere. The host is an absolute twin to my own book tastes so I know there will always be at least one book I’ve read or need to read or better still, need to reread.
Mariella Frostrup the best
Mariella Frostrup is by far the best of the hosts. Always measured, informed and a pleasure to listen to.
Often shallow
A great concept but often the shallowness of the guests is such that they could be talking about television. In fact they are usually TV presenters of some kind.