About this season
Three people -- generally authors but also agents and publishers -- talk about their work as well as the hot topics of the day.
Episodes (36)
1. Episode 1
Aired 14 October 2010
NEW SERIES 5 - Susan Hill, Sebastian Faulks, and James Ellroy
2. Episode 2
Aired 21 October 2010
Jilly Cooper, Judith Kerr, and Salman Rushdie
3. Episode 3
Aired 28 October 2010
Lynne Reid Banks, Justine Picardie, Barry Humphries, and Lee Child
4. Episode 4
Aired 4 November 2010
Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl; Val McDermid; and Michael Frayn
5. Episode 5
Aired 11 November 2010
Iain M Banks on his latest sci-fi novel Surface Detail, Michelle Paver on why she finds the arctic such a scary place in her new novel Dark Matter, and Bernard Cornwell on how necessity drove him to become a novelist and his latest book The Fort.
6. Episode 6
Aired 18 November 2010
Helen of Troy in jeans Bettany Hughes, travel writer Tim Butcher, and satirical cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. Plus, Alison Weir on The Write Place and Ken Follett's bedside reads.
7. Episode 7
Aired 25 November 2010
India Knight talks about Comfort & Joy, Nicholas Evans on The Brave, and Amanda Foreman on A World on Fire
8. Episode 8
Aired 2 December 2010
Conn Iggulden, Michael Holroyd, and Dawn French on their latest books and what every 21 year old should be reading. Plus a look inside Philip Kerr's study, Peter Carey's favourite bookshop, and Tara Palmer Tomkinson's bedside reads.
9. Episode 9
Aired 9 December 2010
Sir Michael Parkinson talks about lasting fame as Emu's interviewer and being grumpy, Edmund de Waal shows off his family heirlooms, and PD James on turning real life detective. Plus the first of our Xmas book recommendations.
10. Episode 10
Aired 16 December 2010
Nigella Lawson, Kevin McCloud, and Kate Morton
11. Episode 11
Aired 20 January 2011
Biographer Sarah Bakewell, spin doctor and diarist Alistair Campbell, and cult film director John Waters
12. Episode 12
Aired 27 January 2011
Lindsey Davis, Daisy Goodwin, and Raymond Khoury
13. Episode 13
Aired 3 February 2011
Guest authors Matthew Parris, Leila Aboulela, and writer/director Rowan Joffé. Also Armistead Maupin on his Bedside Reads, Jonathan Safran Foer reads us his Fine Line, Colin Dexter gives his Book Club Recommendation, and Sister Wendy reveals her writing habits.
14. Episode 14
Aired 10 February 2011
Linda Grant, Simon Sebag Montefiore, and Jane Shilling. Plus Belle de Jour's bedside reads, Mark Mills' Book Club, and Steve Bell's study.
15. Episode 15
Aired 17 February 2011
Wendy Holden, Anthony Quinn, and Edna O'Brien as well as a trip to Paris to see Victor Hugo's study, as well as Rebecca Hunt's bedside reads and Philip Kerr's Book Club selection.
16. Episode 16
Aired 24 February 2011
Allison Pearson, Helen Dunmore, and Francesca Beauman. Plus: Hugh Bonneville on his book club choice, Kate Mosse on The Write Place, and Alexander McCall Smith reveals his bedside reads.
17. Episode 17
Aired 3 March 2011
Bath Literature Festival (1/2): Howard Jacobson, Colin Thubron, and Kim Edwards
18. Episode 18
Aired 10 March 2011
Bath Literature Festival (2/2): Kazuo Ishiguro, David Starkey, and Aminatta Forna
19. Episode 19
Aired 17 March 2011
Words by the Water: Jackie Kay, Valerie Grove, and Joanna Trollope
20. Episode 20
Aired 24 March 2011
Ways With Words Festival: Salley Vickers, Manju Kapur, and Chris Mullin
21. Episode 21
Aired 31 March 2011
Noughts and Crosses writer Malorie Blackman, Costa-nominated author Louise Doughty, and controversial historian Niall Ferguson.
22. Episode 22
Aired 7 April 2011
Melvyn Bragg, Emma Donoghue, and Wendy Cope
23. Episode 23
Aired 14 April 2011
Biographer Hugo Vickers tells all about Wallis Simpson, bestselling rom-com author Jenny Colgan serves up a feast, and Jennifer Egan tells us about her novel A Visit From The Goon Squad which she says is Proust meets The Sopranos.
24. Episode 24
Aired 21 April 2011
Philip Hensher, Peter Ackroyd, and Sara Paretsky
25. Episode 25
Aired 28 April 2011
Stefanie Powers, Monica Ali,and Paula McLain
26. Episode 26
Aired 5 May 2011
Simon Winchester, Esther Freud, and Eoin Colfer
27. Episode 27
Aired 12 May 2011
Bestseller Wilbur Smith, Sky News' presenter turned novelist Kay Burley, and John Julius Norwich gives us an audience when he discusses his new book The Popes.
28. Episode 28
Aired 19 May 2011
Jodi Picoult discusses her latest, Sing You Home. Caradoc King, literary agent turned writer, discusses his powerful memoir Problem Child. Irish novelist Paul Murray talks about his tragi-comic novel set in a Dublin boarding school, Skippy Dies.
29. Episode 29
Aired 26 May 2011
Stella Tillyard, Douglas Kennedy, and Edward St Aubyn
30. Episode 30
Aired 28 May 2011
The Book Show at Hay (1/4): Paul Theroux, Jeffery Deaver, and Cerys Matthews - who also entertains us with a song from her new album.
31. Episode 31
Aired 29 May 2011
The Book Show at Hay (2/4): Professor Brian Cox, Henning Mankell, and Mark Logue
32. Episode 32
Aired 30 May 2011
The Book Show at Hay (3/4): David Baddiel, Elif Shafak, and David Bailey
33. Episode 33
Aired 31 May 2011
The Book Show at Hay (4/4): Victor Gregg, Adam Nicolson, and Marcus Sedgwick
34. Episode 34
Aired 2 June 2011
Terry Jones on his Animal Tales and new film, author Rosamund Lupton with her latest, and Deborah Moggach pays tribute to Beryl Bainbridge's career
35. Episode 35
Aired 9 June 2011
Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, and John Boyne
36. Episode 36
Aired 16 June 2011
Colm Toibin, Liz Lochhead, and author/director Rebecca Miller (last episode of this series)