Bookclub

Fifty Three episodes. First broadcast from 19980508 to 20080807. (* = BBC7 rebroadcast).

Title	First Broadcast	Repeated	Description
Birdsong	19980508		James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to author Sebastian Faulks about his bestselling novel, `Birdsong'.
Beloved	19980607		James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to author Toni Morrison about her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel `Beloved'.
Beloved	19980612		James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to author Toni Morrison about her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel `Beloved'.
Fatherland	19980705		James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to author Robert Harris about his international bestseller `Fatherland'.
Fatherland	19980710		James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to author Robert Harris about his international bestseller `Fatherland'.
Captain Corelli	19980802	19980807	James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Louis de Bernieres about his hugely successful novel `Captain Corelli's Mandolin'.
	20041205	20041209	James Naughtie's guest is Carol Ann Duffy, one of the most widely read British poets. She discusses her inventive and funny collection The World's Wife.
	20050102	20050106	Zadie Smith talks to a group of readers about one of the most talked about fictional débuts of recent years, White Teeth, which Zadie wrote at the tender age of 26. Adored by critics and readers like, the novel addresses contemporary race issues, and depicts life in LONDON in the 1950s and 1970s for two male characters, Archie Jones and Samad Miah Iqbal.
	20050206	20050210	Bill Bryson meets readers to discuss his bestselling book A Short History of Nearly Everything - his quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to Darwin's theory of evolution. On his travels through space and time, Bill Bryson encounters a splendid gallery of the most fascinating, eccentric, competitive, and foolish personalities ever to ask a hard question. He takes subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. James Naughtie presents. .
	20050306	20050310	James Naughtie invites Stephen Fry to put on his novelist's hat and meet readers to discuss his darkly comic novel The Hippopotamus. [Rptd Thu 4.00pm] Stephen Fry puts on his novelist's hat and meets readers to discuss his darkly comic novel "The Hippotamus". It's the story of Ted, an old, sour, whisky-sodden beast of a poet and drama critic who loses his job, and seeks a few months repose and free drink at Swafford Hall, the country mansion of his old friend Lord Logan. There he finds strange goings on. James Naughtie presents.
	20050501	20050505	Andrea Levy won last year's Orange Prize and Whitbread Prize for her novel Small Island. She joins readers to discuss the novel. James Naughtie presents. [Rptd Thu 4.00pm] Andrea Levy won last year's Orange Prize and Whitbread Prize for her novel "Small Island", which has been a runaway success and is a current favourite with book groups round the UK. Andrea joins readers in Bookclub to discuss the novel, the tale of two immigrants from Jamaica in the post-war years, and which is based on the story of her own parents. James Naughtie presents.
	20050605	20050609	Adrian Mole is almost a national treasure, with his unrequited love for Pandora and his terrible poetry. Over ten million Mole books have been sold worldwide since the first diary appeared in 1982, and the book is often used in family therapy. His creator Sue Townsend is one of the UK's foremost comic novelists, and she joins James Naughtie and readers in BIRMINGHAM to discuss Mole's first journal, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and ¾, a poignant and sometimes hilarious mix of teenage angst and a desire to be somebody.
	20050703	20050707	Dr Oliver Sacks talks about The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. His collection of true-life case studies into neurological disorders was written with warmth, sympathy and in a prose style from the point of view of the doctor. It is interesting, entertaining and even funny in parts. The audience discussing the book with James Naughtie include a couple of readers who have suffered from the same kind of disorders, and practising neurologists. Dr Oliver Sacks talks about The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. His collection of true-life case studies into neurological disorders, was written with warmth, sympathy and in a prose style from the point of view of the doctor. The audience discussing the book with James Naughtie include a couple of readers who have suffered from the same kind of disorders, as well as practising neurologists.
	20050807	20050811	Michael Dibdin is a crime writer who enjoys a literary reputation. In his novel Blood Rain, the ninth in his Aurelio Zen series, Inspector Zen (an Italian detective) has got the posting he always dreaded - he has been sent to Sicily, home of the Mafia, in a nondescript liaison job. Dibdin discusses Blood Rain with a group of readers and James Naughtie presents. Michael Dibdin is a crime writer who enjoys a literary reputation. He discusses his novel Blood Rain, the ninth in his Aurelio Zen series. Inspector Zen is an Italian detective and in this book he has got the posting he always dreaded - he has been sent to Sicily, home of the Mafia, in a nondescript liaison job. Dibdin discusses Blood Rain with a group of readers and James Naughtie presents.
	20050904	20050908	Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier cast a spell over a whole generation of French readers in the 20th century, with its romanticism, its portrayal of adolescent friendship and its evocation of pastoral France. But does it still speak to readers today? Novelist and poet Michèle Roberts is our Bookclub guide to the novel. Readers in Paris include teachers and students. Recorded at the studios of Radio France, with James Naughtie presenting.
	20051002	20051006	Playwright, screenwriter, novelist and film-maker Hanif Kureishi discusses his semi-autobiographical book The Buddha of Suburbia with James Naughtie and a group of readers. It was first published in 1990 and has been translated into 30 languages. Karim, the novel's young hero, like Kureishi, has a Pakistani father and an English mother. The novel describes Karim's struggle for social and sexual identity, and is a comic coming-of-age novel and a satirical portrait of race relations in Britain during the 1970s.
	20051106	20051110	Historian Antonia Fraser talks about The Gunpowder Plot, her exploration behind the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of 5 November, 1605. The book unravels the tangled web of religion and politics that led Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes and others to attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament, King James I and his family, in the first modern attempt at terrorism. Presented by James Naughtie.
	20051204	20051208	American writer Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most interesting, adventurous and prolific writers working today. She joins readers in Bookclub to discuss We Were the Mulvaneys, the story of the break-up of a contented family after the disaster of a rape which destroys its pride and its cohesion. James Naughtie presents. American writer Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most interesting, adventurous and prolific writers working today. She joins readers in Bookclub to discuss We Were the Mulvaneys, the story of the break-up of a contented family after the random disaster of a rape which destroys its pride and its cohesion. James Naughtie presents.
	20060101	20060105	Bookclub meets one of the most unregenerate bounders in British fiction: Sir Harry Flashman; and his chronicler, the author George MacDonald Fraser. Flashman began life as the bully in Tom Brown's Schooldays but achieved global notoriety when Fraser reincarnated him in the 1960s in the fictional Flashman Papers. George MacDonald Fraser took on Flashman's life story from when he was expelled from Rugby school for drunkenness, he put him in the army and sent him off to fight in the first Afghan War in 1839; the first of his many adventures in Victorian military campaigns. The author isn't sure why he chose Flashman for his anti-hero, he just wondered one day what might have happened to him and took up his story. Fraser's Flashman is still a drunken bully; in fact worse. He's a cad, a poltroon, a deceiving braggard, a coward and a seducer of other men's wives. Yet he is extraordinarily popular and the 12 books in the series have sold in their millions, and generated several fan clubs too. When published in the States, many reviewers thought the first book was a genuine diary. Bookclub readers have been reading the first of the Flashman papers, simply called Flashman.
	20060205	20060209	Holidays in Hell By PJ O'Rourke. Remember when foreign news was about Reagan and Gorby, the Lebanon and El Salvador? American satirist PJ O'Rourke joins readers in Bookclub to discuss Holidays in Hell - his spiky and sometimes outrageous account of visits to troublespots around the world when he was foreign correspondent for Rolling Stone magazine in the late 1980s. James Naughtie presents. Holidays in Hell By PJ O'Rourke. Remember when foreign news was about Reagan and Gorbachev, the Lebanon and El Salvador? American satirist PJ O'Rourke joins readers in Bookclub to discuss Holidays in Hell - his spiky and sometimes outrageous account of visits to troublespots around the world when he was foreign correspondent for Rolling Stone magazine in the late 1980s. James Naughtie presents.
	20060305	20060309	The holder of the Orange Prize for Fiction, Lionel Shriver, joins Bookclub to discuss her controversial and compelling novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin. It details the painfully honest analysis of a mother whose unloved son has grown up to commit a horrifying crime. Is the mother to blame? Or was Kevin simply born bad? A studio audience asks questions about a book that raises profound questions about motherhood. James Naughtie presents.
	20060402	20060406	Malorie Blackman joins James Naughtie to discuss Noughts and Crosses, her novel set in an alternate reality where people are either crosses (with prospects) or noughts.
	20060507	20060511	Ali Smith is fast becoming a major voice in contemporary British writing. She joins readers to discuss Hotel World, her experimental novel shortlisted for the Booker and Orange prizes. Recorded at the Jubilee Library in Brighton, and presented by James Naughtie.
	20060604	20060608	Lindsey Davis joins readers in Bookclub to discuss Time to Depart part of her series of thrillers set in Ancient Rome. Her investigator is Marcus Didius Falco, a kind of 1950s gumshoe detective operating in the teeming bustle of Rome, from the Emperor's circle to the boozers in the taverns by the river Tiber. James Naughtie presents.
	20060702	20060706	This month's book choice pushes the boundary between fiction and the writings of a reporter or travel-writer. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil tells the story of what John Berendt saw, heard, experienced in Savannah, Georgia, when he lived there in the early '90s and when the town was turned upside down by a strange murder. James Naughtie presents and readers ask the questions.
	20060806	20060810	James Naughtie celebrates the 100th edition of Bookclub with the master of American crime fiction, Elmore Leonard. August's book choice is Rum Punch, set in Florida it features the world of thieves and guns, thugs and rough bail bondsmen, dangerous eccentrics and the marvellous Jackie Burke, later changed into Jackie Brown in the film of the same name by Quentin Tarantino. A studio audience ask the questions.
	20060903	20060907	Matthew Kneale won the Whitbread Book of the Year 2000 prize with his novel, English Passengers. He joins readers and presenter James Naughtie to discuss the work.
	20061001	20061005	Novelist Jane Gardam joins James Naughtie and readers to discuss Old Filth, the life story of a judge.
	20061105	20061109, RptdThur4.00pm	Scientist Lewis Wolpert joins James Naughtie and readers to discuss Malignant Sadness, an account of his battle with acute depression, which combines his experiences and information about diagnosis and treatment, with excerpts from poems by other suffers including Shelly and Gerald Manley Hopkins.
	20070107	20070111, RptdThu4.00pm	Deemed one of the best books of the last decade, Bookclub welcomes Jonathan Franzen as guest to discuss The Corrections, which was published to great acclaim just a week after 9/11.
	20070204	20070208	Val McDermid weaves webs of psychological terror in her crime fiction. She joins readers in Bookclub to discuss The Mermaids Singing, the story of a serial killer who stalks the gay subculture of a northern town. It's the first book to feature her character Tony Hill, the psychological profiler, and its content is not for the squeamish. James Naughtie presents.
	20070304	20070308	Eleanor of Aquitaine was the most powerful and enigmatic woman of her age. Historian Alison Weir discusses her biography of Eleanor, the mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John and wife to the Kings of England and France, with James Naughtie and a group of readers.
	20070401	20070405	James Naughtie and an audience of readers talk to comic fiction author Jonathan Coe, who discusses his novel What A Carve Up! The story of a powerful, wealthy and ruthless family, the book is a satire on Thatcherite Britain.
	20070506	20070510	James Naughtie and an audience of readers talk to author Jodi Picoult. Her novel My Sister's Keeper is about a young girl who sues her parents for the right to make her own decisions about how her body is used when a kidney transplant is planned in order to save her older sister.
	20070603	20070607	From the Hay Festival, James Naughtie and an audience of readers talk to David Mitchell to discuss Cloud Atlas, the novel that made him an overnight literary star. The book explores slavery in six nested stories that move from the remote South Pacific in the 19th Century to the far future after a nuclear apocalypse. From the Hay Festival, James Naughtie and an audience of readers talk to David Mitchell to discuss Cloud Atlas, the novel that made him an overnight literary star. The book explores slavery in six nested stories that move from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to the far future after a nuclear apocalypse.
	20070701		James Naughtie is joined by Germaine Greer to discuss her groundbreaking book The Female Eunuch. Published in 1970, the book changed women's lives and has been in print ever since.
	20070805	20070809	James Naughtie and an audience of readers talk to Colin Dexter about The Remorseful Day, Chief Inspector Morse's last case.
	20070902	20070906	James Naughtie and an audience of readers discuss Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, which first appeared in a daily column in the San Francisco Chronicle and became a best-selling series of novels. The first book in the series embraces all the promiscuity and hedonism of 1970s San Francisco. With its array of eccentric characters and bizarre plot-lines, the novel is a hilarious read.
	20071007		James Naughtie and an audience of readers talk to James Robertson about his historical novel Joseph Knight, winner of two major Scottish literary prizes in 2003/4.
	20071104	20071108	James Naughtie and an audience of readers discuss American author Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible. The story is told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce evangelical Baptist who takes his family mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. What follows is a suspenseful tale of the family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in post-colonial Africa.
	20071202	20071206, RptofSun4.00pm	James Naughtie and readers meet the 1982 Booker Prize winner Thomas Keneally. The chosen book is Schindler's Ark, based on the real life story of Oskar Schindler, a young German businessman who risked his own life to save more than a thousand Polish Jews from the gas chamber. The novel, which remains one of the best evocations of the Holocaust, was made into an Oscar-winning film by Steven Spielberg.
	20080106	20080110, RptdThu4.00pm	James Naughtie and readers meet American author Alice Sebold to discuss her debut novel The Lovely Bones, featuring a teenage narrator who has been murdered. Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon looks down from her personal heaven, watching her family racked by her death and following their progress towards recovery. First published in 2002, the Lovely Bones has now sold over a million copies and remained on the New York Times hardback bestseller list for a year.
	20080203	20080207	James Naughtie and an audience of readers discuss Sarah Dunant's The Birth of Venus, an erotic thriller set in Renaissance Florence. A young woman, forbidden to paint by society's strictures, finds an outlet for her creativity via an unusual marriage and a relationship with an artist.
	20080302	20080306	James Naughtie and an audience of readers are joined by William Hague to discuss his biography of William Pitt the Younger, who became the youngest ever prime minister in 1783 at the age of 24. Hague's book offers many insights into the life of an extraordinary man who dominated politics in his time, but died when he was just 46.
	20080406	20080410	Poet Simon Armitage joins James Naughtie and readers to discuss his translation of the Middle English epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Describing the poem as one of the jewels in the crown of English literature, Simon tells the story of Arthurian Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight's deadly challenge in gritty prose, concentrating on the alliteration and Northern voice of the original poet.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	20080504	20080508	Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie joins James Naughtie and readers to talk about Half of a Yellow Sun, winner of last year's Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. She is the youngest ever winner of the prize and her novel was praised for its intimate portraits of one family, their close circle of friends and neighbours, and how the horrors of the 1960s Biafra War in Nigeria engulf them and test their loyalties.
	20080601		Jan Morris joins James Naughtie and readers to talk about her portrait of the city of Venice. The book, simply entitled Venice, was written nearly fifty years ago.
	20080605		Jan Morris joins James Naughtie and readers to talk about her portrait of the city of Venice. The book, simply entitled Venice, was written nearly fifty years ago and is a classic account of the city's history and strange charms.
	20080706		With James Naughtie. Norwegian author Asne Seierstad discusses The Bookseller of Kabul, the novelisation of her time in Afghanistan as a foreign correspondent just after 9/11.
	20080710		With James Naughtie. Norwegian author Asne Seierstad discusses The Bookseller of Kabul, the novelisation of her time in Afghanistan as a foreign correspondent just after 9/11.
	20080803		Irish writer Colm Toibin joins James Naughtie and readers to discuss his Man Booker shortlisted novel The Master, a fictionalised account of five years in the life of Henry James. James is often thought of as a writer's writer, and Toibin's story explores the differences and the tensions between the master novelist and the private man - anxious, troubled and unsure.
	20080807		Irish writer Colm Toibin joins James Naughtie and readers to discuss his Man Booker shortlisted novel The Master, a fictionalised account of five years in the life of Henry James. James is often thought of as a writer's writer, and Toibin's story explores the differences and the tensions between the master novelist and the private man - anxious, troubled and unsure.
		* 20070212	[unmatched BBC7 broadcast] Terry Pratchett joins Bookclub to talk about Mort, the fourth book in his hugely successful Discworld series.