A Good Read Folgen

Novelist Dreda Say Mitchell and the writer and podcaster Emma Gannon talk about their favourite books with Harriett. Dreda chooses An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole, a romance set during the American Civil War. Emma has gone for the mouth watering memoir Dinner with Edward by Isabel Vincent, and Harriett transports us to a very wet Scottish holiday in Sarah Moss' Summerwater. Producer Sally Heaven

A novel about compassion set against the backdrop of the Aberfan disaster is comedian and actor Omid Djalili's choice of a good read. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe is a novel about a young man who becomes an embalmer and who goes straight from his graduation ceremony to help at the site of the tragedy in Aberfan to take care of the deceased's bodies. That experience is to shape the rest of his life and his relationships with his mother and wife as well as an early schoolfriend are all affected. Nikita Lalwani chooses a quirky book of short stories by Charles Yu called Third Class Superhero - the message of which seems to be it's OK to be mediocre. Harriett Gilbert's choice is Elena Ferrante's The Lost Daughter recently made into a film starring Olivia Coleman. It lays bare the complexities of motherhood and the mixed feelings it evokes.Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio Bristol

Julie Hesmondhalgh is a well known face on television and stage. Recently she has been in The Pact on BBC1 and played Hayley in Coronation Street. Her choice of book is Notes To Self by Emilie Pine - a raw and powerful memoir of life for a young Irish woman. It's not a 'mis-mem' or misery memoir as Julie is keen to point out, rather a life affirming and honest account of womanhood, a book she has given copies of to many women friends. Elaine C Smith chooses the memoir of Scots poet Jackie Kay - Red Dust Road - a love letter as Elaine describes it - to Jackie's adoptive parents as well as her birth parents. It deals with the painful quest to find her Nigerian father and Scots mother whilst feeling that she was betraying her loving adoptive parents. It also recounts the prejudices experienced by a young dual heritage girl. Birdsong In A Time of Silence is as you would expect an appreciation of the sounds of nature that suddenly became amplified during the Covid Spring of 2020. Steven Lovatt records his walks and observations of wildlife during the first lockdown. All three agree that it has opened their eyes and ears to avian behaviour in a new way.Producer: Maggie Ayre