A Good Read

A Good Read

BBC Radio 4

Find reading inspiration with favourite books chosen by our guests.

Categories: Arts

Listen to the last episode:

THE IRON AGE by Arja Kajermo A SHORT STAY IN HELL by Steven L Peck STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL by Charlotte Wood

James Rebanks is a farmer from the Lake District as well as author of The Shepherd's Life. His new book The Place of Tides is about his time in Norway learning from an elderly woman who cared for eider ducks on a remote island. His book choice is The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo, a Finnish novel about rural life in the 1950s, told from the perspective of a young girl. James finds it speaks to his northern sensibility as it documents the hard life of an impoverished farming family in post war Finland.

Kiri Pritchard-McLean is a multi-award winning Welsh comedian, satirist and writer. Her choice is A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L Peck about a Mormon condemned to exist in Hell for millennia. Kiri says it's a book bursting with ideas about life and its meaning.

Harriett picks Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood set in a religious retreat outside of Sydney where a woman has come to reassess her life.

There's plenty of lively and good natured disagreement about the books. Listen here and add your thoughts to our Instagram Book Club @agoodreadbbc

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Previous episodes

  • 364 - James Rebanks and Kiri Pritchard-McLean at the Hay Festival 
    Mon, 07 Jul 2025
  • 363 - Budgie and Juhea Kim 
    Mon, 30 Jun 2025
  • 362 - Xantoné Blacq and Harry Trevaldwyn 
    Mon, 23 Jun 2025
  • 361 - Josh Cohen and Nussaibah Younis 
    Mon, 16 Jun 2025
  • 360 - Jack Thorne and Peter Kosminsky 
    Mon, 09 Jun 2025
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