Books and Authors

Tom Campbell and Nikesh Shukla on writing about this generation's alienated young men.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights organisation Liberty, and Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane, talk about their favourite reads with Harriett Gilbert. Books under discussion are Evelyn Waugh's satire on the Anglo-American relationship staged in and around an LA funeral business, The Loved One, Rachel Holmes' biography of Eleanor Marx, and the children's classic, Charlotte's Web.

Actors Julian Rhind-Tutt (Green Wing, The Hour) and Steve Oram (Sightseers) talk favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Julian's choice is a collection of Annie Proulx's short stories including Brokeback Mountain. Steve's is Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, which has been the subject of fierce debate as to whether it should be taught in schools. Harriett chooses Martin Amis' memoir, Experience.

Richard Flanagan on why he had to write about the Thai-Burmese Death Railway. A celebration of the cult author Robert Aickman, a tip from Peter Straus and all about Self-Help.

Comedian Al Murray, aka The Pub Landlord, and Egyptian political economist Tarek Osman discuss their favourite books with presenter Harriett Gilbert. Al's choice is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Tarek's is the controversial Egyptian novel Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz, and Harriett picks Everyman by Philip Roth. Producer Beth O'Dea.

A special edition from Oxford, explores why the city is often called the home of children's literature, with Philip Pullman, Katherine Rundell and publisher David Fickling.

Author and former MP Edwina Currie and actor Nicholas Le Prevost talk about books they love with Harriett Gilbert. Edwina Currie's choice is An Awfully Big Adventure, by Beryl Bainbridge, a tale of backstage intrigue and loss of innocence in a Liverpool theatre in 1950. The Priory by Dorothy Whipple is Nicholas Le Prevost's pick. This soap-opera- like story of a crumbling manor house and its eccentric inhabitants, struggling with the fallout of the depression, was written under the looming shadow of World War II. Harriett Gilbert takes us to Iran for her choice of A Good Read: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. A memoir which melds the politics of post-revolution Iran with unusual perspectives on western literary classics Presenter: Harriett Gilbert Producer: Melvin Rickarby

Journalist and author India Knight and financial adviser Alvin Hall talk about books they love with Harriett Gilbert. India Knight selects Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym, a novel which contrasts the lives of two women in 1950s England. A medical miracle is at the heart of the book chosen by Alvin Hall: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Harriett Gilbert's pick has been a phenomenon in Russia in recent times: The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin. Producer: Melvin Rickarby

Sandra Newman discusses her new novel In the Country of Ice Cream Star with Mariella Frostrup, plus acclaimed Irish writer John Banville on the book he'd never lend.

Harriett Gilbert is joined by author Fay Weldon and Serpentine Galleries curator Hans Ulrich Obrist to discuss favourite books.

Mariella Frostrup talks to award winning Spanish writer Javier Cercas about his new novel Outlaws and discusses Virginia Woolf in fiction with Maggie Gee and Alison MacLeod.

Notting Hill film director Roger Michell and writer Aminatta Forna talk about books they love with Harriett Gilbert - including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, WWI classic Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves and The Rabbit House by Laura Alcoba, a compelling Argentinian memoir. Producer Beth O'Dea

Authors Salman Rushdie and Elif Shafak pay tribute to writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Broadcaster Aasmah Mir & beer writer Pete Brown talk about some great food books with Harriett Gilbert in front of an audience at Bristol Food Connections Festival. The Physiology of Taste by Brillat-Savarin may be a seminal work but is it still a genuinely good read? And what of The Debt to Pleasure, by John Lanchester, a dark comedy which references Brillat-Savarin... The third book is Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid, the first novel by the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Ned Beauman and Nick Harkaway talk to Mariella Frostrup about the appeal of writing a conspiracy thriller in today's post cold war world.