Simon Mayo's Books Of The Year

The author of the US best selling novel American Dirt tells Simon and Matt about her favourite books and authors - which include Colson Whitehead, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ann Patchett, Jasper Fforde and Toni Morrison  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jeanine Cummins chats about her US best selling novel. American Dirt follows the path of a Mexican woman who survives an attack by a drug cartel - and escapes as an undocumented immigrant to the United States with her son. It was selected by Oprah for her Book Club and Radio 4 for their Book At Bedtime - but then drew criticism from fellow authors about her representation of Latinos. Jeanine talks openly about the year she has had dealing with the backlash.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The BBC's man in Washington talks us through his favourite books and authors - which include John Le Carre, Hugo Young, Joseph Heller, Robert Caro and Denis Healey  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The BBC's North America Editor chats about his diary of the 2020 US Presidential Election. It was an incredible year, which started with Joe Biden getting off to a very shaky start in the Primaries. And ended with a riot in Congress.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The award winning, best selling author talks about his favourite books and authors.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days. Rebus fears the worst – and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect. He wasn’t the best father – the job always came first – but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective? As he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast – and a small town with big secrets – he wonders whether this might be the first time in his life where the truth is the one thing he doesn’t want to find... Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards including the prestigious Diamond Dagger in 2005. In 2004, Ian won America’s celebrated Edgar Award for Resurrection Men. He has also been shortlisted for the Edgar and Anthony Awards in the USA, and won Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and Germany’s Deutscher Krimipreis.   Ian has received an OBE for services to literature, opting to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his wife and two sons.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Comedian and author CK McDonnell tells us about some of his favourite books and authors - which include Simon Mayo, Terry Pratchett, Simon Mayo, Gary Delaney, Simon Mayo, Rick Wakeman, Simon Mayo and Don Winslow  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What if the weird news was the real news?! There are dark forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular), so thank the Lord The Stranger Times is on hand to report them . . . A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable. At least that's their pitch. The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little of the publication he edits. His staff are a ragtag group of misfits. And as for the assistant editor . . . well, that job is a revolving door - and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who's got problems of her own. When tragedy strikes in her first week on the job The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious investigating. What they discover leads to a shocking realisation: some of the stories they'd previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker forces than they could ever have imagined. Irishman Caimh McDonnell is a former professional stand-up comedian and TV writer who now concentrates all of his energies on his books. Born in Limerick and raised in Dublin, he has taken the hop across the water and calls Manchester his home. His TV writing work has seen him work on some of the biggest topical comedy shows on British TV and has earned him a BAFTA nomination. These days he can be found happily writing his next book in the office in the back garden, with only his dog and his imagination for company. His book 'I Have Sinned' has been nominated for the Kindle Storyteller Award 2019. Previously, his debut novel 'A Man With One of Those Faces' was nominated for best novel at the 2017 CAP awards.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hungry author Grace Dent chats about her favourite authors which include Rupert Everett, Kenneth Williams, Nancy Mitford and Nigel Slater  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Angel Delight, Cadburys and Carlisle. A very funny episode featuring restaurant critic Grace Dent. Hungry traces Grace's story from growing up eating beige food to becoming one of the much-loved voices on the British food scene.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thanks for all your correspondence. You may hear some of it discussed in this special show.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Simon and Matt chat to Graham Norton, Heather Morris, Robbie Williams, John Simpson, John Boyne, Ben MacIntyre and Robin Ince - among others.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The new author of the Jack Reacher series takes our book Q&A - discussing the likes of Alistair MacLean, Ben MacIntyre and Genghis Khan.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For Jack Reacher's 25th adventure, author Lee Child brings in his younger brother Andrew to help. Here they chat about the process, the Chuckle Brothers and stitching up Ian Rankin... from their homes in Colorado and Wyoming.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Best selling spy author Ben MacIntyre turns his attention to our Q&A on his favourite books, authors and spy films  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.