Simon Mayo's Books Of The Year

Bestselling author Adele Parks talks about her favourite books and writers. Including Enid Blyton, Vera Brittain, Clare Mackintosh and Muriel Spark.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Adele Park's latest novel Lies Lies Lies is a Sunday Times bestseller. She has written 19 novels, selling over 3.5million copies in the UK alone. In our latest pod, Adele talks us through her writing process, the planning, the research and the champagne. In Lies Lies Lies Adele explores the darkest corners of a relationship in freefall in a mesmerising tale of marriage and secrets. After years together, the arrival of longed-for daughter Millie sealed everything in place for Simon and Matt, I mean Simon and Daisy. A happy little family of three. And so what if Simon drinks a bit too much sometimes – Daisy’s used to it, she knows he’s letting off steam. Until one night at a party things spiral horribly out of control. And that happy little family of three will never be the same again.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Broadcaster, journalist and author George Alagiah talks us through his favourite books and authors...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Since 2007, George has been the presenter of the BBC News at Six and has also been the main presenter of GMT on BBC World News since its launch in 2010. A specialist on Africa and the developing world, Alagiah has interviewed, among others, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. George's debut novel is set in the post-apartheid South African land grabs. It’s a sharp and nuanced thriller with a strong female lead. Dealing with themes of political activism, xenophobia, the environment and, most importantly, what happens when events spiral out of control, it’s incredibly timely – and is also based entirely on events George saw but was unable to report on while a BBC correspondent there.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The best selling author talks about her favourite books and writers.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jung Chang is best known for her family autobiography Wild Swans. Published in 1991, it has sold over 15 million copies, has been translated in to 40 languages - and is one of Oprah's "Books That Defined A Generation". It is banned in China - where Jung grew up.   Her new book is Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China    They were the most famous sisters in China. As the country battled through a hundred years of wars, revolutions and seismic transformations, the three Soong sisters from Shanghai were at the centre of power, and each of them left an indelible mark on history. Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister is a gripping story of love, war, intrigue, bravery, glamour and betrayal, which takes us on a sweeping journey from Canton to Hawaii to New York, from exiles’ quarters in Japan and Berlin to secret meeting rooms in Moscow, and from the compounds of the Communist elite in Beijing to the corridors of power in democratic Taiwan. In a group biography that is by turns intimate and epic, Jung Chang reveals the lives of three extraordinary women who helped shape twentieth-century China.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Egyptologist Chris Naunton talks us through his favourite writers, explorers and books.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Where are the tombs of Alexander the Great or Cleopatra? Both rulers were buried in Egypt, but their tombs have never been found despite years of intensive research and excavation. Yet we have tantalizing clues. Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt describes the quest for these and other great missing tombs those we know existed, but which have not yet been identified. Dr Chris Naunton is an Egyptologist and the Director of the Egypt Exploration Society.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Find out about Matt Haig's favourite books and writers. Matt is one of Britain's best loved and most prolific writers. Reasons To Stay Alive and Notes From A Nervous Planet were both Sunday Times bestsellers. His children’s novels have won the Smarties Gold Medal, the Blue Peter Book of the Year, been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal three times.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Matt Haig pops in to chat about his new books: Evie and the Animals and The Truth Pixie. His children’s book A Boy Called Christmas was a runaway hit and is translated in over 25 languages. It is being made into a film by Studio Canal and The Guardian called it an ‘instant classic’. His children’s novels have won the Smarties Gold Medal, the Blue Peter Book of the Year, been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal three times. His memoir Reasons to Stay Alive was a number one bestseller, staying in the British top ten for 46 weeks  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Journalist and author Emma John talks us through her favourite books and writers - which include Stephen Fry, Amy Poehler and Mark Twain.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Can you feel nostalgic for a life you've never known? Suffused with her much-loved warmth and wit, Emma John's memoir follows her moving and memorable journey to master one of the hardest musical styles on earth - and to find her place in an alien world. Emma had fallen out of love with her violin when a chance trip to the American South introduced her to bluegrass music. Classically trained, highly strung and wedded to London life, Emma was about as country as a gin martini. So why did it feel like a homecoming? Answering that question takes Emma deep into the Appalachian mountains, where she uncovers a hidden culture that confounds every expectation - and learns some emotional truths of her own.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jeanette Winterson is one of the UK's most loved and respected authors. In our Q&A she discusses her favourite writers and books - and her reading and writing habits.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet? Jeanette Winterson shows us how much closer we are to that future than we realise. Frankissstein may well terrify you. But will make you laugh. Jeanette Winterson was born in Manchester and read English at Oxford, during which time she wrote her first novel, the Whitbread award winning Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. She has won a BAFTA Award for Best Drama, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the E. M. Forster Award, the St. Louis Literary Award, and is a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award. She has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sue Nelson is an award-winning science journalist, producer and broadcaster. A former BBC TV science correspondent and Radio 4 presenter, Sue makes short films on space missions for the European Space Agency and co-presents the Space Boffins podcast, whose guests have included astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Eileen Collins, Tim Peake and Helen Sharman. Sue's extensive broadcasting career has taken her from rocket launches in South America to driving a lunar buggy in London alongside Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the Moon. Her 2016 documentary 'Women with the Right Stuff', on the history of women in space, won a New York Festival International Radio Program Award.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.