A great episode. ‘Audition’ has been on my bookshelf for a few months but has now jumped to the top of my TBR.

Loved talking to @katiekitamura.bsky.social on BBCR4 about her latest @thebookerprizes.com & @pulitzerprizes.bsky.social shortlisted novel AUDITION and 3 brilliant influences inc Rosemary's Baby, Javier Marias, Maupassant (& bonus influence David Lynch!) Listen now! 👇 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

It's only in the period of modernity, just as we began to lay waste to the planet, that non-human voices came to be silenced [in literature]. If non-human voices were included in a text, that text came to be regarded as children's literature. ~ Amitav Ghosh open.spotify.com/episode/3SmD...

On today's #TakeFourBooks on BBC R4 I talked with @amitav.bsky.social about his new novel GHOST EYE and his 3 influences: two ghost stories - one about a haunted palace, another about a haunted river - and Robert Macfarlane's luminous "Is A River Alive?" Listen now! 📚🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

📻 @jdcrawf.bsky.social talks to Solvej Balle about her 4th volume (there are spoilers if you haven't read 1-3) and the books that influenced her writing. open.spotify.com/episode/0N1z...

It may not be the 18th of November but it is 'Selter Day' on BBCR4’s TAKE FOUR BOOKS as I talk to SOLVEJ BALLE about her @faberbooks.bsky.social serial novel ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME & her 3 influences - come join us in the time loop! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

On BBC Sounds: Jenni Fagan discusses her new novel, THE DELUSIONS, in which she takes readers to the afterlife – or, at least, to its waiting room. Her chosen influences are Nina Cassian’s poem “Temptation”, Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN, & Jeanette Winterson’s WEIGHT 💙📚 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Listen now to my chat with Yann Martel on BBC R4 about new @canongate.co.uk novel SON OF NOBODY and his 3 influences: Homer's Iliad (as translated by Stephen Mitchell), Alice Oswald's poem Memorial & Edward Albee's classic 1960s play. From the Trojan War to marital war! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

The 3 books I picked to talk about on #Take4Books today were Samanta Schweblin’s Fever Dream, Tove Jansson’s Summer Book and Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women, all of which had a big influence on #FewAndFarBetween

Brilliant guests on #TakeFourBooks in the last 2 weeks: Colm Toibin giving us THE NEWS FROM DUBLIN and then yesterday a fantastic chat with Susan Choi on FLASHLIGHT... Some fab influences too, from John McGahern's The Country Funeral, to Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Just watching Scotland from the Air and looked up @jdcrawf.bsky.social to discover he's on here and his new R4 series sounds great

Listen now to my BBC Radio 4 chat with John Lanchester about new @faberbooks.bsky.social novel 'Look What You Made Me Do' and his three comic novel influences, Evelyn Waugh, Barbara Pym & Kurt Vonnegut! 🎧📚👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

PRE-ORDER NOW FOR 25% off (My new book THE VANISHING EARTH coming out September ‘26!) www.waterstones.com/book/the-van...

🚨COVER REVEAL! 🚨 Several years in the writing, my new book, THE VANISHING EARTH is an odyssey to the frontiers of extraction & to the radical alternatives emerging just as we threaten to exhaust the earth's natural resources... OUT AUG/SEP @scribepub.bsky.social & @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social

Listen now to my BBCRadio4 chat with Ali Smith about new novel GLYPH & 3 influences, including a novel about a magic donkey hide (by Balzac!), a book of nonsense & Leo Tolstoy! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Today on #TakeFourBooks on BBCRadio4 I'm talking to Rob Doyle about his "mise en abyme" new novel CAMEO, and 3 influences - absolute crackers this week in the form of Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Bolano and Marguerite Yourcenar! Listen here 📚🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Today on #TakeFourBooks on BBC R4 I'm talking to Makenna Goodman about her new @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social novel HELEN OF NOWHERE & her 3 influences: Jean Giono's "The Man Who Planted Trees", Bell Hooks' "All About Love" & the plays of Pulitzer-winner Annie Baker www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Listen now to my BBC Radio4 #TakeFourBooks chat with Andrew Michael Hurley about new novel SALTWASH and three influences including Philip Larkin's 'Aubade', 'Free Will' by Sam Harris, and Shirley Jackson's chilling 'The Summer People' 🎧📚📻👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Christmas fantasy reading inspired by @jdcrawf.bsky.social Take Four Books episode with Katherine Rundell. Starting with the first in Rundell’s ‘Impossible Creatures’ series and then a re-read of the wonderful ‘Wizard of Earthsea’

Salman Rushdie was the latest guest on Take Four Books - talking to @jdcrawf.bsky.social about his new short story collection - The Eleventh Hour….catch up here…. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... #books

Listen now to my BBC R4 chat with Salman Rushdie about new work THE ELEVENTH HOUR and his 3 picks of influences, including E.M. Forster, Franz Kafka’s unfinished novel Amerika & the Pied Piper of Hamelin! #TakeFourBooks www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

This - Take Four Books - always worth listening to.

Listen now to my BBCR4 chat with Jo Nesbø about latest novel WOLF HOUR, “saving the cat” vs “killing the cat”, taxidermy, & 3 influences including Jim Thompson, Knut Hamsun and Brett Easton Ellis #TakeFourBooks www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Listen now to my BBC R4 chat with @mccallsmith.bsky.social about new novel THE PRIVATE SIDE OF FRIENDSHIP and 3 influences, including W.H. Auden on unrequited love, Robin Dunbar’s “Friends”, and Madeline Miller’s “The Song of Achilles” www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Today on #TakeFourBooks on BBCR4 I was talking to Karl Ove Knausgaard about new novel THE SCHOOL OF NIGHT and 3 ‘Faustian’ influences incl Thomas Mann & the memoir of @willsergeant.com from @bunnymen.com! Listen now! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I was very restrained at the bookshop this morning but excited to read both of these. One inspired by last week’s conversation between Katherine Randell and @jdcrawf.bsky.social and the other a delightful discovery ready for Advent.

Loved having brill @olgaravn.bsky.social on BBCR4’s #TakeFourBooks today - talking about her new novel THE WAX CHILD & 3 influences inc M.R. James and a book of southern Italian spells! 📚📻🎧https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002m96r

Listen again to this year’s Booker Prize winning author, David Szalay, on Take Four Books on #BBCRadio4 - talking about Flesh and the three other books that inspired its creation! @thebookerprizes.com #BookerPrize2025 #DavidSzalay

This week in Books on Podcasts, a special Waterstones episode featured Rebecca Kuang and Samantha Shannon, while Take Four Books featured its first children’s book with Katherine Rundell’s The Poisoned King 👇 #BookSky

Loved this episode exploring the importance of fantasy, storytelling an imagination. ‘The Prince Caspian’ choice reminded me of Jem Bloomfield’s book ‘Gold on the Horizon’ which follows the Take Four books USP by tracing Lewis’ literary influences in Caspian and Dawn Treader.

love this series a relief to have focus on one book and its origins poking behind the scenes is great

If you are interested in books, reading and the power of story, then listen to this BBC R4 chat I had with the brilliant Katherine Rundell. We're talking about her new @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social novel The Poisoned King, but much more too, from Hamlet to Le Guin! 📚👇🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

I read The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller after listening to Take Four Books presented by @jdcrawf.bsky.social & I’ve listened again. TFB is an excellent concept & excellent in reality! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Listen now to my BBC Radio 4 chat with Chris Kraus on her new “true-crime” novel THE FOUR SPENT THE DAY TOGETHER & her 3 influences including Norman Mailer & Phil Neel 📚🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I was on Radio4's Front Row last night with @nationalgalleries.bsky.social Louise Pearson talking about NGS exhibition of Alfred Buckham's aerial photography & my own experience of taking to the sky in open cockpit (I also wrote intro to the exhibition catalogue!) 🎧👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Today on #TakeFourBooks Booker-winner John Banville is talking about his new @faberbooks.bsky.social novel 'Venetian Vespers' & 3 haunting, Venice-based influences, including (stories & films) Don't Look Now & Death in Venice! Listen now!👇🎧📚 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Thank you, @jdcrawf.bsky.social ! Listen again to this episode, the Start The Week ep James mentions, and all the other excellent radio Picks of the Week on @bbcsounds.bsky.social

My PICK OF THE WEEK! Mexican gothic, railways, distortion, immortalists, unfolding landscapes & JMW Turner ft @petroc.bsky.social, @silviamg.bsky.social, @kermodemovie.bsky.social, @johnrobbofficial.bsky.social, @alekskrotoski.bsky.social, @adamrutherford.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

This week on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio 4 I was talking to William Boyd about his new spy novel 'The Predicament' and 3 influences Lawrence Durrell, Len Deighton and John Le Carre - also with guest @louisewelsh00.bsky.social - listen now! 👇🎧📚 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Coming up later today on BBC Radio 4 I'm talking to Graham Norton on #TakeFourBooks about his latest novel Frankie, along with 3 influences - Elizabeth Bowen, Armistead Maupin & Gabrielle Zevin (and bonus influence Charlie Brown!) - at 4pm 👇🎧📚 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Take Four Books @jdcrawf.bsky.social on R4 Sundays 4pm, always worth listening to. Sunday 14th Sept on Ian McEwan with @damedenisemina.bsky.social on Sounds particularly so.

Loved talking to Ian McEwan (& @damedenisemina.bsky.social!) on BBCRadio4 #TakeFourBooks about climate, memory & the way the past haunts the present in his new @jonathancape.bsky.social novel WHAT WE CAN KNOW with 3 influences incl the epic Footsteps by Richard Holmes www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Thanks to Radio 4's Take Four Books I'm re-reading The Bone People (Keri Hulme) about forty years after the first (and second) time. And it's still absolutely brilliant, so thank you for reminding me, Melissa Lucashenko and @jdcrawf.bsky.social

Listen now to my chat with Melissa Lucashenko on Radio4's #TakeFourBooks about her latest @oneworldbooks.bsky.social novel 'Edenglassie' and 3 influences incl Keri Hulme & Sebastian Barry (recorded with @rodgeglass.bsky.social & live audience at @edbookfest.bsky.social) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Listen to my chat with Sarah Hall on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio4 discussing new @faberbooks.bsky.social novel HELM (the first book to have a wind as its main character?) & 3 influences incl George Saunders & Angela Carter. With Alan McMunnigall of @thiwurd.bsky.social! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Listen now on BBC Radio4 to my chat with Rachel Kushner and live audience @edbookfest.bsky.social for #TakeFourBooks - talking about Creation Lake and 3 influences including Nabokov's Pale Fire and radical 1970s French crime noir! Also with @andrewmeehanesq.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Listen now to @irvinewelsh.bsky.social on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio 4 - talking Trainspotting sequel 'Men In Love' and his 3 influences, no less than James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Bill Shakespeare! Also with guest @kirstininnes.bsky.social 🎧📚👇 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Come and be part of a live Take Four Books audience this Saturday at Edinburgh International Book Festival - I’m talking to Rachel Kushner about her Booker-shortlisted Creation Lake and 3 influences! Book your FREE tickets here 👇 www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...

A joy to commission this from Graeme Macrae Burnet - and fantastic to now see it making its way out into the world…

This was great fun and includes a short history of the great journalist Dorothy Thompson (‘Who Goes Nazi’) who was the 1st journalist expelled from Germany by Hitler