A Good Read: Christopher Eccleston and Lindsey Hilsum

Books and Authors

BBC

Society & Culture, Books

4.2 • 824 Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

JUST KIDS by Patti Smith, chosen by Lindsey Hilsum MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor E. Frankl (trans. Ilse Lasch), chosen by Christopher Eccleston TOWARDS THE END OF THE MORNING by Michael Frayn, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

The television journalist and actor share favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.

Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor of Channel 4 News, loves Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids, her account of coming to New York as a young woman and of her relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It's a coming-of-age story set against the heady backdrop of 1970s counterculture; it's a story of becoming an artist; and it's a love story that turns into an elegy.

The actor Christopher Eccleston chooses Man's Search for Meaning, the psychotherapist Viktor Frankl's account of his time in Nazi concentration camps and how those experiences informed his belief that man's deepest need is to search for meaning and purpose. It's a powerful book about retaining one's humanity in the face of unimaginable suffering and degradation.

And Harriett Gilbert chooses Towards the End of the Morning, Michael Frayn's 1967 satire about journalists working on a newspaper during the heyday of Fleet Street.

Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.5	I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.2	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,
0:16.0	relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.
0:22.4	So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,
0:28.3	and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.
0:33.6	So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:39.5	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:43.6	Hello, I'm Harriet Gilbert.
0:45.5	Thank you for downloading a good read, the podcasts,
0:48.6	where two guests and I recommend books we love and describe why we love them.
0:52.9	We don't always see eye to eye, but I hope you'll find some great reading suggestions here.
0:58.3	Hello, with me to introduce books they love are first the actor Christopher Eccleston,
1:03.2	recently seen on TV in True Detective Night Country and on stage as Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
1:10.5	Christopher's the author of a memoir,
1:12.2	I love the bones of you, and his latest film Young Woman in the Sea comes out in May.
1:18.0	With him is the international editor of Channel 4 News, Lindsay Hilsom, who of late has been
1:22.9	reporting from the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. When she's covering conflicts, Lindsay always takes with her a volume of poetry
1:29.6	and her book about that,
1:31.2	I brought the war with me, stories and poems from the front line,
1:34.9	will be published in September.
1:37.5	Lindsay Hilsson, would you start us off with your choice of a good read?
	...

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