You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.

I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.

I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,

relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.

So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,

and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.

So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

Hello, with me today to recommend books they love are first, Giles Brandreth,

writer, broadcaster, actor, former MP.

Among much else on Radio 4, Jarls is a mainstay of just a minute,

and on TV he stars in Celebrity Gogglebox. Whilst his many books include murder mysteries,

children's stories and biographies, most recently a life of the late Queen, Elizabeth,

an intimate portrait. With him is the award-winning neuroscientist and broadcaster Hannah Critchlow,

fellow at Mordling College, University of Cambridge.

Hannah's latest book is Joined Up Thinking,

The Science of Collective Intelligence and Its Power to Change Our Lives.

Giles Brandreth, would you start?

What have you chosen as a good read?

I've chosen a book called Map and Lucia.

It's a wonderful novel written by a fascinating character called E.F. Benson, Fred Benson,

who lived in Rye in East Sussex, where the novel is set, though in the story the town is called Tilling.

...