A Good Read: Jenny Kleeman and Sam Knight

Books and Authors

BBC

Society & Culture, Books

4.2 • 824 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

EDUCATED by Tara Westover, chosen by Jenny Kleeman THE WREN, THE WREN by Anne Enright, chosen by Harriett Gilbert GIVING UP THE GHOST by Hilary Mantel, chosen by Sam Knight

Journalist and broadcaster Jenny Kleeman (of Radio 4's The Gift and author of The Price of Life) chooses Tara Westover's memoir Educated, which caused a sensation when it was first published. It's about her childhood growing up in an isolated Mormon family in rural Idaho, who were preparing for the end of the world, and didn't believe in school, doctors or medicine. It's about how she studied her way out of a difficult upbringing, eventually earning a PhD at Cambridge University.

Sam Knight (staff writer at the New Yorker and author of The Premonitions Bureau) also picks a memoir, but of a very different kind. He goes for Hilary Mantel's beguiling Giving Up The Ghost. In it, she explores the real, and imaginary, ghosts of her life - the illnesses that have haunted her body, the family she would never have, and the art of writing.

Harriett Gilbert brings a work of fiction by a writer she loves, the Irish writer Anne Enright. They discuss her latest novel The Wren, The Wren, a story which speaks about the inheritance of trauma and the price of love.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol Join the conversation @agoodreadbbc Instagram

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.
0:43.8	Hello, my guests and I have each chosen a book to talk about that we really like.
0:48.2	We've also read one another's choices.
0:50.6	Are we going to like those as much?
0:52.5	Well, let's find out.
0:53.8	With me, our two journalists,
0:55.5	Jenny Clemen is a regular voice on Radio 4,
0:58.2	and in print she writes long-form articles for The Guardian
1:00.9	and the FT and Sunday Times magazines.
1:04.3	Her second book, The Price of Life, came out this year.
1:07.6	With Jenny is Sam Knight,
1:09.2	a staff writer at The New Yorker,
1:11.6	to which he contributes a monthly letter from the UK on everything from British politics to the art market and sport.
1:17.7	Sam's first book, The Premonitions Bureau, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Jenny Cleman,
1:23.5	would you start us off? What have you chosen as a good read? I have chosen educated by Tara Westover. I listened to it as an audio book about five years ago and I have
	...

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