A Good Read: Lucy Speed and Sarah Mills

Books and Authors

BBC

Society & Culture, Books

4.2 • 824 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Former Eastenders and present-day Archers actor Lucy Speed, and comedian Sarah Mills talk about books set in wartime London, a 1990s underground train, and Graham Greene's MI6. Lucy's choice is Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave, Which tells the tale of Mary, a woman who becomes a teacher at the beginning of the war, only for her life to take some unexpected turns during the Blitz. Sarah has selected 253 by Geoff Ryman, the novel originally published on the Internet which tells the stories of 253 passengers on a London Underground train. Harriett proposes a lesser known a Graham Greene novel, The Human Factor, which takes in apartheid South Africa and communism as well as espionage.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc

Transcript

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0:00.0	He tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent, and if she's caught, she's going to be shot.
0:09.3	I'm Helen Obalam Carter, and this is history's secret heroes, where I shine a light on extraordinary stories from World War II.
0:17.6	What they wanted was someone to get themselves arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
0:22.0	Tales of deception, an incredible acts of resistance and courage.
0:26.3	She was a born soldier.
0:27.4	She's a freedom fighter in its widest sense.
0:29.9	The brand new series of history's secret heroes.
0:32.8	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:36.4	BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.
0:40.3	Hello, you love books, we love books, and we're going to share with you some of our favourites.
0:45.3	With me today is first the actor Lucy Speed, known among much else as Natalie in EastEnders, a role she played for over a decade, and currently as Stella, in Radio 4's The Archers.
0:58.3	Lucy's most recent stage appearance was in the UK tour of Steel Magnolias.
1:03.4	With her as the comedian and writer Sarah Mills,
1:06.1	whose TV credits include The Last Leg and Rosie Jones's disability extravaganza.
1:12.0	Sarah's recent Radio 4 series, The Bad BOD Squad, is available on BBC Sounds.
1:18.4	Lucy, Speed, would you start us off?
1:20.4	What have you chosen as a good read?
1:21.9	Right, so I chose Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleve,
1:26.0	and this book is one that stayed with me.
1:30.2	It was given to me by my sister-in-law.
1:32.2	But everybody who knows me knows that I have a particular fascination.
1:37.8	With, well, it's weird to say war, but mostly the Second World War,
	...

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