Desiree Akhavan and Rosie Wilby
A Good Read
BBC
4.2 • 848 Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
ALL FOURS by Miranda July, chosen by Desiree Akhavan UNTRUE by Wednesday Martin, chosen by Rosie Wilby DRAGON TALK by Fleur Adcock, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Filmmaker and writer Desiree Akhavan joins comedian, writer and podcaster Rosie Wilby as they discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Desiree's choice is All Fours by Miranda July, a novel about a perimenopausal woman's sexual awakening on an unusual road trip. By coincidence, Rosie Wilby chooses a non-fiction book which looks at research into women's sexuality, Untrue by Wednesday Martin. Harriett's choice is a volume of poetry by Fleur Adcock, dealing with matters of family and childhood.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc Photo credit Cecila Frugiuele
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Things just swirling around my head. |
| 0:03.6 | Am I really the product of this? |
| 0:06.1 | Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests. |
| 0:11.0 | Little did I know what more was to come. |
| 0:13.4 | I'm Jenny Clemen and in the new series of The Gift, |
| 0:17.5 | we'll hear more stories emerging out of the ever-expanding global DNA database. |
| 0:22.7 | They did know that I was different. |
| 0:25.7 | You had kids together. |
| 0:27.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:27.5 | Then you met. |
| 0:28.3 | Then we met. |
| 0:29.2 | The Gift. |
| 0:30.1 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.7 | Of the making of many books, there is no end, said Solomon. |
| 0:37.3 | And although I think he meant it as some kind of warning, to me it sounds wonderful. |
| 0:41.0 | But which of the zillions of books to read next? |
| 0:44.1 | Well, with me today with their suggestions are the filmmaker and writer Desiree Arkavan, |
| 0:49.1 | whose films include appropriate behaviour, |
| 0:51.4 | the miseducation of Cameron Post, and the TV comedy The Bisexual, |
| 0:55.9 | and whose memoir, you're embarrassing yourself, comes out in paperback in August. |
| 1:01.8 | And with Desiree, comedian and broadcaster Rosie Wilby, author of the breakup monologues, |
| 1:06.8 | inspired by her podcast of the same name, and currently working on a novel, working title, |
... |
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