Niamh Cusack & Elly Griffiths
A Good Read
BBC
4.2 • 847 Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Niamh Cusack chooses Lila by Marilynne Robinson part of a group of novels set around the fictional Iowa town of Gilead and centres on the gentle relationship between a poor young woman who has grown up drifting around the midwest and an elderly man of God, the Reverend John Ames. For Niamh the novel speaks to the loneliness of life but she also finds its humanity uplifting and inspiring. Crime writer Elly Griffiths' choice is Something In Disguise by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Ostensibly a semi comic family drama, Elly finds something more sinister in the book which she terms 'domestic noir'. Harriett has chosen Naples '44 - travel writer Norman Lewis' account of wartime Naples and the allied liberation of Southern Italy. There are differing opinions as to whether the book is a touching tribute to the warmth and resilience of the Neapolitan people at a desperate time or a rather patronising outdated view of Italy. What do you think? You can join in the discussion on our Instagram page @agoodreadbbc
Producer: Maggie Ayre
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. |
| 0:22.8 | 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. |
| 0:34.2 | BBC Sounds, music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:38.7 | Hello, I'm Harriet Gilbert. |
| 0:40.4 | Thank you for downloading a good read, the podcasts, |
| 0:43.6 | where two guests and I recommend books we love and describe why we love them. |
| 0:47.9 | We don't always see eye to eye, but I hope you'll find some great reading suggestions here. |
| 0:53.1 | Hello, with me today, the actor Neve Cusack, |
| 0:55.8 | whose TV roles extend from Dr Kate Rowan in Heartbeat |
| 0:59.2 | to Claire Mills in the latest series of The Tower. |
| 1:02.4 | On stage, she's most recently played Gertrude in Hamlet, |
... |
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