Richard Benson and Amy Sackville
A Good Read
BBC
4.2 • 848 Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
THE YEARS by Annie Ernaux chosen by Richard Benson THE CORNER THAT HELD THEM by Sylvia Townsend Warner chosen by Amy Sackville COFFEE AND CIGARETTES by Ferdinand von Schirach chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Writer and former editor of the Face Richard Benson talks to fellow writer Amy Sackville and presenter Harriett Gilbert about favourite books. Richard chooses The Years by Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux, saying it brings back memories of his French penpal's bohemian mother. Amy's choice of The Corner that Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner, about convent life in the 1300s, isn't as dry as that might sound, and Harriett's pick is Coffee and Cigarettes by German criminal defence lawyer Ferdinand von Schirach.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.2 | Things just swirling around my head. |
| 0:09.6 | Am I really the product of this? |
| 0:12.1 | Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests. |
| 0:17.0 | Little did I know what more was to come. |
| 0:19.5 | I'm Jenny Clemen, and in the new series of The Gift, |
| 0:23.6 | we'll hear more stories emerging out of the ever-expanding global DNA database. |
| 0:28.8 | They did know that I was different. |
| 0:31.7 | You had kids together. |
| 0:33.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:33.5 | Then you met. |
| 0:34.3 | Then we met. |
| 0:35.2 | The Gift. |
| 0:36.1 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:39.7 | Hello, with more great book suggestions. I'm joined this week by a pair of award-winning authors. |
| 0:45.3 | A former editor of The Face, Richard Benson's best-selling books, The Farm, and more recently The Valley, |
| 0:51.4 | explore working-class life in South Yorkshire through the lens of his |
| 0:54.5 | own family's history, and Richard's recently launched a magazine of working-class writing called |
| 1:00.0 | The Bee. Amy Sackville is the author of three novels, including Stillpoint and Painter to the King. |
| 1:08.0 | She's also a senior lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmith's University of London. |
| 1:13.4 | And Amy, would you start us off? What are you suggesting is a good read? |
| 1:17.6 | I've brought in the corner that held them by Sylvia Townsend Warner. This is Sylvia Townsend Warner's |
... |
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