What 50 years of best-selling books says about us
The Story
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4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2024
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
The Sunday Times bestsellers list celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend - so what do Britain’s favourite books say about who we are?
A 20 per cent discount is available for Times+ members at timesbookshop.co.uk.
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Guests:
- Johanna Thomas-Corr, Chief Literary Critic, The Times and The Sunday Times.
- Laura Hackett, Deputy Literary Editor, The Times and The Sunday Times.
Host: Luke Jones.
Clips: Virgin Radio, TikTok/@sextedmyboss, Hodder Books, CNN/Larry King Live, BBC/Delia Smith's Cookery Course, BBC/I’m Alan Partridge.
Further listening: Our guide to your summer reading
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BP is working to bring more lower carbon energy to the UK, like developing offshore wind, |
| 0:06.1 | and we're keeping oil and gas flowing from the North Sea. It's and not all. That's how BP is backing Britain. Well today we're mostly in oil and gas. |
| 0:16.0 | We increased the proportion of our global annual investment that went into our lower carbon and other transition businesses from around 3% in 2019 to around 23% in |
| 0:26.0 | 2023. |
| 0:28.0 | B.com slash and not all. |
| 0:30.0 | This summer see the European box office smash that critics are raving about. |
| 0:35.0 | The count of Monte Cristo is timeless and thrillingly new. |
| 0:39.0 | Five-star says total film. |
| 0:41.0 | Rotten tomatoes rates it at 100%. It's a big exciting swashbuckling adventure, stunning, a genuine triumph based on Alexander |
| 0:49.6 | Dumas's classic tale. The count of my... Classic Tale. A S. A A A A A S you the Court of Monte Cristo, in cinema's August 30th, certificate 12A. From The Times the Sunday Times |
| 1:20.0 | bestsellers list he admits he had a little cry. For Jamie Oliver, it was a yell of |
| 1:25.8 | excitement when he got the call. And for a whole host of authors, being on the list |
| 1:30.4 | is not just wallet fatt it's life-changing. |
| 1:33.0 | Already the Sunday Times Best Seller how does that feel? |
| 1:37.6 | I don't know look I want to get goosepons when you say that. |
| 1:40.4 | Help I sex with my bosses as Sunday Times, Bessela! |
| 1:45.0 | This weekend the list turns 15 so the Sunday Times is celebrating by unveiling the top 100 ever. |
| 1:59.0 | It hits the sweet spot which is a very British sweet spot of brainy and funny. |
| 2:05.1 | We love that. |
| 2:06.7 | If we're a nation who wants to buy a really ambitious, really difficult book and maybe we don't |
| 2:12.2 | get round to reading it or maybe we start |
| 2:13.9 | it and we don't finish it. It still says something great about us and the fact that we're |
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