In Conversation with Kate Atkinson: Our Noble Selves

Is it ever acceptable to give up on a book on page one? Should the classics be dropped from GCSE English? And which bookish trend deserves to go on the bonfire? This Friday is an AUTUMN SPECIAL: the Autumn Book Tag, bookish opinions edition. Ten questions, no preparation, and answers coming straight out of my mouth, so we should all be very worried. Then it is part three of our book club read, The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway, with no spoilers as always. The Autumn Book Tag Falling leaves: Is it ever acceptable to give up on a book, and how many pages does it get before you do? Clocks go back: With an extra hour to read, would you reread an old favourite or start something new? Back to school: Should we be made to read the classics at school, or does it put people off reading for life? Dark evenings: Does a book have to match the season, or is the "autumn read" just marketing? Halloween: What scares you more in a book, the supernatural or what ordinary people do to each other? Bonfire night: Which bookish habit or trend would you happily throw on the bonfire? Harvest: Is a huge to-be-read pile a comfort or a source of guilt? Is buying books a separate hobby from reading them? Conkers: Reading challenges and yearly targets, motivating or joyless? Cosy jumper: Is "cosy" a compliment or an insult when applied to a book? Prize season: Do prize winners actually make better reading, or do judges and readers want different things? In this episode Why I think you can DNF a book at any point, and why it is always a me problem and never the book The honest reason I almost never reread Why I would take the classics out of GCSE English and bring in graphic novels and scripts instead (I am expecting flack for this one) My confession that I read out of season: Christmas books in summer, summer books at Christmas What goes on my bonfire, and it will not surprise regular listeners Why buying books has to be a separate hobby, or we are at situation critical in this house Cosy fantasy versus cosy crime, and why I like my crime a bit meaner The year a prize shortlist left me so incensed I have not done it since, and why I think the longlist is often better than the winner Book club, part three The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway, with no spoilers as always. is still very dark and troubling, even more so in this section, and I worry about some of these characters so much. And yet I am fully locked in and cannot wait to read the final quarter. Thank you to Tony for the brilliant suggestion of splitting book club sections by chapter instead of page number, so it works whether you are reading the hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook. If we do this again, that is how we will do it. Coming up Episodes on bookish judging and on celebrity novels, because I have views. And I will be back on Monday with another author interview. I would love to know your answers to the tag, and what you are thinking about the book club read. Watch on Apple Podcasts Get in touch - links: Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | [email protected] Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Five days, twenty strangers, eighty-four miles of whitewater and no way out. Today I am talking to bestselling thriller author Noelle W. Ihli about The Last to Drown, the book that has put me off whitewater rafting for life. Before that, three book reviews, and a swimming pool mystery I need your help with. Three book reviews A Knock at the Door by Louise Candlish (out 5 November). A three-year-old goes missing on a weekend break. Eighteen years later, a young woman arrives at the door claiming to be her. I thought I knew where this was going and I was wrong. This could be Louise's best book yet, and she will be joining me to talk about it in a few weeks. The Angel of Death by Trevor Wood. The third DCI Jack Parker book. An anonymous killer in Newcastle is offering the terminally ill a dignified escape, while Jack tries to hide his own early onset dementia diagnosis. Superbly written crime with a fascinating lead, and now published by our friends at Orenda Books. Wreck by Catherine Newman. I listened to this on audio while swimming and laughed out loud in the changing room. Funny in places, much more moving than I expected, and a family you want to sit with at the dining table. The narration is spot on. Author interview: Noelle W. Ihli on The Last to Drown The Last to Drown follows Kaia, recently widowed, on the rafting trip her husband always wanted to take. Seven years earlier a guide murdered a group of rafters on the same stretch of river, and the true crime community has never stopped asking questions. We talk about: The family rafting trip in Idaho that gave her the idea, and why her guides were "slightly concerned" by her questions Writing 500 to 1,000 words a day, and making herself sit there like a naughty child in time out Why she cannot write on a plane or in an airport Grief at the heart of the book, and the conversation with her husband that inspired it Writing with real survivors in mind, and the line she will not cross Being a true pantser who does not know how her characters will get out Survival as a group effort and not something you do alone Where to start with her books: The Last to Drown or Gray After Dark The candy drawer that powers the words: peanut butter M&Ms and Twizzlers Noelle is reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke The Witch by Freida McFadden The forthcoming book by John Marrs And finally If you wear a swimming cap but leave all your hair out underneath it, please tell me why. I am intrigued. Watch on Apple Podcasts Get in touch - links: Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | [email protected] Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's past my bedtime, my microphone has given up the ghost, and I've got something to get off my chest: the National Year of Reading. I've been having a dig into where the money is going, and by my calculations the £150,000 set aside for libraries works out at around £41 per library. That's a fair few biscuits, but not many books. So I'm putting forward some ideas of my own for getting adults reading again: Book monitors: volunteers in tabards helping nervous shoppers find the right book, the way a good cheese shop lets you try before you buy Making reading cool again, with more famous faces seen with a book in hand Audiobooks and graphic novels as an easy way in Five minutes a day, with reading streaks to keep you going Libraries on trains for long commutes and delays World Book Day for adults: a book voucher for everyone, no dressing up required (and maybe a free biscuit) Are my ideas ridiculous? Have you seen the National Year of Reading making a difference in schools? I'd love to know what you think. Then it's our October book club roundup of The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway. I've read the second quarter, up to around page 188, and share how it's making me feel, with no spoilers. If you're not reading along, you can stop listening at that point. I'll be back on Monday with an author interview. Watch this episode on Apple Podcasts: Quick Book Reviews with Philippa Hall on Apple Podcasts Get in touch - links: Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | [email protected] Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is a special one — a full interview with Ian Rankin on The Heights, his first standalone thriller in nearly two decades. But first, a confession: I've just been away for the weekend and had a small crisis about how some people can remember every name — actors, characters, everyone — while I can't hold onto a single one. Is it just me? Answers on a postcard (or better yet, in your own colour-coding system, which is apparently what I need). Then it's on to the books. I'm reviewing three with no spoilers, before sitting down with Ian to talk about how a short story character, Detective Gillian Gish, refused to let him go; why Tottenham and a gleaming Hyde Park high-rise became the perfect collision of two Londons; and why he thinks readers have fallen out of love with police procedurals in an age of institutional corruption. Ian also tells me how the book was written almost entirely at sea, and what would happen if I sent him to write in a tiny, sweltering Tokyo apartment instead. Plus: his verdict on the correct way to eat a chocolate hobnob. This week's reviews: Someone Just Followed You, Liane Child — a propulsive, unsettling look at the world of kidfluencers, told mostly from a teenager's perspective Hum, Helen Phillips — winner of the Climate Fiction Prize 2026; gripping, reflective, slightly dystopian, and hard to put down The Eyewitness, Naomi Williams — a quick, twisty read about a woman whose eyes shut tight for 48 hours at a time, and the fear that someone is watching when she can't see Featured book: The Heights, Ian Rankin That's this episode — spoiler-free reviews of Someone Just Followed You, Hum, and The Eyewitness, plus Ian Rankin on The Heights. Get in touch Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | [email protected] Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My Book Haul Confession + Book Club Begins I have a confession: despite trying to go all-in on ebooks, I found myself with an hour to kill, a closed independent bookshop, and a chain store that was open — and I came out with a stack of books I need to tell you all about. This episode I'm running through my haul, including Naomi Alderman's The Strangers, Elizabeth Macneal's The Burial Plot, Benjamin Stevenson's Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief, William Boyd's The Predicament, Ross Montgomery's Murder at World's End, and Jon Ronson's The Castle — plus a slightly spicy admission about book four of Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series and some very poorly timed public listening moments. Then it's the first week of our October Book Club, discussing the opening quarter of The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway. I share my honest, no-spoiler thoughts on the first 93 pages — what surprised me, how it compares to what I expected, and why I ended up reading it in the early hours after a very different night than planned. I'd love to hear your thoughts too — get in touch using the details below. Book club pick: The One You Least Suspect, Brian McGilloway This episode is available as video on Apple Podcasts — watch it here. Get in touch links Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | [email protected] Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.