A Good Read Folgen

'How can you feel fed up?' when you read PG Wodehouse is Alan Titchmarsh's answer when asked why he chose Summer Lightning. Harriett remarks that Wodehouse has been chosen on the programme twice in the last year and wonders if many of us are seeking the simplicity of Wodehouse's writing about the pre-internet days of rural Shropshire as 'comfort reading' during worrying times. Amanda Owen is best known as the Yorkshire shepherdess who runs a remote hillfarm and whose family life is featured on television's Our Yorkshire Farm. She is also a writer and has appeared on BBC 4's Winter Walks. Perhaps unsurprisingly her choice of a good read is the account of her role model Hannah Hauxwell whose life story is told in Seasons of My Life. Hannah lived a solitary existence without water and electricity on a farm high in the Yorkshire Dales. When television director Barry Cockroft made a programme about her in the 1970s she received fame and recognition as an extraordinary woman from a bygone age. Most of us probably haven't given a lot of thought to the act of the handshake. Perhaps we only really considered its importance after we were told not do do it at the start of the pandemic. Harriett's choice of book is the fascinating and witty exploration of The Handshake by Ella Al-Shamahi.Producer: Maggie Ayre

Three strange, fantastical novels, all very different, are the book choices for this week.Liam Williams is perhaps best-known for the BBC series 'Ladhood'. He picks 'Bartleby, the Scrivener' by Herman Melville, a dark tale about the monotony of office work and people who quietly buck the system. The musician Kate Stables AKA This is the Kit is a self-confessed huge fan of Ursula K. Le Guin, and she chooses 'The Word for World is Forest' to share with Liam and Harriett. It's a book which draws heavily on the Vietnam War to comment on the nature of humanity. Harriett's pick is Requiem by Antonio Tabucchi, a tale of unexpected encounters on the streets of Lisbon, as the narrator goes in search of a lost love.Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Toby Field

Kaffe Fassett is perhaps best known for his colourful knitwear designs but he is also a quilt maker, painter and ceramicist. His choice of book is Kandahar Cockney: A Tale of Two Worlds by former foreign correspondent James Fergusson. It's the story of Mir an interpreter Fergusson meets and hires while on assignment in Afghanistan in the late 1990s as the country fell to the Taliban for the first time. Fergusson assists Mir in escaping to Britain and claiming asylum where he becomes the eponymous 'Kandahar Cockney' trying to navigate a new life in the East End of London. Kaffe chose it because of recent events and wanted to reread it. Andy Summers is a guitarist best known for being part of The Police. He is also the author of a collection of short stories Fretted & Moaning featuring a variety of characters whose lives centre in some way around the guitar. His good read is A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki which he says is 'hip, modern and amazing'. Alongside these two books is Toast by Nigel Slater, the food writer's memoir of growing up hungry in the 1960s and 70s.Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Maggie Ayre