A Good Read

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Factual

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

BBC Radio 4 FM

A Good Read: Neil Brand and Tiff Stevenson

Neil Brand and Tiff Stevenson

BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Neil Brand and Tiff StevensonClose menu

Maya Angelou's memoir, 1930s satire and a contemporary thriller are the choices this week

The pianist and broadcaster Neil Brand and actor Tiff Stevenson choose books they love

Neil Brand the silent film accompanist and presenter of BBC4's Sound of Cinema chooses a book he loved as a teenager: England Their England by A.G. Macdonell. He calls it 'social history by the backdoor'. Published in 1933 its fictional Scots character Donald Cameron is commissioned by a Welsh publisher to write a book about the English from a foreigner's viewpoint. It is a satirical take on an England of the past but still throws up ideas of national identity that are relevant today.
Tiff Stevenson is an actor and stand up comedian whose TV roles include The Office and People Just Do Nothing. Her satirical Twitter account ‘ Bridget Trump’s Diary’ went viral , was featured on TV in the US and landed her regular satirical writing gigs for ‘Mashable’. Tiff's choice is I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings the first of Maya Angelou's books of memoirs about her childhood in the southern USA under segregation. It's a book Tiff loved as a schoolgirl and still loves today.
The final book in the mix this week is Harriett Gilbert's choice which unsurprisingly is a crime novel: Exit by Belinda Bauer. As the title suggests it starts with assisted dying carried out by pensioner Felix Pink who has to then go on the run from the police when things take a dramatic turn.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

A Good Read

Neil Brand and Tiff Stevenson

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4