Open Book

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics

BBC Radio 4 FM

Harry Livingstone

Open Book: Really Good, Actually

22/01/2023

Really Good, Actually

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Really Good, Actually

Monica Heisey talks about her debut novel, Really Good, Actually.

Monica Heisey talks to Johny Pitts about her debut novel about divorce in your twenties, Really Good, Actually.

Monica Heisey has been a writer for television comedy, including the award winning Schitts Creek, and has just published her debut novel Really Good, Actually. The story follows 28 year old Maggie as she navigates a new life after her recent divorce. Monica talks to Johny Pitts about the crossover between fiction and her own life and finding the comedy in self-improvement. 

Johny explores working class lives in two collections of interlinked short stories from different sides of the Atlantic. Stories From the Tenants Downstairs is written as eight narratives from the same apartment block and vividly explores the dreams and despair of a Black community in Harlem threatened with displacement by gentrification. While The Quarry looks at the everyday lives of a cross section of haunted men all living in an housing estate in West London. Johny talks to the authors of the books,  Sidik Fofana and Ben Halls, about capturing the voices of the communities and the process of writing authentic characters. 

And we also hear about the hotly anticipated book coming next month in our Editors' Tip from Dialogue's Hannah Chukwu 

Book List – Sunday 22 January and Thursday 17 January
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
Stories From the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana
The Quarry by Ben Halls
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
Rough Springs by Richard Ford

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

Open Book

Really Good, Actually

Contributors

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4