The Radio 2 Book Club

Marian Keyes is a huge champion of books and reading - so who better to help us celebrate Book Week on Radio 2! She chats to Sara about the joys of books and gives some great tips on how to get back into reading, if you've fallen out of the rhythm of it. Marian also teases us with news of a NEW NOVEL! (but she can't say much about it...yet) and gives us a great book recommendation as well! (we pack a lot in!)

The Queen Of Crime - Val McDermid - and winner of our Radio 2 Book Club Award - Roisin O'Donnell - join Sara for some good ole book chat. Sara hosts this very special edition of the Radio 2 Book Club from the BBC Sounds Garden at Radio 2 In The Park - Stirling - in front of a live audience. She chats to the authors about their latest novels, their inspirations, why Scotland is such a good setting for crime fiction - and gets some brilliant book recommendations from them too! Roisin is the inaugural winner of our Radio 2 Book Club Award - and managed to bring her trophy, all the way from Dublin, to show off! Apparently airport security had a few questions... Here's more info on our guests' brilliant books: SILENT BONES - BY VAL MCDERMID When torrential rain causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland, it reveals a crime scene: someone hid a body in the tarmac eleven years before. Journalist Sam Nimmo had been the prime suspect in the murder of his fiancée when he disappeared, and now DCI Karen Pirie and her Historic Cases Unit must find out who buried him, and why.Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, new evidence reopens a closed case and the accidental death of a hotel manager starts to look like murder. But what did Tom Jamieson's book club have to do with his demise - and what will they do to keep their secrets?Karen and her team begin to untangle a web of lies, one that connects their murder cases with Scotland's rich and powerful. They will be tested to their limits - and possibly beyond . . .NESTING - BY ROISIN O'DONNELLOn a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan’s relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.What will it take for Ciara to rebuild her life? Can she ever truly break away from Ryan’s control – and what will be the cost?

Sara welcomes international bestselling author, Douglas Stuart, to the Book Club. They discuss his beautiful new novel - John Of John - and his inspirations behind the story. Douglas tells Sara about his epic trip to the Scottish Islands, the people he met there - and what he learned about sheep farming and textile making (all of which made it into this new book). He also chats about exploring the theme of masculinity and how not growing up with a father figure helped shape and create the central relationship in his novel. Douglas also gives a great book recommendation - and - plays us a short extract from the audiobook too.Here's a little more info on 'John Of John': Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home to the island of Harris to find that not much has changed except for him. In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and how he seems unwilling to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding together the fragile community become increasingly entangled.

Debut novelist Jo Murray joins Sara for a natter about her crime thriller 'Dissection Of A Murder' Jo was a criminal barrister for many years before leaving the profession to spend more time with family and to write. Sara talks to Jo about bringing her real-life experiences from the courtroom to the page, making her readers work hard and how she came up with a very important element of the story (and characters). We also get a great book recommendation from Jo - and - get an exclusive extract of the audiobook too. Here's a little more info on 'Dissection Of A Murder':A dead judge. A silent defendant. And a courtroom full of liars.When Leila Reynolds is handed her first murder case, she’s shocked at how high-profile it is: the murder of a well-respected, well-known judge. This shouldn’t be the kind of case she’s leading; it’s way beyond her expertise. But the defendant, Jack Millman, is clear. He wants her, and only her.To make things worse, he’s refusing to talk. How is she supposed to prove herself on what appears to be an unwinnable case?Losing is not an option. She must find the most persuasive argument. Trials aren’t won by convincing judges or fellow barristers – they’re all about convincing a jury.Suddenly, Leila finds herself fighting not only to keep Jack out of prison, but also to keep her own secrets buried.It’s true what they say – there are two sides to every story.Guilty or not guilty?You decide . . .

Author and illustrator, Lizzy Stewart, joins Sara in the Book Club to chat about her new illustrated novel, 'The Wreck'. They talk about her writing (and drawing) routine, Eric Ravilious as an inspiration, 90s hairdos - and how drastically friendships can change over decades. Lizzy also recommends us a couple of books she has enjoyed reading recently. Here's a little more info on 'The Wreck':Two couples pursue their dream of communal living in the English countryside – and then it all comes tumbling downCharlotte and Francesca were best friends at university in the mid-1970s. But tensions coursed beneath their natural affection, deepening when Fran got together with Charlotte’s friend Adrian, and the two women drifted apart.When Fran contacts Charlotte out of the blue with an unusual proposal – an invitation to live with her and Adrian in the rambling house they’ve bought in the countryside – Charlotte impulsively persuades her partner, Bill, to accept this tantalising promise of a new kind of community.At first their new life feels utopian; life and space are shared joyfully. But it doesn’t take long for old tensions to rise to the surface, shattering their illusions and showing each of them in a new light.

Dr Sharon Blackie joins Sara to chat about the origins of Fairytales and why she believes they are still so important and relevant today. Sharon is a former neuroscientist and psychologist, turned bestselling author and speaker who has a background in mythology and folklore. As part of the BBC's 'Once Upon A Time' season - Sara an Sharon explore the origins of Fairytales, how she used them in her practices - and why we're still so fascinated with them.Here's a little more info on Sharon's book, 'Ripening':In this world in which all our old certainties seem to be crumbling, many women feel lost. In Ripening, Sharon Blackie insists that fairy tales are precisely the stories we need for such times.Long before they became bywords for people-pleasing princesses, these old stories – passed down to us through generations by our peasant ancestors – told us everything that women need to learn about the world. They might be set in difficult and dangerous times, but they insist that their heroines face the unfaceable and dig deep for previously unimagined inner resources. They teach us to be savvy, inspire us to grow in confidence, show us how to be bold and claim the future we dream of. More than anything, fairy tales are soul-food. They show us how to take hold of our own personal narratives and transform them into stories that might begin with trauma, but end with empowerment. They offer us images of startling resonance and beauty, while showing us how to recognise and make use of the possibilities that rise to the surface when broken systems are cracked open.

Sara welcomes bestselling novelist Patrick Gale back to the Radio 2 Book Club. They chat about his new novel, 'Love Lane', a sequel (sort of) to one of his earlier books 'A Place Called Winter'. Patrick explains what made him want to return to this story and the characters and talks about the incredible treasure trove of family trinkets and secrets that he inherited, which allowed him to write a story based on his own family history. Patrick narrates the audiobook himself, so we hear a little clip of that - and - get some cracking reading recommendations from him as well! Here's the blurb for 'Love Lane': A reunion. A journey. A longing for a place called home...When veteran Canadian wheat farmer, Harry Cane is obliged to sell up and sail home to an England transformed by two world wars, his arrival triggers unwelcome self-examination for the family he abandoned, and for whom he has never been more than a distant myth.His daughter feels duty bound to take him in but is riven with doubt and ambushed by a long buried anger she has never before expressed. Harry's effect on the next generation is less predictable, and enables his granddaughter to deal with an unspeakable trauma, while her gentle husband feels seen for who he truly is.Can Harry stay and make a new life before it's too late, or will he find himself cast out again, punished for having witnessed and understood too much?