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3 November 2023

Between the Covers is back for a new chapter with Sara Cox and guests discussing all things books, from fictional debuts to classic page-turners. Each episode in this series also highlights a recent Booker Prize winner or nominee. How many have you read - and which should you add to your reading list?

On Between the Covers, Sara Cox and her guests invite us to take an informed and often irreverent look at some of their favourite books.

For this series, the rich literary pickings on offer in the Booker Prize back catalogue of winners and nominees provide one of the talking points. Now in its sixth decade, the Booker brings ‘recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction’.

Here are the six Booker titles up for discussion this Autumn on Between the Covers.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (1997)

‘They all broke the rules. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.’

This is the story of Rahel and Estha, twins growing up among the banana vats and peppercorns of their blind grandmother’s factory, and amid scenes of political turbulence in Kerala. Armed only with the innocence of youth, they fashion a childhood in the shade of the wreck that is their family: their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher) and their sworn enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun, incumbent grand-aunt).

• The God of Small Things is the Booker pick for episode one in the series, when Sara Cox is joined by actor and newly published author Richard Armitage; comedian and actor Rob Delaney; presenter Anita Rani, and comedian and writer Jo Brand.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle (1993)

Ten-year-old Paddy Clarke is growing up in Barrytown, north Dublin. From fun and adventure on the streets, boredom in the classroom to increasing isolation at home, Doyle's novel is the story of a boy who sees everything but understands less and less.

• Actor and comedian Adrian Edmondson, broadcaster and DJ Annie Macmanus and comedians Chris McCausland and Angela Barne reminisce about Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and Roddy Doyle in episode two of the new series.

The Light of Day by Graham Swift (2003)

On a cold but dazzling November morning, George Webb, a former policeman turned private detective, prepares to visit Sarah, a prisoner and the woman he loves. As he goes about the business of the day he relives the catastrophic events of two years ago that have both bound them together and kept them apart.

Making atmospheric use of its suburban setting and shot through with a plain man’s unwitting poetry and rueful humour, The Light of Day is a powerful and moving tale of murder, redemption and of the discovery, for better or worse, of the hidden forces inside us.

• The Light of Day is the Booker selection for episode three in the new series.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (2019)

When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach.

This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back. To save one may mean sacrificing the other.

• My Sister, the Serial Killer is the Booker selection for the fourth episode in the new series.

Any Human Heart by William Boyd (2002)

Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary, but Logan Mountstuart's - lived from the beginning to the end of the twentieth century - contains more than its fair share of both.

As a writer who finds inspiration with Hemingway in Paris and Virginia Woolf in London, as a spy recruited by Ian Fleming and betrayed in the war and as an art-dealer in '60s New York, Logan mixes with the movers and shakers of his times. But as a son, friend, lover and husband, he makes the same mistakes we all do in our search for happiness. Here, then, is the story of a life lived to the full - and a journey deep into a very human heart.

• Booker Prize longlist nominee Any Human Heart is featured in the fifth episode of the new Between the Covers series.

Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler (2020)

Micah Mortimer measures out his days running errands for work, maintaining an impeccable cleaning regime and going for runs (7:15, every morning). He is in a long-term relationship with his woman friend Cassia, but they live apart. His carefully calibrated life is regular, steady, balanced.

But then the order of things starts to tilt. Cassia is threatened with eviction, and when a teenager shows up at Micah's door claiming to be his son, he is confronted with another surprise he seems poorly equipped to handle.

Can Micah, a man to whom those around him always seem just out of reach, find a way back to his perfectly imperfect love story?

• Redhead by the Side of the Road is the Booker selection for the sixth and final episode in the new series.