World Book Club


World Book Club is a radio programme on the BBC World Service. Each edition of the programme, which is broadcast on the first Saturday of the month with repeats into the following Monday, features a famous author discussing one of their books, often the most well-known one, with the public. Since the programme began in 2002 it has been presented by Harriett Gilbert.

History

World Book Club features a famous writer who answers questions submitted by the public about one of their books. It is usually recorded in front of a live audience. Listeners around the world can submit questions before the recording.
The programme was launched at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002. The first book featured was Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor.
Until November 2008 it was a half-hour programme broadcast on the last Tuesday of each month in the slot of The Word, a defunct book programme whose remit was absorbed within the output of The Strand, the BBC World Service's new daily arts and entertainment show. With the end of The Word and the beginning of The Strand, World Book Club became an hour-long programme broadcast on the first Saturday in the month in slots otherwise occupied by the weekly highlights compilation of The Strand. Some repeats are in an edited 30 minute version to fit The Strand's half hour slot. The first hour-long programme featured Alice Walker.
As well as 'live' radio transmissions and repeats, current programmes can be listened to online as part of the BBC's usual 'listen again' streaming. Previous programmes are archived and can also be listened to online at any time. Some recent programmes are available to download as podcasts.
The producer of the programme, Karen Holden, runs its Facebook page.

Writers and books

This is a list of the writers who have taken part on World Book Club and whose programmes can be heard online :
  • Penelope Lively – Moon Tiger p
  • David Grossman – To the End of the Land p
  • Lionel Shriver – We Need to Talk About Kevin p
  • Hisham Matar – In the Country of Men p
  • Colm Toibin – Brooklyn p
  • Henning Mankell – Faceless Killers p
  • Val McDermid – A Place of Execution p
  • Boris Akunin – The Winter Queen p
  • Jo Nesbø – The Redbreast p
  • Javier Cercas – Soldiers of Salamis p
  • P.J. O'Rourke – Eat the Rich p
  • Bernhard Schlink – The Reader p
  • Damon Galgut – The Good Doctor p
  • Kamila Shamsie – Burnt Shadows p
  • Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible p
  • Carlos Ruiz Zafon – The Shadow of the Wind p
  • David Mitchell – Cloud Atlas p
  • Richard Ford – The Sportswriter p
  • J.M.G. Le Clézio – Désert p
  • John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas p
  • Andrea Levy – Small Island p
  • Kiran Desai – The Inheritance of Loss p
  • James Ellroy – American Tabloid p
  • Alaa Al Aswany – The Yacoubian Building p
  • Günter Grass – The Tin Drum p
  • Lionel Shriver – We Need to Talk About Kevin p
  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Half of a Yellow Sun p
  • Nawal El Saadawi – Woman at Point Zero p
  • Kate Grenville – The Secret River p
  • Mohsin Hamid – The Reluctant Fundamentalist p
  • David Guterson – Snow Falling on Cedars p
  • Toni Morrison – Beloved p
  • Derek Walcott – Omeros p
  • Alice Walker – The Color Purple p
  • E. Annie Proulx – The Shipping News & Brokeback Mountain p
  • David Lodge – Nice Work p
  • Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart p
  • John Irving – The World According to Garp p
  • Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner p
  • Sebastian Faulks – Birdsong p
  • Jane Smiley – A Thousand Acres p
  • Patricia Cornwell – Postmortem p
  • Edna O'Brien – The Country Girls p
  • Umberto Eco – The Name of the Rose p
  • Sara Paretsky – Indemnity Only p
  • Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient p
  • Armistead Maupin – Tales of the City p
  • Irvine Welsh – Trainspotting
  • Richard Dawkins – The Selfish Gene
  • Thomas Keneally – Schindler's Ark
  • Wole Soyinka – Ake: The Years of Childhood
  • Mario Vargas Llosa – Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
  • Iain Banks – The Wasp Factory
  • Rose Tremain – Restoration
  • Yann Martel – Life of Pi
  • John le Carré – A Perfect Spy
  • William Boyd – Brazzaville Beach
  • Frank McCourt – Angela's Ashes
  • Arnold Wesker – Chicken Soup with Barley
  • Ian Rankin – Black and Blue
  • Joanna Trollope – The Rector's Wife
  • Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart
  • Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five
  • Orhan Pamuk – My Name is Red
  • Alexander McCall Smith – The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
  • Scott Turow – Presumed Innocent
  • Louis de Bernières – Captain Corelli's Mandolin
  • Philip Pullman – Northern Lights
  • Vikram Seth – A Suitable Boy
  • Maya Angelou – I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
  • Salman Rushdie – Midnight's Children
  • André Brink – A Dry White Season
  • Joyce Carol Oates – Blonde
  • Carlos Fuentes – The Death of Artemio Cruz
  • Nick Hornby – Fever Pitch
  • Wilbur Smith – When the Lion Feeds
  • Ian McEwan – Atonement
  • Zadie Smith – White Teeth
  • P. D. James – Original Sin
  • Paulo Coelho – The Alchemist
  • Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day
  • Roddy Doyle – The Commitments
  • Anita Desai – Fasting, Feasting
  • Amos Oz – My Michael
  • Gillian Slovo – Red Dust
  • Ken Follett – Eye of the Needle
  • Tracy Chevalier – Girl with a Pearl Earring
  • Germaine Greer – The Female Eunuch
  • A. S. Byatt – Possession
  • Martin Cruz Smith – Gorky Park
  • Amy Tan – The Joy Luck Club
  • V. S. Naipaul – A House for Mr Biswas
  • Isabel Allende – The House of Spirits
  • Peter Carey – Oscar and Lucinda
  • Frederick Forsyth – Day of the Jackal
  • Ruth Rendell – A Judgement in Stone
  • Julian Barnes – Flaubert's Parrot
  • Terry Pratchett – The Colour of Magic
  • Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid's Tale
  • Jung Chang – Wild Swans
  • Doris Lessing – The Grass is Singing
  • Hanif Kureishi – The Buddha of Suburbia
  • Ben Okri – The Famished Road
  • Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things
  • Martin Amis – Money
  • Garrison Keillor – ''Lake Wobegon Days''

    Prize winners

Many winners of the major literary prizes have taken part in the programme, for instance:
  • Nobel Prize
Ten winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature have taken part: Günter Grass, Kazuo Ishiguro, J.M.G. Le Clézio, Doris Lessing, Toni Morrison, V. S. Naipaul, Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mario Vargas Llosa and Derek Walcott.
  • Booker Prize
Seventeen winners of the Booker Prize have taken part: Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, Peter Carey &, Kiran Desai, Roddy Doyle, Kazuo Ishiguro, Howard Jacobson, Thomas Keneally, Penelope Lively, Ian McEwan, Yann Martel, V. S. Naipaul, Ben Okri, Michael Ondaatje, Arundhati Roy, and Salman Rushdie.
Seven Costa Book of the Year Award winners have taken part: Peter Ackroyd, William Boyd, Kazuo Ishiguro, Andrea Levy, David Lodge, Philip Pullman and Colm Tóibín.
  • Pulitzer Prize
Five winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction have taken part: Richard Ford, Toni Morrison, E. Annie Proulx, Jane Smiley, and Alice Walker.
  • Orange Prize
Seven winners of the Women's Prize for Fiction have taken part: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Kate Grenville, Barbara Kingsolver, Andrea Levy, Lionel Shriver, Zadie Smith, and Rose Tremain.

Asking questions or attending recordings

Apart from attending the recording in person, listeners can submit questions beforehand by email, telephone, or using the form on the World Book Club website.
Recordings usually take place in London, but sometimes in other places.