The Radio 2 Book Club

Barrister turned author, and recent 'Traitors' star - Harriet Tyce - joins Sara for a chat about her new novel.
She talks about stepping out of her comfort zone and writing a male protagonist, her inspirations for the book and if her time in the Traitors castle has inspired a new story.
Harriet also gives a great book recommendation too.

Bestselling author, Sadeqa Johnson, joins Sara for a natter about her new novel.
'The Keeper Of Lost Children' is a powerful and beautifully told novel about hidden secrets and the hunger to belong. Sadeqa talks about her inspirations for the book, the real-life characters that inspired the story - and why it's so important to write people of colour back into the history books.
We also hear a clip from her audiobook - and - get a cracking book recommendation as well.
Here's the blurb for The Keeper Of Lost Children:
Ethel Gathers, the proud wife of an American Officer, is living in Occupied Germany in the 1950s. After discovering a local orphanage filled with the abandoned mixed-race children of German women and Black American GI's, Ethel feels compelled to help find these children homes.
Philadelphia born Ozzie Phillips volunteers for the recently desegregated army in 1948, eager to make his mark in the world. While serving in Manheim, Germany, he meets a local woman, Jelka, and the two embark on a relationship that will impact their lives forever.
In 1965 Maryland, Sophia Clark is given an opportunity to attend a prestigious all white boarding school and escape her heartless parents. While at the school, she discovers a secret that upends her world and sends her on a quest to unravel her own identity.
Toggling between the lives of these three individuals, Keeper of Lost Children explores how one woman's vision will change the course of countless lives, and demonstrates that love in its myriad of forms--familial, parental, and forbidden, even love of self--can be transcendent.

Cressida Cowell (bestselling children's author of the 'How To Train Your Dragon' series) joins Sara for a natter about the joy of reading.
As an ambassador for The National Year Of Reading, Cressida is passionate about getting people reading for pleasure - especially children - and chats to Sara about the various plans in place this year to encourage more people to pick up a book, comic, graphic novel - or even listen to an audiobook.
She also takes us behind the scenes of the filming of 'How To Train Your Dragon 2' which has just started filming!

Libby Page joins Sara in the Book Club to chat about her new novel, "This Book Made Me Think Of You"
They discuss their love of bookshops, the genre they write in and why sometimes we just need a bit to make us smile (and cry a bit maybe?)
Libby talks about her trips to New York and Paris for some of the scenes in this new novel, and her obsession with books about bookshops. She also gives us a brilliant reading recommendation - and - we hear an exclusive extract from her audiobook.
Here's more about Libby's new novel:
When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her there’s a birthday gift from her husband waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldn’t come as more of a shock. Partly, because she can’t remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. Mainly, because Joe died five months ago…
The gift is simple – twelve carefully chosen books from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.
And so begins a reading-inspired journey that takes Tilly around the world; from bustling sidewalks in New York and the tree-lined avenues of Paris to the tranquil Tuscan countryside and the white sands of Bali. With the help of the bookshop owner, Alfie, Tilly starts to discover who she is now, after Joe.
But can Tilly’s year of books show her how to love again?

Phoenix Cooper - of Kent Libraries fame - shares their Top Five Reads Of The Year so far (but mainly, of 2025)
They chat to Sara about their love of libraries, their role, being part of the Radio 2 Book Club panel - and give a shout out to their mum's book group too.
Phoenix's Top Five Reads:
Raven scholar by Antonia Hodgson
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir