Tag: book club

Spotlight: BBC Radio 4 Bookclub

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BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub has been broadcast monthly for coming up to twenty-five years. It’s hosted by James Naughtie, former presenter of Radio 4’s flagship current affairs programme Today, and himself the author of several books, both fiction and nonfiction. The books chosen are usually the best-known novels by an author rather than the latest releases.

To create an atmosphere similar to a regular book club, the number of participants is kept small. However, unlike most book clubs, the author of the book being discussed is always present giving the audience of readers a chance to ask questions and listen to the always fascinating answers.

I’ve been lucky enough to attend four recordings of the programme so far:

  • Donal Ryan discussing his book The Spinning Heart which is set in the aftermath of Ireland’s financial collapse in 2008. A companion novel, Heart, Be At Peace, set ten years later, will be published in August 2024.
  • Graeme Macrae Burnet talking about his novel His Bloody Project which involves a triple murder that takes place in a small village in Scotland in 1869. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2016. A Case of Matricide, the third book featuring French detective Georges Gorski will be published in December 2024.
  • Clare Chambers discussing her book Small Pleasures set in 1950s south-east London and longlisted for the Womens Prize for Fiction 2021. Her new novel, Shy Creatures, set in London in 1964 will be published in August 2024.
  • Lucy Caldwell talking about her novel These Days set in Belfast in 1941 which won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023. (The programme will be broadcast on 2nd June 2024). Her short story collection, Openings, was published in April.
Flatlay of book covers The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan, His Bloody Priject by Graeme Macrae Burnet, Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers and These Days by Lucy Caldwell

How can I attend a Bookclub recording?

It’s free to attend recordings which take place at BBC Broadcasting House in London either at lunchtime or early evening. You can book yourself a place via the Bookclub website where you’ll find dates and details of upcoming recordings. (The next one is Marlon James talking about his book, A Brief History of Seven Killings.) There are also links to the archive of past recordings with over 350 previous episodes available to listen to.

What happens at a recording?

If you’re successful in bagging yourself a place, you’ll need to arrive at BBC Broadcasting House at least 15 minutes before the recording start time. There will be a table set up in the main reception where you collect your pass. You’ll need to show some form of photo ID. Any bags will need to be scanned by security. The audience services team will then guide you to the room in which the recording is taking place.

Once you’re there, James Naughtie will introduce the author and set out some house rules including, most importantly, turning off your mobile phone. You’ll have been invited to submit questions in advance but it doesn’t matter if you haven’t, you can just put your hand up on the day and wait for James to spot you. A microphone will then appear in front of you to enable you to ask your question. The programme is recorded so you don’t need to worry about fluffing your lines! If you don’t want to ask a question that’s no problem, you can just sit back and listen. There’ll be around 40 to 50 minutes of questions and answers which will then be edited down to just under thirty minutes by producer Nicola Holloway and her team. At the end, there’s usually an opportunity to have the author sign your copy of their book. As well as being a great opportunity to listen to an author talk about their book, I’ve found it a fascinating insight into what goes into recording a radio programme.

Perhaps I’ll see you at a future recording!

Book Review – The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

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About the Book

Book cover of The Wager by David Grann

1742: A ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washes up on the coast of Brazil. Inside are thirty emaciated men, barely alive. Survivors from the Wager, a British vessel wrecked while on a secret mission to raid a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, they have an extraordinary tale to tell.

Six months later, an even more decrepit boat comes ashore on the coast of Chile, containing just three castaways with their own, very different account of what happened. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil, they maintain, were not heroes – they were mutineers.

As accusations of treachery and murder fly, who is telling the truth? The stakes are life-and-death – for whoever is guilty could hang.

Format: Paperback (368 pages) Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: 18th April 2023 Genre: Nonfiction, History

Find The Wager on Goodreads

Purchase The Wager from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.]

My Review

This was a book club pick and a rare non-fiction read for me. I really enjoyed it, as did the majority of my fellow readers. It’s a thrilling story of endurance and the will to survive with, it has to be said, some harrowing scenes in parts. It’s also a thought-provoking exploration of human behaviour under extreme circumstances.

The author’s meticulous research is obvious; you only have to look at the extensive notes and bibliography which make up nearly one hundred pages of the book to see that. Although the book is overflowing with maritime facts, including the origin of some commonly used phrases, it’s not a dry read. For example, this description of the toll on the Wager‘s structure of the rough seas they encounter: ‘Every day she was being devoured… She was pelted and gouged. She pitched, she heaved, she groaned, she splintered.’ Or this, when the ship is finally pitched onto the rocks of what will come to be known as Wager Island: ‘The bowsprit cleaved, windows burst, treenails popped, planks shattered, cabins collapsed, decks caved in.’

It has to be said that on the voyage the Wager’s crew experienced just about everything nature could throw at them as well as outbreaks of typhus and scurvy that cut a deadly swathe over the ship’s crew. I actually found it surprising that anyone survived the voyage, let along the shipwreck and the period as castaways on an island that provided very little in the way of food or shelter. Only salvaging items from the Wager ensured their survival and, at a crucial moment, assistance from an indigenous tribe much better suited to their environment than the crew.

One other thing that surprised me was the extent of the contemporaneous documents that survived, including the journals kept by sixteen year old midshipman John Byron (grandfather of the poet Lord Byron) and gunner, John Bulkeley.

The Wager is a story based on fact. If it wasn’t the author might have been tempted to create a more exciting ending but he stuck rigidly to the actual events which reveal something of a cover-up by those in power who didn’t care to advertise the breakdown of naval discipline or the parlous state of the country’s fleet.

By way of an afterword, Martin Scorcese (who brought to the screen David Grann’s previous book, Killers of the Flower Moon) and Leonard DiCaprio have acquired the screen rights to The Wager.

In three words: Well-researched, detailed, authentic
Try something similar: Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin

About the Author

David Grann is the author of the international bestsellers Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z. Killers of the Flower Moon was a finalist for The National Book Award and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of The White Darkness and the collection The Devil and Sherlock Holmes. Grann’s investigative reporting has garnered several honours, including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in New York. (Photo: Goodreads author page)