A Good Read: Andrew McMillan and Kathryn Williams
Books and Authors
BBC
4.2 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
ON WRITING by Stephen King, chosen by Kathryn Williams THE BITCH by Pilar Quintana (translated by Lisa Dillman), chosen by Harriett Gilbert ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute, chosen by Andrew McMillan
The singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams loves books about the craft of writing and her choice of a good read is 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft', by the master of horror, Stephen King. The book gave her practical tools and advice which helped her to write her debut novel, The Ormering Tide. She also loves what we learn about King's life - from his flatulent childhood nanny to the devastating 1999 accident which almost ended his life.
Harriett's choice this week is The Bitch by Colombian author Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. In a village on the Pacific coast of Colombia, between wild jungle and wild seas, a childless woman develops a complicated relationship with an orphaned puppy.
And the poet and novelist Andrew McMillan chooses On the Beach by Nevil Shute. In Australia, a group of people try to come to terms with the end of the world. A nuclear war has wiped out all life in the northern hemisphere and the radiation is drifting steadily south. What would you do if you knew that you, and everyone you know, had only months to live?
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation. |
| 0:07.0 | It was an extraordinary news story. |
| 0:09.0 | The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny, |
| 0:14.0 | mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared. |
| 0:18.0 | One of the great mysteries in English criminal history. We're still looking for Leukin. |
| 0:22.1 | It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime. |
| 0:26.0 | I'm Alex von Tundselman. |
| 0:27.4 | This is The Lucan Obsession. |
| 0:29.2 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.7 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:36.9 | Hello, I'm Harriet Gilbert. |
| 0:38.6 | Thank you for downloading a good read, the podcasts, |
| 0:42.0 | where two guests and I recommend books we love and describe why we love them. |
| 0:46.4 | We don't always see eye to eye, but I hope you'll find some great reading suggestions here. |
| 0:51.7 | Hello, if you're thinking of writing a novel or actually writing one, stay listening. |
| 0:56.9 | In fact, stay listening anyway to find out what today's guests recommend as a good read. |
| 1:02.0 | Here with me is first the poet and novelist Andrew McMillan, author of three poetry collections, |
| 1:07.2 | most recently Pandemonium, and co-editor of the anthology 100 queer poems. Andrew's |
| 1:13.7 | first novel, Pity, came out last month. With him is the singer-songwriter Catherine Williams, |
| 1:19.6 | whose latest album Wilson Williams, with the musician Withered Hand, is released in April. In 2019, |
| 1:26.6 | Catherine produced a 20-CD box set of her albums called Anthology. |
| 1:31.3 | And like Andrew, she's recently published a debut novel, The Omering Tide. |
... |
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