大象传媒

Between the Covers brings the nation together through a shared love of reading. For each of the past seven weeks, four guests from the worlds of literature and entertainment have revealed the books they treasure as their all-time favourites.

Chosen by Desiree Burch

Plum Kettle falls down a rabbit hole and into an underground community of women who live life on their own terms.

Desiree says: "It’s awesome. It’s based on fatness and capitalism. It’s a real take down from the inside. It’s rare to feel like you have a book that speaks a lot to your perspective."

Chosen by Graham Norton

A young woman arrives in a small American town in the middle of the Great Depression, and precipitates a rivalry between two brothers.

Graham says: "I just love Mary Lawson’s books…I think she’s perfection. There isn’t one sentence in her books that’s under-written or over-written. They are just nuanced, emotional and you hold your breath. They’re brilliant."

Chosen by Grace Dent

Recently separated Toby Fleishman is just getting back on his feet when his ex-wife disappears.

Grace says: "I think it’s one of the most important books about modern relationships and modern divorce. Being a 40-somethng I thought it was incredible. It’s all about a young successful couple who file for divorce. It really resonated for me. It gets divorce right. It’s able to nail an emotional aspect of splitting a house and a life up."

Chosen by Ben Miller

An astrophysicist in Communist China accidentally makes contact with alien life.

Ben says: "I really love sci-fi. It’s about an alien civilisation using an immersive video game to control people on earth. Basically brainwashing. It’s the most amazing story. You learn so much about China and their history through it."

Chosen by Meera Syal and Babita Sharma

Sethe was born a slave and is still haunted by her traumatic past.

Babita says: "It had a profound impact on me. It’s scary, stark, dark, real. I have never read anything like it before. With the BLM movement her words ring in my mind. The setting – colonialism, slavery – it’s a timeless book. Everybody should read it."

Meera says: "It’s an absolutely devastating book about the effects of slavery. It’s structurally complicated but beautiful and poetic. It looks beyond the obvious horrors and looks at the deeper layers of the horror it leaves. The guilt and loss of identity over generations. It marries the person and political in such a brilliant way."

Chosen by Guvna B

Pastor and author Comer gives us a compelling recipe for coping with the chaos of the modern world.

Guvna says: "It made me realise a lot of things we make time for in life aren’t really super important. If we streamline a lot of the things we’re involved in we’d hurry a lot less. It inspired me to streamline my life a little."

Chosen by Dave Gorman

Baker's memoirs take us behind the scenes of one of the most popular television programmes of all time, but also into the pubs of clubs of Soho where dozens of celebrities met to unwind.

Dave says: "I’m not into Dr Who so I don’t know why I picked it up in the first place. But it’s so much more than you expect this book to be. His humour shines through every page. The man is just a genuine eccentric. You could open it on any page and you will find a sentence that makes you laugh."

Chosen by Anita Rani

The Devil arrives in Moscow to wreak havoc, in a satire so biting it could not be published in the author's lifetime.

Anita says: "It is AMAZING. So mind-blowingly brilliant. It’s a satire about communist Russia set in the 1930s. But there’s also magical realism and fantasy. The devil comes to Russia and plays all these tricks on the Russian elite and exposes the hypocrisy. But on top of that it jumps between Soviet Russia and the time of Jesus and sees Pontius Pilot wondering if he has made the right decision to have Jesus killed. It sounds wacky but it’s brilliant."

Chosen by Laura Whitmore

Dahl's eponymous heroine has ghastly parents, a tyrannical headmistress and a spectacular talent for revenge.

Laura says: "I just think it’s so magical. I remember the feeling I had when I was younger reading it. I still love it and could read it today."

Chosen by Alan Davies

A young man with an isolated upbringing makes a startling discovery when his father is killed in a police shoot-out.

Alan says: "You do have to push through that first chapter and then you’re in! It’s one of the only books I’ve gone back and read again. Once you’re in the world it’s so satirically brilliant. The characters are often crazy. I really thought it was amazing. I loved listening to the audiobook afterwards too."

Chosen by Russell Kane

A newly married women discovers that life in a provincial town does not live up to her romantic expectations.

Russell says: "I think Flaubert is so good on psychology. It’s a love/sex story and a rollicking read. It was the first use of realism. I feel an affinity to Bovary too – I was never very good with girls at school."

Chosen by Andi Osho

Dave Lister inadvertently signs up for a one-way trip three million years into the future, in the novel that accompanies the classic 大象传媒 TV series.

Andi says: "I remember really loving this book. It’s a combination of comedy and sci-fi. The characters are just really great and it’s drawn so brilliantly. I was properly laughing out loud on the Tube which was embarrassing."

Chosen by Jo Brand

A rag-tag band of house painters struggle to make a living in a world where the odds are stacked against them.

Jo says: "The novel is set in Hastings (though it’s fictionalised as Mugsborough) where I spent my teenage years. It’s all about a group of men who are doing up a house for a very rich man. You get to know them all very well. One of the men is very left-wing and he preaches at everyone. All the rest of them are a bit ignorant about politics and need to sort themselves out. You get to know everybody’s family. It’s very tragic and shows just how difficult ordinary people’s lives were then."

Chosen by Will Young

Naive young hobbit Frodo Baggins is entrusted with a magical ring, and must set off on a quest across the fantastical world of Middle Earth in order to destroy it.

Will says: "I am really into fantasy and with those stories from Middle Earth there is this whole world! There is no relation to the world I lived or live in and I just loved that. There is so much feeling and motive in Tolkien’s work, but also humour and danger and darkness and light."

Chosen by Ade Edmondson

Tolstoy's epic work of historical fiction charts the fortune of a diverse cast of Russian characters during the Napoleonic Wars.

Ade says: I’ve read it twice and no one writes love like Tolstoy. I’d always avoided it because it looked far too big and boring but it’s phenomenal! It’s a saga that is epic in scale, so much happens in it. It’s funny and beautiful."

Chosen by Ade Adepitan

Three characters are caught up in Biafra’s struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s.

Ade says: "This is a love story set in Lagos, Nigeria, during the time of the Biafran War. It’s beautifully written. When I came to the UK, I was 3 years old and growing up I felt like I didn’t know much about the country I was born in. This book helped me learn about it."

Chosen by Rebecca Front

Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger embark on a series of unforgettable adventures in this timeless children's book.

Rebecca says: "Firstly, I love it because of the nostalgia. But also, I genuinely think it’s a beautifully written book. I’ve found over the years it gets referenced a lot in my house, my husband loves it a lot as well. The character archetypes within it really are spot on. It's a really good judge of human nature."

Chosen by Bill Bailey

Ignatius J. Reilly lives with his mother. His world is turned upside-down when he is almost arrested by a policeman who mistakes him for a vagrant.

Bill says: "It’s one magnificent rant but the character is brilliantly conceived. There’s nobody quite like John Kennedy Toole. As a comedian I know how hard it is to sustain a comic riff like that for an entire book. It’s an extraordinary achievement."

Chosen by Sophie Ward

The story of a young woman who grows up in a secluded riverside house and slowly ventures into the wider world.

Sophie says: "It’s very much a coming of age book and it’s set between the wars in the 30s. This girl is very shy and she has neighbours next door who are very glamorous and she wishes she was part of their world. It captures so well how you look at other peoples’ lives and think they have it all sorted. It’s lovely and very evocative."

Chosen by Richard Osman

A young girl at the dawn of the 20th Century is given the chance to live her life over and over until she gets it right.

Richard says: "I think Kate Atkinson is an extraordinary writer. This book takes you through the whole of the 20th Century via someone who keeps dying and being reborn. She writes so beautifully and movingly and I’ve yet to meet anyone who didn’t read it and just say ‘that’s an extraordinary book’."

Chosen by Ricky Wilson

Comic Steve Martin explains why he was drawn to stand-up - and why he walked away - in his inspiring autobiography.

Ricky says: "This changed the way I am on stage. It was a revelation. After I read it, I went on stage that night and found myself performing in a totally different way. I really think it’s the ultimate self-help book."

Chosen by Ellie Taylor

Young orphan Harry Potter is forced to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs, until a mysterious visitor whisks him away to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft.

Ellie says: "I just love this series. I was an early adopter because my mum was a librarian and brought the first one home quite early on thinking I’d like it. I’ve always enjoyed alternative worlds and I find this one so immersive. If I’m going through a stressful time it’s this series I return to for comfort."

Chosen by Lolly Adefope

Cheryl's world is thrown upside-down when her bosses ask if their 21-year-old daughter can move in with her, in a novel that explores many kinds of love and lust.

Adefobe says: "Amanda July is a genius. She writes really strange and intriguing female characters. These women don’t fit into any stereotype. Just when things get really odd and you think it can’t get odder, it does! Such great life observations."

Chosen by Sara Pascoe

A Nigerian couple are reunited in their homeland after spending years on different continents.

Sara says: "The characters are all brilliant. It deals with race, which seems particularly relevant at the moment. I’ve never been to Nigeria but it paints such a vivid picture."

Chosen by Tom Allen

A naïve young secretary arrives in San Fransisco in 1976, and stumbles into a new world of laundromat lotharios, pot-growing landladies and cut throat debutantes.

Tom says: "Growing up there weren’t any role models for the queer experience. If there was a gay character it was all about men being queer bashed. They didn’t make you feel inspired or proud. This book was the first time I had a reference to people living happily as gay people and outsiders."

Chosen by Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

In the grimy pubs of 1930s London, a frustrated man lets an infatuation go too far.

Sophie says: "There’s a lot of dark humour in this novel. It’s a proper thriller and it’s quite dark and bleak but it’s still funny. The descriptions of the characters really stayed with me afterwards. It’s a real page turner."

Chosen by Phil Wang

Homer's account of the Trojan Wars has inspired centuries of poets and novelists.

Phil says: "t’s a lot of fun! It’s an epic poem… I recommend the English translation. It’s got fighting - all poems should have fighting! It sounds naff to say it but it’s basically The Avengers – Apollo comes down and he fires a bunch of arrows and then Athena comes down and kills him! It’s really accessible!"

Check back here every week during the series to see what Sara's guests have recommended. Details of all available and upcoming episodes are on the Between the Covers programme website.

Don't miss the Between the Covers list of Twelve brilliant books to set you up for a summer of reading.

You can also get personalised book recommendations by completing our The Novels That Shaped Our World surveys.