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8 June 2022

A portrait of 'La Divina', soprano Maria Callas; Patricia Lockwood's prose poem of the internet; the moving backstories of the female victims of a serial killer in 1880s Whitechapel; and the eccentric 1960s adventures of a group of Thames houseboat-dwelling misfits. Each of these varied titles was written by a woman and is recommended as a must-read by the Between the Covers guests.

Each week we reveal the reading recommendations brought in by guests on Between the Covers. In the fifth episode of the current series, the Rev Kate Bottley, Pierre Novellie, Emeli Sandé and Adrian Scarborough tell us about the literature they can't live without.

Episode 5 - Favourite books from our guests

The cover says: The story of Jack the Ripper has captivated our attention for over 130 years. Daily, tourists from around the globe make pilgrimages to visit the places where the ‘canonical five’ women - Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Kate Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly - were murdered, while never knowing more than just the most basic ‘facts’ about their lives.

This is the first full-length biography to explore and contextualize the lives of the five victims of Jack the Ripper. Offering new insights and drawing on previously unseen or unpublished material, its focus is entirely on the women and not on their murderer.

Kate says: “I really enjoy a true crime book but they always feel a bit voyeuristic and quite misogynistic because they often focus on the perpetrator of the crime. But this, which is a non-fiction book, focuses very much on the story of the five women that were killed by Jack The Ripper. It attempts to give those women their story and their voice back.

There's a wonderful bit in this book, where the writer talks about the possessions which were found in their pockets when their bodies were found, and what that says about the story of those women and how they found themselves in the place that they did. It was a really powerful book for me.”

The cover says: For millions of people, the great soprano Maria Callas (1923-1977) remains the focus of such unparalleled fascination that there is still no higher praise for singers than "…the best since Callas."

In this biography, Callas' career is brought brilliantly to life, from her transformation from a chubby, painfully shy girl into a magnificent, celebrated soprano, to her conflict with her larger-than-life image.

Emeli says: “I've just become completely obsessed with Maria Callas. I find her life, her personality, and old interviews just so inspiring - she was such a genius. Her depth of knowledge of music is just incredible and I found this book really insightful. Being written by a woman, it was very different, because I’ve read a few biographies about her, mainly written by men - there was one by her former husband - but this one really, I just loved.

I really got an emotional insight into Maria for the first time. I just thought it was really, really beautifully done.”

The cover says: As this urgent, genre-defying book opens, a woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts travels around the world to meet her adoring fans. She is overwhelmed by navigating the new language and etiquette of what she terms “the portal,” where she grapples with an unshakable conviction that a vast chorus of voices is now dictating her thoughts.

When existential threats–from climate change and economic precariousness to the rise of an unnamed dictator and an epidemic of loneliness–begin to loom, she posts her way deeper into the portal’s void.

Pierre says: “It's the first book I've ever read that's managed to successfully incorporate what it's like to live now, where we live half online - on Twitter, Instagram, social media. This book is written almost in Tweets and the device, the portal, that the writer talks about entering is basically Twitter.

So it's the first book I've ever read that incorporates meme culture, modern human culture, as it is now, seamlessly and because it's written a bit like tweets. It's almost like a poem, a prose poem - it's in chunks.

Initially, it's more about the writer’s relationship with the portal, or with this other world that feeds her humour and content and thoughts, and then it becomes more and more real. It becomes about her niece who was born with a very rare genetic disorder and how that kind of brings reality back in, almost as a contrast between that and the portal, and it becomes more of a personal family drama.

She's great, Patricia Lockwood, she is described as the poet laureate of the internet. Her writing is very funny.”

The cover says: On Battersea Reach, a mixed bag of the temporarily lost and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the tide of the Thames.

There is good-natured Maurice, by occupation a male prostitute, by chance a receiver of stolen goods. And Richard, an ex-navy man whose boat, much like its owner, dominates the Reach. Then there is Nenna, an abandoned wife and mother of two young girls running wild on the muddy foreshore, whose domestic predicament, as it deepens, will draw this disparate community together.

Pierre says: “Essentially, it's about a group of people who all live on the Thames in houseboats, in various dodgy craft, in the '60s in London. There's just such a fantastic array of the juiciest, tastiest, loveliest, mad, eccentric characters, and what they get up to.

In particular, there is this single mum Nenna, and her two rather naughty, wonderful children who do all of the things that they shouldn't. It's just very, very funny and very evocative of a very particular London at that time. I just devoured it, I loved it. I thought it was really brilliant and juicy and lovely!”