Read On - The Audiobook Show from RNIB
RNIB Connect Radio
A weekly show all about audiobooks recorded at the RNIB Talking Book studios.
We talk to your favourite authors and narrators, along with reviews and news about new audiobooks.
Presented and produced by Robert Kirkwood, you'll find a new episode here every Friday at 1pm plus bonus content such as longer uncut interviews and episodes of our occasional extra show, The Book Group.
Talking Books is a free service from RNIB giving access to over 40,000 fiction and non fiction books for adults and children. Find out more by searching for RNIB Library.
Get involved and join the conversation by emailing radio@rnib.org.uk or find Robert on Twitter @Talking_Books
Other great podcast channels from RNIB Connect Radio
Connect - Our main channel with news, features and articles on sight loss.
Conversations - Blind and partially sighted people speaking about a wide range of topics.
Tech Talk - Technology for blind and partially sighted people.
Sport - See sport differently.
The Happy Hour - Mental health, mindfulness, and overall wellbeing.
Tracks of My Life - Take a journey through our guest's life.
Support - Other podcasts from RNIB.
TV Guide - Daily audio TV listings
We talk to your favourite authors and narrators, along with reviews and news about new audiobooks.
Presented and produced by Robert Kirkwood, you'll find a new episode here every Friday at 1pm plus bonus content such as longer uncut interviews and episodes of our occasional extra show, The Book Group.
Talking Books is a free service from RNIB giving access to over 40,000 fiction and non fiction books for adults and children. Find out more by searching for RNIB Library.
Get involved and join the conversation by emailing radio@rnib.org.uk or find Robert on Twitter @Talking_Books
Other great podcast channels from RNIB Connect Radio
Connect - Our main channel with news, features and articles on sight loss.
Conversations - Blind and partially sighted people speaking about a wide range of topics.
Tech Talk - Technology for blind and partially sighted people.
Sport - See sport differently.
The Happy Hour - Mental health, mindfulness, and overall wellbeing.
Tracks of My Life - Take a journey through our guest's life.
Support - Other podcasts from RNIB.
TV Guide - Daily audio TV listings
Episodes
Mentioned books
Nov 17, 2023 • 58min
347: Jonathan Escoffery - Booker Prize 2023
In today's show we chat to Jonathan Escoffery about his debut novel, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, If I Survive You.
We also find some new books in the talking books library and discover why Google recently held a conference on accessible publishing.
Nov 10, 2023 • 58min
346: Paul Murray - Booker Prize 2023
In today's show we talk to Paul Murray about the multiple narrators in the audio version of his Booker shortlisted book, The Bee Sting, plus we hear a clip from Western Lane by Chetna Maroo. We'll also hear about some new books entering the Talking Books library.
Nov 3, 2023 • 58min
345: Paul Lynch & Sarah Bernstein - Booker Prize 2023
In today's episode we chat to two authors on the Booker Shortlist 2023.
Paul Lynch takes us to a dystopian Ireland in Prophet Song and Sarah Bernstein spins a web of culpability and criminality in Study for Obedience.
Oct 27, 2023 • 58min
344: Rachel Hore - The Hidden Years
In today's show Robert Kirkwood finds out about Rachel Hore’s captivating new novel of secrets, loss and betrayal - set on the beautiful Cornish coast during World War Two and the heady days of the 1960s, The Hidden Years.
Plus we find four brand new books entering the Talking Books Library.
Oct 20, 2023 • 58min
343: Nigel Planer, Kate Mosse and Rory Cellan-Jones - Wigtown Book Festival
Three more authors interviewed at the Wigtown Book Festival in this week's show. Ex-BBC technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones tells Robert Kirkwood about his memoir Ruskin Park, we go swashbuckling with Kate Mosse and her book The Ghost Ship, and we time travel with actor and writer Nigel Planer as he tells us about Jeremiah Bourne in Time.
Plus we find some new books entering the Talking Books Library.
Oct 13, 2023 • 58min
342: Maggie O'Farrell, Kathryn Harkup and Jo Caulfield - Wigtown Book Festival
In a second visit this year to Wigtown, Robert Kirkwood talks to comedian Jo Caulfield about her moving memoir The Funny Thing About Death, we get poisons, monsters and some secret lairs in Kathryn Harkup's Superspy Science and we take a trip during the Italian Renaissance with Maggie O'Farrell and her book, The Marriage Proposal.
All that plus four new gems in the Talking Books library, one of which is narrated by Meryl Streep!
Oct 6, 2023 • 58min
341: Louise Doughty, Lynsey May, Stuart Paterson and Ruth Scurr - Wigtown Book Festival
This week Robert Kirkwood travels to Scotland's Book Town and talks to novelist Lynsey May about her debut book, Weak Teeth, Stuart Paterson reads his viral poem, Here's the Weather, historian Ruth Scurr talks about Napoleon: A Life told in Gardens and Shadow and author Louise Doughty talks about her brand new thriller, A Bird in Winter.
Plus we find four new gems in the Talking Books Library.
Sep 29, 2023 • 58min
340: 20 Years of RNIB Connect Radio with Read On - Part 2
As RNIB Connect Radio turns 20, Read On this week looks back at some of the first authors, narrators and looks behind the scenes we've had on the show.
Actor Allan Tall talks about preparing a Christopher Brookmyre book for narration and being thrown from his horse during the filming of Braveheart.
Author Alan Bissett joins Robert Kirkwood after narrating his book, The Incredible Adam Spark.
And former manager of the Talking Book Studios, Ian Turner, talks about all the famous narrators who recorded books exclusively for RNIB.
Plus, as always, we find four new gems in the library
Sep 22, 2023 • 58min
339: M.A. Kuzniar - Upon A Frosted Star and Midnight in Everwood
This week author M.A. Kuzniar joins Robert Kirkwood to talk about her bestseller Midnight in Everwood, a magical retelling of The Nutcracker, and her brand-new book, Upon a Frosted Star where The Great Gatsby meets Swan Lake.
We also find some new gems in the RNIB Talking Books library.
Sep 15, 2023 • 58min
338: Ava Glass - Alias Emma: The Chase and The Traitor
Out now is Ava Glass’s second book in the Alia Emma series, The Traitor. Ava joins us to talk about her background as a journalist in America and with MI5 and MI6 in the UK and how it all shaped her main character.
We also hear some new books in the RNIB Talking Books Library.
