Johny Pitts explores the work of two writers who have combined comedy with tragedy

Broadcaster Janet Street-Porter and comedian Felicity Ward discuss their favorite books, including 'The Bloater' and 'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics'. They explore themes of love, relationships, and identity in literature, while also touching on the challenges of male friendship depicted in various books.

Psychotherapist writer Philippa Perry and Professor of Neuroscience Anil Seth join Harriett Gilbert to talk about books they love.Anil Seth, who explores consciousness and the self in his book Being You, recommends Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, where our near-future world is seen through the eyes of an Artificial Friend. Philippa Perry's choice is A Stranger City by Linda Grant, a novel with a mystery at its heart and is about how lives interweave in the city. And Harriett Gilbert loves the non-fiction book Being Mortal by American surgeon Atul Gawande, which asks what medicine is for in the face of death.Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol

Tom Bullough on writing about the climate crisis, and Richard Wright's lost novel

Columnist at The Times James Marriott and arts journalist for The Guardian Jude Rogers discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.James picks The Past by Tessa Hadley, a contemporary novel about family, place and the modern world encroaching upon the old; Jude recommends Border Country by Raymond Williams, a semi-autobiographical story of a man returning home to his small village on the Welsh borders, and how it's changed over a century; and Harriett loves A Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt, about a woman re-examining her life in after her husband's rejection.Do you agree with their assessments? Join us on Instagram @agoodreadbbc Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Chris Power talks to Aleksandar Hemon about his new novel The World and All That It Holds

Art historian Kate Bryan and comedian Mark Steel talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Kate loves Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing, an inspiring collection of essays which make a case for why art matters. Mark is a big fan of Stalin Ate My Homework by Alexei Sayle, a comedic memoir about growing up in a Jewish atheist communist family in Liverpool. And Harriett puts forward Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, in which a present-day story converges with ancient rituals to provoke a discussion about how far we have come from the “primitive minds” of our ancestors.Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc Produced by Becky Ripley

Bret Easton Ellis

Favourite books chosen by well known guests and presenter Harriett Gilbert

Guest choose favourite books to discuss with Harriett Gilbert