Simon Mayo's Books Of The Year

Two hugely successful authors have a crack at our book Q&A Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Paver is an international bestselling author with over 3 million copies of her books sold in 37 countries across the globe. She writes for both adults and children and her work includes two of the most critically and commercially acclaimed ghost stories of modern times, Dark Matter and Thin Air and the prize-winning, million copy selling, children’s series, Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. Her new book Wakenhyrst, set in Edwardian Suffolk, was inspired by a series of real events and fuelled by secrets from her maternal past. John Boyne returns to the show. He is best known for his phenomenal bestseller The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which has sold an astonishing 9 million copies worldwide. His latest book, My Brother's Name Is Jessica, is an urgent call to arms for better empathy and understanding around the complexity of gender identity, and is full of John’s trademark warmth, humour and emotion.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Science writer Prof Lewis Dartnell tells Simon and Matt about his favourite books and writers. And how long you could survive in a supermarket after The Apocalypse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The best selling author of Origins: How The Earth Made Us - the story of the human species as shaped by the environment. Prof Lewis Dartnell is a research scientist, presenter and author based in London. He has published four books including The Knowledge - which was a Sunday Times Book of the Year and international bestseller. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Broadcaster and journalist Anita Anand picks her favourite books and authors - including Roald Dahl, Gitta Sereny, Emily Eden and Fern Riddell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anita Anand tells the remarkable story of one Indian's twenty-year quest for revenge, taking him around the world in search of those he held responsible for the Amritsar massacre of 1919, which cost the lives of hundreds.  The Patient Assassin shines a devastating light on one of the Raj's most horrific events, but reads like a taut thriller, and reveals some astonishing new insights into what really happened.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find out the reading habits of thriller writer (and Guardian journalist) Jonathan Freedland Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian journalist who has written 7 thrillers under the name Sam Bourne. To Kill the Truth springs from one question. What if, in this era of post-truth, someone tried to destroy all evidence of the past – starting with the records and documents by which we know what is true and what is false? Thanks to galloping technology – which now makes fake ‘archive footage’ possible, along with bogus sound recordings of historical figures saying things they never said – and governments bent on spreading fake news, the truth is under assault like never before. It no longer seems far-fetched to imagine a plot to kill it off forever. The result is To Kill the Truth, a novel which opens with the murder of an eminent historian. Soon more historians are found dead, along with aged survivors of some of history’s greatest crimes. And then libraries – in America, in Britain and around the world – are burned to the ground, the archives they hold turned to dust. Once again, at the centre of the action is Maggie Costello, the former White House operative who tried to avert an assassination in Sam Bourne’s previous bestseller, To Kill the President. She understands early that it’s not just buildings and digital databases that are the target of this mysterious plot. It is an attack on the knowledge we have about our world – and the very idea of truth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The author of "Last Train To Hilversum - A Journey In Search Of The Magic of Radio" talks us through his favourite books and authors Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charlie Connelly is a bestselling author and award-winning broadcaster. His many books include Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round The Shipping Forecast, In Search of Elvis: A Journey To Find The Man Beneath The Jumpsuit and Our Man In Hibernia: Ireland, The Irish And Me. Three of his books have featured as Radio 4′s Book of the Week. His book Gilbert: The Last Years of WG Grace was shortlisted for the 2016 MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year. The book he wrote with his friend Bernard Sumner, Chapter And Verse: New Order, Joy Division And Me was shortlisted for Book of the Year at the NME Awards, while his most recent co-writing project, Winner: A Racing Life with the champion jockey AP McCoy is shortlisted for Sports Autobiography of the Year. His latest solo effort is a love letter to UK radio - Last Train To Hilversum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices