This week Sara is joined by comedian Nish Kumar, presenter Stacey Dooley, columnist and author Caitlin Moran and comedian and actor Robert Webb. They will all be sharing their favourite books, as well as reviewing this week’s two book club picks: Our Big Hitter from last year, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and our new book pick, The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward.
Catch up on Between the Covers on BBC iPlayer.
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
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Buy this book from Bookshop.org or hive.co.uk to support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no additional cost to you.
TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.
On a summer’s day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?
Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.
Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week.
Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
Buy this book from Bookshop.org or hive.co.uk to support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no additional cost to you.
THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE MONTH
AN OBSERVER THRILLER OF THE MONTH
GUARDIAN 2021 IN BOOKS PICK
WATERSTONES MARCH 2021 PICK
RED MAGAZINE MARCH 2021 PICK
REFINERY 29 MARCH 2021 PICK
‘The buzz is real.. I haven’t read anything this exciting since Gone Girl’ – STEPHEN KING
‘This spectacular gothic fantasy is one of the most extraordinary thrillers of the year’ – DAILY MAIL
‘This is the most gloriously complex, shifting story, deeply disturbing yet also, somehow, heartwarming’ – OBSERVER
‘A dark, audacious highwire act of a novel’ – GUARDIAN
This is the story of a murderer. A stolen child. Revenge. This is the story of Ted, who lives with his daughter Lauren and his cat Olivia in an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.
All these things are true. And yet some of them are lies.
You think you know what’s inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you’ve read this story before. But you’re wrong. In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, something lies buried. But it’s not what you think…
From the multiple award-winning author of Little Eve and Rawblood, this extraordinary tale will thrill and move readers. A work of incredible imagination and heartbreaking beauty.
Download discussion questions to use with your reading group.
