Bookclub

Led by presenter James Naughtie, the American writer, Daniel Mason, takes questions from a Bookclub audience about his 2023 novel, North Woods.
North Woods is the story of a house and a plot of land in Massachusetts. It spans four centuries and takes in various characters, both human and animal, who find themselves, for whatever reason, encountering the space. Whether it's a young Puritan couple on the run, or an English soldier, or inseparable twin sisters or even a rampant beetle - all are connected in this very layered and beautifully rendered novel, which was named as one of the top ten books of 2023 by The New York Times.
Daniel was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2021 for his collection of short stories, A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth.
This episode was recorded at the BBC Scotland studios in Glasgow.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

The award-winning Scottish writer Irvine Welsh speaks to Bookclub, presented by James Naughtie, about his era-defining 1993 debut, Trainspotting.
Following a non-linear plot and written in Scots and Scots English, the novel is more of a collection of interconnected stories told from multiple viewpoints, all centred around a group of friends, who have become household names - Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie - as they battle, among other things, heroin addiction, poverty, and a burgeoning HIV/AIDS crisis. The novel had sold well over a million copies in the UK by the year 2015 and has been translated into thirty languages. The novel was turned into a 1996 film, often described as a modern classic, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner and Kelly Macdonald. This episode was recorded at the Edinburgh International Books Festival in August 2026.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

Led by presenter James Naughtie, the award-winning writer Janice Hallett speaks to a Bookclub audience about her debut novel, The Appeal. Published in 2021 the novel -- which is presented as a series of documents, emails, messages and transcripts -- follows an amateur dramatics troupe called The Fairway Players, which is staging a rendition of Arthur Miller's, All My Sons, to raise funds for little Poppy Reswick's life-saving medical treatment. But is it possible a murderer is hiding in plain sight?
This episode of Bookclub was recorded in Broadcasting House, London.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This is a BBC Audio Scotland production.

Historian and writer Anne Sebba, speaks this month to Bookclub, presented by James Naughtie, about her award-winning biography, That Woman: The life of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. ‘That Woman,’ as she was referred to by the Queen Mother and other members of the Royal Family, became a hate figure for allegedly ensnaring a British king. Born in 1896 in Baltimore under the name, Bessiewallis Warfield, she had an impoverished and comparatively obscure childhood which, Anne Sebba writes, inflamed a burning desire to rise above her circumstances.
This episode was recorded at the Borders Book Festival.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

The award-winning Scottish writer, Kirstin Innes, speaks to Bookclub, presented by James Naughtie, about her second novel, Scabby Queen. The book, published in 2020, explores the life of one-hit wonder and political activist, Clio Campbell, who is found dead three days before her fifty-first birthday.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.