My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the psychoanalyst and writer Josh Cohen. With anger seemingly the default... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the writer, musician and editor Michael Moorcock, whose editorship of New... more

On this week's Book Club podcast we're celebrating the 100th anniversary of a landmark in children's publishing, When We Were... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is John Suchet whose new book In Search of Beethoven: A Personal... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is Rachel Clarke, author of the Baillie Gifford longlisted new book The... more

In this week's Book Club podcast Sam Leith’s guest is the great Sue Prideaux who, after her prize-winning biographies of... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the former Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who joins me to talk... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Malcolm Gladwell. Twenty-five years after he published The Tipping Point, Malcolm... more

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is Alan Garner whose new book of essays and poems is called... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Channel 4's international editor Lindsey Hilsum. In her new book I... more

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is the satirist Craig Brown, talking about his brilliant new book A... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the writer, artist and historian Amy Jeffs. Her new book Saints:... more

The Book Club has taken a short summer break and will return in September. Until then, and ahead of the... more

The Book Club has taken a short summer break and will return in September with new episodes. Until then, here’s... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Adam Higginbotham, whose new book Challenger: A True Story of Heroism... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Nathan Thrall, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book A Day... more

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is the writer and comedian David Baddiel, talking about his new book... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the writer and film director Neil Jordan, who joins me to... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Roger McGough, whose new The Collected Poems: 1959-2024 anthologises a poetic... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Michael Nott, author of the new biography Thom Gunn: A Cool... more

In her new book Cairn, the Scots poet Kathleen Jamie sets a capstone of sorts on her trilogy of short... more

My guest for this week's Book Club is the journalist and author Åsne Seierstad. She tells me about her new... more

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is Mark Bostridge. In his new book In Pursuit of Love: The... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is Marlon James, who ten years ago published his Booker Prize winning... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is the Booker Prize winning novelist Richard Flanagan, talking about his extraordinary... more

June 3rd marks the centenary of Franz Kafka's death. To talk about this great writer's peculiar style and lasting legacy,... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Conn Iggulden, probably the best selling author of historical fiction of... more

A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! On this week's Book Club podcast I'm joined by Olivia Laing to... more

This week, my guest on the Book Club podcast is the poet Jackie Kay, whose magnificent new book May Day... more

On this week's Book Club podcast I'm joined by Ariane Bankes, whose mother Celia was one of the great beauties... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the author and historian Kathryn Hughes, whose new book Catland tells... more

On this week’s Book Club podcast I’m joined by Percival Everett, who has followed up his Booker-shortlisted The Trees with... more

In this week’s Book Club podcast my guest is Dorian Lynskey. In his new book Everything Must Go, Dorian looks... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the investigative reporter Annie Jacobsen, whose hair-raising new book Nuclear War:... more

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is the Pulitzer prize winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose new book... more

My guest in this week's Book Club is Joel Morris, an award-winning comedy writer whose credits run from co-creating Philomena... more

This week's Book Club podcast sees me speaking to the critic and novelist Lauren Oyler about her first collection of... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Peter Pomerantsev. Peter's new book How To Win An Information War:... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the award-winning novelist Colum McCann, whose new book takes him out... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Tom Chatfield, whose new book is Wise Animals: How Technology Has... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Chris Bryant, who tells me about his new book James and... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Paula Byrne. In her new book Hardy Women: Mothers, Sisters, Wives,... more

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is Sathnam Sanghera, author of the new book Empireworld about the effect... more

On this week’s Book Club my guest is the writer and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, whose new book is On Giving... more

In this week’s Book Club podcast, I’m joined by Rebecca Boyle to talk about her new book Our Moon: A... more

The Book Club will return next week! In the meantime we are revisiting Sam’s conversation from 2020 with Hadley Freeman... more

The Book Club is taking a brief Christmas break, so we have gone back through the archives to spotlight some... more

The Book Club is taking a brief Christmas break, so we have gone back through the archives to spotlight some... more

The Book Club is taking a brief Christmas break, so we have gone back through the archives to spotlight some... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the food historian Pen Vogler, author of the new Stuffed: A... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Arthur Conan Doyle's biographer (and historical consultant to the new BBC... more

On this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Guy Kennaway, whose new novel Good Scammer sprinkles a protective dusting... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the art critic Jonathan Jones. The term 'renaissance' is out of... more

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is Terry Hayes, author of the squillion-selling thriller I Am Pilgrim. He... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, I'm joined by the novelist Jonathan Lethem. Two decades after his breakthrough book The... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Nicholas Shakespeare, author of Ian Fleming: The Complete Man. He tells... more

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is the film writer Peter Biskind. In his new book Pandora’s Box,... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the novelist Sandra Newman, whose new book Julia retells George Orwell’s... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, we're celebrating 50 years of a unique classic – Richard Adams's Watership Down – and... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Caspar Henderson, whose new book A Book of Noises: Notes on... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the writer, broadcaster and academic Mary Beard. In her new book,... more

In this week's Book Club podcast I'm talking to Sarah Ogilvie about the extraordinary story of the making of the... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, I'm joined by Francesca Peacock to talk about the remarkable life and extraordinary work... more

The Book Club podcast returns next week. In the meantime, here's another from the archives, and one which looks more... more

As Sam is still away, we've dug out one our favourite podcasts from the archives. Back in 2019 Sam spoke... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the journalist and author Celia Brayfield whose new book Writing Black... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the novelist and psychologist Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, whose gripping new book The... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the investigative and tech writer James Ball, to talk about his... more

In this week's Book Club podcast I'm joined by Ferdinand Mount who in his long career has been literary and... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Caitlin Moran. Having written one of the bestselling works of popular... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Tom Whipple, science editor of the Times and author of the gripping... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the art critic Laura Cumming. Her new book Thunderclap: A Memoir... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the cosmologist Andrew Pontzen. His The Universe In A Box: A... more

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is the former FBI director James Comey, who is making his debut... more

In this week's Book Club podcast I talk to Peter Turchin about his new book End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, I'm joined by the writer and critic Laura Freeman to talk about her book... more

In this week’s Book Club podcast, we celebrate the life and weigh the literary reputation of Martin Amis, who died... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, we're talking about a very new version of a very old book. Leo Africanus's... more

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is the writer Madeleine Bunting, whose new book is The Seaside: England's... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Shehan Karunatilaka, author of last year's Booker Prize winner The Seven... more

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is the theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. In his new book Quantum Supremacy,... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Luke Jennings, the veteran reporter and novelist whose Codename Villanelle trilogy... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the poet and artist Frieda Hughes, whose new book George: A... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is the historian Katja Hoyer, whose new book Beyond The Wall: East... more

On this week's Book Club podcast my guests are the former government food tsar Henry Dimbleby and his wife and... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the writer Victoria Smith, whose new book Hags: The Demonisation of... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the writer and editor Ian Buruma, to talk about his new... more

On this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Sara Wheeler, who looks back on her travelling life in Glowing... more

On this week’s Book Club, I’m joined by the theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli to talk about his new book Anaximander... more

My guest on this week’s Book Club is Robert Douglas-Fairhurst. In his new book Metamorphosis: A Life in Pieces, Robert... more

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is the scholar and biographer Richard Bradford, whose new book Tough Guy:... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the American writer, reporter and foreign policy expert Robert Kaplan, whose... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the reporter Tania Branigan, whose experience as a correspondent in China... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday, whose book Otherlands: A World In The... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Ashley Ward, author of Sensational: A New Story of our Senses,... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is the distinguished poet A. E. Stallings, whose new selected poems This... more

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is the palaeoarchaeologist Paul Pettitt - whose new book Homo Sapiens Rediscovered... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is Matthew Hollis, author of The Waste Land: A Biography of a... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Rupert Shortt, whose stimulating new book The Hardest Problem addresses one... more

In this week’s Book Club podcast, I’m talking to two of the brave souls who turn recent political dramas into... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is Edward Mendelson, who with the publication of the Complete Poems of... more

My guest in this week's Book Club Podcast is Christopher de Hamel, author of the new The Posthumous Papers of... more

This week’s Book Club podcast is a live special, recorded at this year’s inaugural Braemar Literary Festival. I’m talking to... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov – who has this year become... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the art historian Dr Matt Lodder, whose new book is Painted... more

My guest on this week's podcast is best known as a stand-up comic, and co-host of the hit second world... more

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is Peter Stothard, whose new book Crassus: The First Tycoon tells the... more

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is the doyen of war studies, Lawrence Freedman. His new book Command:... more

On this week’s Book Club podcast we’re talking about the best crime writer you’ve (probably) never heard of. As Penguin... more

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is A. M. Homes. She talks about her new novel The Unfolding,... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club is Ian McEwan – whose latest novel Lessons draws on his own biography... more

This week we spotlight our most popular episode of the last year, Sam's conversation with Francis Fukuyama about his book... more

This week we revisit Sam Leith's conversation with Sir Salman Rushdie, recorded just before the pandemic. ‘Things that would have... more

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones – whose new book A Question of Standing: The... more

In this week's Book Club podcast, I'm joined by Andrea Wulf to talk about the birth of Romanticism at the... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the critic, novelist and art historian Chloë Ashby. In her new... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is Anne Weber, author of Epic Annette: A Heroine’s Tale. She tells... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the historian, novelist and former Army officer Allan Mallinson. He introduces... more

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is Kavita Puri, whose book Partition Voices excavates the often traumatic memories... more

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Lindsey Fitzharris – whose new book is The Facemaker: One Surgeon's... more