The other day as I lay at home doing the seasonal thing of snuffling and sneezing I saw my first Richard and Judy Book Club episode in I don’t know how many years. They were discussing Orion’s The Rose of Sebastopol with Samuel West and Charity Wakefield. Considering the ho-ha that Richard and Judy generates in publishing and bookselling I was mildly surprised at how short the segment really was. A filmed portion with the author Katherine McMahon; a pithy summing up of the general plot and character progression and some anecdotal ‘I loved this bit’ etc. I’ve only read one of R&J’s choices so far, Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip, and can’t help but think that the format will not do it anything like the justice it deserves. I’m not knocking Richard & Judy as such, but I know I’ve enjoyed The Book Show with Mariella Frostrop far, far more. I particularly love the section they do where authors discuss the books that they wished they had written – a real booky treat.
And lo, just the other day there was the news in The Bookseller that there will be an apprentice-style-celebrity-crime-novel programme coming to the BBC soon called ‘Murder Most Famous’. Should be interesting how Minette Walters is going to put the likes of gardener Diarmuid Gavin through a crime boot-camp… Ah well, it's all for charity.
And lo, just the other day there was the news in The Bookseller that there will be an apprentice-style-celebrity-crime-novel programme coming to the BBC soon called ‘Murder Most Famous’. Should be interesting how Minette Walters is going to put the likes of gardener Diarmuid Gavin through a crime boot-camp… Ah well, it's all for charity.