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The Graham Norton Book Club

By: Graham Norton
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Sharing stories is one of life's greatest pleasures and that is at the heart of this book club. Our choices are varied, our opinions sometimes very different, but a passion for a tale well told unites us all.

- Graham Norton

Episodes
  • Ep 1: Denise Mina and Maxine Peake
    May 12 2021

    For the Club’s first meeting, the book of the week is Denise Mina’s The Less Dead

    Graham talks to Denise herself about her brand of ‘tartan noir’ while our clubbers reveal their opinions after reading it. We go behind the mic to hear from actress Maxine Peake on bringing to life DH Lawrence’s classic, Lady Chatterley’s Lover

    All this and plenty more including recommendations for the best suspense novels and picks from Amazon’s romance chart. 

    Show More Show Less
    46 mins
  • Ep 2: Zadie Smith and Juliet Stevenson
    May 19 2021

    For our second club gathering, the book of the week is Zadie Smith’s On Beauty

    Graham talks to Zadie about how her ‘turn of the century’ novel reads today and our clubbers decide if they’re impressed. 

    The mistress of the audio book, Juliet Stevenson, reveals the secrets of the art with her brand new recording of Pride and Prejudice. Plus, we discover what a gothic novel actually is and share some top picks from the Amazon’s family saga chart.

    Show More Show Less
    45 mins
  • Ep 3: Andrew O’Hagan and Stephen Mangan
    May 26 2021

    Our book of the week is Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies. Graham talks to Andrew about treading the fine line between autobiography and fiction and our clubbers discuss whether he managed to do it successfully. 

    Our famous voice is Stephen Mangan, who reveals how much his own children appreciated having him read them fairy stories using all his acting skills (hint – not very much). Plus, we dive into other people’s lives as Alex Clark shares her ‘three of the best’ memoirs.    

    Show More Show Less
    45 mins

Meet the co-presenters


Alex Clark
Alex is a journalist and broadcaster regularly seen in the pages of The Guardian, Observer and Times Literary Supplement and heard on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and Open Book. She’s also a former Man Booker and Orwell Prize judge. She says, I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a young child, haunting the local library whenever I could. I vividly remember falling in love with books by a whole range of women novelists from George Eliot to Iris Murdoch to Toni Morrison to Jilly Cooper (Octavia! Imogen! Harriet!) when I was a teenager. I’ve never really looked back and one of my main occupations is building new bookshelves. Among my favourite current writers are Kazuo Ishiguro, Ali Smith, Maggie Nelson and Rachel Cusk. And I adore thrillers.

Sara Collins
Sara is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton, winner of the 2019 Costa First Novel Award. She’s also a literary critic and broadcaster for a variety of outlets. She says, Since I was a tiny bookworm desperate to return one stack to the library and check out another, I’ve loved nothing more than reading books and talking about them, so this gig really is a dream come true. I fell in love with gothic novels as a teenager, which proved useful when, decades later, I wrote my own! Anything that holds itself out as a complicated psychological thriller, or has everyone talking about its 'unlikeable protagonist', is an automatic buy for me. But I balance this out through a healthy obsession with chick lit.

Narrated by: Katie Leung
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What listeners say about The Graham Norton Book Club

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Lots of content to inspire any reader / listener

I have always loved books but never been a member of a book club mostly on the basis that I prefer to chose what to read rather than let someone else decide. Anyone who knows Graham Norton from his TV and Radio shows will know that he has a relaxed but chirpy style and in this podcast he talks to people about books. The first show was always going to be a but challenging as there is no reference point to discuss and instead the presenters Sara Collins and Alex Clarke who sounds a lot like Mel Giedroyc (well, to me anyway) talk in general about their favourite books.
The guest presenters are Denise Mina who talks about her own true crime book The Less Dead and Maxine Peake who talks about her experience narrating Lady Chatterly's Lover in 2011.
There is certainly plenty of content here and of course anything with Maxine Peake in is going to be great. This comes over more as a podcast about books than a book club however, it looks like this is going to be a series which is certainly worth following.

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17 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

underwhelming

I suspect this was driven by advertising execs at Audible rather than Graham Norton who gamely goes along with a weak formula and some dull folk discussing dull mainstream books. This is a 40+minute advert for talking books but without any spark or much insight. While it is (more than) convenient that all the books they mention are linked to the audible versions of said books from the Audible webpage, it does make you wonder if all this is scripted, and rehearsed and they are only allowed to mention talking books Audible want flogged.

If anyone from Audible is reading this: time you recorded some Raymond Carver short stories please. Unfortunately Graham won't be discussing those because they aren't available from Audible.

Top stars Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson fail to get this turkey off the ground. 2 episodes in and I won't be doing any more. Avoid, unless you are a fan of those specific books discussed or feel that Graham N reciting the alphabet meets your needs. In which case give this 5 stars. (sic: "A nice natter with friendls")

You can check the list of books before listening to an episode. Which saves time.

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10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting and entertaining

Audible got the right host for this. Graham is always funny and clever and is great at drawing people out, well he would be given his day job.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great books, warm humour - perfect book club

I have so enjoyed the boom club and look forward to the next edition. Graham is warm, interesting, always funny and really insightful. I love that the recommendations are all listed for you to return to. As someone who is frequently guilty of indulging in the same genres, the book club has brought new books into my reading/listening list. I have so far read 4 novels recommended during the shows and it has opened up lots of new worlds and breadth to me. Love, love, love!

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7 people found this helpful

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Enjoyable weekly series, discover new gems!

I enjoy these episodes and as a fantasy addict it helps me find gems I would otherwise miss from other genres. Great stuff keep it up!

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7 people found this helpful

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Great Expectations

Wonderful format and personally found very entertaining. I wonder what the Audio equivalent of a page turner is? Especially enjoying the insights from the readers of the books and the author interviews. Seems very natural to me and delightfully lead by Graham. He really is amazing at getting the best from his guests. Thanks Audible, can't wait for the next instalment.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A nice natter with friendls

I’m a huge fan of Graham’s and would probably listen to him recite the alphabet, but that aside it’s a great little podcast. I like the fact that we have Graham’s input but also random readers from the general public. I look forward to listen regularly and discovering some new books xx

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Really good

Really interesting and full of interesting suggestions. You can find inspiration for your next reading

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Gordon and Alice are brilliant!

Audible fun fun fun. So thrilled Gordon and Alice are together finally talking all things book!

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Relatable

Really enjoying this book club, it is light and breezy and unpretentious. I like the fact that the book group members are diverse, the comments are thoughtful and genuine and there are some good recommendations for reading and listening.

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3 people found this helpful