Itβs a great round up - with different presenter every week. Well worth bookmarking!
07.10.2025 08:46 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0@jdcrawf.bsky.social
THE EDGE OF THE PLAIN @canongatebooks @wwnorton | WILD HISTORY @BirlinnBooks | Presenter @BBCRadio4 TAKE FOUR BOOKS | Editor @PolygonBooks | CHAIR of the Board @edbookfest jamescrawford.space
Itβs a great round up - with different presenter every week. Well worth bookmarking!
07.10.2025 08:46 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Great programme John!
06.10.2025 14:41 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Love to see it! Light Years in particular is excellent
05.10.2025 20:37 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0My PICK OF THE WEEK!
Mexican gothic, railways, distortion, immortalists, unfolding landscapes & JMW Turner ft @petroc.bsky.social, @silviamg.bsky.social, @kermodemovie.bsky.social, @johnrobbofficial.bsky.social, @alekskrotoski.bsky.social, @adamrutherford.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
This week on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio 4 I was talking to William Boyd about his new spy novel 'The Predicament' and 3 influences Lawrence Durrell, Len Deighton and John Le Carre - also with guest @louisewelsh00.bsky.social - listen now!
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www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Thanks John! Recordings are often a lot longer (Andrew was done at Hay and lasted almost an hour) - schedule slot is c28mins, but weβre looking at longer cuts for Sounds/podcasts (see recent Ian McEwan for instance which has extra 5 mins or soβ¦)
25.09.2025 10:59 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Coming up later today on BBC Radio 4 I'm talking to Graham Norton on #TakeFourBooks about his latest novel Frankie, along with 3 influences - Elizabeth Bowen, Armistead Maupin & Gabrielle Zevin (and bonus influence Charlie Brown!) - at 4pm ππ§π
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Take Four Books
@jdcrawf.bsky.social on R4 Sundays 4pm, always worth listening to. Sunday 14th Sept on Ian McEwan with @damedenisemina.bsky.social on Sounds particularly so.
Loved talking to Ian McEwan (& @damedenisemina.bsky.social!) on BBCRadio4
#TakeFourBooks about climate, memory & the way the past haunts the present in his new @jonathancape.bsky.social novel WHAT WE CAN KNOW with 3 influences incl the epic
Footsteps by Richard Holmes
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Thanks to Radio 4's Take Four Books I'm re-reading The Bone People (Keri Hulme) about forty years after the first (and second) time. And it's still absolutely brilliant, so thank you for reminding me, Melissa Lucashenko and @jdcrawf.bsky.social
13.09.2025 10:34 β π 1 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0Great to hear Margaret - thatβs exactly what the programme is all about!
13.09.2025 13:40 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Listen now to my chat with Melissa Lucashenko on Radio4's #TakeFourBooks about her latest @oneworldbooks.bsky.social novel 'Edenglassie' and 3 influences incl Keri Hulme & Sebastian Barry (recorded with @rodgeglass.bsky.social & live audience at @edbookfest.bsky.social) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
31.08.2025 15:22 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Listen to my chat with Sarah Hall on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio4 discussing new @faberbooks.bsky.social novel HELM (the first book to have a wind as its main character?) & 3 influences incl George Saunders & Angela Carter. With Alan McMunnigall of @thiwurd.bsky.social! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
24.08.2025 15:43 β π 5 π 3 π¬ 0 π 0Listen now on BBC Radio4 to my chat with Rachel Kushner and live audience @edbookfest.bsky.social for #TakeFourBooks - talking about Creation Lake and 3 influences including Nabokov's Pale Fire and radical 1970s French crime noir! Also with @andrewmeehanesq.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Listen now to @irvinewelsh.bsky.social on #TakeFourBooks on BBC Radio 4 - talking Trainspotting sequel 'Men In Love' and his 3 influences, no less than James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Bill Shakespeare! Also with guest @kirstininnes.bsky.social
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www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Come and be part of a live Take Four Books audience this Saturday at Edinburgh International Book Festival - Iβm talking to Rachel Kushner about her Booker-shortlisted Creation Lake and 3 influences! Book your FREE tickets here π www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...
04.08.2025 15:06 β π 3 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0A joy to commission this from Graeme Macrae Burnet - and fantastic to now see it making its way out into the worldβ¦
28.07.2025 12:56 β π 2 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0This was great fun and includes a short history of the great journalist Dorothy Thompson (βWho Goes Naziβ) who was the 1st journalist expelled from Germany by Hitler
27.07.2025 15:51 β π 9 π 2 π¬ 1 π 0Listen now to our Radio4 #TakeFourBooks chat with @damedenisemina.bsky.social about new novel βThe Good Liarβ, and 3 influences - 1984, Obedience to Authority and the Dorothy Thompsonβs essay βWho Goes Nazi?β - also with Kim Sherwood! ππ§π»π
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
We are excited to be partnering with the @edbookfest.bsky.social to bring a super panel of international publishers together, chaired by the fabulous @jdcrawf.bsky.social to discuss 'Books that Travel'.
www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival... part of the Global Ink Industry series, Tuesday 12 August.
Listen now to my chat on Radio4 with Gurnaik Johal on his debut @serpents-tail.bsky.social novel Saraswati on #TakeFourBooks: where a lost river re-emerges in contemporary India. His 3 influences include @amitav.bsky.social, Joseph Conrad and poet Natalie Diaz! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
20.07.2025 15:28 β π 7 π 3 π¬ 0 π 0A long train journey means starting another pick from Take Four Books with @jdcrawf.bsky.social Looking forward to this one.
16.07.2025 05:58 β π 6 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0Listen now to my chat with Colm Toibin on #TakeFourBooks on Radio 4 - talking about Long Island (his first sequel!) and three influences, Hardy, Conrad & Wharton - also with @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
13.07.2025 15:11 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Listen now to my chat on Radio 4's #TakeFourBooks with Madeleine Thien about her new, time-warping @grantabooks.bsky.social novel of war, exile and refugees, 'The Book of Records' - and her three influences, including the evergreen 'Invisible Cities' by Italo Calvino...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
A joy to talk to @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social about her new, polyphonic novel 'The Benefactors' on #TakeFourBooks, along with 3 influences Chernobyl Prayer, The Slap and @larapawson.bsky.social's This Is The Place to Be - listen now on Radio 4 & BBC Sounds!
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
This Sunday at 4.00pm on BBC Radio 4, Take Four Books focuses on The Benefactors. Iβm joined by my brill pal Emma Warren and I talk about, among other books This is the Place to Be by @larapawson.bsky.social, published by @cbeditions.bsky.social. I love this programme so was made up to be on it.
20.06.2025 08:33 β π 55 π 16 π¬ 1 π 2Thanks Caroline!
16.06.2025 10:51 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0I loved this episode, an exploration of what sounds like a beautiful book about storytelling & interconnection The comment βthe same water we might have shed as tears yesterday may be the same drop that fell on the head of a mighty king in Ancient Assyriaβ may have led to a few tears itself.
15.06.2025 19:38 β π 2 π 2 π¬ 1 π 0Thanks Helen!
15.06.2025 20:23 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Listen to us chat to Elif Shafak behind the scenes at @hayfestival.bsky.social on R4 #TakeFourBooks: talking 'There Are Rivers in the Sky' & 3 influences including the earliest recorded poem The Epic of Gilgamesh - along with first national poet of Wales, Gwyneth Lewis! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
15.06.2025 19:07 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 2 π 1