Our guests are Tanya Kirk, Lead Curator of Printed Heritage Collections 1601-1900 at The British Library, and Backlisted's old friend Una McCormack, a New York Times bestselling author. We are discussing Winifred Holtby's classic final novel South Riding, published posthumously in 1936 and widely admired for its broad canvas of social realism and as a classic of early feminism. Also in this episode John updates us on his progress through Olga Tokarczuk's The Books of Jacob (Fitzcarraldo), translated by Jennifer Croft; while Andy has been reading My Rock 'n' Roll Friend (Canongate), Tracey Thorn's memoir of her longstanding friendship with Lindy Morrison, the former drummer of The Go-Betweens.

Books mentioned:

Winifred Holtby - South Riding; Land of Green Ginger; Mando, Mandoa; The Crowded Street; Poor Caroline; Virginia Woolf: A Critical Memoir
Tracey Thorn - My Rock ‘n’ Friend
Olga Tokarczuk - The Books of Jacob
Tanya Kirk & Lucy Evans - Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights (British Library Tales of the Weird)
Una McCormack - The Autobiography of Mr Spock
George Eliot - Middlemarch
Robert Tressell - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Vera Brittain - Testament of Youth; Testament of Friendship
Mary Stott (ed) - Women Talking: An Anthology from the Guardian Women's Page 1922-1971
Nicola Griffith - Slow River
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
Marion Shaw - The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby