A Complete List of Backlisted Episodes
You can also search all episodes for any keyword here
1. A Month in the Country - J.L. Carr (with Lissa Evans)
2. Good Morning, Midnight - Jean Rhys (with Linda Grant)
3. It Had to Be You - David Nobbs (with Jonathan Coe)
4. The Blessing - Nancy Mitford (with Laura Thompson)
5. Christie Malry's Own Double Entry - B.S. Johnson (with David Quantick)
6. Passing - Nella Larsen (with Sarah Churchwell)
7. The Great Fire - Shirley Hazzard (with Alice Jolly)
8. Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner (with Samantha Ellis)
9. The Information - Martin Amis (with John Niven)
10. The High Window - Raymond Chandler (with Andrew Male)
11. All the Devils Are Here - David Seabrook (with Rachel Cooke)
12. Darkness Falls from the Air - Nigel Balchin (with Rowan Pelling)
13. Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls - Terry Jones and Michael Palin (with Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris)
14. The Vet's Daughter - Barbara Comyns (with Lucy Scholes)
15. The Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers (with Lloyd Shepherd)
16. Letters from a Fainthearted Feminist - Jill Tweedy (with Alex Clark)
17. Maiden Voyage - Denton Welch (with Richard King)
18. Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr (with Salena Godden)
19. The Crack Up - F. Scott Fitzgerald (with Jesse Armstrong)
20. Absolute Beginners - Colin MacInnes (with Jonathon Green)
21. Summer Reading Special - What We Read On Our Holidays
22. The Animal Family - Randall Jarrell (with Erica Wagner)
23. The Holiday - Stevie Smith (with Sally Bayley)
24. Cold Hand in Mine - Robert Aickman (with Andrew Male)
25. Cocaine Nights - J.G. Ballard (with Rob Bound)
26. So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell (with Kit de Waal)
27. A Long Way from Verona - Jane Gardam (with Laura Cumming & Hilary Murray Hill)
28. A State of Denmark - Derek Raymond (with Travis Elborough)
29. Memento Mori - Muriel Spark (with John Grindrod)
30. Venetia - Georgette Heyer (with Cathy Rentzenbrink & Una McCormack)
31. Red Shift - Alan Garner (with S.F. Said & Erica Wagner)
32. The Horse's Mouth - Joyce Cary (with Max Porter)
33. The Snow Ball - Brigid Brophy (with Jonathan Gibbs)
34. A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter (with Clare Conville & Rowan Pelling)
35. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders minicast (with Lissa Evans & Stuart Evers)
36. The Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton (with Lissa Evans & Stuart Evers)
37. Patrick Hamilton - Extra Episode (with Lissa Evans & Stuart Evers)
38. The Weather in the Streets - Rosamond Lehmann (with Elizabeth Day)
39. Honeymoon - Patrick Modiano (with Rupert Thompson)
40. The Gift - Vladimir Nabokov (with Catherine Taylor)
41. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone - James Baldwin (with Niven Govinden)
42. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - Crystal Zevon (with Richard T. Kelly)
43. Father and Son - Edmund Gosse (with Sarah Perry)
44. Haunts of the Black Masseur - Charles Sprawson (with Alex Preston & Rachael Kerr)
45. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Anita Loos (with Joanna Walsh & Sarah Churchwell)
46. Desperate Characters - Paula Fox (with William Fiennes)
47. Some Bits To Listen To While We Go On Our Holidays
48. Under The Volcano - Malcolm Lowry (with Ian McMillan)
49. Look at Me - Anita Brookner (with Una McCormack & Lucy Scholes)
50. Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman (with Simon Garfield)
51. Jacob's Room - Virginia Woolf (with Mark Haddon & Sally Bayley)
52. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (with Fiona Wilson & Andrew Male)
53. To Serve Them All My Days - R.F. Delderfield (with Jenny Colgan)
54. Alma Cogan - Gordon Burn (with Benjamin Myers & Adelle Stripe)
55. Fire and Hemlock - Diana Wynne Jones (with Alice Stevenson & Elinor Cook)
56. On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Ian Fleming (with James Cook & Jude Cook)
57. A Rebours - J-R. Huysmans (with Adam Biles & Sylvia Whitman)
58. Lost Horizon - James Hilton (with Tot Taylor)
59. Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel (with Arifa Akbar)
60. Jesus' Son - Denis Johnson (with Chris Power & Erica Wagner)
61. Berg - Ann Quin (with Jennifer Hodgson)
62. The Town House - Norah Lofts (with Lucy Mangan)
63. Something Happened - Joseph Heller (with Matt Thorne & Nikita Lalwani)
64. The Lowlife - Alexander Baron (with Peter Watts & Gary Budden)
65. Corregidora - Gayl Jones (with Sarah Churchwell)
66. The Fatal Englishman - Sebastian Faulks (with Rishi Dastidar)
67. My Antonia - Willa Cather (with Hermione Lee)
68. The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (with Rachel Heath, Arifa Akbar & Alex Clark)
69. Told by an Idiot - Rose Macaulay (with Nancy Pearl)
70. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - ZZ Packer (with Nikesh Shukla)
71. The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien (with Dan Kieran & Una McCormack)
72. How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read - Pierre Bayard (with Ben Moor & Cathy Rentzenbrink)
73. The Lion and the Unicorn - George Orwell (with Billy Bragg & Suzi Feay)
74. A Girl in Winter - Phillip Larkin (with Nina Stibbe & Simon Garfield)
75. Ulverton - Adam Thorpe (with Tom Cox)
76. The Dud Avocado - Elaine Dundy (with Sarra Manning)
77. Autumn Journal - Louis MacNeice (with Samuel West & Sophie Ratcliffe)
78. Ghosts - Edith Wharton (with Lisa Evans & Andrew Male)
79. Moominvalley in November - Tove Jansson (with Natania Jansz & Frank Cottrell Boyce)
80. The Tortoise and the Hare - Elizabeth Jenkins (with Carmen Callil)
81. Harpo Speaks! - Harpo Marx & Rowland Barber (with Dan Schreiber)
82. Books Do Furnish a Room - Anthony Powell (with Hilary Spurling & Philip Hensher)
83. The Rainbow - D.H. Lawrence (with Rachael Kerr & Catherine Taylor
84. Imogen - Jilly Cooper (with Daisy Buchanan & Dr. Ian Patterson)
85. Hemlock and After - Angus Wilson (with Dickon Edwards)
86. The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West (with Alice Jolly & Amanda Craig)
87. Utz - Bruce Chatwin (with Jonathan Wilson & Rachael Kerr)
88. Human Voices - Penelope Fitzgerald (with Georgina Morley & Lucy Scholes)
89. Last Train to Memphis / Careless Love - Peter Guralnick (David Keenan & Bethan Roberts)
90. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (with William Atkins & Lissa Evans)
91. A Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Defoe (with James Hannah & Jo Waugh)
92. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page - G.B. Edwards (with Will Smith)
93. Beloved - Toni Morrison (with Preti Taneja)
94. The Prince of West End Avenue - Alan Isler (with William Sutcliffe & Samantha Ellis)
95. The Baron in the Trees - Italo Calvino (with Caspar Henderson)
96. Miss Buncle’s Book - D.E. Stevenson (with Shelley Harris)
97. The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury (with Sam Leith & Jennifer Lucy Allan)
98. Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban (with Max Porter & Una McCormack)
99. Books about The Beatles (with David Hepworth & Mark Ellen)
100. The Anatomy of Melancholy - Robert Burton (with Philip Pullman)
101. On Walking In Ice - Werner Herzog (with Luke Turner)
102. The Soul of Kindness - Elizabeth Taylor (with Carmen Callil & Rachel Cooke)
103. Absalom, Absalom - William Faulkner (with Sarah Churchwell)
104. The Breaking Point - Daphne du Maurier (with Laura Varnam)
105. The Rings of Saturn - W.G. Sebald (with Philip Hoare & Jessie Greengrass)
106. Edith’s Diary - Patricia Highsmith (with Karen McLeod & John Grindrod)
107. Riceyman Steps - Arnold Bennett (with Kit de Waal & Charlotte Higgins)
108. À la Recherche de Temps Perdu - Marcel Proust (with Lissa Evans, Sarah Churchwell & Sean Whiteside)
109. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym (with Becky Brown & Norah Perkins)
110. The Journal of a Disappointed Man - W.N.P. Barbellion (with Claire Fuller & William Atkins)
111. The World According to Garp - John Irving (with Nikita Lalwani & Matt Thorne)
112. Frost in May - Antonia White (with Laura Thompson & Erica Wagner)
113. The Constant Nymph - Margaret Kennedy (with Alexandra Pringle)
114. The Inheritors - William Golding (with Una McCormack & Andrew Male)
115. The Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith (with E.O. Higgins & Laura Cumming)
116. How to Cook a Wolf - M.F.K. Fisher (with Dan Richards & Felicity Cloake)
117. The Varieties of Religious Experience - William James (with John Williams)
118. Summer Reading 2020
119. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Děd - Lal Děd (with Tishani Doshi)
120. Thérèse Raquin - Émile Zola (with Andrew O’Hagan & Rachel Joyce)
121. The Odd Women - George Gissing (with Janet Todd & Simon James)
122. Silence - Shūsaku Endō (with Sarah Perry)
123. Beowulf (with Laura Varnam & Andrew Male)
124. Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius - Terrance Dicks (Matthew Sweet & Una McCormack)
125. The Compleet Molesworth - Geoffrey Willans & Ronald Searle (with Martin Rowson & Lissa Evans)
126. The Victorian Chaise-longue - Marghanita Laski (with Eley Williams)
127. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper (with Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris)
128. Locklisted Children’s Books Special
129. The Bloater - Rosemary Tonks (with Jennifer Hodgson & Stewart Lee)
130. Karoo - Steve Tesich (with Sali Hughes & John Niven)
131. Locklisted Teenage Books Special
132. Job - Joseph Roth
133. Miss Pym Disposes - Josephine Tey (with Val MacDermid)
134. Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting - Penelope Mortimer (with Lucy Scholes & John Williams)
135. The Fish Can Sing - Halldór Laxness with (Derek Owusu)
136. Água Viva - Clarice Lispector (with Wendy Erskine & David Keenan)
137. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne (with Katherine Rundell & Frank Cottrell Boyce)
138. The Plague and I - Betty MacDonald (with Natasha McEnroe & Lissa Evans)
139. The Evenings - Gerard Reve (with Marie Philipps & Joe Dunthorne)
140. A Goat’s Song - Dermot Healy (with Patrick McCabe & Rachael Kerr)
141. Are You Somebody? - Nuala O’Faolain (with Caroline O’Donoghue)
142. In a Lonely Place - Dorothy B. Hughes (with Nora Perkins & Becky Brown)
143. Heart of the Original - Steve Aylett (with John Higgs)
144. Fat City - Leonard Gardner (with Nicky Birch)
145. Summer Reading 2021
146. Elizabeth Costello - J.M. Coetzee (with Mary Costello)
147. The Dream Songs - John Berryman (with Susie Boyt)
148. Cassandra at the Wedding - Dorothy Baker (with Simon Thomas & Alexandra Pringle)
149. Something in Disguise - Elizabeth Jane Howard (with Laura Varnam & Andrew Male)
Backlisted Special: Treacle Walker - Alan Garner (with Erica Wager, Melanie Giles & Bob Cywinski)
150. Notes from Under the Floorboards - Fyodor Dostoevsky (with Arifa Akbar & Alex Christofi)
151. The Godwits Fly - Robin Hyde (with Paula Morris)
152. Deadwood - Peter Dexter (with Shawn Levy & Erica Wagner)
153. The Railway Children - E. Nesbit (with Katherine Rundell & Frank Cottrell-Boyce)
154. Winter Reading Special 2022
155. Finishing the Hat & Look, I Made a Hat - Stephen Sondheim (with David Benedict & Jason Hazeley)
156. Gaudy Night - Dorothy L. Sayers (with Harriet Evans & Francesca Wade)
157. Winter Reading Special Part II - Short Stories
158. South Riding - Winifred Holtby (with Tamya Kirk & Una McCormack)
159. Fungus the Bogeyman - Raymond Briggs (with Nadia Shireen & Andrew Male)
160. The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon (with Sarah Churchwell & Sam Leith)
161. Escape to an Autumn Pavement & Jamaica - Andrew Salkey (with Margaret Busby & Raymond Antrobus)
162. Family Lexicon - Natalia Ginzburg (with Marigold Atkey & Emily Rhodes)
163. De Profundis - Oscar Wilde (with Stephen Fry)
164. The Death of the Heart - Elizabeth Bowen (with Tessa Hadley)
165. Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake (with Joanne Harris)
166. The Kingdom By the Sea - Paul Theroux (with Nicky Birch & Tess Davidson)
167. The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham (with David Farr)
168. Lightning Rods - Helen DeWitt (with Marie Phillips & Ben Moor)
169. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard (with Jay Griffiths and Geoff Dyer)
170. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskill (with Jennifer Egan and Nell Stevens)
171. Roadside Picnic - Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (with Jennifer Lucy Allan and Ilona Chavasse)
172. Full Tilt - Dervla Murphy (with Felicity Cloake and Caroline Eden)
173. The Altar of the Dead and Other Stories - Henry James (with Andrew Male and Tessa Hadley)
174. The Springs of Affection - Maeve Brennan (with Sinéad Gleeson and David Hayden)
175. The Ice Palace - Tarjei Vesaas (with Karl Ove Knaussgård and Max Porter)
176. The Awakening - Kate Chopin (with Timothy O’Grady and Rachael Kerr)
177. Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild (with Una McCormack and Tanya Kirk)
178. Rerun: Elizabeth Jenkins - The Tortoise and the Hare
179. Backlisted Special: Children’s Books (with Frank Cottrell-Boyce)
180. Rerun: Raymond Briggs - Fungus and the Bogeyman
181. Science Fiction Special (with Una McCormack)
182. Rerun: Jean Rhys - Good Morning Midnight
183. Archive Books Special (with Becky Brown and Norah Perkins)
184. Rerun: William Maxwell - So Long, See You Tomorrow
185. American Books Special (with Erica Wagner and Sarah Churchwell)
186. Rerun: David Seabrook - All The Devils Are Here (with Rachel Cooke)
187. Books and Short Stories: Graham Greene
188. Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair - John Bossy (with Suzi Feay and Stephanie Merritt)
189. The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett (with Mark Billingham)
190. The Eustace Diamonds - Anthony Trollope (with Jennifer Egan and Nell Stevens)
191. The Millstone - Margaret Drabble (with Linda Grant and Lucy Scholes)
192. A Passage to India - E.M. Forster (with Alice Jolly and Patrick McCabe)
194. A Kestrel for a Knave - Barry Hines (with Rose Blake and Bob Stanley)
195. Galapágos - Kurt Vonnegut (with Shehan Karunatilaka)
196. Esther Waters - George Moore (with Tom Crewe)
197. The True History of the First Mrs Meredith and Other Lesser Lives - Diane Johnson (with Rachel Cooke and Lucy Scholes)
What Have You Been Reading Special
198. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - M.R. James (with Andrew Male and Laura Varnam)
199. Plays, Essays, Novels and Stories - Samuel Beckett
200. Trustee from the Toolroom - Nevil Shute Norway (with Richard Osman)
201. Briggflatts - Basil Bunting (with Neil Astley and Kirsten Norrie)
202. A Christmas Carol (Christmas Special) - Charles Dickens
203. The Stone Angel - Margaret Laurence (with Lennie Goodings)
204. Love on the Dole - Walter Greenwood (with Andrew Hankinson)
205. Scouse Mouse - George Melly (with Jeff Young and Lizzie Nunnery)
206. A Life in Movies - Michael Powell (with James Cook and Melanie Williams)
207. Coffee Table Books
208. All My Pretty Ones - Anne Sexton (with Emily Berry)
209. The Children of Men - P.D. James (with Andrew Hunter Murray and Laura Thompson)
210. A Marsh Island - Sarah Orne Jewett (with Noreen Masud)
211. Book Recommendations
212. The Good Soldier - Ford Maddox Ford (with Alex Michaelides)
213. The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts - Douglas Adams (with Joel Morris and Gail Renard)
214. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (with Dr Martin Shaw and Laura Varnam)
215. Gaining Ground - Joan Barfoot (with Rose Ruane)
216. Marianne Dreams - Catherine Storr (with Rachael King and Richard Blandford)
217. Endless Night - Agatha Christie (with Caroline Crampton and Laura Thompson)
218. Summer Reading Special
219. Absolute Beginners - Rerun