Episode

Tom Cox and Sophie Scott

Podcast
A Good Read
Published
Oct 28, 2025
Duration seconds
1665
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ldh2
Audio
http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0mcb0m7.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/a-good-read-7332172/episodes/tom-cox-and-sophie-scott
Markdown
/podcast/a-good-read-7332172/tom-cox-and-sophie-scott.md

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Summary

THE STONE DIARIES by Carol Shields, chosen by Tom Cox HOW TO WRITE A THESIS by Umberto Eco, chosen by Sophie Scott PARADISE by Abdulrazak Gurnah, chosen by Harriett Gilbert Writer Tom Cox joins neuroscientist Sophie Scott to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Tom's choice is the 1995 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Stone Diaries. Following the story of one woman’s life from birth to death, the novel also charts the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. Sophie puts forward a very different book, a non-fiction by Italian writer and academic, How to Write a Thesis. It first appeared on Italian bookshelves back in 1977, but still rings true for many. And finally, Harriett's choice is a historical novel called Paradise by the Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah, which is both a coming-of-age story, and a tale of the corruption against the backdrop of European colonialism in East Africa. Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc