World Book Club

Amy Tan joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss her novel The Joy Luck Club.

Chilean novelist Isabel Allende joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss her novel 'The House of the Spirits'. First broadcast in November 2003. (Photo credit: Lori Barra.)

Frederick Forsyth joins an audience of World Service listners to discuss his novel 'The Day of the Jackal'. Introduced by Harriett Gilbert. First broadcast in October 2003. (Photo: Frederick Forsyth outside his home in Ireland, 1978) (Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Peter Carey joins an audience of World Service listeners to discuss his novel 'Oscar and Lucinda'. Introduced by Harriett Gilbert.

Popular British crime writer Ruth Rendell talked to the programme about her work, including that written under her pseudonym Barbara Vine. Ruth Rendell died in May 2015. (Photo: Ruth Rendell) (Credit:Seth Wenig/Reuters)

Julian Barnes joins a World Service audience to discuss his novel 'Flaubert's Parrot'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Prize winning Chinese writer Jung Chang joins a World Service audience to discuss her novel 'Wild Swans'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Author Terry Pratchett talking about The Colour Of Magic in 2003, one of his Discworld series. Terry died in March 2015. The World Book Club was presented by Harriett Gilbert. Photo: Terry Pratchett Credit: PA

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The novel explores themes of women in subjugation, and the various means by which they gain agency. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert.

The British author Doris Lessing died on 17 November at the age of 94. As a tribute the BBC World Service revisits Doris Lessing’s discussion with Harriett Gilbert from a 2003 edition of World Book Club, when she talked about her debut novel The Grass is Singing, which was published in 1950. In an introduction to the original interview, Harriett remembers her encounters with Doris Lessing with affection and reminds us of the fact that she became the oldest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007 when she won the award for her life’s work.

Hanif Kureishi joins a World Service audience to discuss his book 'The Buddha of Suburbia'. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Nobel Prize winner V. S Naipaul discussess his book 'A House for Mr Biswas' with an audience of World Service listeners. Presented by Harriett Gilbert. (Photo: VS Naipaul, Credit: Press Association)

Nigerian born writer Ben Okri discusses his novel The Famished Road. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert.

Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy talks to the programme about winning the Booker Prize in 1997 for The God of Small Things. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert. (First broadcast December 2002) (Photo: Arundhati Roy) (Credit: HOCINE ZAOURAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Martin Amis joins an audience of World Service listeners to answer questions about his novel Money. Broadcast in October 2002. (Photo: Martin Amis, 2006. Credit: BBC)

What makes Stephen King, not only the Master of Horror, but more than that? (Image: Stephen King speaking in 2009. Credit: Mike Segar/Reuters)

In the First ever Meridian Writing World Book Club, Harriett Gilbert talks to American writer Garrison Keillor on his book Lake Wobegon Days.

Interview with the playwright and director, David Hare.

Interview with American poet, memoirist, actress, Maya Angelou. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert.

Zimbabwean novelist,poet and playright Chenjerai Hove talks to Harriett Gilbert about his novel 'Ancestors'. This programme with Chenjerai Hove, who died in 2015, was first broadcast in February 2002.