Richard And Judy Book Club Podcast - Exclusive To Whsmith

The Last House on Needless Street is the final book in Richard and Judy’s Autumn Book Club collection. It’s the story of a murderer, a stolen child, and revenge. An unspeakable truth binds the family that live in the last house on Needless Street, but a new neighbour is intent on uncovering the truth. Award-winning author Catriona Ward joins Richard and Judy to discuss why she feels the horror genre historically has a problematic relationship with mental health, and why you actually have to be incredibly empathetic to write a good horror book. Plus, she explains the hugely important and clever function Dissociative Identity Disorder serves in people’s lives as a protection mechanism from trauma and abuse. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Autumn Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.  

Reckless mistakes can lead to devastating consequences. Kieren Elliot is haunted by guilt from his past when he returns to the Tasmanian coastal town he used to call home in Jane Harper’s novel The Survivors. Jane tells Richard and Judy about going diving and talking to mental health charities as part of the research for this book. Mental health is also an important topic for actress and author Rosie Day. She’s written Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon, a call to arms that explores everything from body image and consent, to boundaries and rebellion. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Autumn Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.

It’s December 1939 in Berlin; a rigidly enforced blackout plunges the city into darkness every night and allows crime to thrive. Author Simon Scarrow’s novel Blackout follows Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke as he’s under pressure to solve a murder. Simon joins Richard and Judy to explain why blackouts were imposed, how hedonistic Weimar culture was a casualty of the new Nazi regime, and why he chose to write Schenke as a man who was not a Nazi sympathiser. Plus, Simon explains why he feels it’s healthy for us to challenge accepted historical narratives. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Autumn Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.

Paul O’Grady has written his first children’s book – Eddie Albert and the Amazing Animal Gang. Paul has taught his own pigs to sit, and used to answer the door with a bird on his head; he tells Richard and Judy about his love of animals, and how his own experiences inspired the animal characters in his book. This week’s Book Club read is The Burning Girls. Author C.J. Tudor joins us to explore more macabre themes, from religious rituals and grisly local traditions, to superstitions and belief in the supernatural. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Autumn Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.

Sugar, this week’s Book Club read, was first published in the US two decades ago. Now available in the UK, its core themes of race relations, oppression, and abandonment are still just as relevant and vital today. Richard, Judy, and author Bernice L. McFadden explore prejudices towards sex workers, finding friendship in unlikely places, and how racism manifests in slightly different ways in different parts of the USA. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the Autumn Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.

A Beautiful Spy is the first of Richard and Judy’s Autumn Book Club reads. Minnie Gray appears to be an ordinary woman, but she’s actually a spy for the British government. It’s the summer of 1928 and she must move away from her family to infiltrate the communist movement.   Author Rachel Hore joins Richard and Judy to discuss the real woman Minnie is based on, the qualities she possessed that made her such a fantastic spy, and the loneliness that can come from leading a double life. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the new Summer Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.  

Eastenders icon Sid Owen has been playing character Ricky on and off since 1988. He joins Richard and Judy to talk about writing his autobiography, From Rags to Ricky, and explains how acting helped him cope with a difficult childhood. Richard and Judy are also joined by this week’s Book Club author Kiran Millwood Hargrave to discuss her novel The Mercies. A violent storm erupts over a remote Norwegian island in the 17th century, drowning every man on the island as their fishing boats are engulfed. To survive, their wives must take over the fishing themselves, but their independence leads to them being tried as witches. Kiran discusses how she approached writing a fictional retelling of a true story, and Richard shares his personal connection with the Salem witch trials. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk browse the new Summer Book Club collection, and use the code SUMMER10 for a 10% discount.  

How many times a day do you lie? That’s what Richard and Judy began to wonder when they read this week’s Book Club novel, When She Was Good. The novel follows Evie Cormac, a teenager who witnessed a brutal murder and is now staying silent, and forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven as he tries to discover what happened to her. Author Michael Robotham discusses how his background as a journalist influenced his decision to write about organised crime and the psychology of criminals. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the new Summer Book Club collection, and use the code SUMMER10 for a 10% discount.  

Husband and wife Paul Vlitos and Collette Lyons have written their first book together under the pseudonym Ellery Lloyd. People Like Her follows mummy influencer Emmy, who blogs under the name Mamabare. She shares her life as a parent of two young children with her followers, but her online persona hides the offline reality. The authors tell Richard and Judy why they found that two people writing one book is a bit like a game of consequences, and what they’ve learnt about the art of being an online influencer. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the new Summer Book Club collection, and use the code SUMMER10 for a 10% discount.  

The Idea of You puts a spotlight on relationships where there’s a significant age gap; author Robinne Lee writes a passionate love affair between a 20 year old pop star, and a successful 40-something woman. She explains to Richard and Judy how her own experience of being an actress turning 40 in LA inspired her to write a multi-dimensional female character, and reveals who the pop stars she idolised as a teenager were. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the new Summer Book Club collection, and use the code SUMMER10 for a 10% discount.    

How far would you go to protect your family from a prison sentence? That’s the question Book Club author Gillian McAllister poses in her new novel That Night. She and Bella Mackie – author of How To Kill Your Family – join Richard and Judy to debate what might persuade them to seek revenge on behalf of a loved one, and how to convince a reader to root for a character who kills. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the new Summer Book Club collection, and use the code SUMMER10 for a 10% discount.

V2 is Robert Harris’ latest book; it’s the fifth of his novels that Richard and Judy have picked to be part of their Book Club. It follows Rudy, a German rocket scientist who has dreams of launching rockets to the moon, but is instead forced by the Nazis to develop the world’s first truly ballistic missile. Robert joins Richard and Judy to explore why the V2 is so historically significant, and what parallels can be drawn between World War II and the Coronavirus pandemic. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the new Summer Book Club collection, and use the code SUMMER10 for a 10% discount.

The Pull of the Stars is the last of the Early Summer Book Club reads. It tells the story of Nurse Julia Power as she helps deliver babies in an understaffed, overcrowded ward during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918. Returning Book Club author Emma Donoghue joins Richard and Judy to discuss writing about the politics of childbirth, and why she likes writing novels set in confined spaces. Meanwhile, A&E and TV doctor Alex George has been working in a hospital throughout this century’s pandemic. Together, they all explore the differences – and many similarities – between the Spanish Flu and Covid-19. Alex also explains why he wrote his book Live Well Every Day, and why he feels it’s important that mental health sits on the school curriculum alongside maths and English. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the entire Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.    

A glamorous, charismatic, female Oxford University professor is accused of sexual assault by a young man on the rugby team. Who do you believe? Author Cara Hunter revives her much-loved character, DI Adam Fawley, to investigate in this week’s Book Club read, The Whole Truth. Cara cleverly uses a true crime podcast within the novel to help the reader uncover the truth; she tells Richard and Judy why she feels we’re all so gripped by true crime documentaries on TV and in audio. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the entire Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount. Content warning: this episode contains frank conversation about sexual assault and harassment, themes that Cara’s book, The Whole Truth, deals with, so do take care while listening.

The Miseducation of Evie Epworth is this week’s Book Club novel. Set in the 1960s, it follows larger-than-life 16 year old Evie as she navigates following her dreams of leaving Yorkshire for the bright lights of London …not least to escape the clutches of her step mother, determined to keep her closer to home. Author Matson Taylor is a design historian – the material culture of specific decades is of particular interest to him, something that comes across particularly strongly in his novel as he immerses the reader in 1960s Yorkshire. Matson, Richard, and Judy discuss the music and icons of the ‘60s, and their own teenage hopes and dreams. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the entire Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.

With this week’s Book Club read, Moonflower Murders, you almost get two books for the price of one. Author Anthony Horowitz has written an entire novel within a novel, the fictional novel playing a central role in helping to solve the main book’s murder! Anthony and his squeaky office chair join Richard and Judy from Suffolk to talk about writing the screenplays of his books, the importance of school libraries, and his new found love for Japanese murder mysteries. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the entire Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.

A sleepy Norwegian village is where this week’s Book Club novel is set. The Kingdom is a thriller following two brothers reunited after the more gregarious of the two left to travel the world; on his return, the dark truth about their family legacy begins to unravel.    Author Jo Nesbo is a bestselling crime novelist, but he’s also been a premier league football player, in a successful band, and in the military. He joins Richard and Judy from Oslo to discuss the popularity of Scandi Noir, the specific tensions that can arise between brothers, and how humour can get lost in translation.   Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the entire Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.

Comedian Dawn French’s latest novel, Because of You, is of course warm and witty, but it’ll also make you cry. The book ultimately has a crime at its heart, and explores the intense pain and joy being a mother can bring. Dawn joins Richard and Judy to talk about why grieving mothers might steal babies, who her teenage crushes were, and the unexpected reason she started writing in the first place. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the entire Early Summer Book Club collection, and use the code BOOKCLUB10 for a 10% discount.

The final read in this year’s Spring Book Club is The Recovery of Rose Gold. It’s the debut novel of Stephanie Wrobel, who joins Richard and Judy from Arizona to talk through the mental health syndrome at the centre of her story – Munchausen by Proxy. For 18 years mother Patty made her daughter, Rose Gold, believe she was desperately ill; the book joins the pair as Patty is released from prison having served time for abusing Rose Gold. Richard, Judy, and Stephanie explore the nuances of this mother daughter relationship, as well as discussing similar real life cases. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the entire Spring Book Club collection, and use the code SPRING10 for a 10% discount.

The Sight of You, a heartbreaking story that asks whether you’d want to know the fate of the people you love, is this week’s Book Club read. Author Holly Miller joins Richard and Judy to talk about learning the art of writing from professors, university course mates, and professional writing critics, and how a divisive dinner party conversation helped her come up with the premise of the book. Do you believe dreams can predict the future? Richard, Judy, and Holly all have their say. Simply head online to whsmith.co.uk to browse the entire Spring Book Club collection, and use the code SPRING10 for a 10% discount.