Read This: Books under the Radar is a weekly post written by a guest author – often a friend of mine, someone I’ve met on my writerly travels, or an author I admire – who recommends three books they think deserve more recognition. If you’re interested in buying any of the books, please click on the covers and give these hidden gems some love. You can see the full list of books which have been selected, as well as the author’s latest book on Bookshop.org, where you can have a browse and buy any that take your fancy. Happy reading!

Read This: Viv Groskop

Viv and I have known each other for ten years, when my debut, Our Endless Numbered Days won the Desmond Elliott Prize and she was one of the judges – and the chair of the judges let it slip that Viv didn’t vote for my book! I’m not sure whether it was embarrassment at the reveal but when she was booking authors for the Bath Literary Festival she invited me, and since then (and because I’ve of course forgiven her) we’ve bumped into each other at many literary events. I’ve read most of her books and they’re always an inspiration, and I particularly loved her latest, One Ukrainian Summer, a memoir of her time in the 1980s in the USSR and Ukraine. I highly recommend it. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Viv Groskop is an author, comedian and playwright. She is the author of seven non-fiction books including the best-seller How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking. Her latest book One Ukrainian Summer is a memoir set after the fall of the Iron Curtain and is about being young and stupidly in love with a Ukrainian punk rock guitarist who repeatedly gives you headlice. It comes out in paperback in April 2025. All author proceeds for this book go to PEN International for their work with Writers at Risk.

Find her on Instagram @vivgroskop and subscribe to her weekly newsletter at vivgroskop.com.

Here are the books Viv chose:

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Read This: Books under the Radar is a weekly post written by a guest author – often a friend of mine, someone I’ve met on my writerly travels, or an author I admire – who recommends three books they think deserve more recognition. If you’re interested in buying any of the books, please click on the covers and give these hidden gems some love. You can see the full list of books which have been selected, as well as the author’s latest book on Bookshop.org, where you can have a browse and buy any that take your fancy. Happy reading!

Read This: Beth O’Leary

Beth lives in my neck of the woods and once upon a time was in my writing group, so I was very privileged to read some of her novels as she was writing them. But family commitments took over, and to be honest, I’m not sure that Beth needs the help of a writing group – her novels are so wonderful. I have been sent a copy of Swept Away but I haven’t yet found the time to pick it up. Soon, I promise! It will be published on 8th April, and if you click on the picture you can pre-order (or order) a copy. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Beth O’Leary is a Sunday Times bestselling author whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. Her debut, The Flatshare, sold over a million copies and is now a major TV series, as is her third novel, The Road Trip. All her other novels – The Switch, The No-Show and The Wake-Up Call – were also instant bestsellers. Beth writes her books in the Hampshire countryside with a very badly behaved Golden Retriever for company. If she’s not in her writing shed, you’ll usually find her curled up somewhere with a book, a cup of tea and several woolly jumpers (whatever the weather).

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betholearyauthor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/betholearyauthor

Here are the books Beth chose:

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Read This: Books under the Radar is a weekly post written by a guest author – often a friend of mine, someone I’ve met on my writerly travels, or an author I admire – who recommends three books they think deserve more recognition. If you’re interested in buying any of the books, please click on the covers and give these hidden gems some love. You can see the full list of books which have been selected, as well as the author’s latest book on Bookshop.org, where you can have a browse and buy any that take your fancy. Happy reading!

Read This: Claire Thomson

You might not know this, but as well as novels, I LOVE cookbooks. I have a pretty big collection and love sitting down on my kitchen floor besides the shelves where I keep them all and browsing through. I can’t remember when I first started following Claire Thomson on Instagram with her vegetable-led recipes, but I have loved her easy to follow but interesting style of cooking. I urge you to follow her too: @5oclockapron. Her 10th cookbook, One Pan Beans is out this week and I also urge you to buy it, because it’s brilliant and I’ve already cooked several delicious recipes from it. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Claire Thomson is a chef, food writer and a constant source of family-cooking inspiration to her 180,000 Instagram followers. Claire has written for the Guardian, Telegraph, BBC Good Food Magazine and Delicious and is a Guild of Food Writers award winner. She has appeared on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen, Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch and BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. On her podcast The 5 O’Clock Apron, she chats and chops with people from other professions about what they cook for dinner. Her previous books include Art of the Larder, Home Cookery Year, One Pan Chicken and Veggie Family Cookbook. @5oclockapron

Podcast https://shows.acast.com/the-5-o-clock-apron-podcast

Instagram @5oclockapron 
And here are the books Claire has chosen:

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Read This: Books under the Radar is a weekly post written by a guest author – often a friend of mine, someone I’ve met on my writerly travels, or an author I admire – who recommends three books they think deserve more recognition. If you’re interested in buying any of the books, please click on the covers and give these hidden gems some love. You can see the full list of books which have been selected, as well as the author’s latest book on Bookshop.org, where you can have a browse and buy any that take your fancy. Happy reading!

Read This: Adam Weymouth

I read Adam’s first non-fiction book, Kings of the Yukon just before we taught together on an Editing Fiction and Non-fiction course for Arvon, and I loved it. I’m lucky enough to have been send a proof of his next, Lone Wolf, which argh! I still haven’t managed to read. Too many books, too little time. But I am certain I’ll love it. Here’s what he has to say about himself:

I am a freelance writer and journalist, living on the south coast of England. I work for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The BBC, The Atlantic and Granta. My first book, Kings of the Yukon, tells the story of a four month canoe trip across Alaska, examining the decline of the king salmon and exploring how that decline is impacting on the many communities, and the ecosystems, which depend on it. The book won both the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and the Lonely Planet/ Stanfords Adventure Travel Book of the Year. My new book, Lone Wolf, will be published by Penguin on 29th May 2025.

Bluesky – adamweymouth.bsky.social

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