The Radio 2 Book Club cover art

The Radio 2 Book Club

The Radio 2 Book Club

Written by: BBC Radio 2
Listen for free

The Radio 2 Book club celebrates the best in new fiction and recommends great reads. Sara will be interviewing top authors about their latest novels, and she’ll be catching up with librarians and reading groups from across the UK. Whether you’re after a summer blockbuster, a twist-filled thriller, or want to curl up with a heart-warming love story, Sara has you covered!

(C) BBC 2026
Art
Episodes
  • 'Time To Burn' by Ellery Lloyd
    Jul 20 2026

    Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos (aka Ellery Lloyd) join Sara for a natter about their new novel, 'Time To Burn'.

    Paul and Collette not only write together, but are married too - and Sara has A LOT of questions!

    Their new novel is about time travel gone wrong, so we delve into their inspirations for the book, how important the history was, and just how they plot and plan (and write) between the two of them.

    Plus, we hear an extract from the audiobook - and - get two cracking book recommendations too!

    Here's a little more about Ellery Lloyd's latest novel, 'Time To Burn':

    If the past catches up with you, time travel can be murder . . .

    London, the present day: commercial time travel is a reality. Tempus Tours – owned by controversial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank – offers the wealthy a chance to witness pivotal moments in history.

    To immortalise his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.

    Not only that, but Phoebe recognizes the missing woman. She knows not only that she's not who she claims to be, but that the woman has every reason to harbor a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that the woman had sinister motives for returning to the past – and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.

    Can Phoebe stop the ripple effect before she loses everything – and everyone – she holds dear?

    Show More Show Less
    15 mins
  • 'The Leveret' by Anna Goldreich
    Jul 14 2026

    Debut novelist, Anna Goldreich, joins Sara in the Book Club to discuss 'The Leveret'.

    They chat about her inspirations behind the story, farming, baby hares, grief, queer love and much much more.

    Anna is also a keen twitcher - and runs a queer bird watching group in Norfolk - which Sara gets very interested in!

    We also hear a clip of the audiobook - and - get a cracking book recommendation too!

    Here's a little more about 'The Leveret':

    Moving to the countryside is supposed to fix Clare and Phoebe’s relationship. A fresh start, a change of scenery, a chance to heal after the miscarriage of their baby girl.

    Instead, Phoebe feels suffocated. Back in the rural community she ran from at seventeen and unable to face the partner she cannot help, she throws herself into work on the family farm. Clare is a stranger in the village, uninitiated and out of place. She spends her days drifting around the cottage, its walls groaning and shifting as she withdraws into a world inside her head.

    One day, wandering through the forest nearby, Clare finds a leveret – her own little Isla. A surrogate to lick and love. A way to feel whole again.

    But as Isla grows into an adult hare she becomes wild and unruly – a kicking, biting, scratching creature. With Clare’s grasp on reality growing ever more tenuous, Phoebe begins to question whether Isla is the cure for grief Clare is searching for as she desperately clings on to the woman she loves . . .

    With this bruisingly tender love story, debut author Anna Goldreich has conjured a hazy dream of a novel about the fantasies we create as a refuge from grief. The Leveret is a heartbreakingly gorgeous and lyrically haunting hymn to queer love and the power to rebuild from the wreckage of a relationship.

    Show More Show Less
    15 mins
  • Lisa Jewell (live from the Crossed Wires Festival)
    Jul 7 2026

    Sara heads to Sheffield, for the Crossed Wires Festival, to speak with international bestselling author Lisa Jewell, in front of a live audience.

    Lisa chats about her new thriller, 'It Could Have Been Her', as well as her writing inspirations, the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and how she turned from writing commercial 'women's fiction' to dark psychological thrillers.

    She also reads us a short extract of the novel, recommends us some books and takes audience questions too.

    Here's a little more info on Lisa's new novel:

    Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and then - a scream and the sound of something falling upstairs - Jane senses she's in a bad place. She runs.

    Twenty five years later, Jane finds herself outside the same house, this time to return a small white dog who's been found near her home in the country; a dog whose owner has just been reported missing.

    A fleeting glimpse of a haunted looking woman through the window sends Jane on a mission to uncover the house's secrets - secrets more terrifying than she could have ever imagined, especially when she realises it could have been her. .

    Show More Show Less
    34 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet