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Between the Covers: Favourite reads from David Baddiel, Katherine Ryan, Adjoa Andoh and Phil Davis

24 May 2021

BBC Two's book club Between the Covers is on our screens on Monday nights. In each episode Sara Cox invites her guests to share their favourite reads of all time. This week's eclectic book choices are from David Baddiel, Katherine Ryan, Adjoa Andoh and Phil Davis.

Between the Covers brings the nation together through a shared love of reading. In each episode, four guests review the week’s book club picks and they reveal the books they treasure as their all-time favourites. This week, we feature choices by David Baddiel, Katherine Ryan, Adjoa Andoh and Phil Davis.

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Episode 3 Recommendations

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Chosen by Phil Davis

One of Charles Dickens’ most celebrated novels, which follows the story of Pip and features the iconic characters Magwitch and Miss Havisham.

I loved it then and I still love it now.
Phil Davis

“I was a kid growing up on a council estate in Essex with dreams of being an actor, so this story of a kid who’s plucked from one life and thrown into this glamorous one; it rang me like a bell.

It’s psychologically very interesting to me and I loved it then and I still love it now.”

Actor and writer Phil Davis chooses Great Expectations

Everybody Died, So I Got a Dog by Emily Dean

Chosen by Katherine Ryan

A book about love, family and the overwhelming loss which led the author to find hope and healing in the dog she always wanted.

This book is both funny and engaging and inspirational.
Katherine Ryan

“She [Emily Dean] talks about her family with honesty and humour. She’s been such an inspirational person in my life.

This book is both funny and engaging and inspirational for anyone going through any type of grief.”

Comedian Katherine Ryan

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

Chosen by Adjoa Andoh

Set in Colorado, Plainsong tells the story of two farmers who take in a young, homeless, pregnant woman.

It’s sort of like a meditation but with a really gripping story.
Adjoa Andoh

“It’s like the title; a really unadorned, human-voice chant. I’ve read it several times.

It’s sort of like a meditation but with a really gripping story. You care about every single person in this book.”

Actor Adjoa Andoh chooses Plainsong

Emma by Jane Austen

Chosen by David Baddiel

Nineteenth-century classic Emma is about youth and romantic misunderstandings told by the title character, an unreliable narrator.

It’s the most extraordinary thing and her greatest achievement.
David Baddiel

“People think of her [Jane Austen] as this slightly twee maiden who somehow wrote these romantic comedies... Actually she single-handedly created the modern English novel.

There is nothing like the level of realism and the level of character-insight and the level of literary control in the English novel before Jane Austen. It’s the most extraordinary thing and her greatest achievement is that book.”

Comedian and writer David Baddiel

Books that make you cry

David Baddiel and Katherine Ryan discuss being moved to tears by literature.

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Between the Covers: Favourite reads chosen by Sara Cox's guests