Comedians Alan Davies, Sarah Kendall, Suzi Ruffell and Iain Stirling get serious about fiction

1 December 2021

Sara Cox is joined on Between the Covers by four brilliant comedians to share their favourite books, including demented visions from Irvine Welsh, landmark war satire Slaughterhouse-Five, and one featuring four of American literature's most beloved female characters.

The intimate book club hosted by Sara Cox welcomes Alan Davies, Iain Stirling, Sarah Kendall and Suzi Ruffell, who each reveal what's on their shelves.

Episode 4 - Favourite books from our guests

The cover says: Harry is a Richard Nixon scholar who leads a quiet, regular life; his brother George is a high-flying TV producer, with a murderous temper. They have been uneasy rivals since childhood. Then one day George loses control so extravagantly that he precipitates Harry into an entirely new life. In May We Be Forgiven, Homes gives us a darkly comic look at 21st century domestic life - at individual lives spiralling out of control, bound together by family and history.

Alan says: There's a lot of humour, there's a lot of darkness… the kind of writer who deals in contemporary lives, in ordinary, suburban existence, and then it goes a bit David Lynch. This one opens with someone driving his car into a van and killing a family, and then there's a murder, and then you're on about page 11...

You are pitched into a nightmare of a story. Our main character is this guy's brother, who then tries to look after his family, deal with him when he's in a psychiatric unit, carry on with his own life… it's bleak but hilarious.

I could recommend that one, or This Book Will Save Your Life, or Music For Torching, or any of her books… if you haven't read any AM Homes, please do.

• BBC Sounds: A M Homes talks to James Naughtie

The cover says: Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time. Hiding in the basement of a slaughterhouse in Dresden, with the city and its inhabitants burning above him, he finds himself a survivor of one of the most deadly and destructive battles of the Second World War... Travel through time and space on the shoulders of Vonnegut himself. This is a book about war. Listen to what he has to say: it is of the utmost urgency.

Sarah says: It's about a character called Billy Pilgrim, and he keeps on waking in different sections of his life, and what happened to this character is actually what happened to Kurt Vonnegut in World War II.

During the bombing of Dresden, as an Allied POW it was his job to clean up the bodies and clean up the wreckage, and so the book is heading towards that.

It completely changed the way I felt about death and about sadness… and it was funny. I was amazed when I'd talk to other comedians about it, and they'd go, “Oh, you like Vonnegut?”; “no, Vonnegut's great”.

I read every single thing he had written after I'd read that. It's some of the most beautiful writing, and it just rewired a little section of my brain.

• BBC Sounds: Nine minutes on Slaughterhouse-Five, including Vonnegut reading from his novel

The cover says: Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth - four "little women" enduring hardships and enjoying adventures in Civil War New England The charming story of the March sisters, Little Women has been adored by generations. Readers have rooted for Laurie in his pursuit of Jo's hand, cried over little Beth's death, and dreamed of travelling through Europe with old Aunt March and Amy. Future writers have found inspiration in Jo's devotion to her writing.

Suzi says: It was my nan's favourite book and she gave me a copy when I was about 15. So that felt quite special to me already.

It's the story of four sisters, and the one that I really aligned with was Jo, who, for me, was the first feminist that I had read about. A lot of other women at that time were striving to find the right man, or find a social standing in society, and what she wanted was identity and agency.

There is the backdrop of the American Civil War, where the dad comes and goes, and everyone's quite sad all the time. But Jo wants to be a writer. It’s the 1860s, so it's not really appropriate for a woman get a job, and to have a voice in the world. She moves to New York, and her family are worried for her, but she's like, “I must go and write in New York”.

It has been adapted into a couple of films, but the book is just brilliant - a real story of friendship, love, and ambition. It's a story of where women have been, where we've got to, and the fact that we've still got a way to go.

• BBC Sounds: The Book that Changed Me - Little Women

The cover says: The characters in this extraordinary book are often - on the surface - depraved, vicious, cowardly and manipulative, but their essential humanity is never undermined. Two professors of philosophy turn pugilists; Leith removal men become the objects of desire for Hollywood goddesses; God turns Boab Coyle into a house-fly. The Acid House is a bizarre, disturbing and hilarious collection from one of the most uncompromising and original writers around.

Iain says: I, like many people, fell in love with Irvine Welsh because of Trainspotting. This is a collection of short stories, and I remember when I bought this, I didn't even know you were allowed to do those - it felt like a sort of cheat.

He grew up in the same part of Edinburgh as me, so it's written in a sort of Scottish dialect. He's from Leith. It's so crazy seeing your own voice reflected in a book, which I never thought I'd see, especially growing up in a working class area in Scotland.

I used to live with the comedian Phil Wang... and he liked Irvine Welsh, and he would genuinely come into my room, and I would sort of translate it for him.

Storylines that wouldn't make a whole novel, but with this, it can just be, like ten pages. And there's some absolutely mad stuff in here, and then some really dark stuff, and then stuff that's very similar to Filth and Trainspotting... but then some other stuff that's mad that involves massive flies and what-not.

• Irvine Welsh interviewed at the Hay Festival - “Do you ever get fed up with filth?”