13.12.2010 10:28
What's on?: Book of the Week

Do you know the English actress Julie Walters? She's what's known in the UK as a 'national treasure', someone who is liked by everyone regardless of age or gender. And when she published her autobiography, 'That's Another Story', two years ago, it was an obvious choice for 'Book of the Week', the serialised book-reading heard on weekday mornings on BBC Radio 4.

Open book But Book of the Week includes more than the autobiographies of well-loved actresses. It also covers works of non-fiction, biography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history. Anything that is, except fiction.

In the summer, Walking Home by Lynn Schooner, recounted one man's attempt to journey solo into the Alaskan wilderness. In May, Jenny Uglow's history of Charles II, A Gambling Man – Charles II and the Restoration, could be heard. And in the spring Frances Stonor Saunders' The Woman Who Shot Mussolini, the account of the troubled life of Violet Gibson, who attempted to assassinate the Italian dictator, was the week's feature.

In November, Canadian actor Kerry Shale read the autobiography of Mark Twain, a book written over 100 years ago, but Twain decreed that his autobiography should not be published until he'd been dead for 100 years so that he could feel free to speak his "whole frank mind".

The books selected for Book of the Week are edited into five 15-minute readings and are broadcast each weekday morning at 9.45am. They are repeated at 0.30am, the following day. Each episode is available for listen again for a week after its first broadcast.

So, relax, forget the stress of Christmas, and savour some literary moments during the cold, dark days of December. Tune in and see what is this week's Book of the Week. Just click here: