PD James and Richard Bacon

Richard Bacon

Richard Bacon was born in 1975 and grew up in Mansfield, Nottingham. He started his career doing unpaid shifts at Radio Nottingham. His first television presenting job was with L!VE TV in 1996.

Further broadcasting credits include, Blue Peter, The Big Breakfast, Top of the Pops, stints at Capital FM, BBC 6music and XFM and he currently hosts the afternoon show at BBC Radio 5 live.

Boy by Roald Dahl (1984)

Stick it up Your Punter! by Peter Chippindale and Chris Horrie (1990)

Stasiland by Anna Funder (2003)

Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser (1969)

This was Richard's most highly recommended book.

One Day by David Nicholls (2009)

P.D. James

P.D. James was born in Oxford in 1920 and is the author of 21 books, many of which have been filmed and broadcast on television. She didn’t begin writing till her mid thirties and her first novel Cover her Face was published in 1962.

She has since said that "I think I always knew that I would be a novelist almost as soon as I was able to read, but for a variety of reasons-including the war…I was a late starter."

She does all her own research and uses the contacts she made during her years working at the Home Office, New Scotland Yard and in the Forensic Science Service for expert advice when writing. When she writes she always has dictionary and a thesaurus, a pad of lined A4 paper and a collection of ball point pens with black ink on her desk. She has said of her best known character Adam Dalgliesh that he is a male version of herself.

In 1999 she published her autobiography, Time to Be in Earnest and in 2008 she was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame. Her most recent book Talking about Detective Fiction was released in 2010.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

This was P.D. James' most highly recommended book.

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh (1934)

Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare (1942)

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (1945)