Quick Book Reviews with Philippa Hall

It's past my bedtime, my microphone has given up the ghost, and I've got something to get off my chest: the National Year of Reading. I've been having a dig into where the money is going, and by my calculations the...

In Conversation with Ann Cleeves: The Dying Light This is a special Wednesday episode — Ann Cleeves joins me to talk about The Dying Light , the fourth Matthew Venn novel, out this Thursday. We talk about the white Art...

In Conversation with Linwood Barclay: Not a Word This episode is a special one — Linwood Barclay returns to talk about Not a Word , a family secrets thriller that opens with a horrific discovery and spirals into a story...

Alison Barrow, PR Director at Transworld, joins me again to lift the lid on what's really happening in publishing right now — from late-night manuscript reads and "beauty contest" pitches for new books, to why the...

Episode 500! In Conversation with Val McDermid and Jo Sharp: This Door of the Seas A huge milestone — this is episode 500 of Quick Book Reviews! Thank you to everyone who's been listening since the very start (sadly the...

This episode is a special one — Kate Atkinson joins me to talk about Our Noble Selves , her wonderful new novel set at the 1951 Festival of Britain. We talk about her traumatised journalist hero Harry Flynn (nearly...

A shorter episode this week, but a packed one. Philippa has an announcement, a question to answer honestly, and a book-related confession she has been sitting on for a while. Brace yourselves. October Book Club: The One...

Victorian Women Weren't Allowed to Play Football. They Did It Anyway. In 1897, a woman calling herself Nettie Honeyball founded Britain's first ladies' football club — and doctors wrote to the newspapers warning it...

Philippa went to Harrogate Crime Festival and came back with an alarming number of books. Here is everything she picked up, was given, or had rescued from the ladies' toilets on her behalf. Out Now The Angel of Death...

Philippa is back with her first author interview in two months — and opens with a confession: she recorded the entire thing without plugging her microphone in. Apologies have been issued. The show goes on. The guest is...

Philippa is back from holiday — and the books made it to Rhodes eventually, after a handwritten letter to Athens customs explaining why a normal person would post books to themselves. Today she's sharing her top eight...

Philippa reviews four books — including two she couldn't wait to tell you about — before a wonderful, wide-ranging conversation with C.J. Tudor about her latest novel Serenity Falls , out 10th September , the book she...

No author interview, no book reviews — just Philippa's most personal episode of the year: her best reads of the first six months of 2026. Twelve books, one honourable mention, and the admission that it was genuinely...

A short but exciting episode! Philippa announces a brand new format for the podcast: a Quick Book Reviews Book Club , running throughout October . The chosen book is The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway —...

Recorded live at Capital Crime Book Festival , Philippa talks to Gavin Bell — also known as Mason Cross, also known as Alex Knight — about his gripping new thriller 138 Main Street . But first, three festive reads for...