The Big Jubilee Read: Radio 4's Front Row at Library of Birmingham

April 21st 2022

To mark the launch of the Big Jubilee Read from BBC Arts and The Reading Agency, our Birmingham Book Shop Adult Librarian Helen Rosser attended the recording of a special episode of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row at the Library of Birmingham on Wednesday 13th April.

Peters Bookshop hometown Birmingham is host city of the commonwealth games later in 2022, so the BBC decided Library of Birmingham would be the best place to record their Radio 4 show Front Row’s special episode celebrating the launch of the Big Jubilee Read – a reading for pleasure campaign celebrating great reads from across the Commonwealth to coincide with Her Majesty The Queen's Jubilee.

From the outset the atmosphere was lively and exciting – audience members were encouraged not to turn phones off and put them away, but to keep them out, take photos and share on social media. The BBC hype man told the audience silence was not necessary, reassuring us that audience background noise in fact adds to the ambiance of the finished product, making it feel more alive.

The relaxed setting made it easy to enjoy the show, whose panel represented the confluence of my favourite things: literature, Birmingham and libraries. Presenter Samira Ahmed talked to local writer Kit de Waal, Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey, Dr Briony Birdi head of the Centre for the Public Library and Information in Society at the University of Sheffield, and Emma d'Costa from the Commonwealth Foundation. Winning over the local crowd by starting with a Birmingham-themed poem from Casey Bailey, the show went on to lively discussion of the role of libraries post-pandemic, the role of the Commonwealth in a post-colonial world, Birmingham’s position and culture as it looks forward to hosting athletes from across the Commonwealth, and of course the books chosen for the Big Jubilee Read.

The list of seventy titles was chosen by an expert panel of qualified librarians, booksellers and literature specialists from a "readers' choice" longlist. It contains work by authors from 31 Commonwealth countries, and as well as celebrating some well-known works, there is plenty for readers to discover. It was reassuring to hear literary figures such as Kit de Waal and Briony Birdi admit that there were many titles on the list that were new even to them, and the excitement of having so many fresh titles to add to the ‘to-read’ list is as important a part of the Big Jubilee Read as seeing recognition for favourites old and new. Everybody loves a recommendation, and the list is sure to sure to bring readers looking to discover previously unfamiliar works as well as revisit well-known picks.

If you haven’t already I’d highly recommend listening to the show, which will be of interest to all readers and librarians alike (not to mention Brummies!), and finding out about the titles on the Big Jubilee Read list. 

Listen to Abdulrazak Gurnah and the Big Jubilee Read from the Library of Birmingham on the BBC website. 

View the full list of Big Jubilee Read titles