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The Working Class Library

by New Writing North
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Latest episodes

  • Colour Blind by Catherine Cookson

    October 1, 2026 · 52 min

    For the ninth episode of the Working Class Library, the writer and campaigner Terri White joins Richard Benson and Claire Malcolm to talk about the legendary Catherine Cookson. We focus on Cookson’s 1968 novel about a mixed-ethnicity…

  • Running Hot by Dreda Say Mitchell

    July 16, 2026 · 52 min

    For the eighth episode of the Working Class Library, the globally bestselling author Lee Child joins hosts Richard Benson and Claire Malcolm to talk about Dreda Say Mitchell’s groundbreaking 2004 novel Running Hot.

  • This Sporting Life by David Storey

    May 7, 2026 · 59 min

    In this episode of the Working Class Library, David Peace joins Claire Malcolm, Chief Executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss David Storey’s classic, controversial 1960 kitchen-sink novel, This…

  • Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt

    December 18, 2025 · 59 min

    In the sixth episode of the Working Class Library, Kevin Barry joins Claire Malcolm, chief executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss Frank McCourt’s 1996 memoir Angela’s Ashes. McCourt’s account of…

  • The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend

    November 17, 2025 · 54 min

    For the fifth episode of the Working Class Library, the novelist David Nicholls joins Claire Malcolm, CEO of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, and to discuss Sue Townsend’s 1982 novel The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole…

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  • Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson

    September 5, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min

    For this episode, Richard and Claire are joined by novelist Sarah Hall to consider Flora Thompson’s memoir Lark Rise to Candleford.  These days, Lark Rise to Candleford is perhaps the best-known English rural memoir in print. Thanks in no…

  • Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

    June 13, 2025 · 55 min

    For this episode of the Working Class Library, the writer Craig McLean joins Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, and Claire Malcolm, CEO of New Writing North, to discuss Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel Trainspotting. Trainspotting has become, as…

  • Giving up the Ghost - Hilary Mantel

    May 4, 2025 · 55 min

    Readers who came to Hilary Mantel after her double-Booker-winning success with Wolf Hall made her a star of the literary world may not be aware that she grew up in a working-class home in a Derbyshire mill town. She, however, said many…

  • New Grub Street by George Gissing

    May 4, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min

    Gissing wrote New Grub Street to skewer the new literary crowd as books boomed with the arrival of mass education in Britain. What does it teach us about book publishing, the British class system and working class writers today?

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About the show

The Working Class Library is The Bee’s podcast. Each month Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, and Claire Malcolm, CEO of New Writing North, invite a writer to discuss a book and decide whether it deserves a place on the shelves of the Working Class Library – our imaginary library of great books by and about ordinary people.