The Working Class Library

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.

The Working Class Library is a arts podcast hosted by New Writing North, with 8 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

New Writing North hosts The Working Class Library, a arts show with 8 episodes published.

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  Episode #8

  Running Hot by Dreda Say Mitchell

  Jul 16, 202652 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 .

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  Episode #7

  This Sporting Life by David Storey

  May 7, 202659 minS1

  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 Sporting Life.<br /><br />This Sporting Life, said The Guardian, “provided one of the great energising shocks of the 1960s, a blast of energy smashing at the dullness, complacency and hypocrisy of class-ridden Britain.” Written by Storey when he was still a professional rugby league player, it is a story of frustrated sexual relationships, money, power and celebrity, set in the dark, smoky world of rug...

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  Episode #6

  Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt

  Dec 18, 202559 minS1

  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.<br /><br />McCourt’s account of his poverty-stricken childhood in New York and Limerick has sold ten million copies to date, and has been translated into more than 25 languages. Previously reluctant to believe anyone would be interested in the story of a poor family, the former schoolteacher waited until he was in his 60s to write and publish the book. As Kevin Barry explains, the sc...

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  Episode #5

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

  Nov 17, 202554 minS1

  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 Aged 13 ¾. <br /><br />Having initially been written for, and broadcast on, BBC Radio 4, The Secret Diary was the United Kingdom’s bestselling book of the 1980s, and to date has sold over twenty million copies, and been translated into almost fifty languages. It transformed the fortunes of Townsend, who had previously lived in dire poverty as a single mother after...

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  Episode #4

  Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson

  Sep 5, 20251h 3mS1

  For this episode, Richard and Claire are joined by novelist Sarah Hall to consider Flora Thompson’s memoir Lark Rise to Candleford. <br /><br />These days, Lark Rise to Candleford is perhaps the best-known English rural memoir in print. Thanks in no small part to the BBC’s 2000s TV adaptation, and historic class-washing in its jackets and illustrations, it is commonly thought of as a rather cosily nostalgic book. In reality, however, it is strongly class-conscious and political. Why is Thompson’s trilogy not celebrated as a classic of working-class literature?

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