Jonathan Coe and Gemma Cairney

Harriett Gilbert is joined by comic novelist Jonathan Coe and Radio 1 DJ Gemma Cairney to recommend favourite books. Jonathan's choice is the first part in a tragi-comic epic, 'The Complete Pratt',a semi-autobiographical novel by the late David Nobbs, creator of 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'. It's called 'Second From Last in the Sack Race'. Gemma chooses a novel by Laura Dockrill, a vividly imagined story of mermaids and pirates, 'Lorali'. Harriett dusts off a novel from the 1940s by Nevil Shute, 'Pied Piper'. Its subject matter is sharply topical: an elderly man leads a growing group of refugee children across Europe, attempting to avoid the Nazi invaders. Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.