BBC Arts have been asking our Big Book Weekend guests about the books that have helped them survive lockdown. Here's what Val McDermid chose:

You can see more recommendations here.

Our final session of the day is an interview with 'queen of crime' Val McDermid. Val will talk about the enduring appeal of crime fiction, her passion for reading and why she thinks we all need stories that get under our skin.

Alex Clark will be asking the questions. We're expecting a lively discussion rather than a gritty interrogation!

Image source, K. T. Bruce

We all love a great love story - but why do we regard some tales of romance as timeless classics, and others as guilty pleasures?

Find out how you can contribute to a research project which aims to challenge ideas on which novels we consider to be classics.

Last year, Naoise Dolan was a guest on World Book Cafe - the programme that explores cities through the lives of writers who have lived and work in them.

If you'd like to hear more from Kate Davies, her "frank, funny and fabulously filthy" lesbian coming-of-age novel is read by Ell Potter in this BBC Radio 4 adaptation.

Our session on literary sex is over - here are the authors our panellists recommended.

Shahidha Bari and panel will be talking about literary love-making - as you might imagine, this is perhaps not one for the kids.

Bolu Babalola is a London-based writer; she was shortlisted in 4th Estate's B4ME competition for her short story Netflix & Chill, a hilarious teen romance. She writes scripts for TV and film, and works as a pop culture writer and commenter, where she proclaims herself a 'romcomoisseur'.

Naoise Dolan is a writer from Dublin; she studied English Literature at the city's Trinity College and then Victorian Literature at Oxford University. She has lived in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Florence. She likes to read "old doorstoppers, especially Eliot and Dickens", and is also very interested in non-fiction about mental illness and climate justice. Her debut novel is called Exciting Times.

Kate Davies was born and brought up in north-west London. She studied English at Oxford University before becoming a writer and editor of children’s books. She is also a screen-writer, and "had a short-lived career as a burlesque dancer that ended when she was booed off stage at a Conservative club, dressed as a bingo ball". Kate lives in east London with her wife. In October 2020, her novel In at the Deep End won the Polari Prize - the award is given annually to a writer whose first book explores the LGBT experience.

In 2019, the BBC asked a group of authors and critics to choose ten novels about love, sex and romance that shaped their world. Judy Blume's Forever made the list. Which other books did the panel choose?

Sex in books is notoriously tricky. For every delicious climax, there’s a cringey disaster waiting, whether it’s overblown, mired in gender cliches or just plain… yuck. So who gets it right? What are the must-read sex scenes guaranteed to turn new readers on to great books? And what exactly is it that distinguishes a steamy success from a hot mess?

Three authors discuss the challenges and joys of writing good sex - and which authors make them swipe right… or left. Authors Bolu Babalola (Loving in Colour), Naoise Dolan (Exciting Times) and Kate Davies (In at the Deep End) join Shahidha Bari at 4.30pm.

Image source, Image: Gabrielle Dickson / Unsplash

Our Big Book Weekend guests have been telling us about the books that got them through lockdown. What did they recommend?

You can see more recommendations from our panel here.

Russell Kane hosts this regular BBC podcast, in which he forces a panel of guests to decide whether controversial figures from history deserve to be remembered as evil or genius. Just a few of those in the dock are: Charles Darwin, Boudicca, Alfred Hitchcock, Whitney Houston and Alexander Hamilton (of the musical fame). You can download all the episodes here.

In 2018, rap artist Guvna B teamed up with BBC Radio 2 to explore what it takes to be a peacemaker in the 21st Century. Find out what happened when he spoke to Adrian Burke (AKA Witness), who works with excluded secondary school children in Birmingham and uses his music to teach them about the dangers of knife crime.

Viewers of the BBC's Small Axe will know how a spell in prison helped Alex Wheatle discover a love for reading. Last year he spoke to BBC Arts Correspondent Vincent Dowd about his admiration for American crime writer Chester Baines.