A Good Read

This week's guests in the studio to recommend their favourite paperbacks with Sue MacGregor are the actress Diana Quick and the comedian Shazia Mirza. Diana Quick found national fame in the role of Julia Flyte in the celebrated television production of Brideshead Revisited, and was recently seen as the Queen in the last episode of Channel 4's five-part drama documentary. Last year she published a book about her Anglo-Indian background, in which she traced her father's family back to her great-grandfather's service in the Indian army. Shazia Mirza was born in Birmingham to Pakistani parents, and has made a name as an award winning stand up comedian and columnist. She's been praised as unique in British comedy, a reputation which was established early in her career when she took to the stage in hijab and began her act with the deadpan remark, "My name's Shazia Mirza. At least, that's what it says on my pilot's licence.".