It has helped propel unknown books to the top of the best-seller lists and turned their authors into millionaires.
GAVIN PORTER
It has helped propel unknown books to the top of the best-seller lists and turned their authors into millionaires.
Now a new batch of novelists are destined to benefit from the "Richard and Judy effect" after being chosen to appear on the Channel 4 programme's book club for 2008.
Lloyd Jones, RJ Ellory and Khaled Hosseini are among the 10 authors who feature in this year's book club - which begins on January 9 and runs for 10 weeks.
The books will be reviewed on the show and viewers will then vote for their favourite, which will win the title of Richard and Judy's Best Read at the Galaxy British Book Awards in March.
The book club, which followed the format established in America by Oprah Winfrey, became an instant success when it was launched by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan in 2004.
It accounted for one in 50 of all book sales in the UK in its first year, according to The Bookseller magazine, and is estimated to be responsible for selling more books than all the country's literary prizes put together.
Richard and Judy, who began presenting their Channel 4 programme in 2001, have been credited with increasing book sales by as much as 3000%.
Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse, became the fastest-selling paperback of all time and sold 1.3 million copies after being praised by Carol Thatcher and Bettany Hughes, who reviewed the book on the show.
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton, which was included in the couple's summer read list, sold 63,128 copies in its first week, making Morton the biggest-selling author in the country after JK Rowling.
Richard and Judy also recently launched a Christmas book list, featuring titles by Helen Mirren, Sharon Osbourne and Russell Brand.
Last year, 21 of the titles recommended by Richard and Judy's book club and summer read slots featured in the top 100 end of year best-seller list, according to Neilson Bookscan, which monitors bookshop sales.
The power of the programme has also made Amanda Ross, the executive producer, the most powerful woman in British publishing.
This year's list is considered to be the most literary launched by Richard and Judy.
It includes Lloyd Jones's Man Booker-shortlisted Mister Pip, which has already won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, and Peter Ho Davies's Man Booker-longlisted The Welsh Girl.
Also included is A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini's follow-up to best-seller The Kite Runner, and A Quiet Belief In Angels, the latest novel from crime writer RJ Ellory.
The only non-fiction title chosen is Tim Butcher's Blood River.
Richard and Judy will quit their daytime show at the end of 2008 but have indicated that they plan to continue with a book club spin-off.
Madeley said: "Judy and I have a great affection for our book club, and we're delighted that its following continues to grow.
"The shortlist for 2008 doesn't disappoint and we're intrigued to find out which title the public will deem worth of winning our Best Read."
Finnigan added: "Every year this book club opens my eyes to the wealth of emerging talent and prolific storytelling that there is out there.
"Reading is a personal passion of mine and my expectations from the shortlist are always exceeded."
The movers and shakers - Richard and Judy Book Club 2008 Shortlist
- A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
The follow-up to Hosseini's The Kite Runner, the film adaptation of which is currently making a splash at the box office. The new book is also set in Afghanistan.
- Random Acts of Heroic Love - Danny Scheinmann
Sheinmann's debut novel has two strands. The first is the story of a man coming to terms with the loss of his girlfriend in a road accident while the second deals with an Austro-Hungarian prisoner of war who was caught by the Russians in the Second World War.
- Rose of Sebastopol - Katherine McMahon
Set in Russia in 1845 during the Crimean War, it follows Mariella Lingwood, who embarks on an epic journey to find her cousin Rosa, a nurse who has disappeared.
- A Quiet Belief in Angels - RJ Ellory
Teenager Joseph Vaughan forms a group called The Guardians in an attempt to protect his community from a child murderer. He fails to prevent the killings until they stop 10 years later when his friend commits suicide. When the killings start again it appears the mystery is yet to be solved.
- Notes from an Exhibition - Patrick Gale
When a renowned artist kills herself, her husband and children are left picking up the pieces of her troubled life. What emerges is a story of a family which weathers tragedy, mental illness and the intolerable strain of living with genius.
- Then We Came to the End - Joseph Ferris
Ferris documents the boredom, redundancies, water-cooler moments, meetings, flirtations and pure rage of a group of office colleagues from a Chicago advertising agency.
- Visible World - Mark Slouka
A young American travels to Czechoslovakia to find out what his grandparents did during the Second World War. While there he discovers the part they played in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the notorious "butcher of Prague".
- Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones
War is encroaching on Bougainville, a small village on a tropical island in the South Pacific. When the villagers' predictable lives come to a halt, the children are surprised to find the island's only white man re-opening the village school.
- Blood River - Tim Butcher
Journalist Tim Butcher describes his journey along Congo's eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots. He is helped by a colourful cast, ranging from UN aid workers to a campaigning pygmy.
- The Welsh Girl - Peter Ho Davies
In 1944, a German Jewish refugee is sent to Wales to interview Rudolf Hess; in Snowdonia, a 17-year-old girl dreams of the bright lights of an English city; in a POW camp, a German soldier struggles to reconcile his surrender with his sense of honour. As their lives intersect, all three question where they belong and where their loyalties lie.
