Michelle Obama has already delivered one of the stand-out Netflix documentaries of the year, Becoming, following up her best selling 2019 memoir of the same name. Now, she is giving us the goods once more – this time in the form of a brilliant podcast.

The first guest, it will not surprise you to hear, is her husband Barack Obama. Though he might have been a slightly easier booking for her than any other first time podcast host, that doesn't mean we are any less excited about this new venture.

The Michelle Obama Podcast will connect listeners to the former First Lady’s most candid and personal conversations, showing us what’s possible when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, open up, and to focus on what matters most.

Episode subjects will focus on the relationships that shape us, from siblings and close friends to partners, parents, and mentors to our relationship with ourselves and our health.

Of this new challenge she says: “I don’t want this podcast to be prescriptive… or present anyone’s ideas as truth. I just want it to feel like we’re sitting together on a park bench or in the booth of a restaurant with the jukebox playing. And most importantly, I hope this podcast sparks ideas and topics that all you listeners can open up with in your own circles… maybe it’ll inspire you to have some conversations with loved ones that you’ve been putting off.”

If you said you wouldn't want to hang out on a park bench or in the booth of a restaurant with Michelle Obama we wouldn't believe you and, for most of us, this podcast is as close as we're going to get.

If you read just one thing this Summer, let it be Clare Chambers' Small Pleasures. If you're looking to get lost in another world entirely (who could blame you at the moment...) then look no further than this moving tale written in Chambers' unique and deeply engaging style.

Set in 1950's suburban London, Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and - on the brink of forty - living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape.

When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys.

As with all good stories, things get a little complicated, yet Jean cannot bring herself to discard the chance of finally having a taste of happiness... But there will be a price to pay, and it will be unbearable.