The Best Friend

The final part of a new serial from Lionel Shriver. Kayleigh Cooper, a 30 something London millennial search of the perfect match might have reached a dead end.

Kayleigh’s perfect date with a man who works in BBC Development ends in disaster. As usual, she rushes to her best friend Rhys Pickering, to tell all.

Read by Yasmin Mwanza.
Written by Lionel Shriver.

YASMIN MWANZA won the Spotlight Prize Winner 2017 for ‘Best Screen Actor’. She is known for her work in Marvel’s Spiderman: Far From Home and The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde (dir: Kenneith Branagh). Yasmin is currently part of the BBC’s Radio Drama Company.

LIONEL SHRIVER’S novels include the National Book Award finalist So Much for That, the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World, and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian and the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other publications. Her most recent novel, A Better Life - provocative new novel addressing contemporary immigration, Lionel Shriver was published earlier this month (Harper Collins, February 2026).

A BBC Audio Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4.