Episodes
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Terry Pratchett was a great supporter of the move to legalise assisted dying. This was partly due to his early onset Alzheimer's Disease which was diagnosed when he was in his 50s. He described the condition as as an embuggerance.
Terry Pratchett died in 2015.
This is a conversation from the archive recorded at his home office in Wiltshire.
Terry started life writing when he was just a boy and in adult life became press officer for the nuclear power stations of the Central Electricity Board.
When the Pratchett books became hugely successful he gave up the day job and by 1996 he was the bestselling author in the UK.
In public he always wore a big hat, and in his Wiltshire studio he was an early adopter of a robot vacuum cleaner. When he wrote he worked on four computer screens simultaneously.
Great guy!
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Joe Boyd is a man about music, record producer, a film producer and author.
He arrived in London in 1964 with Muddy Waters and a host of blues musicians who played to sold out UK audiences when they were unappreciated in their US homeland.
In this conversation he talks about Nick Drake, Paul Simon, The Incredible String Band, Paul Butterfield, MIke Bloomfield and the enduring power of real music.
A thought provoking podcast.
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The effect of the American reverberates around the globe. There seems to be perceived electoral advantage in fanning hate and intolerance.
The wars in the Middle East and Ukraine continue.
Why is this? Is there any cause for optimism? Where do non rational beliefs and convictions fit in the conflicts?
This conversation with the activist and thinker Tariq Ali was recorded soon after the outrage of 9/11.
There is a plan for the future in what Tariq was saying but I wonder if he is as optimistic today. Will rational thought and reasoned discussion bring peaceful coexistence?
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This new book is terrific - its a revelation.
Catherine has studied texts written around the same time as the writings we know as the gospels.
Some of these ancient documents tell the story of the bible characters we are familiar with in a totally different way.
Listen to Catherine talk about her research and you will be surprised ..... probably very surprised!!
My favourite book of the year. Every time I see a politician leaning in a faith direction I want to urge them to read this book!
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Sophie Kinsella has a brain tumour. She has written a book about it entitled 'What Does It Feel Like?'
This archive conversation was recorded at the Langham Hilton in London and I remember that Sophie turned up with lots and lots of shopping. That was to be expected because the conversation was to mark the publication of the third in the shopaholic series of stories.
She was great fun to talk to.
Her books are great escapist fiction ....We wish Sophie a speedy recovery from her health challenges.
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Jilly Cooper is back in the news and she has every reason to be jolly.
Her football novel is out and Disney have made a movie of one of her stories.
I met Jilly when her novel Pandora was first published. She was jolly then too!!
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Spike Milligan is a timeless national treasure.
In this episode Spike Milligan talks to David Freeman about his life in comedy, The Goons, and the mental health problems that dogged his life after he was blown up by a wartime bomb.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on December 10th 1948.
We now live in a world where the rights agreed in that document are widely ignored and some politicians openly seek to remove the UK from enforcing them.
Plus racial intolerance is on the march . The horrible spectre of antisemitism is looming over the news as is denial of the rights of Palestinians.
A good time to listen to the words of the late Sir Martin Gilbert.
Sir Martin Gilbert is known as Churchill's biographer, but also as the historian of the Holocaust.
This conversation with David Freeman took place when his book Never Again was published. Sir Martin's thoughts on war are sadly relevant.
Sir Martin died in 2015.
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This interview was recorded in 2001 and in the introduction recorded at the time I say that the story is no longer relevant as the Taliban are no longer in charge.
This was true at the time but sadly the Taliban are back and the the story of The Breadwinner is all too relevant again. Did the UK let these people down?
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Jeanette Winterson celebrated her 65th birthday on August 27th.
This interview was recorded when Jeanette was a 20 something brand new literary force.
I remember this converstaion with huge affection. Mostly I would talk to an author for 20 minutes or so but this conversation is twice that. It was recorded in the spring of 1984 when 'Oranges are Not the Only Fruit' was first published.
I was very fortunate because I was one of the very first broadcasters to interview Jeanette.
I had been reading the book in bed the night before and was buzzing with enthusiasm for it when I met her.
Hear the author talk about her life in religious Accrington and why she rejected the faith.
A superb book!
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Emeritus Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe is an academic archaeologist who writes enthusiastically and engagingly about his passions.
In this interview he talks to me about his book which tells the whole of African human history focussing on the Sahara.
Sir Barry takes the story of us from our evolution through to the present day. Is he optimistic about our survival?
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Steve Kershaw has two personas .... he is Steve the musician and Dr Stephen the classics tutor.
He is involved in two new projects.
One is a magnificent illustrated childrens encyclopedia of gods, monsters and mortals from ancient Greece.
The other is a jazz trio recording. Steve is the Oxfordshire based bass player. The pianist and saxophonist Leonid and Nick Vintskevich are Russian .
As Steve tells me the wide geographical distribution sometimes make rehearsal tricky!
The record is called 'I'll Show You a Beautiful Country.
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Bitter Crop is a superb biography of Billie Holiday who was probably the very best jazz singer there has ever been. The book title is takes from one of Billie's signature songs, 'Strange Fruit'.
There have been films and many books about Billie's career but not all of them came close to telling the whole truth of a remarkable life.
True there were drugs and alcohol but there was so mucah more than that. There was huge musical success and adulation - Billie considered her life to be a triumph.
The conversation took place in July 2024 ..... 65 years after Billie died.
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Colin Dexter was a splendid writer. His creation Inspector Morse is superb on the page and just as gripping on television.
I used to meet Colin in the pub on Banbury Road in Oxford, The Dew Drop. He was great company and almost completely unaware of his success and star quality.
I recorded this conversation in his house after the publication of The Remorseful Day. He was relaxed and very happy to look back at his life in education and crime writing.
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Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore explains the mythic status of this eighteenth century Russian statesman, and military leader.
In this conversation recorded in London in 2000 the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore tells David Freeman about practical politics in 18th century Russia and how Potemkin made his way in society with the help of the love of Catherine the Great.
Their relationship has been told in films but the way Simon tells the story is probably more gripping and unbelievable.
Simon told the story in full in his the books, Prince of Princes, and Catherine the Great and Potemkin, The Imperial Love Affair.
Interesting to hear Simon say that Putin read this book and what he learned has informed his political views. This lead to the invasion of Ukraine and a significant incident when Russian troops broke into the crypt of the cathedral in Kherson and removed the bones of Grigory Potemkin.
This is history to remember. Putin uses this history to justify his 'special military operation'.
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Taylor Swift attracts huge interest in her song lyrics. They are studied as poetry.
Rowland Bagnall is a different sort of poet. Near - Life Experience, his new collection is just published
When I spoke to him we talked about his poetic motivation and the process of writing these concentrated nuggets of observation.
His replies are thoughtful and enlightening.
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Tim Coulson talks about his book which tells the amazing story of 13.8 billion years of history from the Big Bang to you!
It is a wonderful read - inspiring, gripping and fascinating.
And just a thought .... did a deity have a hand in the story?
Tim explains his view!
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This glorious popular science books tells the story of how black holes that were thought to be too ridiculous to exist in 1916 had by 1971 been proved to exist.
Einstein thought they were impossible but in 1971 Paul Murdin and Louise Webster discovered the very first black hole, Cygnus X-1
Marcus tells the story of these extraordinary people who discovered that black holes are centre stage in the cosmos. Indeed without black holes it is unlikely that we would exist.
Fasten your seat belts and prepare to be amazed.
A great book for the curious!!
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Truddi Chase lived with dissociative identity disorder a condition that used to be called multiple personality disorder.
On the cover of her book the author was named as 'The Troops' - the name she gave to her 90 plus identities.
When I interviewed her she was with her therapist Robert Phillips. The whole story was very difficult to assimilate as you can probably hear.
Truddi died in 2010 but there is a website dedicated to her and her autobiography is still in demand.
It seems that her condition was a result of abuse in her childhood.
A story like no other!
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