Tom Solomon on Roald Dahl
Writer Roald Dahl is well known as the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox and The BFG, but he was also fascinated by medical science. Professor Tom Solomon, who looked after...
30 Des 201427min
Brian Eno on Lord Young of Dartington
Brian Eno has worked with David Bowie, David Byrne and U2 but his choice of Great Life is not a rock star but the sociologist Lord Young of Dartington. Michael Young wrote the Labour Party's 1945 elec...
23 Des 201424min
Laura Bates on Louisa May Alcott
Laura Bates, journalist and curator of the Everyday Sexism Project, explains to Matthew Parris why the 19th century children's author Louisa May Alcott has her vote for a Great Life. They are joined b...
16 Des 201427min
Arthur Smith on Emil Zátopek
Matthew Parris – himself current holder of the House of Commons marathon record time – meets comedian Arthur Smith, who also turns out to have been a runner when he was younger.His choice for a Great ...
9 Des 201427min
Professor Edith Hall on Lucille Ball
Matthew Parris discovers that Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King’s College, London, has a surprising nomination for a Great Life.She's chosen Lucille Ball, the vivacious redhead, who in the 195...
2 Okt 201427min
Andrew Adonis on Joseph Bazalgette
Matthew Parris hears from Labour peer Lord Adonis why Joseph Bazalgette, the Victorian engineer, has his nomination as a Great Life. Bazalgette, the grandson of a French immigrant who made a fortune l...
2 Okt 201427min
Stella Rimington on Dorothy L Sayers
Dame Stella Rimington, former director of MI5 and a celebrated crime writer herself, nominates for a Great Life that of Dorothy L Sayers. Sayers' first Lord Peter Wimsey novel was published in the 192...
10 Sep 201427min
Labi Siffre on Arthur Ransome
Singer-songwriter Labi Siffre discusses the life and work of Arthur Ransome. Siffre says that the Swallows and Amazons books taught him responsibility for his own actions and also a morality that has ...
9 Sep 201427min
