Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Biographies & Memoirs

Alan Bennett is one of the country's most celebrated and best-loved authors. This unmissable collection of diaries and memoirs brings together for the first time Telling Tales, Diaries: 1980-1990, the autobiographical section of Untold Stories, which covers the period 1997-2004, and Keeping On Keeping On: The Diaries 2005-2014. With wit, wisdom, sharp social commentary and perceptive impressions, Alan Bennett's memoirs and diaries are a joy to discover, and a delight to hear again.

John Wilson (acclaimed arts and culture reporter and journalist, and presenter of Front Row, Newsnight Review and Pick of the Week) meets up with a variety of public figures from such diverse fields as food, mathematics, politics, writing and music, and takes them back to the influential schools, teachers and early workplaces they may have forgotten, but which have not forgotten them. 

In Our Time is one of BBC Radio's most successful and best-loved programmes, with a weekly listenership of over two million. Since 1998, it has 'transformed the landscape for serious ideas at peak listening time' (The Times), introducing its audience to an astonishing array of intriguing topics, from the epic of Gilgamesh to the gin craze. This special thematic collection focusses on some of the most important rulers, philosophers and writers of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. 

Vanessa Redgrave is an Oscar-winning actress, well known for her theatre appearances and roles in such films as Howards End and Mrs Dalloway, as well as her political activism. She discusses her life and achievements in this collection of BBC Radio and TV interviews.

On 25th October 1799—his 18th wedding anniversary—cantankerous Somerset parson William Holland begins his diary, chronicling events at the vicarage and in the small farming community of Over Stowey. He would keep it for the next 19 years, candidly recording the small trials of day-to-day life—from chaotic church services and unruly locals to lazy servants and irksome in-laws.

As the longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II has presided over an era of tremendous social, political and cultural change. In 2012, to mark her Diamond Jubilee, Radio 4 looked back on the long span of her reign, and asked the public to choose high-profile public figures who have helped to define this New Elizabethan Age. Almost a thousand nominations poured in, and the final selection was decided by a panel of leading writers and historians, including Dominic Sandbrook, Bamber Gascoigne and Max Hastings.

Three dramatic true stories, this is investigative journalism at its very best. In these three gripping series, prominent journalists investigate fascinating human stories, shining a light on history and politics and deepening our understanding of the word we live in.

Famous fans choose their favourite writers for BBC Radio 4's Great Lives. For 20 years, Great Lives has been a cornerstone of the Radio 4 schedules, presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and Matthew Parris. Each week, a well-known personality is invited to select someone who has inspired them. They then discuss the 'Great Life' with the presenter and a guest expert to decide whether their hero really merits the accolade. 

This selection contains eight of Alistair Cooke's Christmas and New Year Letters from America, broadcast in December and January over the five decades of his career and covering a range of festive topics from the light-hearted to the sombre. Starting with his December 2001 letter - broadcast in the wake of 9/11 - he remembers introducing Leonard Bernstein to Handel's 'Messiah', muses on the creation of A Christmas Carol and shares his memories of two friends who died in 1977, Groucho Marx and Bing Crosby.

Join Donald Macleod, presenter of BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week, as he brings Beethoven vividly to life: from his childhood in Bonn to how he won over the aristocratic music circles of Vienna, from the creation of his timeless works to the tragic loss of his hearing - and everything in between. 

Wealthy heiress Anna Delvey was one of the international jetset. Her Instagram account was a window on a glamorous world, filled with art launches, champagne brunches, VIP parties and stays in high-end hotels. Due to come into a $67m trust fund on her 26th birthday, she planned to establish the Anna Delvey Foundation, a multi-million dollar visual-arts centre in the heart of New York and wined and dined the city’s wealthy elite to secure investment for her project.

Kris Marshall (My Family) stars in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the famous diarist's account of the aftermath of the Great Fire of London. Following on from the acclaimed radio dramatisation of Pepys' complete diaries, this further instalment of his chronicles focuses on events following the cataclysmic inferno that destroyed much of the capital 400 years ago. When the Great Fire of 1666 was finally extinguished, little remained of London but smouldering rubble.

J.R.R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait is a compilation of radio and TV archive material from the '60s and '70s featuring interviews with J.R.R. Tolkien, his relatives, and his colleagues in which he talks about The Lord of the Rings, his other Hobbiton books, life as an academic, correspondence received from fans, and his views on the 20th century. This audiobook is presented by Brian Sibley.

"If war spares me," wrote Vera Brittain to her brother, Edward, in 1916, "it will be my one aim to immortalise in a book the story of us four." Seventeen years later, Vera was to achieve her aim with the acclaimed Testament of Youth. This series of letters was the inspiration behind Testament. Written between Vera; her brother; her fiancé, Roland Leighton; and their two best friends, Victor Richardson and Geoffrey Thurlow, they give a unique perspective on the most horrifying conflict the world has ever seen.

A centenary collection of the best BBC Radio programmes about the legendary Spike Milligan - including the brand-new documentary Spike Milligan: Inside Out. Named for Spike’s explanation of his sense of humour - ‘I’m Irish - we think sideways’ - this BBC radio anthology, published to celebrate the centenary of his birth, provides unique insight into his genius. Spike Milligan: Inside Out sees Milligan admirer Michael Palin and Spike’s daughter, Jane, chat through some of Spike’s many audio recordings.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of A Farmer and His Dog by Adam Henson, read by Nicky Henson. 'For me, the bond I have with Peg, my Border Collie sheepdog, is priceless. I know how very lucky I and thousands of other shepherds and farmers are to have these extraordinarily bright, enthusiastic dogs at our sides. But we who work the land and our flocks are not the only beneficiaries of the extraordinary relationship between man and dog....'

Meet Anne Lister, the 18th-century landowner, industrialist, explorer, lesbian and feminist icon. This is her story.... Anne was different from society’s expectations of a woman at the time: she not only did not wish to marry, but she also did not want to conform. Anne was interested only in women and had ‘marriage’ ceremonies with Mariana Lawton and later Ann Walker. She spent a great deal of time studying, managed her own estates, sought business opportunities, travelled widely and climbed mountains.  

Broadcaster and current affairs specialist Clare English talks to 12 extraordinary trailblazers. Here are the inspiring stories of politicians and inventors, scientists and surgeons, models, parents, creatives and founders. All, in their own field and in their own way, have broken new ground and changed the world. 

Journalist Matt Majendie brings listeners the whole story from 2012 to 2020, told by the people who were there. You'll hear from Paula Radcliffe and Sebastian Coe on London 2012, the expert German investigator who cracked the case wide open and the athletes who doped. The programme also gained access to the elite Swiss lab racing to finish testing London 2012 samples and spoke to the man who masterminded doping control at the London games.

Douglas Adams was a passionate technology enthusiast. His best-selling The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is full of futuristic tech, and in 1990 he predicted something very like the World Wide Web in the BBC2 film Hyperland. So in 1999, he was the natural choice to present Radio 4’s The Internet: The Last 20th Century Battleground. In it, he looked at the explosion in online communication, the evolution of cyberspace, and the risks and opportunities of the new virtual world.