The Author Archive Podcast

Ian Rankin

This conversation was recorded when the 12th Rebus novel The Falls was published.

David Freeman and Ian Rankin were relaxing in a London hotel and it turned out that Ian was in a chatty mood.

He talked about the writing process and even did a bit of Buckingham Palace name dropping!

 

 

Hugh Sebag Montefiore

In this conversation historian Hugh Sebag Montefiore talks to David Freeman about his book Enigma:The Battle for the Code.

They talk about the role the Bletchley Park codebreakers had in winning the second world war. One of the towering intellects was Alan Turing who not only had a major part on breaking the code but also laid  the groundwork for modern computers.

Andrew Humphreys on the history of the Rolling Stones

In the early 1960s there was a music revolution happening centred on Richmond on Thames.

The Rolling Stones built their career there  but so did The Yardbirds. Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck were all locals who honed their talent by the Thames.

Music festivals are now a major feature of national UK life but the very first one happened in Richmond in 1961. 

The geographical roots of the music revolution that gave the world the bands and the guitarists is told in Andrew Humphrey's book Raving Upon Thames

 

Radhia Gleis spent 25 years in a cult. She tells David Freeman about her book The Followers.

Radhia spent 25 years in an American cult. In this conversation she explains what happened to her and why her first hand experience of a narcissist probably has lessons for the wider political world. 

Antonia Fraser

Antonia Fraser in conversation with David Freeman about her biography of Marie Antoinette

Colin Clark : My Week With Marilyn

In 1957 Eton educated 25 year old Colin Clark found himself charged with looking after Marilyn Monroe while she was filming The Prince and the Showgirl.

What happened has been made into a successful film starring Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh and Eddie Redmayne. In this conversation recorded in 2000 Colin Clark tells David Freeman how it came about and how he found himself spending the night and several days with Marilyn.

Matthew Sweeney

Poet Matthew Sweeney is talking to David Freeman when his Selected Poems were first published in 2002.

He talked about the process of writing and read a couple of his poems.

This conversation is a record of a man who was a writer of poems for adults and children and was also very good company!

Sadly Matthew died of motor neurone disease in 2018.

Captain Beefheart

David Freeman had this conversation with the alternative rock musician Don Van Vliet better known as Captain Beefheart, sitting on the tour bus in the early hours of May 6th 1973. The Magic Band had just played a sold out gig at Southampton University.

This isn't a conversation with an author, but there are many books about the Captain, his music and his art. He was a fascinating character projected as weird and maybe even frightening but as this conversation shows he was funny, friendly and very ahead of his time on green issues and sustainability.

As this conversation mentions particular tracks there is a Spotify playlist where the songs can be heard. Search Author Archive - Beefheart.

 

 

Anna Kent, Pat Barker

In this edition David Freeman talks to author Anna Kent about her new novel House of Whispers and in an archive recording Pat Barker talks about her disturbing  2001 novel Border Crossing.

Both novels have dark themes at their core

 

 

Kelley Swain,Oliver Sacks

In this episode Kelley Swain tells David Freeman about her new Oxford based novel Ophelia Swam and following that  a vintage interview with Oliver Sacks. In this conversation recorded 20 years ago Oliver talks to David about his wartime childhood remembered in his memoir Uncle Tungsten.