The Author Archive Podcast

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.

 

Siba Shakib, ‘Afghanistan Where God Only Comes to Weep‘.

David Freeman in conversation with Iranian German film maker Siba Shakib when her best selling book 'Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep ' was first published in 2002.

So much of what Saba Shakib says is still very relevant and casts a light on the current situation.

 

Ross King, ‘The Bookseller of Florence‘, Adrian Levy on the terrible condition around the jade mines in Myanmar.

David Freeman talks to Ross King talking about his book 'The Bookseller of Florence'  which is all about the surprising trade in manuscripts and books in Renaissance Italy.

Adrian Levy tells David about his visit to the Jade mines of Myanmar and the inhuman conditions that he found there.

This visit was 20 years ago and one can only hope that conditions have improved.

Christina Lamb, Peter Ackroyd, Liza Pickard and Mark Bowden on Pablo Escobar.

The conversations in this episode were recorded in the Langham Hotel in West London 20 years ago.

Mark Bowden recounts the life of the mega rich drug dealer Pablo Escobar in his book 'Killing Pablo'.

Mark Bowden's  book is a type of biography and following  that Peter Ackroyd tells David Freeman about his fascinating biography of London.

A different dimension of London's history is told by Liza Pickard in her book 'Dr. Johnson's London'.

Finally the award winning journalist Christina Lamb tells the remarkable story of a rich eccentric who a hundred years ago built a replica of an English country house in the middle of Africa. 'The Africa House' is a an astonishing true story that would make an amazing film.

 

 

The two Johns behind QI, Sandi Toksvig, Jon Ronson and philosopher Simon Blackburn on being good

John Lloyd and John Mitchinson are the minds behind the TV show QI, and in this episode introduce their Book of General Ignorance. 

The original chair of QI was Stephen Fry and he was replaced by Sandi Toksvig. Here she introduces her story Melted into Air.

Journalist Jon Ronson explains how he researched his amazing book 'Them - Adventures with Extremists' and philosopher Simon Blackburn explores the notion of being good.  The interview was recorded 20 years ago but the quandaries remain just the same.

 

 

Philippa Gregory on the Boleyns, John Le Carre, Jilly Cooper and Maggie Gee.

In The Author Archive Podcast 2 John Le Carre talks about writing politics , and Mallory Blackman explains the political thinking behind Noughts and Crosses.

Maggie Gee gives the background to her novel The White Family that endeavours to explain prejudice and on the frothy side Jilly Cooper gives more background to how life might be in the English counties.

The episode concludes with two views of the Court of King Henry VIII, Philippa Gregory discusses her book about 'The Other Boleyn Girl' and Alison Weir explains how the king was totally surrounded by the people of the court all the time!