The Author Archive Podcast

Leslie Howard - The Celestial Wife

This novel is set in the 1960s with a backdrop of The Beatles and other music of the time.

It tells the story of Daisy Shoemaker who is 15 in 1964. She was born into a fundamentalist Mormon community on the US - Canada border.

In a ceremony called Placement she is given as a teenage wife to a much older man. She finds this intolerable and runs away.

The church official who makes the decisions is known as Bishop and he assures his followers that he has a direct line to God. Amazingly they believe him.

It's a gripping and enraging read. It's fiction but events like the book describes are still happening today. The fundamentalist cult is vey much alive and well.

There is a Netflix documentary about the group .. Keep Sweet : Pray and Obey.

Stephen P. Kershaw - The Harvest of War -Three Epic Battles that Saved Democracy: Now available in paperback.

The future of democracy is a popular talking point.

The human race as been here before! When David Freeman talked to Dr Steve Kershaw about his book about battles in ancient Greece. it seemed that the human desire for conflict is unchanged through history.

Three Epic Battles that Saved Democracy is an entertaining and instructive read - now published in the US by Pegasus Books. 

Great review in the Wall Street Journal.

Timothy Good - UFOs

The UFO and alien question is all over the TV news in the Uk and the US. Again.

In this interview on the subject David Freeman, a UFO skeptic, met UFO true believer Timothy Good when his book Unearthly Disclosure was first published.

The conversation was friendly but inquisitive!

So are UFOs real?  Are those little creatures with three fingers that are on the TV screens real aliens?

 

Robin Dunbar - How Religion Evolved And Why it Endures

Religion still motivates sime people.

In early 2025 a million Hindus tried to bathe in a river at the same time. Why would anyone think this would be a good idea.

Robin Dunbar is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford. From his academic standpoint he charts the evolution of religion in all its many guises and forms.

Does the professor's analysis explain the enduring but shrinking appeal of non logical beliefs?

Harriet Walter - Thoughts on Acting

Channel 4 are presnting an engrossing drama depicting the professional relationship that evolved between Mrs Thatcher the politician and  Brian Walden the labour MP turned television interviewer.

The two lead actors Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter are excellent at showing the  friendly dimension to the relationship that turned sour under media pressure.

David Freeman talked to the actress Harriet Walter when her autobiography 'Other People's Shoes' was published in 2003.

R.J.B. Bosworth on Mussolini, Gitta Sereny tells of attending a Hitler rally, Donna Leon talks about her Venetian detective and Hugo Vickers talks about Princess Andrew.

Authors talking to David Freeman including Hugo Vickers discussing his biography of Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece mother of the Duke of Edinburgh:

Donna Leon tells the story of her novel “Wilful Behaviour “ set in Venice:

R.J.B. Bosworth recounts his research into the life of Mussolini and Gitta Sereny remembers Germany in the 1930s as told in her book “The German Trauma”

We have seen the power of the political rally to stir followers. Gitta Sereny actually attended a Hitler rally.

Wells Jones : A Line in the Sand

A Line in the Sand is a novel about two friends on an adventure in the Middle East based on an actual journey two real life friends took to Saudi Arabia and Damascus in 2006. 

One of the inspirations for the trip was T.E Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia. The two authors Miles Spencer and Wells Jones had worked on a stage play based on the life of Lawrence and they decided to take a trip to see the landscape for themselves and meet the people Lawrence identified with.

This conversation with Wells Jones took place on 15th January 2025 when a cease fire had just been signed between Israel and Hamsas.

Line in the Sand explains some of the long history behind the conflict in the Middle East.

 

 

 

Alan Sillitoe

There is a new BBC TV history series by Simon Schama, The Story of Us.

In the first programme Simon highlights the huge impact that Alan Sillitoe's novel 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' had when it was published in 1958.

Alan Sillitoe spoke to David Freeman when his novel Birthday was published in 2001.

Birthday is the sequel to Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

1958 to 2001 is a ling time to wait for a sequel.

So why did it take so long?

Marcus Chown - A Crack In Everything : How black holes came in from the cold

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!!

 

 

 

Nina Simone

Nina Simone was born on February 21st 1933.

There has been news recently of a plan to buy Nina Simone's childhood home in Tryon North Carolina and make it into a museum celebrating the life and work of the girl who was born Eunice Waymon.

I interviewed Nina  in December 1998 just before her last ever show at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

She was talking to me for a programme on the radio station Jazz fm, which would promote the concert.

Nina had a reputation for being a tricky interviewee but on the day she was delightful and during the conversation she was eager to give her views on sexism, racism and feminism.

After the interview I  was asked to introduce Nina on stage at the Albert Hall. It was a memorable day.