The Author Archive Podcast

Recently there has been a surge of on line interest in the  anarchic radio comedy The Goon Show.

The genuis behind the comedy was Spike Milligan .

In this episode Spike talks to David Freeman about his life in comedy, The Goons, and the mental health problems that dogged his life after he was blown up by a wartime bomb.

The Cotswolds are in the news,but before the area was discovered by rich Americans it was a fertile area for thought and creativity. The village of Great Tew was where  John Lloyd and John Mitchinson met. They both lived there in historic cottages. This is where they came up with the idea of the TV show QI.

In this episode they  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.

 

 

Edwina Currie was a Tory MP from 1983 to 1997.

She became Junior Health Minister for 2 years and famously had an affair with John Major, who became Prime Minister. The relationship   lasted 4 years.

David Freeman met her when her novel This Honourable House was first published. Prior to this, and her second marriage she had written Chasing Men.

Interviewing Edwina I always had the feeling that she was very entertaining but was probably trouble.

In this conversation, she talks about her life and her books, but also revealingly about the Tory party that she used to be a part of. Times change??

There is much thought about memoirs at the moment. Salt Paths etc.

Clive James wrote memoirs but he always declared they were 'unreliable'. Maybe that is the nature of memory and memoir?

Clive James died in 2019 after a long illness.

This conversation with David Freeman was recorded in 2001 when Clive was excited by the internet and somewhat fearful of the way public service broadcasting was heading.

He would probably be even more fearful now.

Listening to Clive James now it is clear that he had a very good grasp on what could happen in many spheres of life - and he really didn't approve.

This book is as exploration of the rich and varied cultural worlds shaped by the Rhine, the Rhone and the Po.

Three Rivers traces the rivers' journeys from their glacial sources through Germany, Itals and France.

Its an entertaining and informative story.

A great holiday read!

Twenty five years ago Julian Hoffman and his wife Julia decided to leave their life in London and make a dramatic change. They would leave the city life with it's commuting hassles and move somewhere and live very different life

On nothing more than a chance encounter with a book about it they moved to Prespa in northern Greece.

They didn't speak the language, had very few possessions but their bold and brave decision has worked out very well.

They searched for home in the mountains of Greece.

How they found it is told in Lifelines.

The effect of the Trump win reverberates around the globe. There seems to be perceived electoral advantage in fanning hate and intolerance and spreading intolerance the idea around the world.

The Middle East is on a knife edge and the Ukraine war continues.

Why is this? Is there any cause for optimism? Where do non rational beliefs and convictions fit in the conflicts?

This conversation with the activist and thinker Tariq Ali was recorded soon after the outrage of 9/11.

There is a plan for the future in what Tariq was saying but I wonder if he is as optimistic today. Will rational thought and reasoned discussion bring peaceful coexistence?

Colin Dexter was a splendid writer. His creation Inspector Morse is superb on the page and just as gripping on television.

I used to meet Colin in the pub on Banbury Road in Oxford, The Dew Drop. He was great company and almost completely unaware of his success and star quality.

I recorded this conversation in his house after the publication of The Remorseful Day. He was relaxed and very happy to look back at his life in education and crime writing.

Billie Holiday, Eleanora Fagan  was born on April 7th 1915.

Bitter Crop is a superb biography of Billie Holiday who was probably the very best jazz singer there has ever been. The book title is takes from one of Billie's signature songs, 'Strange Fruit'.

There have been films and many books about Billie's career but not all of them came close to telling the whole truth of a remarkable life.

True there were drugs and alcohol but there was so mucah more than that. There was huge musical success and adulation -  Billie considered her life to be a triumph.

The conversation took place in July 2024 ..... 65 years after Billie died.

Ruth Werner was born Ursula Kuczynski in Berlin.

She was appalled by Hitler and became a lifelong communist and a spy.  During the 1940s she lived around Oxford and radioed secrets to Russia.

Her spy codename was Sonja and her memoir was published as Sonja's Report. Ben MacIntyre wrote a best-selling biography of her ...Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy.

David Freeman spoke to her in Oxford.