The Author Archive Podcast

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 hous

Joe Boyd is a man about music, record producer, a film producer and author. He arrived in London in 1964 with Muddy Waters and a host of blues musicians who played to sold out UK audiences when they were unappreciated in their US homeland. In this conversation he talks about Nick Drake, Paul Simon, The Incredible Strin

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 no

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 .

This conversation looks back at the post war time when all the world aspired to be young and American. America was really perceived to be great back then.  How times change ........ Joseph Connolly paints a rock 'n roll picture.

When one looks at the antics and attitudes of the current president of the USA it easy to see parallels  with the world view of Henry VIII. Although this account of the life lead by Henry VIII was first published at the turn of the century it is still selling well. Alison Weir thinks the key to understanding the famous