Ranked #1
George Orwell
George Orwell
Whilst at school, a young Alan Johnson was given some money by a teacher and told to go and buy four copies of any book ... Read more
28 Sep 2012
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28mins
Ranked #2
Tom Shakespeare on Gramsci
Tom Shakespeare on Gramsci
Dr Tom Shakespeare is a lecturer at the Medical School in the University of East Anglia and prominent campaigner for the... Read more
2 Sep 2014
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28mins
Ranked #3
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Was Robinson Crusoe real? According to the book it was 'written by himself'.To establish the facts, Matthew Parris is jo... Read more
13 Aug 2019
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24mins
Ranked #4
Russell Kane on Evelyn Waugh
Russell Kane on Evelyn Waugh
Comedian Russell Kane nominates the novelist Evelyn Waugh. One of the greatest prose stylists of 20th century literatu... Read more
11 Dec 2018
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27mins
Ranked #5
Laura Marling on Lou Andreas-Salome
Laura Marling on Lou Andreas-Salome
Laura Marling nominates the first female psychoanalyst, Lou Andreas-Salomé.Folk singer-songwriter, Laura has been unrave... Read more
13 Aug 2019
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27mins
Ranked #6
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde, author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, is proposed by Will Self, a write... Read more
10 Apr 2012
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28mins
Ranked #7
Toyah Willcox on Katharine Hepburn
Toyah Willcox on Katharine Hepburn
Toyah Willcox chooses the actress and Hollywood legend, Katharine Hepburn.Dubbed an 'oddity' and 'box office poison', He... Read more
29 Sep 2015
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27mins
Ranked #8
Sarah Vine on Dante
Sarah Vine on Dante
"Whenever I have too much to drink, I bang on about Dante ...." Sarah Vine makes a choice from the heart - the great Ita... Read more
8 Apr 2014
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27mins
Ranked #9
Ian McKellen on Edmund Hillary
Ian McKellen on Edmund Hillary
On May 29 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest. Both men immediately became famous worl... Read more
4 Aug 2015
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27mins
Ranked #10
Stephen Fry on PG Wodehouse
Stephen Fry on PG Wodehouse
Stephen Fry nominates his hero PG Wodehouse, a writer who he says simply cheers him up like no one else. Fry wrote to hi... Read more
8 Aug 2017
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29mins
Ranked #11
Mark Steel on Charlie Chaplin
Mark Steel on Charlie Chaplin
Mark Steel makes the case for Charlie Chaplin being one of the most radical comedians of his time. He reckons it's sad t... Read more
25 Dec 2018
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27mins
Ranked #12
Barbara Stocking on Catherine the Great
Barbara Stocking on Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great assumed power in a St Petersburg coup, extended the empire into Crimea, Ukraine and Alaska. is Russi... Read more
29 May 2018
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28mins
Ranked #13
Tim Smit on Humphrey Jennings
Tim Smit on Humphrey Jennings
Tim Smit has admired Humphrey Jennings since seeing Danny Boyle’s Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2012. Jennings was a film... Read more
19 Dec 2018
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27mins
Ranked #14
Suzannah Lipscomb on CS Lewis
Suzannah Lipscomb on CS Lewis
Step though the wardrobe - as historian Suzannah Lipscomb selects the creator of the Narnia Chronicles, CS Lewis. The wr... Read more
3 Jan 2017
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27mins
Ranked #15
Eliza Manningham-Buller chooses Abraham Lincoln
Eliza Manningham-Buller chooses Abraham Lincoln
Former director of MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller, tells Matthew Parris why she regards Abraham Lincoln as a great life. B... Read more
26 Jan 2016
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27mins
Ranked #16
Eve Pollard on Nora Ephron
Eve Pollard on Nora Ephron
Former newspaper editor and writer Eve Pollard tells Matthew Parris why Nora Ephron, the screenwriter of hit films such ... Read more
26 Jan 2015
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27mins
Ranked #17
Marcus du Sautoy on Jorge Luis Borges
Marcus du Sautoy on Jorge Luis Borges
Mathematician Marcus de Sautoy champions the blind Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. He is fascinated by the conne... Read more
22 Apr 2014
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28mins
Ranked #18
Philippa Langley on Richard III
Philippa Langley on Richard III
When Philippa Langley and other members of the Richard III Society helped to discover the body of the king in a Leiceste... Read more
6 Jan 2015
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27mins