The Author Archive Podcast

This engrossing book is subtitled 'how to listen to what animals are trying to say' Amelia, the author, is passionate and thought provoking. Hearing this conversation or reading the book just might drive you to the edge of becoming a vegetarian. An excellent gift book for any animal lover.

Halloween again! Everything weird is celebrated. Does this include UFOs? 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?  

Hearing Ross talk about the Ancient Romans is an entertaining revelation.  I didn't know that the 'no kings' movement is a Roman invention as is the tradition of reminding would be absolute rulers that they are as human as the rest of us. Ross is a riveting writer of history and a great story teller.

Roger Hammond writes in fearless detail how he was his wife's carer for thirty of their forty seven years of marriage. Lyn was diagnosed with MS when they were a family of four with two young daughters. Roger writes about the challenges but he also recounts how they dealt with them and enjoyed a happy and fulfilling marriage. They never forgot how to enjoy life ...... their holidays were fabulous!...

Sad to report that Jilly Cooper has died. She was always great fun to chat to and consistently jolly. Hugely successful but not grand at all! This conversation was recorded when her novel Pandora was first published. 

Ross King is a superb history storyteller. He will be talking to me here at the Author Archive soon about his new book 'The Shortest History of Ancient Rome'. His previous book is tells of a different dimension of Italian history. .'The Bookseller of Florence'   is all about the surprising trade in manuscripts and books in Renaissance Italy. Adrian Levy tells David about his visit to the Jade mine...

James Patterson is a phenomenon. His skill as a storyteller has made him very wealthy. His wealth allowed him to buy a house in Palm Beach, near to Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Interestingly James is the producer of 'Filthy Rich' the Netflix documentary about the scandalous behaviour of Epstein. David Freeman met him in London to talk about his sixth Alex Ross story 'Roses are Red', when the...

Prince Andrew has been in the news. In this episode Hugo Vickers discusses  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...

This unsettling  book examines the astonishing extent of American ownership of UK business. In a Trump world this could be even more of a  cause for concern Whether you are interested in 'taking back control' or how much of our day to day financial transactions happen via the US, you will find this fascinating and possibly horrifying.

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...

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...

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 headi...

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 bo...

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 a...

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...

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 String Band, Paul Butterfield, MIke Bloomfield and the enduring power of real music....

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 t...

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...

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 Tudor King is to realise that he was never alone. Even a conjugal visit to his...

After Ashley Kahn had published his book on the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue he turned his attention to the timeless John Coltrane record A Love Supreme. Not only is this still a highly regarded jazz performance, A Love Supreme is now the title of the biggest open air jazz festival in the UK.

Duke Ellington is famous, but what was he really like. In this biography published in 2000,  Stuart Nicholson writes about the man who was a brilliant  instinctive and  sophisticated musician. Was he then a bit of a goody goody? As Stuart Nicholson told me he was not in any way a goody goody!      

The Oxford Companion to Music is probably the most famous music reference book of them all. The latest edition was first published in 2002. It has over 120 contributors and covers covers the whole universe of music. I spoke to the editor Alison Latham soon after publication. A huge task to pull such a tome together ..... but maybe an enjoyable job?