Private Passions

52:29

Francis Fukuyama, political scientist

Private Passions ·

2026/10/04

The American political scientist Francis Fukuyama loves big ideas, and his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man was an international best-seller.It argued that – after the collapse of the Soviet Union - Western liberal democracy was the best system of governance. It wasn’t perfect and hadn’t achieved everything, but it was the most humanly satisfying model.He also stated that “the end of history will be a very sad time” – predicting that safe, prosperous "last men" would grow bored and

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54:25

Louisa Young, writer

Private Passions ·

2026/09/27

Family is at the heart of the work of the writer Louisa Young. Her first book was about her grandmother, Kathleen, a sculptor who was also the widow of the Antarctic explorer Captain Scott.She’s written five books for younger readers with her daughter Isabel, under the pen-name Zizou Corder, including the best-selling Lionboy trilogy.She’s also written an acclaimed memoir, You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol, about her relationship with the composer Robert Lockhart.And her most recent

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50:40

Sylvester McCoy, actor

Private Passions ·

2026/09/20

The actor Sylvester McCoy was a familiar face to millions of TV viewers when he played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who in the 1980s. On the big screen, he has played the eccentric wizard Radagast the Brown in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, and on stage, he has played the Fool opposite Ian McKellen’s King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His route into acting was unconventional. He spent his teenage years preparing for the priesthood, then later honed his physical comedy skills in Ken

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57:51

Lyse Doucet, journalist

Private Passions ·

2026/09/13

When Lyse Doucet was a child growing up in a small town in eastern Canada, she borrowed a library book called How to Become a Journalist. It clearly made an impact. She is now the BBC’s chief international correspondent and has reported from some of the world’s most challenging countries, including Afghanistan and Iran, for more than 40 years.This year she won the Women’s Prize for non-fiction for her first book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan, in which she explores the

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52:53

Carlos Acosta, dancer

Private Passions ·

2026/07/12

In the world of dance, Carlos Acosta is a superstar. He grew up in a poor part of Havana, where he was the 11th child in his family, and began his training at the National Ballet School of Cuba.At the age of just 18, he became the youngest principal dancer at the English National Ballet. After gaining further international experience, he joined the Royal Ballet in 1998 and made it his home for nearly two decades, dancing almost every major classical role.He’s now Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet,

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53:32

Leslie Cavendish, former Beatles hairdresser

Private Passions ·

2026/07/05

Leslie Cavendish left school at the age of 15 years, without any artistic qualifications, and decided to become a hairdresser. Within three years, his clients included Terence Stamp, Keith Moon, the Bee Gees, Jane Asher – and the Beatles. He began by cutting Paul McCartney’s hair - and soon became part of the band’s inner circle. He attended Beatles recording sessions and joined them on their Magical Mystery Tour. They even invited him to open a salon at their Apple Tailoring boutique on the Kings

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53:15

John Nichol, writer, former RAF Navigator

Private Passions ·

2026/06/28

Thirty-five years ago, during the Gulf War, the face of the RAF navigator John Nichol appeared on news bulletins around the world. His Tornado jet had been shot down over Iraq, and he was captured, tortured and paraded on Iraqi television.Together with the pilot John Peters, he wrote about these experiences in their best-selling book Tornado Down. Since then, he's written many more books about military history, on topics ranging from the Spitfire to the Unknown Warrior. His most recent book, Blitz,

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53:39

Ruth Ozeki, writer

Private Passions ·

2026/06/21

Ruth Ozeki won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2022 with her novel The Book of Form and Emptiness. The judges called it a ’complete joy to read.’She’s also a film-maker and a Zen Buddhist priest, and her books draw on her Japanese-American heritage. They also convey her deep concern for our environment, taking on topics such as industrial agriculture, ocean pollution and mass consumerism. Her most recent book, The Typing Lady and Other Fictions, is her first collection of short stories –

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57:49

Jeremy Vine, broadcaster

Private Passions ·

2026/06/14

Jeremy Vine is one of the most familiar voices and faces in British broadcasting. He's presented his Radio 2 lunchtime show since 2003, and its mixture of music and news reaches 6 million listeners every week. Their personal stories and opinions are a vital part of the programme. Jeremy also presents a weekday show on Channel 5, and since joining the BBC almost 40 years ago, he's been our correspondent in Africa and appeared on everything from Newsnight to Strictly Come Dancing. He also writes crime

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53:56

Sofka Zinovieff, writer

Private Passions ·

2026/06/07

Like many writers, Sofka Zinovieff draws on her own history in her books – and her family tree offers plenty of inspiration. Her paternal grandmother was born into Russian high society, fled to England after the 1917 revolution and became a Communist. Sofka wrote her biography.Her maternal grandmother married the eccentric aristocrat Robert Heber-Percy, and for a time shared a house with his lover, the artist and composer Lord Berners. Sofka has also charted her story.Her father Peter was a composer

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54:46

Simon Barnes, journalist

Private Passions ·

2026/05/31

The writer Simon Barnes has two very public passions - sport and the natural world. He wrote about both for The Times for 30 years, covering seven Olympic Games and six World Cup finals, while also delivering columns on short-eared owls, mountain hares and “the organ-pipe contact call of lions." His books include reflections on the meaning and the soul of sport, and numerous titles about birds, including the best-selling How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher, in which he says: ‘Birdwatching is a state of

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54:24

Margaret Busby, publisher and editor

Private Passions ·

2026/05/24

Margaret Busby is a publisher and editor who's helped change our literary landscape. She's been lauded by the writer Zadie Smith as the cheerleader, instigator, organiser, defender and celebrator of black arts, something she's done for nearly 60 years. She started young - she was just 23 years old when she co-founded the publishers Allison and Busby with Clive Allison in 1967. Free from the usual industry rules and with little money or experience, they began with five shilling poetry paperbacks and

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56:25

Michael Wood, historian

Private Passions ·

2026/05/17

The historian Michael Wood has shared his enthusiasms and expertise with television viewers and readers around the world for almost five decades.He’s brought us complex individuals such as Alexander the Great, pivotal conflicts such as the Trojan War, and national histories, including the Story of India, the Story of China and a people’s history of Britain.And here on Radio 3, he’s one of the distinguished historians joining Gillian Moore for Key Changes, a year-long series charting one thousand

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54:04

James Aldred, cameraman and writer

Private Passions ·

2026/05/03

James Aldred is an Emmy award-winning documentary wildlife cameraman and filmmaker who has collaborated with David Attenborough on projects such Planet Earth, The Life of Mammals and Our Planet. He often finds himself suspended from ropes or on platforms high up in the rainforest canopy, capturing shots of rarely-seen animals and birds, including orangutans, gibbons and eagles.He recalled some of his treetop adventures - and the many dangers he’s faced - in his first book, The Man Who Climbs Trees

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51:57

Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, chemist

Private Passions ·

2026/04/26

Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu has dedicated her career to studying nanoparticles, finding ways to carry medicines to parts of the body that are notoriously hard to reach, such as the back of the eye and the brain, while causing fewer side-effects.She’s Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London, President of Wolfson College Cambridge and was appointed a DBE in the King’s New Years Honours List last year.She’s also written a book called Chain Reaction: the Wondrous Chemistry

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50:51

Dietmar Mueller-Elmau, entrepreneur

Private Passions ·

2026/04/19

Dietmar Mueller-Elmau is the owner of Schloss Elmau, a resort hotel in the Bavarian Alps, 60 miles from Munich. It was set up in 1916 by his grandfather, the philosopher and writer Johannes Müller. He wanted people to take “a holiday from the ego” and to enjoy classical concerts.Over the decades, it hosted performances by the likes of Benjamin Britten, Yehudi Menuhin and Alfred Brendel. Dietmar continues that tradition, with musicians such as Yuja Wang and the Kanneh-Masons, along with jazz

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52:30

Rachel Eliza Griffiths, poet and novelist

Private Passions ·

2026/04/12

The American writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths creates poetry that resonates with music: she writes about her mother cleaning the house while ‘Pavarotti trembled across the terse sunlight of every room.’As well as poetry, she’s written a novel, and her most recent book is a memoir called The Flower Bearers. It deals with loss, including the sudden death of her closest friend. She received the news on what should have been the happiest of days – her marriage to the writer Salman Rushdie. And less than a

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53:02

Francis Spufford, writer

Private Passions ·

2026/04/05

Francis Spufford is an award-winning writer who loves to inhabit different worlds and vividly bring them to life: Golden Hill, which won the Costa First Novel Award, takes place in Manhattan in 1746, Light Perpetual begins in a Woolworths in South London in 1944 and Francis’s latest novel ‘Nonesuch’ is a historical fantasy set during the Blitz. But it wasn’t until he was 52 that Francis felt confident enough to write works of fiction, before that his books covered a wide variety of topics from polar

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52:12

Sir Ian Blatchford, Science Museum director

Private Passions ·

2026/03/22

Sir Ian Blatchford has been the Director of the Science Museum in London for more than 15 years – the longest serving director in its history. He also oversees the National Railway Museum in York, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, Locomotion in County Durham, and the Science and Innovation Park in Wiltshire - all enjoyed by more than four million visitors last year. He was the first in his family to go to university and his early career

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51:14

George Saunders, writer

Private Passions ·

2026/03/15

The American writer George Saunders won the 2017 Booker Prize with his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. It’s a moving exploration of the grief of President Lincoln as he mourns his 11-year-old son Willie – and it’s voiced by the weird and wonderful spirits trapped in the cemetery. George was 58 when the novel was published. In the decades before that, he won renown and awards as a master of the short story. He’s also won legions of followers for his close analysis of the form.Most recently he’s

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