What can the work of an extraordinary woman called Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement, tell us about our search for our own personal legacies, we go into the music filled back streets of Dakar in Senegal in the early 90’s, with a lot of publicity recently for adult literacy I share my own rather mixed experiences as a tutor, and we explore the unlikely connection between the humble dung beetle and the fearsome Cretan Minotaur.
Switching to business we look at some companies who were high profile winners during the lockdown but whose fortunes have declined sharply since, and at one industry where the post COVID party shows no sign of slowing down.

What was life like for small UK companies trying to export to the EU in 2021, post Brexit and what can they expect in 2022? We recommend some good reads in categories from fiction to autobiography and self-help, and start with a review of End State by James Plunkett, the most optimistic book I’ve read in ages.  We explore some commonly held beliefs about over population and ask is it possible the poorest in society pay the highest rates of tax?  To wrap up we look under the hood at the Daily Mail and bogey man of the left its Editor in Chief, Paul Dacre.

In this episode we look at the runners and riders in Keir Starmer's new shadow cabinet, investigate a compelling theory about the 2014 disappearance of flight MH370, ask what's behind the very low levels of Covid-19 vaccination in Sub-Saharan Africa and take a look at what was once one of the leading stock market indexes, the UK's FTSE 100.  From the archives, the last in The Band Of Scholars series is about David Jones, a junior artillery officer, and his experience of the liberation of Brussels in 1944.

In this episode we ask how hard can it be to give away $50bn? What does the return of a centuries old brass sculpture of a cockerel to Nigeria mean for the West's great museum collections?  We ask why there still rough sleepers on the streets of Manchester? We explore the motivation behind Pakistan's long standing interference in Afghanistan and look at the latest crisis in the Horn Of Africa, in Ethiopia. And take a trip back to the leafy streets of Georgetown in 1973, setting of the greatest horror film of them all.

In this episode some painful life lessons when I try to sell my old vinyl collection, we hear the latest from Charles Asaa and his micro-credit business in Ghana, there's a cautionary tale of hubris in the Highlands and why have Rome's parks become a playground for wild boar.  From the archives, because this was recorded on Remembrance Sunday, two contrasting stories one from the First and the other from the Second World War.

In this episode we ask how the corporate return to work's going, look at TikTok, the world's most downloaded app, explore the secret of Angela Merkel's political longevity and visit an award winning museum in the Scottish Highlands, located in a most unlikely building. From the archives the third in our "Band Of Scholars" series is about John Zhetmayr, radio officer of HMS Ulster Queen, Irish Sea ferry turned fighter direction ship.  

In this episode Marlboro Man's outrageous takeover bid for inhaler company Vectura, A- Levels come to the end of the road, and a look behind the ring at boxing the business.  From the archives a cautionary traveller's tale from a wintry Istanbul and do you remember land borders?

In this episode we’re getting slightly spiritual. We chart the decline of the father of Celtic soul, Van Morrison, ask what is happening to Manchester’s skyline, visit the 50’s modernist masterpiece, Coventry Cathedral, and bring you an unlikely David & Goliath story from the world of Big Oil. From the archives, more highlights from “Band of Scholars”. This time we go back to January 1944 on the India/Burma border and a vivid account of a clash with Japanese forces by my father’s contemporary at Oxford, Kenneth Ingham. 

In this episode two contrasting good news stories from Ghana, a surprising side of Rupert Murdoch, a novice ornithologist spots a rare bird in North Wales, and the welcome revival of long form journalism. From the archives, a medley of short travel stories from South East Asia.

In this episode we give some personal historical context to Labour’s disastrous showing in the recent UK elections; we mark the death of Bernie Madoff with a look inside a Ponzi Scheme; travel to some of the UK’s remote and mysterious tidal islands and ask who was the artist known as William Black? 

From the archives, it’s three years since my father died and I thought I would share some highlights from “Band of Scholars” a book I wrote about his and three of his contemporaries’ experience of active service in the Second World War.