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 mines of Myanmar and the inhuman conditions that he found there.

This visit was 20 years ago and one can only hope that conditions have improved.

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 paperback was first published in the UK.

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 the power of the political rally to stir followers. Gitta Sereny actually attended a Hitler rally.

With the spectre of authoritarianism on the rise again this is frighteningly relevant.

Lessons from history.

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 was Stephen Fry and he was replaced by Sandi Toksvig. Here she introduces her story Melted into Air.

Journalist Jon Ronson explains how he researched his amazing book 'Them - Adventures with Extremists' and philosopher Simon Blackburn explores the notion of being good.  The interview was recorded 20 years ago but the quandaries remain just the same.

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 was very entertaining but was probably trouble.

In this conversation, she talks about her life and her books, but also revealingly about the Tory party that she used to be a part of. Times change??