Great Lives

Ernest Hemingway

27 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Palin first came across his Great Life when he was studying for school exams, and his love of Ernest Hemingway has never gone away. He, along ...

John Craven on Brunel

13 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Countryfile presenter John Craven proposes Victorian Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, as a great life. He's joined by engineering historian Julia El...

Isy Suttie on Jake Thackray

06 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Jake Thackray hated being known as the north country Noel Coward, but at the height of his fame the description stuck. His songs are very British, but...

Emma Kirkby on Henry Purcell

06 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Soprano Emma Kirkby discusses the life of English composer Henry Purcell with Matthew Parris. Despite dying at the age of 36, Purcell was arguably the...

Deborah Moggach on Arnold Bennett

29 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Novelist and screenwriter, Deborah Moggach, nominates the Potteries writer Arnold Bennett, whose work she thinks has been wrongly overlooked, as he wa...

Marcus du Sautoy on Jorge Luis Borges

22 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Mathematician Marcus de Sautoy champions the blind Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. He is fascinated by the connection between the creator of '...

Sir Mark Walport on Sir Hans Sloane

15 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Mark Walport, the government's Chief Scientific Advisor champions the life of Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum. Along with expert Ma...

Ian Curtis

09 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Series of biographical discussions with Matthew Parris.Poet Simon Armitage nominates Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, who took his own life in 1980 at ...

Sarah Vine on Dante

08 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

"Whenever I have too much to drink, I bang on about Dante ...." Sarah Vine makes a choice from the heart - the great Italian writer Dante Alighieri, f...

Evelyn Glennie on Jacqueline Du Pre

01 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Solo percussionist, Evelyn Glennie explains her admiration for cellist, Jacqueline Du Pre.Presented by Matthew Parris.With music writer and broadcaste...

DJ Sara Cox nominates singer Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes

28 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

The DJ Sara Cox nominates Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, a hip hop artist and rapper who performed with the band TLC. She burned her lover's house down and T...

Mark Constantine on Kahlil Gibran

23 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Businessman Mark Constantine chooses Lebanese-American author of ‘The Prophet’, Khalil Gibran. With Matthew Parris. Snubbed and practically ignore...

Meg Rosoff on Isabella Bird

23 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

At home in Edinburgh Isabella Bird was the very picture of the ailing Victorian spinster but the moment her tiny feet hit the gangway of a steamer or ...

Dave Allen chosen by Adil Ray

14 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Comedian Dave Allen is chosen by Adil Ray, creator and star of Citizen Khan. He explains to Matthew Parris how the legendary Irish comic helped shape...

David Baddiel on John Updike

08 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and comedian David Baddiel chooses the American novelist, John Updike. With Matthew Parris and Justin Cartwright. His novels perfectly captured...

Sir David Chipperfield on Le Corbusier

31 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Award-winning architect Sir David Chipperfield chooses the pioneer of modern architectureLe Corbusier aimed to build a better world through radical bu...

Michael Horovitz on Allen Ginsberg

17 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris is joined by Michael Horovitz who nominates fellow poet and founder of the 'Beat Generation', Allen Ginsberg, as his Great Life. Ginsbe...

Ricky Ross on Hank Williams

10 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

The life of the 'Hillbilly Shakespeare' Hank Williams is the choice of Deacon Blue singer Ricky Ross. Williams is regarded as being the prototype roc...

Nina Simone

27 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

The chanteuse, pianist, composer and civil rights activist Nina Simone is the choice of another female musician who has made a career of defying conve...

Nancy Mitford

02 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Grace Dent nominates Nancy Mitford for her wit, and for the way in which she showed women that it was possible to live your life fully and unconventio...

Al Murray on Bernard Montgomery

01 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

"In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable" – so said Winston Churchill on this week's Great Live, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. Many wo...

Sir Brendan Barber on John Steinbeck

24 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Trade unionist Sir Brendan Barber nominates American author, John Steinbeck as his Great Life. The author of The Grapes of Wrath aimed to fight the...

Konnie Huq on Ada Lovelace

17 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

TV presenter Konnie Huq chooses the mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace. With Matthew Parris. From Banking, to air traffic control ...

Peter Bowles on George Devine

10 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris is joined by actor Peter Bowles who nominates George Devine, groundbreaking artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. Devine battle...

Paul Mason on Louise Michel

03 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

TV journalist and writer Paul Mason talks to Matthew Parris about the 19th Century French anarchist, Louise Michel, heroine of the Paris Commune. They...

Julie Burchill on Ava Gardner

27 Aug 2013

Contributed by Lukas

The writer Julie Burchill talks to Matthew Parris about the Hollywood star Ava Gardner. They're joined by Ava's biographer Lee Server. Often described...

Tanika Gupta on Rabindranath Tagore

20 Aug 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Playwright Tanika Gupta chooses as her Great Life, a man who is a hero to Bengali speakers across the World, Rabindranath Tagore.Born in 1861, to a we...

Gabriel Gbadamosi on Fela Kuti

13 Aug 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Poet, playwright, and critic Gabriel Gbadamosi chooses as his Great Life the political maverick and inventor of Afrobeat, musician Fela Kuti, and tell...

Russell Grant on Ivor Novello

06 Aug 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Astrologer and performer Russell Grant chooses one of the greatest screen legends of cinema's early years – Ivor Novello. Born in 1893 in Cardiff, N...

Florence Nightingale

05 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Lucy Worsley chooses a figure as familiar as she is unknown, the great champion of Victorian nursing, Florence Nightingale. Known as 'the Lady with...

Primo Levi

21 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Edmund de Waal chooses a writer he believes is one of the greatest of the modern age - Primo Levi, author of the Periodic Table. Born in 1919 in Turin...

Salvador Dali

14 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

John Cooper Clarke, poetry's Punk Laureate, nominates Salvador Dali, the surrealist behind melting clocks, lobster telephones, and that trademark mous...

Bill Shankly

07 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts champions the life of Liverpool’s football manager Bill Shankly.In the 1960s, Bill Shankley took his team from divis...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

30 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Broadcaster and writer Gyles Brandreth nominates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as his "Great Life". Matthew Parris chairs, assisted by biographer Andrew Lyce...

David Livingstone

23 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Dr David Livingstone was the Victorian equivalent of an astronaut - a man who ventured into the  interior of Africa to report on territory that was w...

Kenny Everett

16 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Tarrant chooses one of the great pioneers of modern radio.He's the man born Maurice Cole in Liverpool in 1944, who found fame on TV as Gizzard P...

Galileo

09 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

The DJ and broadcaster Bobby Friction champions the Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei. He is the first Great Lives guest to have named ...

George Bell

02 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

"I remember seeing him sitting on the bishops' bench, and I went to him and said, George, I believe you are going to make a speech. He replied, yes I ...

William Robinson

29 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Gardener Carol Klein's great life is a Victorian hero of the wild garden, the writer and horticulturalist William Robinson. Matthew Parris presents, w...

Aubrey Beardsley

15 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on the Victorian artist Aubrey Beardsley, whose shocking originality he compares to that of Alexander McQueen. Laurence's firs...

John Stuart Mill

08 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Max Mosley nominates the philosopher and proponent of personal liberty, John Stuart Mill, as his great life. With presenter Matthew Parris and biograp...

Grigori Rasputin

01 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

What was so notable about Grigori Rasputin ? "The hypnotic power shining in his exceptional gaze," said one observer. The photos are indeed remarkabl...

Ralph Vaughan Williams

25 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris talks to writer, broadcaster and 6Music presenter Stuart Maconie about the life of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The expert witness is Em Mar...

Jean Cocteau

11 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Francesca Simon is a writer, journalist and - most famously - the creator of the "Horrid Henry" series of children's booksShe describes herself as "a ...

Dick Francis

04 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The date is 1956, Aintree, and Dick Francis is riding the Queen Mother's horse to victory in the Grand National. Except Devon Loch collapses bizarrely...

George Orwell

28 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

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 for the school library.He head...

Edith Wharton

25 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time." Edith Wharton is as well known for her wit as for her novels. Born in 1862, s...

Karel Reisz

11 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Film director Stephen Frears discusses the life of his mentor, Czech-born director, Karel Reisz, with the help of critic and Reisz's friend, John Lahr...

Stan Laurel

04 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Ken Dodd explains to Matthew Parris why movie legend Stan Laurel inspired him to get into comedy.Born Stan Jefferson into a theatrical family, in Lanc...

Juvenal

29 Aug 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris invites writer and comic Natalie Haynes to explain why her nomination for a Great Life is a Roman poet about whose life we know very li...

Leonard Maguire

21 Aug 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris finds out why the actor Bill Paterson would nominate for Great Life status a Scottish actor little known outside Scotland. He is Leonar...

Walter Scott

14 Aug 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Tory MP author and adventurer Rory Stewart champions the life of Sir Walter Scott. Presenter Matthew Parris is joined by Scott's biographer Stuart Kel...

Josephine Bonaparte

07 Aug 2012

Contributed by Lukas

"I get to Milan," wrote Napoleon. "I fling myself into your room. I have left everything in order to see you, to clasp you in my arms .... you were no...

Henry Cooper

31 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The date is June 18 1963, the final seconds of the fourth round of a boxing match. In the ring, Henry Cooper, eight years older and 26 pounds lighter ...

Sebastian Walker

22 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Lynn Barber first met Sebastian Walker at Oxford. "He was the first person I'd ever met who was gay...quite funny looking with a big adam's apple and...

Goya

15 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Diana Athill joins Matthew Parris to explore the life of the Spanish painter, Francisco de Goya, who has been called the last old masters and the firs...

John Ford

08 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

John Ford had a monumental Hollywood career - over 140 films, Oscars he never turned up to receive, and a blunt way of approaching the business that m...

Edward Said

26 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Edward Said was a man, who, in his own words, lived two quite separate lives. First there was the scholar and literary critic of Columbia University, ...

George Lyward

24 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The musician and broadcaster Tom Robinson nominates educationalist George Lyward in this episode of Great Lives.Aged 15 and struggling with his sexual...

Gertrude Stein

17 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Gertude Stein, American poet, writer and art collector, lived most of her life in France. She was one of the first people to spot the genius of Picass...

Oscar Wilde

10 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Oscar Wilde, author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, is proposed by Will Self, a writer once described as a 'high po...

Dylan Thomas

03 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Dylan Thomas, arguably Wales's most famous poet, comes under scrutiny on Great Lives. A man famous both for his linguistic exuberance and his chaotic,...

Razia Sultana

31 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Co-chairman of the Conservative party, Baroness Warsi recalls her Pakistani-born father during her Yorkshire childhood telling her about the heroic ma...

Vera Brittain

24 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The writer and pacifist Vera Brittain is discussed by her daughter Baroness Shirley Williams and Dr Clare Gerada, Chair of the Royal College of GPs.Ve...

Gracie Allen

17 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris is joined by the actress Emma Kennedy to explore the life of the American comedienne Gracie Allen. George Burns and Gracie Allen were a...

Joseph Rotblat

10 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees tells Matthew Parris why his hero, physicist Joseph Rotblat, lived a "great life". Rotblat was a brilliant physicist ...

Lonnie Donegan

03 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Downton Abbey actor Jim Carter tells Matthew Parris why skiffle king Lonnie Donegan is his hero. Lonnie Donegan is probably best remembered for the n...

Ludwig II of Bavaria

27 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Brian Sewell on his long-standing love of "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who built the ultimate fantasy castle at Neuschwanstein. From his first fat...

Thomas Hobbes

20 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Hobbes: the writer and psychologist Steven Pinker joins Matthew Parris to discuss the life of the great English philosopher. Noel Malcolm from ...

Ludwig Wittgenstein

13 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Ludwig Wittgenstein, the fascinating and misunderstood genius who changed the course of philosophy, is chosen by writer Raymond Tallis. With biographe...

Philip K Dick

06 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Actor Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon; The Queen; Midnight in Paris) explores the life of Philip K. Dick with Matthew Parris, and explains why he had such ...

William Shakespeare

07 Oct 2011

Contributed by Lukas

No less a figure than the national bard, William Shakespeare, is nominated for great life status by poetry curator and TV producer, Daisy Goodwin. Dom...

Gerald Durrell

27 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Former England footballer Graeme le Saux champions the life of writer, broadcaster and conservationist Gerald Durrell. Graeme and presenter Matthew Pa...

Hildegard Von Bingen

20 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

When the singer Cerys Matthews first played the music of the 12th century nun, Hildegard von Bingen, on her BBC 6 music show, she said she felt she co...

Edwin Lutyens

13 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

If Edwin Lutyens, the architect behind New Delhi, the Cenotaph, and the British embassy in Washington, sounds an austere, imperial figure then think a...

Hans Fallada

06 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

The Fast Show comedian Simon Day tells Matthew Parris why he's fascinated by the life and work of German author Hans Fallada. Matthew is also joined b...

Eduardo Paolozzi

23 Aug 2011

Contributed by Lukas

This week's Great Life, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, hated being tagged as the father of pop art, yet his representations of images from popular culture came...

Kirsty MacColl

09 Aug 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Broadcaster Janice Long tells Matthew Parris why singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl led a "great life" despite her tragically early death in a boating a...

Graham Greene

02 Aug 2011

Contributed by Lukas

The Third Man, Brighton Rock, Travels With My Aunt - the books of Graham Greene all still have a definite ring. But the the man himself was an enigma....

Harold Pinter

24 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris is joined by Diane Abbott MP and biographer and critic Michael Billington to explore the life of playwright and Nobel Laureate Harold P...

Jack Johnson

17 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

It was the fight of the century, July 4th 1910, when Tim Jeffries, the so-called Great White Hope, was stopped by Jack Johnson in the 15th round. Sudd...

Petra Kelly

10 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris presents the biographical series in which his guests choose someone who has inspired their lives. Green MP Caroline Lucas nominates Ger...

Lewis Carroll

03 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Lynne Truss chooses the creator of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll. Famous for the Alice books, Carroll was also a brilliant mathematician a...

Kathleen Ferrier

26 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Kathleen Ferrier was a British contralto singer who died in 1953 from breast cancer. Her professional career had lasted just 14 years but in that time...

Simone de Beauvoir

19 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Actress Diana Quick tells Matthew Parris why she believes that existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir lived a great life, despite living in the...

Leonard Bernstein

12 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

The conductor Charles Hazlewood chooses the great American composer Leonard Bernstein, music director of the New York Philharmonic and creator of West...

Thomas Edison

05 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris presents the biographical series in which his guests choose someone who has inspired their lives. Here, Sir Clive Sinclair nominates fe...

Marcus Garvey

01 Feb 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah is a passionate advocate of Marcus Garvey, the inspirational black leader of the early twentieth century. Long before Mart...

Mary Stott

25 Jan 2011

Contributed by Lukas

The writer Katharine Whitehorn chooses Mary Stott, the great campaigning journalist and the first editor of the Guardian women's page. She's the journ...

Gertrude Bell

18 Jan 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Gertrude Bell was a British woman who arguably founded the modern state of Iraq. Explorer, mountaineer and archaeologist, this extraordinarily talente...

Aneurin Bevan

04 Jan 2011

Contributed by Lukas

In his time, Aneurin Bevan was, according to one biographer, "the most colourful and controversial, most loved and most loathed political personality ...

Sammy Davis Jr

28 Dec 2010

Contributed by Lukas

Dance and actor Lionel Blair chooses his friend and dancing partner Sammy Davis Jr.Sammy described himself as a 'one-eyed black Jew' - and he was desc...

Samuel Beckett

21 Dec 2010

Contributed by Lukas

Business guru Sir Gerry Robinson was born in Ireland but moved to England in his teens, and he chooses Samuel Beckett, another Irishman who lived away...

DH Lawrence

14 Dec 2010

Contributed by Lukas

DH Lawrence was, in the words of Geoff Dyer, a man with thin wrists and thick trousers. He was also the author of Women in Love, Sons and Lovers and L...

Malcolm McLaren

07 Dec 2010

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris presents the life of the great rock and roll swindler, Malcolm McLaren, who died earlier this year. 'I've been called many things,' McL...

Walt Disney

28 Sep 2010

Contributed by Lukas

Gerald Scarfe, merciless cartoon satirist of political figures, chooses an icon who created icons: Walt Disney.Gerald Scarfe spent much of his childho...

Michel de Montaigne

21 Sep 2010

Contributed by Lukas

Michel de Montaigne is one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and...

Winston Churchill

14 Sep 2010

Contributed by Lukas

Winston Churchill's is the Great Life chosen by Lord Digby Jones, former Director General of the CBI. Expert contribution comes from Professor David R...

Golda Meir

07 Sep 2010

Contributed by Lukas

Golda Meir was the Iron Lady of Israeli politics, a straight-talking, intransigent leader who once said, "There is a type of woman who does not let he...