Great Lives Folgen

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 squeezed into the stirrups of a horse she was transformed. Taking a doctor's advice to travel for the sake of her health Isabella headed for Australia, Japan, Korea and Hawaii before finding her spiritual home amongst the most rotten scoundrels of America's West. In 'Great Lives' the award-winning author of novels including 'How I Live Now' and 'The Bride's Farewell', Meg Rosoff explains why Isabella's transformation has inspired her books and her love of horses. She's joined by David McClay from the National Library of Scotland who maintains an archive of Isabella's colourful correspondence from the farthest flung corners of the Earth.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.

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 his own career.Producer: Perminder Khatkar.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2014.

Writer and comedian David Baddiel chooses the American novelist, John Updike. With Matthew Parris and Justin Cartwright. His novels perfectly captured the shifting moral codes of middle America in the 1970s and 80s but do John Updike's novels still have something important to tell us today? The writer and comedian David Baddiel makes the case for Updike in conversation with Matthew Parris and the novelist and Updike expert, Justin Cartwright.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2014.