Author, poet and playwright Michael Morpurgo reveals the most important people, events and cultural works that inspired his own creativity. Michael is the former Children’s Laureate and author of some of the best loved stories for young people including Why The Whales Came, Private Peaceful and War Horse, which was adapted for the National Theatre stage and was filmed for cinema by Steven Spielberg. Sir Michael Morpurgo, who was knighted in 2018, tells John Wilson how his mother, an actress who read nightly bedtime stories to her children, was a formative influence on his later work as a children’s author. He remembers how 1950s teaching methods, in which poems were learnt by rote and literacy was tested rigorously, discouraged him from reading for pleasure. It was whilst at boarding school in Sussex that one teacher recognised his potential, encouraged him to read a collection of Wordsworth poems, and helped reinvigorate young Michael’s passion for words. He recalls how wartime family tragedy, and witnessing the devastation of London in the post-war years, were factors that influenced the themes of conflict and peace which recur in much of his work. He also cites the poet Ted Hughes as a major influence on his life and work, remembering how the Poet Laureate offered advice on his early work. Michael Morpurgo also talks of how his most famous work, War Horse, was initially inspired by an elderly World War One veteran who, one night in the local pub, recalled how a deep bond forged with a army horse helped him survive the horror of the trenches. Producer: Edwina Pitman
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In-depth conversations with some of the world's leading artists and creatives across theatre, visual arts, music, dance, film and more. Hosted by John Wilson.
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Folge vom 17.09.2022Michael Morpurgo
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Folge vom 10.09.2022Abdulrazak GurnahNobel Prize-winning novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah talks to John Wilson about the people, events, and cultural works that have inspired his creativity. Born in Zanzibar, the author and academic came to England as a political refugee at the age of 18, and now holds the post of Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent. Since his first book Memory of Departure in 1987, he has written ten novels including Paradise, which was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1994. When he won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, the citation praised his "uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.Abdulrazak Gurnah discusses his childhood overlooking the main port in Zanzibar, and how his experience of multiple nationalities, cultures and languages inspired some of the themes of identity, belonging and departure that recur in his novels. He remembers the political turmoil and violence in the wake of the 1964 revolution in Zanzibar that saw the overthrown of the Sultan and imprisonment of the government. After travelling to the UK with his brother in 1968, he enrolled as a student in Canterbury, the town in which he still lives and works. Among his most important literary influences is The Mystic Masseur, a comic novel by the Trinidadian author VS Naipaul. Abdulrazak Gurnah also discusses the effect that winning the Nobel Prize has had on his life and work.Producer: Edwina Pitman
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Folge vom 03.09.2022Nicola BenedettiViolinist Nicola Benedetti reveals her most important cultural influences and experiences that have inspired her to become one of the world’s greatest classical musicians. Having taken up the violin at the age of four, Nicola won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition at 16. She’s renowned for the passion of her live concerts, her recordings of the great violin concertos, and for her work with contemporary composers, including a Grammy-winning collaboration with composer Wynton Marsalis. She’s also deeply involved in educational programmes that use classical music to transform the lives of young people. For This Cultural Life, Nicola Benedetti recalls her North Ayrshire upbringing and how her Italian parents encouraged her musicality from a young age. She remembers first listening to Brahms’s Violin Concerto on the car journey to school, a piece that inspired her to seriously pursue her ambitions, becoming the leader of the National Children’s Orchestra at the age of just eight. She discusses the influence of the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin, whose school she attended until she was 15, and at whose funeral she performed in 1999. Nicola also talks about her work with the Sistema Scotland project, and her own Benedetti Foundation, which promotes musical education. Determined to promote contemporary classical music as well as the traditional repertoire, she discusses her work with Wynton Marsalis and the young British composer Mark Simpson, both of whom have written violin concertos for her.Producer: Edwina Pitman
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Folge vom 27.08.2022Norman FosterNorman Foster discusses the key cultural influences and experiences that led him to become one of the world’s most important living architects. Baron Foster of Thames Bank founded Foster and Partners in 1967, a practise which specialises in urban master-planning, civic, cultural, office and airport developments. His most famous designs include the Great Court of the British Museum, the Reichstag in Berlin, Millau Viaduct in France, the Apple headquarters in California, Wembley Stadium, Beijing Airport, and the London tower known as ‘the Gherkin’. At 87 years old, and still working as executive chairman of his company, Norman Foster looks back to his working class childhood in Manchester when he first became fascinated with the built environment in the post-war years. He recalls taking two books from the local library - on the architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier - which helped focus his early fascination with architecture. After studying at Manchester University’s school of architecture, Norman Foster won a scholarship to study at Yale University in Connecticut. It was there he met Richard Rogers, with whom he became firm friends and started taking long road trip across America to seek out landmark buildings. On return to the UK, Foster and Rogers set up their first architectural practise Team Four, along with their wives Wendy Cheeseman and Su Brumwell. Foster tells This Cultural Life about his continuing fascination with the design process, after a five decade career that has seen him win the most prestigious architecture prizes, including the Pritzker, the Praemium Imperiale Award, and the RIBA Gold Medal.Producer: Edwina Pitman