Eric Lomax was a lonely boy in Scotland in the 1930s, a spotter of trains in the glorious age of steam. In 1941 he was sent to Malaya as a member of the Royal Corps of Signals. Taken prisoner...

Desert Island Discs celebrates its 70th birthday in 2012. Since the programme's deviser Roy Plomley interviewed comedian Vic Oliver in 1942, nearly 3000 distinguished people have been stranded on...

‘This book is an act of love, and it is this which makes it haunting’ - New York Times.

The extraordinary account of Alex Haley’s twelve-year search for his family’s origins....

Katharine Whitehorn pioneered the first of the personal columns and went on to write them for more than thirty years. Witty and clever, she cut right to the important things in a woman’s life....

In this fascinating series, veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost talks to a selection of his favourite film stars, beginning with Shirley MacLaine, who won an Oscar for her role in Terms of...

In just over a decade, Google has transformed the everyday experience of millions of people and disrupted almost every industry - from advertising and newspapers, to television and publishing. But...

Many people today want nothing to do with God. In the past people went to great lengths to experience a sacred reality, but now militant atheists preach a gospel of godlessness and find an eager...

When newly-qualified vet James Herriot arrives in the small Yorkshire village of Darrowby, he has no idea what to expect. How will he get on with his new boss? The local farmers? And what will the...

Pop star, film star, TV star, West End star and national treasure David Essex started life as David Cook, in a work house in the East End. This is his amazing life story.

Sappho was so happy when she married Gavin. But she hadn’t considered his daughter, Isobel. Isobel is a delightful, charming girl who spends her school holidays caring for the elderly, and who...

Gilda O’Neill’s childhood was in a world most of us associate with chirpy cockneys, pub knees-up, legendary criminals and the Dickensian underworld. Yet here Gilda goes beyond the myths of the...

Pauline Quirke was a skinny child, a slim teenager, a curvy woman, then - according to her bathroom scales (curse them) – just plain fat. Yes, the ‘F’ word. Tipping the scales at nearly 20...

In this very personal book, part diary, part memoir, P. D. James considers the twelve months of her life between her seventy-seventh and seventy-eighth birthdays, a 'time to be in earnest' as Dr...

One of the nation’s best-loved cooks, Clarissa has lived her life on a grand scale. Her mother was an Australian heiress, her father a brilliant surgeon. He was also a tyrannical and violent...

A fascinating chance to hear Stirling Moss talk about his life and career, in a selection of interviews taken from the BBC radio and TV archive. Sir Stirling Moss, OBE, is a legendary British...