Andrew Lownie has spent four years researching the lives of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the Duke and Duchess of York.

The book is full of dramatic details of lives spent sailing very close to the wind but mostly protected by their royal status.

What Andrew Lownie tells me will stop you in your tracks.

Published this month is a new book about the Yorks, Andrew and Sarah. The title of the book 'Entitled' says it all.

Being royal is not a job you can apply for. If you decide to walk away from your royal identity or are pushed away from it just what are you left with?

This book,'Traitor King', tells the story of an inglorious royal. It is a shocking example of what happens when inherited status is randomly given to a person who is clearly not up to the task. The book is the basis of the Channel 4 programme that shed light on the whole episode.

As well as telling the historical story Andrew Lownie discusses the lessons that can be learned by the present Royal Family. Maybe food for thought for Harry and Meghan.

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??

There is much thought about memoirs at the moment. Salt Paths etc.

Clive James wrote memoirs but he always declared they were 'unreliable'. Maybe that is the nature of memory and memoir?

Clive James died in 2019 after a long illness.

This conversation with David Freeman was recorded in 2001 when Clive was excited by the internet and somewhat fearful of the way public service broadcasting was heading.

He would probably be even more fearful now.

Listening to Clive James now it is clear that he had a very good grasp on what could happen in many spheres of life - and he really didn't approve.

This book is as exploration of the rich and varied cultural worlds shaped by the Rhine, the Rhone and the Po.

Three Rivers traces the rivers' journeys from their glacial sources through Germany, Itals and France.

Its an entertaining and informative story.

A great holiday read!

Twenty five years ago Julian Hoffman and his wife Julia decided to leave their life in London and make a dramatic change. They would leave the city life with it's commuting hassles and move somewhere and live very different life

On nothing more than a chance encounter with a book about it they moved to Prespa in northern Greece.

They didn't speak the language, had very few possessions but their bold and brave decision has worked out very well.

They searched for home in the mountains of Greece.

How they found it is told in Lifelines.

The appalling inhumanity still happening in the world makes this conversation distressingly relevant. There is the thought that some people are less human then others. This has to be challenged.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on December 10th 1948.

We now live in a world where the rights agreed in that document are widely ignored and some politicians openly seek to remove the UK from enforcing them.

Plus racial intolerance is on the march . The horrible spectre of antisemitism is looming over the news as is denial of the rights of Palestinians.

As an American bishop recently said ..... immigrants and gay people are as valuable as everyone else.

A good time to listen to the words of the late Sir Martin Gilbert.

Sir Martin Gilbert is known as Churchill's biographer, but also as the historian of the Holocaust.

This conversation with David Freeman took place when his book Never Again was published. Sir Martin's thoughts on war are sadly relevant.

Sir Martin died in 2015.