Great Lives

Goldfrapp's Will Gregory is centre-stage at the Colston Hall in Bristol to tell Matthew Parris why he feels a kinship with Flann O'Brien.The Irish writer's books 'At Swim-Two-Birds' and 'The Third Policeman' are now hailed as literary masterpieces, but only came to prominence after the author's death. Carol Taaffe, who has written about Flann, helps make sense of the man who wrote under three pseudonyms - Brian O'Nolan, Flann O'Brien, and Myles na gCopaleen. They look more closely at the novels and newspaper column he wrote alongside his job in the Civil Service, whilst maintaining a steady presence in Dublin's pubs. Will reads extracts he believes illustrate the brilliance with which O'Brien slips between realism and surrealism, and Carol sheds light on who said that 'At Swim-Two-Birds' "....was just the book to give your Sister if she's a loud dirty boozy girl." Producer: Toby FieldFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2017.

City boss Dame Helena Morrissey champions the life of Rachael Heyhoe Flint, the pioneer of women's cricket.Regarded as a ground breaker, Baroness Heyhoe Flint ruffled feathers and shook up a male dominated sport.Helena Morrissey makes the case for why Heyhoe Flint is a great life.With Matthew Parris and Dr Raf Nicholson who teaches history at Queen Mary University of London and is a writer on the women's gameDame Helen has also made it to the top of her career in a male dominated word of the City. She is founder of the 30% Club, a campaign group whose aim is to get a minimum of 30% women on FTSE-100 boards. Now working as Head of Personal Investing with Legal and General Investment Management. Producer: Perminder KhatkarFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2017.

Constance Markievicz led an amazing life - a leading figure during the Easter Rising of 1916, she was the first woman elected to Parliament though she never took her seat.Markievicz was born into a wealthy Anglo-Irish family and gained her exotic surname from marriage to a Polish count. She was adventurous, flamboyant, committed to woman's rights, court-martialled and nearly shot. Nominating her is Andrea Catherwood, ex-ITN correspondent who made her first documentary for BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Parris.With Lindie Naughton, author of Markievicz - A Most Outrageous Rebel. Producer: Miles WardeFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2017.

Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics, among other positions, and former Chief Economist at the World Bank. He is also a massive boxing fan and chooses the life of Muhammad Ali to explore with Matthew Parris and sports journalist and boxing commentator Ronald McIntosh. Not only does Stern admire Ali's prowess in the ring, but more so his fearless stance against the Vietnam War which cost him dearly both personally and professionally.Ali's humanitarian work in later life has also been a huge source of inspiration to him.Producer: Maggie AyreFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2017.

How many people realise the impact Elsie Widdowson had on the way we view nutrition? She was a food scientist who devoted her life to improving the diets of adults and children in Britain and abroad. Matthew Parris hears why Helen Sharman, the first Briton to go into space, thinks Widdowson deserves her nomination. They are joined by Elsie's friend and biographer Margaret Ashwell, President for the Association for Nutrition.You can download the podcast to hear an extended version of the broadcast programmeProducer: Maggie Ayre.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2017.

Novelist Tracy Chevalier discusses the life of Mary Anning with Matthew Parris.Mary was a working class woman from Lyme Regis who discovered full dinosaur skeletons on Dorset's Jurassic Coast and sold them to collectors in the early 1800s. Her remarkable finds came before Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and she believed them at first to be giant crocodiles, but as scientists began flocking to Lyme Regis to buy her specimens, she started to educate herself in geology, becoming an authority on fossils.However, as with many of the subjects of Great Lives, she was never fully credited for her efforts and faded from public consciousness after her death.With Hugh Torrens, Emeritus Professor of History of Science and Technology at the University of Keele. Producer: Maggie AyreFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2017.

In 1968 Norman Lewis wrote an article called Genocide in Brazil. The photographs that accompanied it were by Don McCullin. Lewis later said that this one piece of journalism was the great achievement of his life. It led directly to the creation of Survival International and a change in the law relating to the treatment of indigenous people in Brazil. Lewis is known as a brilliant writer - one of our best, said Graham Greene, 'not of any particular decade of our century'. He's best remembered for A Dragon Apparent and Naples '44.Don McCullin didn't travel with Norman Lewis to Brazil, but they struck up an unexpected friendship. He was like my father, the great photographer says. And in Norman Lewis's later years they worked together in Venezuela, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere. But McCullin didn't read many of his books. "I struggled through Naples '44" he admits. Yet his admiration for the way Lewis opened his eyes to the world remains undimmed.Recorded on location at McCullin's Somerset farmhouse with Norman Lewis's biographer Julian Evans.Presented by Matthew Parris.Produced at BBC Bristol by Miles Warde. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2017.

Actress Maxine Peake nominates her working class hero, Ellen Wilkinson, as a great life. Ellen is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of British radical left politics. She joined the Communist party, met Lenin and Trotsky in Moscow and then went on to become one of the Labour Party's youngest people entering parliament in 1924.For Maxine, the tragedy is that Ellen Wilkinson is now virtually a forgotten figure despite her remarkable achievements. With help from historian Helen Antrobus from the People's History Museum in Manchester, they make the case for Ellen Wilkinson meriting the description of a great life. Presented by Matthew Parris. Producer: Perminder KhatkarFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2017.

Stephen Fry nominates his hero PG Wodehouse, a writer who he says simply cheers him up like no one else. Fry wrote to his hero when he was a schoolboy and his most treasured possession is a signed photograph which reads: "To Stephen Fry, All the best, PG Wodehouse." PG Wodehouse was a self-made man, he began as a bank clerk, married a chorus girl and was interned by the Nazis. He wrote some of the most entertaining novels, stories, plays and lyrics of the 20th century and created enduring characters; the most popular being Reginald Jeeves and Bertie Wooster.Stephen makes the case for why PG Wodehouse is a great life. To help him he is joined by Dr Sophie Ratcliffe Associate Professor in English, University of Oxford and author of 'PG Wodehouse - A life in Letters'. Presented by Matthew Parris. Producer: Perminder Khatkar First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2017.

Peter Williams - founder of British retail chain, Jack Wills - nominates Steve Jobs as his great life. For Williams, despite the fact that Steve Jobs was an abrasive and difficult person, it was his ability to predict what people wanted. It was his Apple products that have touched the lives of so many people world wide and for Peter it's his gadgets that have changed our attitudes to technology. To help Peter Williams make his case, he is joined by Luke Dormehl, technology journalist and author of The Apple Revolution. Presenter: Matthew Parris Producer: Perminder Khatkar.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2017.