This Cultural Life

Dame Rose Tremain is one of Britain’s most prolific and popular writers, having written 17 novels and five collections of short stories over the last 50 years. She was one of only six women on Granta magazine's inaugural 1982 list of the best young British novelists, alongside Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and others. Her fifth novel Restoration was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1989, she won the Whitbread Prize for Music And Silence in 1999, and was awarded the 2008 Orange Prize - the precursor to the Women’s Prize for Fiction - for her novel The Road Home. Having already been made a CBE in 2007, she became Dame Rose Tremain in 2020 for services to writing. Her most recent work is a short story called The Toy Car.Rose Tremain tells John Wilson how her father, a largely unsuccessful playwright called Keith Thomson, inspired her childhood interest in storytelling, although he never encouraged her to write. She recalls how she first started writing fiction to help her cope with loneliness in a household where there was little parental affection. Rose recalls how it was a teacher at her boarding school who first recognised her ability and encouraged her to apply for an Oxbridge university place, only to be dissuaded by her mother, who sent her to a finishing school in France instead. She credits the novelist Angus Wilson, one of her English Literature tutors at the University Of East Anglia, for giving her the confidence to write her first novel. She also chooses The Diary Of Samuel Pepys as a major inspiration on her 1989 Booker-shortlisted novel Restoration, which was later turned into a Hollywood film starring Robert Downey Jnr. and Meg Ryan.Producer: Edwina Pitman

One of the most revered and prolific British classical musicians, Thomas Adès made his name with his 1995 opera Powder Her Face, written when he was just 24 years old. His orchestral composition Asyla was nominated for the Mercury Prize for album of the year in 1999. Recordings of his opera The Tempest and, more recently, his score for the ballet The Dante Project have both won Grammy Awards. His ten symphonic works, three operas and numerous chamber pieces are performed all round the world. In 2024 Adès was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society's prestigious Gold Medal, previous recipients of which include Stravinsky, Brahms and Elgar.Thomas Adès talks to John Wilson about the influence of his family, including his art historian mother who is an expert in surrealism. Through her he was introduced to the surrealist artists, the films of Luis Buñuel and met the painter Francis Bacon. His grandmother introduced him to the work of T.S. Eliot as read by Sir Alec Guinness on a cassette recording, and it was some of these poems that he was to eventually set to music for his first ever composition. Adès also recalls getting to the semi-finals of the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 1990, a watershed moment for him as it prompted him to pursue music as a composer rather than a pianist. He also cites going regularly to the English National Opera as a formative influence and talks about writing his own operas including Powder Her Face about the Duchess of Argyll, and The Exterminating Angel, based on the film by Luis Buñuel.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Jonathan Anderson was appointed as creative director of the French fashion house Dior in March 2025, becoming one of the world’s most influential designers. As creative director of the luxury label Loewe for 11 years from 2013, he led a rebranding of the Spanish company, and was hailed a critical and commercial success. He’s also run his own label JW Anderson since 2008, and launched collaborative lines with high street brands including Top Shop and Uniqlo. The recipient of many accolades since winning the Emerging Talent prize at the British Fashion Awards in 2012, he was named Designer Of The Year in 2023 and 2024. Jonathan Anderson tells John Wilson about his rural upbringing in Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles, and the influence of his father, the former Ireland rugby team captain Willie Anderson. He recalls a childhood visit to a textiles factory run by his maternal grandfather that sparked a fascination for printed fabrics. Working as a shop window designer for the luxury label Prada led him to pursue ambitions to become a fashion designer, encouraged by Prada stylist Manuela Pavesi. Jonathan Anderson also reflects on the importance of creative freedom in his industry, claiming that the radical era of fashion, epitomised by designers such as Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, has been replaced by a fear of pushing boundaries due to the risk of social media backlash.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Jackie Kay is one of the best known and most popular Scottish literary figures. A poet and novelist, she served as Makar - the name for Scotland’s poet laureate - for five years from 2016. Since her debut poetry collection The Adoption Papers in 1991, she has published 20 works of fiction and verse for adults and children, and a memoir about meeting her biological parents called Red Dust Road. Jackie Kay was made a CBE for services to literature in 2020.Jackie talks to John Wilson about her childhood in Glasgow as the mixed-race, adopted daughter of a loving couple. From a young age, Jackie was entranced by the parties her parents hosted in their house to raise money for the Communist Party and where they would debate and sing songs. It was her first introduction to performance and theatre. As a teenager, hearing poets such as Tom Leonard and Liz Lochhead recite their own work also had a big impact on her literary aspirations.Growing up in the Glasgow of the 60s and 70s, Jackie had very few black role models and took inspiration from the work of the African American poet Audre Lorde and the American political activist Angela Davis. Jackie also recalls finding her birth parents and how a visit to her birth father's ancestral village in Nigeria finally gave her a sense of dual identity.Producer: Edwina PitmanOther poets who have appeared on This Cultural Life include Michael Rosen, Linton Kwesi Johnson and George The Poet, along with children’s authors including Katherine Rundell and Michael Morpurgo. You can find them in the This Cultural Life archive, which contains over 130 previous episodes.

American artist Kerry James Marshall is one of the world’s most important living painters. Marshall has been making his large-scale, vividly colourful evocations of African-American life for over 40 years. His figurative paintings are rich with symbolism, metaphor and visual references to both social history and his favourite artists from the past. A 1997 painting called Past Times, which evokes works by Seurat and Manet, sold at auction in 2018 for $21m, setting a world record for a work by a living African-American artist. In the autumn of 2025 a retrospective of his paintings opened at London's Royal Academy, his largest exhibition outside of the US.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Swedish-born Alicia Vikander won global acclaim in 2015 for playing Vera Britten in Testament Of Youth, and a humanoid robot in the thriller Ex-Machina. The following year she won an Academy Award for her supporting role with Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, along with a Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. Since then her diverse range of screen roles have included playing a spy boss in the film Jason Bourne, computer game heroine Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, and Gloria Steinem in the biopic The Glorias. The daughter of acclaimed stage actor Maria Fahl, she tells John Wilson how she first performed on stage at the age of seven in a musical written by Benny and Bjorn of ABBA. She also appeared in Swedish television dramas and films as a child actor. In 2025 Alicia Vikander makes her return to the stage in a new version of Ibsen’s The Lady From The Sea at The Bridge in London, her first theatre role since she was a child. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Classical trumpeter Alison Balsom talks to John Wilson about the most significant influences and experiences that have inspired her career. Having recorded 17 studio albums since 2002, she has been named Gramophone Artist of the Year, won three Classical Brit Awards, along with an OBE for services to music. She has performed with leading conductors and orchestras around the world, including at the Last Night of the Proms.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Comedian, writer, musician and actor Eric Idle talks to John Wilson about his creative influences. A founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, he wrote and performed across their four television series and films, including The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. As a songwriter, he was responsible for much of the Python’s musical comedy, including Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and The Galaxy Song.He created the comedy series Rutland Weekend Television and the Beatles parody band The Rutles, which toured and released albums. In 2005, Eric Idle created the Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot, based on the film Monty Python and The Holy Grail which, for over 20 years, has run twice in London’s West End and on Broadway and has been staged in 14 countries around the world. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Anselm Kiefer, celebrated as one of today's greatest artists, discusses the complexities of Germany's history through his impactful artwork. He reflects on how his childhood, shaped by the ruins of World War II, sparked his creativity. Kiefer shares insights into the profound themes of ruin as transformation and the silence surrounding past traumas. His admiration for figures like Van Gogh and the influence of German history on his work highlight the intricate dance between art and identity. Expect deep philosophical musings paired with Kiefer's unique material use.

Children’s writer and academic Katherine Rundell is the multi-million selling author of adventure stories including Rooftoppers, The Wolf Wilder and The Explorer which won the Costa Children’s Book of the Year. Impossible Creatures, the first of a five book series, was named Waterstones Book Of the Year in 2023. Her biography of the 17th century poet John Donne was a non-fiction bestseller and she became the youngest ever winner of the £50,000 Bailey Gifford Prize. At the age of 36, Katherine Rundell was named author of the year at the 2024 British Book Awards. Talking to John Wilson, Katherine Rundell recalls Saturday morning bus journeys from her home in south London to Covent Garden where her father would take part in amateur dance classes. Along the route of the 176 bus he would point out cultural landmarks and helped instil in Katherine a lifelong love for the city. She also explains how her father’s job as a civil servant took her family to live in Zimbabwe when she was a child, an experience that fuelled her imagination and fascination with the natural world. She also remembers the profound loss she felt at the death of her foster sister, and reveals that much of her writing for children has been driven by this tragedy. She chooses the Chronicles Of Narnia series of books, especially The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, by CS Lewis as a huge influence on her own fantasy writing and the poetry of John Donne which she describes as her "greatest literary passion". Katherine also reflects on the importance of encouraging children to read and the current state of children's publishing. Producer: Edwina Pitman