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Last broadcast on Mon, 26 Oct 2009, 21:30 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Andrew Marr sets the cultural agenda for the week, in conversation with the former British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Christopher Meyer, the religious historian Diarmaid MacCulloch and the writer Sara Wheeler, who talks about the Arctic.
SIR CHRISTOPHER MEYER
With nearly 40 years in the diplomatic service, and as the British Ambassador to the USA in the run-up to the Iraq war, Sir Christopher Meyer has an insider’s knowledge of diplomacy. In his book, Getting Our Way, he charts 500 years of British diplomacy: the successes and failures. And he argues that foreign policy should be dominated by one thing only: the national interest. He dismisses any notion of a global set of values.
Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: the Inside Story of British Diplomacy is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
LORD DESAI
In his political thriller Dead on Time, the Labour peer Lord Meghnad Desai has created a host of characters – both politicians and journalists alike – who are amoral, sleazy or gutless. The novel starts with the BBC’s Today programme and ends with Newsnight, and charts a day in the life of the fictional Prime Minister, Harry White. With decades as a Labour member and nearly twenty years in the House of Lords, how far has Lord Desai used the people he knows as the basis for his book?
Dead on Time is published by Beautiful Books.
DIARMAID MACCULLOCH
In A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch explores the thoughts and traditions that have shaped Christianity as it has spread from its origins in the Middle East. He illustrates its ability to adapt as it takes hold in a vast range of cultures. And he shows how theological disputes throughout history have created a plural Church with no unifying belief system, but also a faith that continues to attract new members around the globe.
A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years is published by Allen Lane and the accompanying TV series starts on Thursday 5 November at 9.00pm on BBC4.
SARA WHEELER
When Sara Wheeler was appointed as the “writer in residence” at the South Pole, her book about the Antarctic was dominated by the vastness of the landscape. Her latest book – The Magnetic North – explores its polar opposite, the Arctic. Here she finds a very different story of human tragedy and survival. The Arctic is inhabited by many different indigenous peoples, all of whom have been seriously affected by the interference of governments and the change in the climate.
The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle is published by Jonathan Cape and will be Radio 4’s Book of the Week in November.
Broadcasts
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Mon 26 Oct 200909:00
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Mon 26 Oct 200921:30
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