This week Libby Purves is joined by Peter Webb, Janet Behan, Greg Mortensen and Kaffe Fassett.
PETER WEBB Peter Webb and Phil 'Shaggy' Ashby became the first to circumnavigate the inhospitable waters of the Arctic island of Spitsbergen in an open rowing boat. In his book, Ice Bears and Kotick he tells how they rowed in sub-zero temperatures, past towering glaciers and icebergs and came face to face with polar bears and a Minke Whale. Ice Bears and Kotick is published by Seafarer Books.
JANET BEHAN Janet Behan is the actor and niece of playwright Brendan Behan. In her new play, Brendan at the Chelsea,she gives an insight into how her childhood was overshadowed by the presence, in person or from afar, of her firebrand uncle. Brendan at the Chelsea is the Riverside Studios, London W6, 15th January – 3rd February.
GREG MORTENSEN Greg Mortensen is a mountaineer. His book, Three Cups of Tea,tells the story of how in 1993 he drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram mountains after a failed attempt to climb K2. He was treated so well by the villagers, he promised to come back and build a school for them. Over the last fifteen years, he has built more than 60 schools in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Three Cups of Tea (by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin) is published by Penguin.
KAFFE FASSETT Kaffe Fassett is the knitwear and textile designer. In a new exhibition The Blue and White Show, hundreds of pieces of blue and white china and textiles are used to create a vast mosaic of pattern and colour. Kaffe explains how this collection has inspired his most recent designs. The Blue and White Show is at the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, 19th January - 30 March.
Books available by Kaffe Fassett: Quilts in the Sun and Kaffe Knits Again, both published by Rowan.
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