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 FridayÌýÌýÌý16:00-16:30
SundayÌý20:30-21:00Ìý(rpt)
Radio 4's weekly obituaries programme |
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This week |
FridayÌý4th January 2008
(Rpt) SundayÌý6th January |
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George MacDonald Fraser
Novelist who has died aged 82
George MacDonald Fraser's anti-hero, Sir Harry Flashman, entertained generations of fans with his adventures across the British Empire. The Flashman series, among other historical books, established him as a gifted, old-fashioned story-teller with a sharp wit, which he turned on Victorian values. However, he insisted the liberal left got it wrong when they thought he was attacking the empire – he said he saw it as a force for good in the world.
George MacDonald Fraser was born in Carlisle in 1925. The son of a doctor, he joined the Border regiment in 1943 and fought in Burma. Later he worked as a journalist in Carlisle, Canada and on the Glasgow Herald before he left to write full time after the 1969 publication of Flashman. The character was taken from the nineteenth century popular classic, Tom Brown’s School Days.
Jane LittleÌýspoke to fan and fellow author, Max Hastings, and to George MacDonald Fraser’s literary agent, Vivienne Schuster.
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George MacDonald Fraser was born April 2nd 1925. He died January 2nd 2008.
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Peter Houghton
Psychologist and longest surviving artificial heart pump patient in the UK has died aged 69
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Peter Houghton set a world record as the man who survived for seven and a half years with an electric heart pump, and whose example raised hopes for a mechanical alternative to transplants. The Birmingham-based psychotherapist was chosen for the pioneering treatment after a virus left him with merely ten percent of normal heart function. It was a high risk operation, privately funded by Heart Research UK.
Jane Little talks to Peter Houghton's doctor Professor Stephen Westaby and Heart Research UK Director, Barbara Harpham.
Peter Houghton was born August 20th 1938. He died November 25th 2007.
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Oscar Peterson
Jazz pianist who has died aged 82
Oscar Peterson was one of the giants of jazz who dominated jazz piano for the second half of the twentieth century. He became a huge star, thrilling audiences with unbroken runs the length of the keyboard , able to sustain any tempo and use his left hand as well as his right. He was also a great band-leader and accompanist.
Peterson was born in Montreal, the son of a railway porter from the West Indies determined all his children should do well at music. Oscar started playing the trumpet, but whenÌýtuberculosis affected his breathing he moved onto the piano, regularly practising eight hours a day.
Jane Little talks to drummer, Martin Drew whoÌýplayed with Peterson over three decades and toÌýJulian Joseph, jazz pianist, composer and broadcaster.
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was born August 15th 1925.ÌýHeÌýdied December 23rd 2007. |
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Ettore Sottsass
Designer who has died aged 90
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Ettore Sottsass helped establish Italy’s post-war reputation for design and became one of the most influential European designers of the twentieth century. His bright, eye-catching pieces for Olivetti, Alessi, Knoll and others, made household items, large and small, artistic statements – and they became hugely fashionable. His office furniture and equipment helped pave the way for the iPod and AppleMac. He also founded the Memphis group, an international collective of post-modern designers.
Last year London’s Design Museum held a retrospective of his work. Jane Little talks to its director, Deyan Sudjic.
Ettore Sottsass was born September 14th 1917.ÌýHe died December 31st 2007.
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Lily Kwok
Restaurateur who has died aged 89
Lily Kwok'sÌýlife story is the stuff of great fiction. She was born in rural China, and moved to Hong Kong when her father’s soy sauce business took off. But after his murder by a jealous rival, the business went to a distant male relative and she and her sisters were penniless again. So she went into service with an English family and took the painful decision to leave her husband and children behind and go as a maidÌýto England. It was on the long boat ride here that she perfected her chicken curry, which was to become her meal ticket to a better life. She went on to become the doyenne of Chinese cuisine in Manchester, introducing garlic and soy sauce to a post war generation that was still wedded to its boiled veg and stews.
Jane Little talks to one of her granddaughters Lisa See.
Lily Kwok was born September 28th 1918. She died December 8th 2007.
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