A fascinating collection of some 250 short
reviews of radio broadcasts made during the late 1960s, when Peter Thorogood
was Critic for ‘The Spoken Word’ column of the popular BBC periodical,
The Listener.
The articles cover a wide range of subjects, including art,
antique-collecting, books and authors, gardens and the countryside, crime,
entertainment, history, music and myth, poets and poetry, the pop scene,
poverty and population, revolution and revolt, sport, technology, and
travel.
We learn about a sensational scandal
involving Mr. Gladstone, George Bernard Shaw’s
nom de plume
and the wit of Queen Victoria. We track down the elusive Frank Richards,
author of the ‘Billy Bunter’ stories; and we discover if there really are
fairies at the bottom of our gardens. We can, through Peter Thorogood’s
often graphic reviews of these varied broadcasts, ‘hear’ again Sir Paul
Dukes’ descriptions of life in Russia during the Revolution, an
assessment of Marshall McLuhan and the ‘global village’, and travel the
world with actor and wit Peter Ustinov.
The index alone lists over 500 names of
broadcasters, presenters, producers, celebrities, literary and historical
figures. Illustrated with over eighty portraits and some fifty drawings
capturing the essence of broadcasting in the 1960s.
364 pp
ISBN 1 905206 02 X £12.50
Bramber Press
