Great Lives

At home in Edinburgh Isabella Bird was the very picture of the ailing Victorian spinster but the moment her tiny feet hit the gangway of a steamer or squeezed into the stirrups of a horse she was transformed. Taking a doctor's advice to travel for the sake of her health Isabella headed for Australia, Japan, Korea and Hawaii before finding her spiritual home amongst the most rotten scoundrels of America's West. In 'Great Lives' the award-winning author of novels including 'How I Live Now' and 'The Bride's Farewell', Meg Rosoff explains why Isabella's transformation has inspired her books and her love of horses. She's joined by David McClay from the National Library of Scotland who maintains an archive of Isabella's colourful correspondence from the farthest flung corners of the Earth.

Comedian Dave Allen is chosen by Adil Ray, creator and star of Citizen Khan. He explains to Matthew Parris how the legendary Irish comic helped shape his own career. Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

His novels perfectly captured the shifting moral codes of middle America in the 1970s and 80s but do John Updike's novels still have something important to tell us today? The writer and comedian David Baddiel makes the case for Updike in conversation with Matthew Parris and the novelist and Updike expert, Justin Cartwright.

Pioneer of Modern architecture, Le Corbusier, chosen by award winning architect Sir David Chipperfield. Le Corbusier aimed to build a better world through radical buildings and the controversial reshaping of whole cities. Flora Samuel, Professor of Architecture at the University of Sheffield, joins Matthew Parris to unpick the life of a man who considered himself a herioc figure, fighting battles to improve the world. Presenter: Matthew Parris. Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Matthew Parris is joined by Michael Horovitz who nominates fellow poet and founder of the Beat generation Allen Ginsberg as his Great Life. Ginsberg's friend and biographer Barry Miles provides biographical detail of this colourful and controversial writer, who through his battle for free expression inspired American counter culture. Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

A new series of Great Lives with Matthew Parris begins with the life of the 'Hillbilly Shakespeare' Hank Williams as chosen by Deacon Blue singer Ricky Ross. Williams is regarded as being the prototype rock star and continues to be hugely influential on musicians today despite a short recording career of just six years before he died at the age of 29 Producer: Maggie Ayre.

The chanteuse, pianist, composer and civil rights activist Nina Simone is the choice of another female musician who has made a career of defying convention; Joanna Macgregor. Presented by Matthew Parris.

Grace Dent loves Nancy Mitford for her wit, and for the way in which she showed women that it was possible to live your life fully and unconventionally. Matthew Parris asks why, with the aid of biographer Lisa Hilton. Nancy Mitford's greatest success came with the novels The Pursuit of Love (1945) and Love in a Cold Climate (1949). Matthew Parris asks what it is about Nancy that so inspires Grace, with the aid of Mitford biographer Lisa Hilton. Grace Dent is a TV critic, newspaper columnist, author, and broadcaster. Producer Beth O'Dea First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.

"In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable" - so said Winston Churchill on this week's Great Life, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. Many would argue that he was Britain's greatest field commander since Wellington - arrogant, hard to like but undeniably successful - one of the most, perhaps the most, conspicuously successful British commander of the Second World War. He was a national celebrity. In this edition of Great Lives - Al Murray - comedian and TV personality best known for his character of 'The Pub Landlord' champions Monty - and Al starts off by showing presenter Matthew Parris his action figure doll of the man. Producer : Perminder Khatkar.

Matthew Parris is joined by trade unionist Sir Brendan Barber who nominates American author John Steinbeck as his Great Life. The author of The Grapes of Wrath aimed to fight the cause of the common man, was derided by the right as a Communist and by the left as a sell-out for supporting the Vietnam war. Brendan Barber picks through the politics and explains how Steinbeck influenced him as a teenager to look towards joining the trade union movement. After early success, describing the catastrophic effects of the Great Depression and the Dustbowl in Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck became war correspondant, nobel laureate, presidential speechwriter, Hollywood scriptwriter, and environmentalist. Professor Christopher Bigsby from the University of East Anglia helps guide us through the life of a man described as 'America's Charles Dickens'. Producer: Melvin Rickarby First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2013.

TV presenter Konnie Huq chooses the mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace. With Matthew Parris. From Banking, to air traffic control systems and to controlling the United States defence department there's a computer language called 'Ada' – it's named after Ada Lovelace – a 19th century mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron. Ada Lovelace is this week's Great Life. She's been called many things – but perhaps most poetically by Charles Babbage whom she worked with on a steam-driven calculating machine called the Difference Engine an 'enchantress of numbers', as her similarly mathematical mother had been called by Lord Byron a "princess of parallelograms". Augusta 'Ada' Byron was born in 1815 but her parents marriage was short and unhappy; they separated when Ada was one month old and she never saw her father , he died when was eight years old. Her mother, Annabella concerned Ada might inherit Byron's "poetic tendencies" had her schooled her in maths and science to try to combat any madness

Matthew Parris is joined by actor Peter Bowles who nominates George Devine, groundbreaking artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. Devine battled against the theatrical establishment, repressive censorship, helped the careers of actors like Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft, and by discovering writers like John Osborne and other 'Angry Young Men' - he changed British theatre forever. Helping guide us through the post-war landscape of Devine's life, is Philip Roberts, Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Leeds. Produced in Bristol by Melvin Rickarby First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2013.

TV journalist and writer Paul Mason talks to Matthew Parris about the 19th Century French anarchist, Louise Michel, heroine of the Paris Commune. They're joined by historian Carolyn Eichner who says that Michel "expounded action and aggression with a theatrical, infectious elegance." Known as 'the Red Virgin of Montmartre', Michel fought on the barricades in the short-lived revolution of 1871. Captured and tried by the French government, she told her accusers: "Since it seems that every heart that beats for freedom has no right to anything but a little lump of lead, I demand my share. If you let me live, I shall never cease to cry for vengeance and l shall avenge my brothers. If you are not cowards, kill me!" She served seven years in a penal colony in the South Pacific and seven thousand Parisians turned out to welcome her home. She was a school teacher, writer, orator, anthropologist, feminist and cat-lover. She wrote some moving poems – and an opera about the destruction of the world. Producer: Peter E

The writer Julie Burchill talks to Matthew Parris about the Hollywood star Ava Gardner. They're joined by Ava's biographer Lee Server. Often described as ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’, Ava Gardner made sixty-five movies, ranging from ‘Mogambo' (for which she won an Oscar nomination) to ‘Maisie Goes To Reno' (for which she didn't). She had three husbands - Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra - and many lovers including Howard Hughes, David Niven, Robert Mitchum and John F. Kennedy as well as numerous playboys, beach-boys and bullfighters. Ava Gardner was, says Matthew Parris, “a hard-drinking, wisecracking, libidinous vamp – a liberated woman before the phrase was invented.” Presented by Matthew Parris. Produced by Peter Everett. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.

Playwright Tanika Gupta chooses as her Great Life, a man who is a hero to Bengali speakers across the World, Rabindranath Tagore. Born in 1861, to a wealthy family in Calcutta, Tagore would be the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, his work spanning every genre. He was also a humanist, philanthropist, and thinker, whose friends included Yeats and Gandhi. Tagore began writing in his boyhood, and his work reflects a deep feeling for the landscape of Bengal. His plays, essays, stories and poetry quickly found a ready audience in Bengali speakers. And in 1913, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his poetry collection ‘Gitanjali', or ‘Song Offerings', his reputation was established world-wide. Tagore's brand of humanism, his anti-imperial politics, and his literature, took him around the World. It also convinced him of the dangers of European aggression and the need for Indian Independence. He died just six years before it was achieved. Playwright Tanika Gupta joins Matthew Pa

Poet, playwright, and critic Gabriel Gbadamosi chooses as his Great Life the political maverick and inventor of Afrobeat, musician Fela Kuti, and tells Matthew Parris why his work deserves to be better known. Whether withstanding ferocious beatings from the Nigerian police, insulting his audiences, or demanding a million pounds in cash upfront from Motown records, his strength and stubbornness were legendary, and his gift for controversy unmatched. Fela had more than 25 wives, some of whom he beat, and was President of his own self proclaimed Republic. He smoked dope and was the scourge of the rulers of a corrupt Nigerian state and was acclaimed as having the best live band on earth. Gabriel Gbadamosi is joined by Stephen Chan, professor of International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, to discuss the musical and political life of this outspoken force of nature. Presenter: Matthew Parris Producer: Melvin Rickarby First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 201

Astrologer and performer Russell Grant chooses one of the greatest screen legends of cinema's early years – Ivor Novello. Born in 1893 in Cardiff, Novello was also a talented writer and composer and would dominate both screen and stage with his epic romantic fantasies, until his death in 1951. Russell is joined by Richard Stirling, author of the stage biography of Novello, 'Love, from Ivor', and the adaptor of one of Novello's last productions, ‘Gay's the Word’. Presented by Matthew Parris. Produced by Lizz Pearson. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.

Dr Lucy Worsley chooses a figure as familiar as she is unknown, the great champion of Victorian nursing, Florence Nightingale. Known as 'the Lady with the Lamp' for her work in the Crimea. Born in 1820 into an upper middle class family, Florence experienced early life as a bird in a gilded cage and suffered frequent 'nervous collapse'. Prodigiously intelligent, she was also deeply religious, and at 16 declared she had heard the voice of God, calling her to nursing. By her thirties, and despite opposition from her family, Florence had succeeded in training as a nurse. She was working in a Harley Street establishment for the care of gentlewomen when Britain and France joined Turkish forces against the Russians in the Crimea. As reports came in of the men's suffering, she became convinced of her ability to help. Commissioned by the War Office, Florence set sail for the Crimea in 1854, and her work there quickly became well known. Walking the corridors with her lamp, she was adored by the men for her determinat

Edmund de Waal chooses a writer he believes is one of the greatest of the modern age - Primo Levi, author of the Periodic Table. Born in 1919 in Turin, Levi was an Italian Jew, one of the few deported to Auschwitz who would escape alive. Primo Levi's account of his time in the camp, If This Is a Man, made him one of the first writers to document the Holocaust and it established his name around the world. But Levi was not just a writer. He was a chemist, which gave him the skills that helped save his life in Auschwitz. It was also a day job he never gave up, and his passion for science remained a life-long pursuit. After the War, Levi returned to Turin, married, had a family and wrote books in his spare time. He also became an enthusiastic letter-writer, corresponding with a new generation of Germans, to help them better understand the effects of the Nazi regime. Yet from his youth, Levi suffered from depression. In 1987 he took his own life, throwing himself down the stairwell in the house where he'd been b

John Cooper Clarke, poetry's Punk Laureate, nominates Salvador Dali, the surrealist behind melting clocks, lobster telephones, and that trademark moustache. Matthew Paris asks whether Dali was a genius artist or just a gifted marketeer of his own brand image, who latterly embraced commercialism. "Both" comes the resounding answer from his champion John Cooper Clarke and the art historian Professor Dawn Ades, who recalls meeting the artist when just she just rang his doorbell in Figueres, Catalonia, back in 1968. Producer: Mark Smalley First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.