BBC Radio 4 LW

Top of the Class

Factual: Life Stories

John Wilson meets leading figures and takes them back to the places they left behind

John Wilson meets leading figures in their fields and takes them back to the places and people they left behind

Top of the Class: Series 3

Top of the Class: Series 3: Episode 2: Andrea Levy

Episode 2

Episode 2: Andrea Levy

Series 3

Andrea Levy

BBC Radio 4 - Top of the Class, Series 3, Andrea Levy

Novelist Andrea Levy goes back to her adult education writing class with John Wilson.

Andrea Levy never planned on being an award-winning novelist, until she went to adult education creative writing classes. John Wilson reunites her with her tutor and a class mate.

Andrea Levy is now part of the literary establishment. She was short listed for the Booker Prize in 2010 with her novel, The Long Song. In Top of the Class, she goes back to the building where her creative success took root - the old City Literature building in London's Covent Garden.

As a school girl, Andrea's literary talent never shone - it was only when she started doing an adult education class in creative writing that she realised hers was a voice which had something powerful and resonant to say. 

Encouraged by her classmates, some of her early classroom forays into creative writing were the starting point for her first novel, Every Light in the House Burnin'. 

John Wilson takes Andrea back to the building and reunites her with her creative writing tutor, Alison Fell and class mate, Albyn Hall. They retrace their steps - try and find their former classroom of more than twenty years ago and tell the story of Andrea's literary journey from classroom to international success. 

Producer: Sarah Taylor.

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John Wilson takes leading figures back to the roots which influenced their later success

John Wilson meets leading figures in their fields and takes them back to the places and people they left behind but who influenced their later success

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Top of the Class

Series 3

Episode 2: Andrea Levy

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