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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Great Lives

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Life Stories

Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.

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Great Lives: Series 27

Great Lives: Episode 5: Edward Said

Edward Said

Episode 5

Episode 5: Edward Said

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Edward Said

Alexei Sayle explains why scholar and literary critic Edward Said inspired him.

Alexei Sayle explains to Matthew Parris why Edward Said, a man he met twice and described as 'very noble and fiercely intelligent', is his choice of a great life.

Edward Said was a man, who, in his own words, lived two quite separate lives. First there was the scholar and literary critic of Columbia University, and then there was the fierce critic of American and Israeli policies in the Middle East. In the United States he was an academic superstar, but his views - on Palestine in particular - made him an intensely divisive figure. He died of leukaemia in 2003.



In Great Lives, Alexei Sayle explains to Matthew Parris why Edward Said, a man he met twice and described as "very noble and fiercely intelligent", inspired him. Edward Said once described the Palestinians as 'the victims of the victims'. This eloquence, on a subject that in America was taboo, still impresses Alexei Sayle today. 



Producer: Toby Field.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Episode 5: Edward Said

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