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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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Matthew Parris

Brendan Barber

Melvin Rickarby

Great Lives: Sir Brendan Barber on John Steinbeck

Sir Brendan Barber on John Steinbeck

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Sir Brendan Barber on John Steinbeck

Sir Brendan Barber champions John Steinbeck.

Trade unionist Sir Brendan Barber chooses the American novelist, John Steinbeck. With Matthew Parris. From 2013.

Trade unionist Sir Brendan Barber 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 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 correspondent, Nobel Laureate, presidential speechwriter, Hollywood scriptwriter, and environmentalist. 

Presented by Matthew Parris.  

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.

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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