Great Lives

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Factual: Life Stories

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

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Matthew Parris

Stella Rimington

Christine Hall

Great Lives: Stella Rimington on Dorothy L Sayers

Stella Rimington on Dorothy L Sayers

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Stella Rimington on Dorothy L Sayers

Dame Stella Rimington explains to Matthew Parris why Dorothy L Sayers fascinates her.

Dame Stella Rimington explains her fascination with the life and writing of Dorothy L Sayers. With Matthew Parris. From 2014.

Dame Stella Rimington, former director of MI5 and a celebrated crime writer herself, nominates for a Great Life that of Dorothy L Sayers. 

Sayers' first Lord Peter Wimsey novel was published in the 1920s, the Golden Age of crime fiction, and he is still very much with us, appearing often on BBC Radio 4 Extra. 

She went on to enjoy a huge popularity with her crime novels and then turned to writing Christian essays and plays, most notably the series for the BBC on the life of Christ – which stirred up a great controversy as no-one had before impersonated Jesus on the radio. 

Dame Stella tells Matthew Parris why the paradoxes and contradictions in Dorothy Sayers' life fascinate her, and explains how Sayers' writing influences her own. With Seona Ford, chairman of the Dorothy L Sayers Society.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

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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