Original version

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: The Writer With Cerebral Palsy Who Made History

Documentaries

News

The Writer With Cerebral Palsy Who Made History

18/01/2018 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, The Writer With Cerebral Palsy Who Made History

Christopher Nolan became the first severely disabled person to win the Whitbread prize.

In 1988, a remarkable Irish writer, Christopher Nolan became the first severely disabled person to win the prestigious British literary prize, the Whitbread book of the year.

Irish writer Christopher Nolan became the first severely disabled person to win the prestigious British literary prize, the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1988.  Nolan was physically disabled at birth by severe cerebral palsy, leaving him paralysed from the neck down. He won for his autobiographical book: Under the Eye of the Clock. Christy wrote by tapping a keyboard with a device strapped to his head.  Farhana Haider has been listening to the BBC archives and speaking to the art critic Eileen Battersby about the remarkable writer.

(Photo: The finalists for the Whitbread Book of the Year prize in London Christopher Nolan (seated) (L-R) Bernadette Nolan and fellow finalists Francis Wyndham, Geraldine McCaughrean, Joanna Mackle (representing Seamus Heaney) and Ian McEwan. Credit: PA)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

The Writer With Cerebral Palsy Who Made History

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

About BBC World Service