353. From the archive: Gyles Brandreth

February 11, 2026·40 min·3 clips

Gyles Brandreth declares LBC's book club the only intelligent one, asking 'Richard and Judy, where are they?'

Brandreth arrives already warmed up. Before Dale can quite settle him, he is teasing the book club, LBC, and the need for many questions in the first place. The radio room feel helps. He goes back to LBC's first day in 1973, when he says he was on the team, then drifts into that first Christmas with Michelle and Barbara Cartland. Then the tone changes. Asked about his diaries, he says returning to forty years of entries, from childhood through the turn of the century, was quite depressing. It is a small answer, but it lands. The book may be entertaining, well reviewed, funny, perceptive, and ridiculous at times by his own description, but he talks about it as one person's life seen from the inside. Oscar Wilde supplies the title. The line about something sensational to read in the train sends him into a small argument about language, memory, and getting words right. Dale lets him go. Brandreth then brings in the Duke of Edinburgh, who once corrected him for saying on a ship instead of in a ship. It is a comic story, and also a reminder that a rebuke can stick when it comes from someone he has written about. Books keep pulling the conversation back. Proust is still unfinished, with Brandreth stuck near the start of the first volume. His current work gets the warmest push. He says he is always most enthusiastic about the project in front of him, naming Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers as the book he hopes is his best. There is some sales patter too. The end returns to publishers, formats, prices, thanks, and the loose warmth of a bookish radio room signing off.

As heard by us

A story-led conversation that values personality, memory, and a dry smile over tight structure.

Giles Brandreth carries most of this conversation, and he does it with the kind of ease that makes the whole thing feel like a long memory being sorted out in real time.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Brandreth's diaries, LBC memories, and a very exact royal correction.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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