Better Known

Justine Waddell is a writer, producer and actor. Through her production company, Asterisk Films, she has just picked up the 2021 Golden Prague Czech Television Award for her documentary feature film Janine Jansen: Falling for Stradivari. She has also produced Force of Nature Natalia, directed by BAFTA and Grierson-winning filmmaker, Gerry Fox, about prima ballerina, Natalia Osipova.

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day, which Justine has developed with the British Film Institute and Piccadilly Pictures, is Justine's debut screenplay.

After graduating from Cambridge University, Justine’s film work as an actress includes lead roles in Alexander Zeldovich’s Target (Telluride Film Festival, 2011), where she learnt from Russian from scratch. She has also played leading roles in period dramas Wives and Daughters, Great Expectations and Tess of the D’urbevilles.

Justine is also the founder and CEO of Klassiki.online. Launched in 2021, Klassiki is the world’s first streaming platform to deliver classic and contemporary film content from Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. More information is available at www.klassiki.online.

1. Naoshima Art Island https://boutiquejapan.com/naoshima/
2. Abbotsford https://www.scottsabbotsford.com/
3. Russian language female filmmaking tradition https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/11768/women-directors-soviet-unions-silent-movie-era
4. Cecilia Payne Gaspochkin https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00509-3
5. African craft www.madwa.com
6. Constance Spry https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n17/rosemary-hill/at-the-garden-museum

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Cathi Unsworth discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Cathi Unsworth is a novelist, writer and editor who lives and works in London. She began her career on the legendary music weekly Sounds at the age of 19. Her novels include The Not Knowing, Weirdo and That Old Black Magic. She is currently teaching novel writing for Curtis Brown Creative's online platform. Her latest book is Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth.

1. The magazine Fortean Times https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-fortean-times.html
2. Discovering London's secrets by going for long walks https://www.london-walking-tours.co.uk/secret-london/introduction.htm
3. The noir writer Derek Raymond https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/doors-closing-slowly-derek-raymonds-factory-novels/
4. The pop artist Pauline Boty https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/obituaries/pauline-boty-overlooked.html
5. The publishers London Books https://www.london-books.co.uk/
6. The musician Tim Smith https://thequietus.com/articles/31719-tim-smith-cardiacs-strange-world

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Jeremy Musson discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Jeremy Musson is an author of many books on the country house and historic buildings and related subjects, How to Read A Country House, English Ruins, The Drawing Room, Up and Down: Stairs the history of the country house servant, and a contributor or contributing editor to many more, including with Prof Sir David Cannadine, The Country House: Past, Present and Future.

Born in London in 1965, he grew up in London and Surrey, and after a law degree, at University College, London, and an M Phil in renaissance history, at the Warburg Institute, he worked for the Victorian Society as an architectural adviser, before moving to the National Trust, in East Anglia, as a junior curator. From 1995, he worked for Country Life magazine, as architectural writer and then architectural editor.

Since 2007, he has been an independent author, expert and consultant, advising on the care of numerous historic buildings, including St Paul’s Cathedral, Bevis Marks Synagogue, Red House, Chartwell - Churchill’s country home - and Oxburgh Hall and Hardwick Hall, as well as advising on a number of new architectural projects in sensitive contexts. An occasional television presenter on architectural subjects, he was the presenter and co-writer of the two BBC 2 series of The Curious House Guest.

A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, he also teaches for the University of Cambridge, the University of Buckingham and New York University (London programmes). He sits on the FAC for Ely Cathedral, is a trustee of the Historic Houses Foundation, and is chair of the Hall Bequest Trust. He is also a former Trustee of the Stowe House Preservation Trust and the Pevsner Book Trust. He is married with two grown up daughters, has lived in Cambridge since 1993, and is an active member of the Champion of the Thames Rowing Club in Cambridge.

1. Stanway https://www.stanwayfountain.co.uk/
2. The Dennis Severs House https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/jul/25/dennis-severs-house-recreates-his-eccentric-tours-based-on-found-tapes
3. The churchyard garden, Little St Mary’s Church in Cambridge https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/little-st-marys-churchyard
4. The Compton Mortuary Chapel https://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/visit/explore-our-site/watts-cemetery-chapel
5. Homes Sweet Homes by Osbert Lancaster https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/osbert-lancaster
6. Friendships by Mark Girouard https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-writer-who-goes-where-historians-dont-dare/

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For the 250th episode, Alan Rusbridger discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alan Rusbridger was Editor in Chief of the Guardian from 1995-2015. He is currently editor of Prospect Magazine and Chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Until 2021 he was Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

During his time at the Guardian, both he and the paper won numerous awards, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism. The Guardian grew from a printed paper with a circulation of 400,000 to a leading digital news organisation with 150m browsers a month around the world. He launched now-profitable editions in Australia and the US as well as a membership scheme which now has 1m Guardian readers paying for content.

He was born in Zambia, was educated at Cambridge and lives in London. He is the co-author of the BBC drama, Fields of Gold. He is a keen amateur musician and the author of Play it Again. His memoir of journalism and its future, Breaking News, was published in 2018. He is a member of the Facebook Oversight Board. His latest book, News and How to Use it, was published in 2020.

1. Bone-conducting headphones https://www.soundguys.com/bone-conduction-headphones-20580/
2. Audio sleep masks https://www.headphonesty.com/2021/02/best-sleep-mask-with-headphones/
3. The music of Billy Mayerl http://www.perfessorbill.com/comps/wmayerl.shtml
4. Electric bikes https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/electric-bikes/article/best-electric-bikes-aJMUp0P2yY0r
5. Why free speech matters https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/26/free-speech-bigots-no-platform
6. Prospect magazine www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

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Dale Salwak discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Dale Salwak is Professor of English and American literature at Southern California’s Citrus College. He was educated at Purdue University (B.A.) and the University of Southern California (M.A., Ph.D.) under a National Defense Education Act competitive fellowship program. His 28 books include Living with a Writer (2004), Teaching Life: Letters from a Life in Literature (2008), Writers and Their Mothers (2018), The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne (2023), as well as studies of Kingsley Amis, John Braine, A. J. Cronin, Philip Larkin, Barbara Pym, Carl Sandburg, Anne Tyler, and John Wain, and the forthcoming Writers and Their Teachers (2023). He is a recipient of Purdue University’s Distinguished Alumni Award as well as a research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is also a frequent contributor to the (London) Times Higher Education Magazine and the Times Educational Supplement.

1. The writer’s secret life https://nicolebianchi.com/hobbies-of-famous-writers/
2. Importance of solitude https://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2017/08/05/7-science-backed-reasons-you-should-spend-more-time-alone/?sh=351850f81b7e
3. The spirit of place https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/aug/23/biography
4. The value of teachers https://online.merrimack.edu/importance-of-teachers/
5. The natural world https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-40228457.html
6. The importance of the classics of literature https://joseardila93.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/literature-other-aspects-of-society-i-find-interesting/

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