Professor Femi Oyebode; Sheila Kohler; Stephen Boxer; Heloise Tunstall-Behrens

02/01/17 • 41 min

Actor Stephen Boxer; writer Sheila Kohler; psychiatrist and poet Professor Femi Oyebode and composer Heloise Tunstall-Behrens join Libby Purves.

Heloise Tunstall-Behrens is a composer and bee-keeper. Her new work The Swarm, a 60-minute opera performed by the Quorum, follows a swarm of bees in their search for a new home as they encounter a deadly extractor fan, a thunder storm and a fierce debate over two potential sites on which to build a hive. Inspiration for the piece came after Heloise inserted a recording device into her hives during a particularly dynamic phase of swarming. The Swarm is at the Vault Festival, The Vaults, London SE1 .

Professor Femi Oyebode is professor of psychiatry and head of department at the University of Birmingham. Winner of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Lifetime Achievement Award, he has also written six volumes of poetry. Professor Oyebode believes medicine is increasingly technology-based, meaning the patient can easily get lost, and he regards medicine as an art rather than a science, a profession in which you apply skills to people. "Every person is different," he says. "As psychiatrists, we are trained to understand human beings and this includes understanding ourselves."

Sheila Kohler is a writer. In her memoir, Once We Were Sisters, she tells the story of growing up in the suffocating gentility of 1950s South Africa with her sister Maxine. Her sister's death in a car accident in 1976 galvanised Sheila to start writing as a way of dealing with her grief. The author of 14 works of fiction, her new book addresses her relationship with her sister and, more broadly, the violence underpinning much of her homeland. Once We Were Sisters is published by Canongate.

Stephen Boxer is an actor best known for his roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company including Titus Andronicus and King Lear and portraying CS Lewis in Shadowlands. He is currently in Raising Martha, a new dark comedy by award-winning writer David Spicer. The play tackles terrorism, animal rights, and six-foot frogs! Raising Martha is at the Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London N4.

Producer: Paula McGinley.

Actor Stephen Boxer; writer Sheila Kohler; psychiatrist and poet Professor Femi Oyebode and composer Heloise Tunstall-Behrens join Libby Purves.

Producer: Paula McGinley.

Previous Episode

Evelyn Glennie; Milton Jones; Xiaolu Guo; Arno Geiger.

Percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie; comedian Milton Jones; writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo and novelist Arno Geiger meet Libby Purves.

Evelyn Glennie is an award-winning percussionist. She played the first percussion concerto in the history of The Proms at the Albert Hall in 1992, which paved the way for orchestras around the world to feature percussion concerti. She also played a leading role role in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Profoundly deaf since childhood, she set out to use her body as a resonating chamber, 'hearing' partly through her bare feet on the floor. As part of the Celtic Connections Festival she is playing a new piece marking the 70th anniversary of the partition of India alongside fellow percussionist Trilok Gurtu. The Rhythm in Me premieres at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

Xiaolu Guo is a Chinese born writer and film-maker. In her memoir, Once Upon a Time in the East, she recounts her tumultuous life from meeting her parents for the first time at six and living in grinding poverty with her illiterate grandparents in a fishing village on the East China Sea. Her story takes her from a run-down shack to film school in a rapidly changing Beijing, navigating the complexities of modern China - censorship, underground art and Western boyfriends. Once Upon a Time in the East: A story of Growing Up is published by Chatto & Windus.

Arno Geiger is an Austrian novelist. In The Old King in his Exile he tells the story of his late father August's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. The book is a deeply moving account of his father's illness but also stresses how it brought the two closer together. A remote figure, August didn't talk to his family much about his past - a frugal childhood and wartime experiences as a child soldier - but as his dementia took hold his son discovered more about the man and his character. The Old King in his Exile is published by And Other Stories.

Milton Jones is a stand-up comedian, known by many as the king of the one-liners. He's a regular panellist on BBC Two's Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo and , Thanks a Lot Milton Jones! on Radio 4. Later this year he embarks on a new tour, Milton Jones is Out There, taking a philosophical look at his life so far with his 'manifesto of nonsense'. Milton Jones is Out There 2017 tour begins in September at the Richmond Theatre.

Producer: Paula McGinley.

Next Episode

Levison Wood; Kimberley Chambers; John de St Jorre; Annie Siddons.

Explorer and writer Levison Wood; author Kimberley Chambers; journalist and writer John de St Jorre and performer and playwright Annie Siddons join Libby Purves.

Kimberley Chambers is a former market trader, DJ and minicab driver who is now a best-selling author. She came to fiction late in life, writing during her down time as a cabbie. Inspired by her 'colourful life', the books are gritty crime novels with a twist of dark humour set in and around London's East End and featuring a cast of spirited characters. Her latest release, Backstabber is published by Harper Collins.

John de St Jorre is a journalist and writer. In his memoir, Darling Baby Mine, he writes about the search for his mother who was erased from the family history. Unable to find so much as a photo of her, the distant memory of a woman laughing while smoking is the only image of her he has. He grew up in wartime Britain under the care of his father and stepmother and it wasn't until he reached adulthood that he began to piece together his mother's tragic story. Darling Baby Mine is published by Quartet.

Annie Siddons is a playwright, performer and musician. Her new show How (Not) to live in Suburbia is based on her own experiences of loneliness when she felt adrift as a single mother living in what she calls one of London's 'most married' suburbs. Annie takes a poignant and humorous look at what it is like to live in a community where you don't fit in, the compromises people make for the sake of their children, how chronic loneliness manifests itself and her own personal quest to cure it. How (Not) to live in Suburbia is at the Soho Theatre and later on tour.

Levison Wood is an explorer, photographer and author. He spent ten years in the British Army and led expeditions on five continents. He has travelled in over 80 countries and spent a number of years living in the wilds of Africa and Asia. For his most recent expedition, he set out to trek 1800 miles from Mexico to Columbia which was filmed for the Channel 4 series, Walking the Americas. Beginning in the north-eastern tip of Mexico, he tackles the entire length of Central America, through eight countries before attempting to cross the treacherous Darien Gap into Colombia and South America. His book Walking the Americas is published by Hodder and Stoughton.

Producer: Paula McGinley.