Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

We're excited to present the multi-million selling author and creator of Jack Reacher, Lee Child, as our guest today. And this is a brilliant episode. Lee is a master storyteller - painting a vivid picture of his childhood in Birmingham, his well-meaning but cold parents, his early forays into relationships with girls, and his days working at Granada Television. He also tells Gyles about his writing routine. This is a funny, fascin...

A moving and important true story is the subject of More Rosebud today, featuring the writer and social justice campaigner Lee Lawrence. Lee's mother, Cherry Groce, was wrongfully shot by a police officer in a dawn raid on their house in Brixton, south London, on the 28 September 1985 - 40 years ago this weekend. Cherry was paralysed in the incident, and spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair, until her death in 2011. Her son, ...

Sir John Major, British Prime Minister from 1992 - 1997, is our guest today. In this deeply interesting, personal and touching conversation, Sir John talks to Gyles about his childhood in South London and about his unusual and inspiring family. Sir John's background is unconventional. His father had been a successful music hall artiste, and was a great storyteller, much older than the fathers of John's friends. His mother had been ...

We're honoured to have Jung Chang, the celebrated author of the international bestseller Wild Swans, as our Rosebud guest today - and her story will astonish you. In this remarkable episode, Jung tells Gyles the story of her family - and through that, the story of China over the past 100 years. This episode takes us from the tale of her grandmother, who grew up in pre-Communist China and was subjected to the cruel custom of foot bi...

Julia Bradbury talks to Gyles about her life, upbringing and her new book "Hack Yourself Healthy". As Gyles finds out in this conversation, from the moment she began working her way up through the TV industry, Julia had led a stressful, action-packed and "high cortisol" life. Was this one of the contributing factors in her breast cancer diagnosis of 2021? Understandably, the discovery of her cancer led Julia to reassess her lifesty...

You might notice that this episode of Rosebud is slightly longer than usual - and that's because this story is so powerful. This conversation with the stand-up, writer, actor and TV star Alan Davies is virtually unedited - because it's unmissable. In it, Alan tells Gyles about the two most significant, and devastating, events of his childhood: the death of his mother when he was only six years old, and the sexual abuse he suffered ...

Our guest today is one of the UK's best known and best loved public intellectuals, the classicist and expert on Roman history Professor Dame Mary Beard. Mary tells Gyles about her country childhood in Shropshire, playing on a disused railway track and trying to memorise Jane Eyre by heart. She talks about her interesting parents - a headmistress and a "raffish" historical buildings architect, and about the alarming visits up ladder...

It's Rosebud's second birthday, and we're celebrating with another conversation with our very first guest: Dame Judi Dench. This time, it's been recorded in front of an audience, at the Concert Artists' Association in Covent Garden, London. Dame Judi treats us to some more stories from her amazing career. She tells Gyles about working with Tommy Steele, Johnny Depp and Clint Eastwood. She tells Gyles about having Eric Morecambe ove...

To end our second year of Rosebud, we have one of our most charming, talented and brilliant theatrical dames: Dame Eileen Atkins. Dame Eileen is a uniquely talented writer and actor, both on stage and screen - from Cranford, to the RSC, to The Killing of Sister George on Broadway, to Upstairs, Downstairs and The House of Eliot (which she co-created), to Mrs Dalloway (for which she wrote the screenplay). And this is one of our most ...

Our guest today is Lord Ivar Mountbatten, a great-great-great grandson of Queen Victoria, cousin of Prince Phillip, descendant of Russian Tsars and of Pushkin, and the second son of David, the late Marquess of Milford Haven, who was Prince Philip's best man at his wedding to Princess Elizabeth in 1947. Lord Ivar tells Gyles about his complex and fascinating lineage, and he also tells him about growing up in a grand house "like Down...

The sun is out and our guest this week is a ray of sunshine. It's the unique British comic actress and fashion icon Su Pollard. In this brilliant conversation, Su tells Gyles about her childhood in Nottingham, how she got the bug for performing when she was still in the infants and used to go to school dressed in wild outfits that made her look like a morris dancer. He hears about her parents, Don and Hilda, how her father liked to...

A best-selling novellist with a life story that reads like a best-selling novel... our guest this week is Anthony Horowitz. In this absorbing and - at times - moving and shocking conversation, Anthony tells Gyles about his young life and upbringing, which is extraordinary. Born to wealthy parents into a very large home of extreme privilege, Horowitz's childhood was cold, lonely and lacking in love and affection. His father was crit...