Noreen Masud discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Noreen Masud is a Lecturer in Twentieth Century Literature at the University of Bristol, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker 2020. Her first book for non-academic audiences is A Flat Place (2023): a memoir-travelogue about the beauty of flat places, and how they might help us relate to each other.

1. The beauty of flat landscapes https://theartsdesk.com/books/noreen-masud-flat-place-reflective-landscapes

2. The history of non-white British MPs https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01156/

3. Deep canvassing https://www.vox.com/2020/1/29/21065620/broockman-kalla-deep-canvassing

4. W. S. Graham https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/w-s-graham

5. The proper use of prepositions and conjunctions https://content.byui.edu/file/b8b83119-9acc-4a7b-bc84-efacf9043998/1/Grammar-1-2-1.html

6. How to make elderly carrots less bendy https://www.allrecipes.com/article/how-to-revive-limp-vegetables/

Bob Cryer discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Bob Cryer is an actor and writer best known for Coronation Street and Hollyoakes. He is the youngest child of Barry Cryer. He collaborated with his father on Barry’s book of anecdotes, Butterfly Brain, in 2010. Shortly afterwards, they created the book series Mrs Hudson’s Diaries, which was adapted into a play for Wilton’s Music Hall. Mrs Hudson’s Radio Show soon followed for Radio 4 in 2018. Their joint podcast, Now Where Were We?, launched just before Barry’s death in January 2022. Bob’s new book is Barry Cryer: Same Time Tomorrow?: The Life and Laughs of a Comedy Legend.

1. Black filter coffee https://majestycoffee.com/blogs/posts/americano-vs-drip-coffee
2. Phyllis Pearsall https://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/post/the-real-story-of-a-z-maps-by-phyllis-pearsall
3. Barry Cryer https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34041501
4. Raymond Carver https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/24/rough-crossings
5. The Felice Brothers https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/23/the-felice-brothers-life-in-the-dark-new-album
6. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/kiss-kiss-bang-bang-review/

Martin Knight discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Martin Knight is a British author. He has written autobiographies with footballers George Best, Dave Mackay, Peter Osgood and Charlie Cooke also Alan Longmuir founder member of the Bay City Rollers.

In addition he has authored true crime titles and novels. His latest book Justice Killer was released in November 2023. His collaboration with ex-criminal Ronnie Field Nefarious will be published by Harper Collins in 2024.

1. Bird identification apps https://birda.org/best-birdwatching-apps-uk/

2. Letter writing https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/26/from-me-with-love-lost-art-letter-writing

3. Non-league and lower league football https://www.echo-news.co.uk/sport/23260993.support-non-league-football/

4. The Small Faces https://medium.com/the-riff/the-tragic-story-of-the-small-faces-8830946625b9

5. The Footage Detectives https://www.tptvencore.co.uk/Playlist/Footage-Detectives?id=1ce12be2-3de3-4c50-a784-a8ceb1083fb0

6. Hastings https://www.ellieandco.co.uk/2022/02/7-secret-highlights-of-a-weekend-in-hastings-east-sussex.html

Photo of Henry Lewis by Jennifer Katzman

To mark the 300^th episode of Better Known, actor Henry Lewis discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Henry Lewis is a power house creative: writer, actor, director and puzzle genius. He is the Artistic Director of Mischief and writes, produces and performs for the company. His work with Mischief includes: The Play that Goes Wrong (Broadway, West End, UK & International Tours), Peter Pan Goes Wrong (BBC1, West End & UK Tours), The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (West End & UK Tour), The Goes Wrong Show (BBC1 & Amazon), Magic Goes Wrong (created with magicians Penn & Teller, West End), Groan Ups (West End), Mischief Movie Night (West End & UK Tour). Henry’s work has earned him five Olivier Nominations including a win for Best New Comedy for The Play that Goes Wrong, and his writing has been performed in over thirty countries worldwide. His new book is The Museum Heist. He is currently performing in the Mind Mangler: A Night of Tragic Illusion in New York.

1. Royal Institution www.rigb.org

2. I am Mother https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-capsule-genre-string-20190620-story.html

3. Paxos https://www.greektravel.com/greekislands/paxos/

4. John Duffin https://www.johnduffin.co.uk/

5. Tony’s Chocolate https://tonyschocolonely.com/uk/en

6. The Mystery Agency https://themysteryagency.com/

Lucy Eaton discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Lucy Eaton’s theatre credits include: The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Trafalgar Studios), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Donmar Warehouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream(Southwark Playhouse), Daisy Pulls it Off(Park Theatre), Khadija is 18 (Finborough Theatre) and Almost, Maine (Park Theatre).

TV credits include BBC1’s lockdown smash comedy Staged, alongside David Tennant and Michael Sheen, and Netflix US’ Murder Maps.

Alongside her acting, Lucy co-runs Go People, a production company specialising in uplifting escapism on an intimate scale. She is also Founding Director of Revels in Hand, an internationally renowned luxury events service that offers world class theatre productions in clients’ private homes. Revels in Hand has been featured in Tatler, The Guardian, Forbes, The Telegraph and Vogue.​ She hosts the Hear Me Out podcast.

1. Greek food https://greekreporter.com/2012/03/05/top-10-strange-greek-foods-you-may-like-or-not/

2. How actors learn their lines https://theactorsplace.org/how-actors-memorize-lines-part-1/

3. Colons and semi-colons https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/colonandsemi/semi

4. The pursuit of happiness https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/a_better_way_to_pursue_happiness

5. The best theatres in London https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/top-london-theatre-venues-chosen-by-you

6. You can hire theatre for your home https://www.revelsinhand.com/

Simon Garfield discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Simon Garfield was born in London in 1960. He is the author of an appealingly diverse and unpredictable canon of non-fiction, including the bestsellers Mauve, Just My Type and On The Map. He is a trustee of Mass Observation, and is the editor of several books of diaries from the archive, including Our Hidden Lives and A Notable Woman. His recent books include Timekeepers, In Miniature, and All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopaedia.

1. The Interrogatory Mood by Padget Powell https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/07/padgett-powell-interrogative-mood-review

2. The complete works of Tracy Kidder https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1981/10/08/modern-times/

3. The Albertus typeface https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/simon-garfield/albertus/9781399609258/

4. Backlisted podcast https://www.backlisted.fm/

5. Yallah Coffee bar in St Ives https://yallahcoffee.co.uk

6. New Wave – Elvis Costello’s collaboration with the Slovenian Eurovision entrants Joker Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKcxldNZYQA

Leah Morgan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Leah Morgan is a project engineer and science communicator working in fusion energy research. She makes science and engineering videos on her YouTube channel Leah Morgan and gives talks all about the energy of the future! You can find her at www.leahmorgan.co.uk and on TikTok, Youtube, and Instagram @LeahLoveScience.

1. Fusion energy research https://www.iaea.org/topics/fusion

2. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell https://scientificwomen.net/women/bell-jocelyn-14

3. Melodeons https://hobgoblin.com/instruments/instrument/melodeon

4. The King of Rome https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/meet-derbys-king-rome-worlds-5932317

5. The dubious origins of English folk songs https://biblio.uottawa.ca/omeka1/silentfilmmusiccanada/exhibits/show/folk-music/cecil-sharp

6. The value of opportunity https://opportunitynetwork.org/about/

Max Décharné discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Max Décharné‘s new book Teddy Boys – Post-war Britain and the First Youth Revolution is published by Profile Books on 25 January 2024. He was the drummer of the band Gallon Drunk, and has been the singer and songwriter with The Flaming Stars since 1994. An authority on the 1950s and 1960s counterculture, his other books include Vulgar Tongues: An Alternative History of British Slang, A Rocket in My Pocket, Hardboiled Hollywood and King’s Road: The Rise and Fall of the Hippest Street in the World. He lives in London. 

1. Frank Key https://foxedquarterly.com/andrew-nixon-frank-key-hooting-yard-stories-literary-review/

2. Annette Hanshaw https://www.sandybrownjazz.co.uk/JazzRemembered/AnnetteHanshaw.html

3. Jonathan Latimer https://mysteryfile.com/Latimer/Latimer.html

4. What’s On in London https://vintagemagazinecompany.co.uk/collections/whats-on-in-london

5. The Jacobites https://soundcloud.com/jacobites/i-miss-you

6. Coup de Torchon http://www.frenchfilms.org/review/coup-de-torchon-1981.html

Nigel Planer discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Nigel Planer is an actor, writer and musician. He played Neil in the BBC comedy The Young Ones and Ralph Filthy in Filthy Rich & Catflap. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including original casts of Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His play, It’s Headed Straight Towards Us, is co-written with Adrian Edmondson, stars Samuel West and Rufus Hound, and is on at the Park Theatre, London. His latest book is Jeremiah Bourne in Time.

1. Myths of 20^th century leftist icons https://www.theguardian.com/politics/from-the-archive-blog/2019/may/01/eugenics-founding-fathers-british-socialism-archive-1997

2. Ambedkar and Mulk Raj Anand https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2023/02/27/book-review-ambedkar-in-london-by-william-gould-santosh-dass-and-christophe-jaffrelot/

3. Jane Jacobs https://www.nybooks.com/online/2012/03/30/jane-jacobs-neocons-health-care/

4. Anselm Keifer https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/03/anselm-kiefers-beautiful-ruins

5. Nenda Neururer https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10130242/

6. Learning languages https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2022/04/29/learning-language-changes-your-brain/

Danell Jones discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Danell Jones is a writer with a PhD in literature from Columbia University. She is the author of The Virginia Woolf Writers Workshop; the poetry collection Desert Elegy; and An African in Imperial London, which won the High Plains Book Award for Nonfiction. Her newest book is The Girl Prince: Virginia Woolf, Race, and the Dreadnought Hoax.

1. Julia Margaret Cameron’s Photographs of Alamayou, Prince of Abyssinia https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1394113/d%C3%A8jatch-al%C3%A1mayou–b%C3%A1sha-f%C3%A9lika-photograph-cameron-julia-margaret/

2. Britons Through Negro Spectacles, by A.B.C. Merriman-Labor https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/447069/britons-through-negro-spectacles-by-merriman-labor-abc/9780241559741

3. Public libraries https://www.neh.gov/article/complicated-role-modern-public-library

4. Sophie Stone performing All the World’s A Stage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbIOZZy54EM

5. California Highway 395 https://californiathroughmylens.com/highway-395-roadtrip/

6. London Calling by Una Marson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6xyJxC_yl4