Christian Donlan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Chris Donlan is a writer and journalist. He was born in Los Angeles and now lives in Brighton with his family. His first book, The Unmapped Mind, was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley prize.
Kate Harford discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Rev. Kate Harford serves as University Chaplain at Oxford Brookes University, and the European vocations adviser for the Metropolitan Community Churches as well as a recovering bookseller and keen amateur flautist. She’s currently studying for a master’s degree at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education and has a particular interest in queer and disabled theologies with an emphasis on mental health and neurodiversity. You can hear Kate on The Guilty Feminist podcast on episodes 64, 65 and 110.
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 BBC2 series ofTheCurious 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.
Fiona Bae discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Fiona Bae is the author of a book Make Break Remix: The Rise of K-style by Thames & Hudson, which was featured in the Financial Times, Guardian, Monocle Radio, Wallpaper magazine, British Vogue, and Le Figaro among others. Fiona was born and raised in Korea and is proud of her heritage and passionate about promoting her country and culture. Following graduation from Seoul’s Yonsei University, she has lived around the world, including stints at the UN in New York and four years in Hong Kong, and now resides in London. Fiona has her own consultancy that looks to bridge Korean culture and the rest of the world by supporting multinational companies and brands to enter Korea and promoting Korean artists, designers and architects internationally. She handles communications for Frieze Seoul, represented the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and worked with museum M+ in Hong Kong. She is now also helping Thames & Hudson to discover more book ideas related to Korea. When not evangelising about Korea, she spends her time with her husband George, a twelfth-generation gin distiller, and her son Jun. Fiona and George are developing a Korean gin together.
Historian Mark Jones discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Mark William Jones is Assistant Professor in History at University College Dublin. He is among the leading English language historians of modern Germany and a recognized authority on the history of the Weimar Republic. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time and Irish radio’s Talking History. Mark was educated at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Tübingen, and Cambridge University. He holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and has held visiting fellowships at the Free University of Berlin and Bielefeld University. He will speak at the Hay Festival in 2023. Advance praise for his book, 1923. The Forgotten Crisis in the Year of Hitler’s Beerhall Putsch describes it as ‘gripping’ (Alexander Watson), ‘fascinating’ (Katja Hoyer), ‘masterful’ (Robert Kershaw), and ‘scary’ (Peter Fritzsche).
David Pickard discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
David Pickard studied Music at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, before starting his career as Company Manager of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Following this, David worked at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park and was the Assistant Director for the Japan Festival (1991) before becoming Sir John Drummond’s deputy at the European Arts Festival. In 1993 he was appointed Chief Executive of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment where he significantly increased the orchestra’s artistic reputation and international profile, helping to establish the OAE as the pre-eminent period-instrument orchestra in the world.
In 2001 he was made General Director of Glyndebourne Festival where during his tenure he created an extensive digital programme including online streaming, big-screen and cinema relays and broadened the company’s audience base through specially priced performances for young people and a pioneering education programme.
In November 2015, David took up the role of Director of the BBC Proms. Since then he has introduced a number of initiatives, all in support of the Proms’ central mission: to bring ‘the best of classical music to the widest possible audience.’ These have included an innovative series called ‘Proms at…’ exploring music in new spaces, both in London and around the UK. He has introduced greater diversity among the composers, conductors and soloists showcased by the Proms – both in gender and ethnicity – and has also made youth music-making and youth audiences a major focus. He has expanded the range of genres explored in the festival to include gaming music, contemporary jazz, world music and, in 2018, a twenty minute animated light show projected onto the external and internal façades of the Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by a new work for orchestra and chorus by Anna Meredith.
Simon Parkin discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Simon Parkin is a contributing writer for the New Yorker, and a critic for the Observer newspaper. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and the author of three books. His most recent, The Island of Extraordinary Captives, about the Hutchinson internment camp on the Isle of Man, is a New York Times recommended read, and winner of the 2023 Wingate Literary Prize. He previously wrote A Game of Birds and Wolves and Death by Video Game.
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.
Better Known 