Radio - Libby Purves

Libby Purves has had an ongoing love affair with the radio since her childhood, when she saved her pocket money to buy a DIY transistor set. This was the 1950s, pre-television, when the family would gather round the "wireless" to listen to classic shows such as "The Glums" and "Listen With Mother". Libby's enthusiasm lasted through the teenage years of Radio Luxemburg and pirate station Caroline, and while at university she answered an ad for student volunteers for Radio Oxford. From then on she was hooked and entered the BBC as a trainee Programme Operations Assistant. The next 30 years saw her as one of the most successful and popular BBC Radio 4 broadcasters, working on "The Today Programme", "Midweek" and "The Learning Curve". In this book, she takes readers behind the scenes of these programmes with anecdotes about the personalities involved, near-disasters and triumphs, and also makes a plea for continued funding and support for the radio.