Listen to a Life
We’ve recorded over 250 life stories from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB) – Boudicca to Bobby Moore, Mrs Simpson to Mills & Boon. Each episode lasts between 10 and 30 minutes.
A selection of biographies is also available via SoundCloud
- Popular favourites: Guy Fawkes, Roald Dahl, J.R.R. Tolkien
- How are podcast subjects chosen? An ODNB editor explains
- Browse our full list of 250+ episodes by topic, including wartime lives, pioneers, sporting lives, literary lives, and more
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Current life
Ian Fleming, writer and creator of James Bond
Full list of lives
1. Wartime lives
Geoffrey Malins, filmmaker and adventurer at the Battle of the Somme, 1916 > listen to or download Geoffrey Malins' biography
Nella Last, diarist during the Second World War > listen to or download Nella Last’s biography
Flora MacDonald, Jacobite heroine who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape > listen to or download Flora MacDonald’s biography
Edward Harrison, army officer and inventor of the gas mask > listen to or download Edward Harrison’s biography
Lord Haw-Haw, fascist and propaganda broadcaster > listen to or download Lord Haw-Haw’s biography
John Simpson Kirkpatrick, war hero at Gallipoli, known as the ‘Man with the Donkey’ > listen to or download John Simpson Kirkpatrick’s biography
The Unknown Warrior, the First World War soldier buried at Westminster Abbey > listen to or download the biography of The Unknown Warrior
John Travers Cornwell, boy naval hero and Victoria Cross holder (1916) > listen to or download John Travers Cornwell’s biography
Edith Cavell, nurse and First World War war hero > listen to or download Edith Cavell’s biography
Jack Crawford, sailor and naval hero > listen to or download Jack Crawford’s biography
Albert Ball, WW1 airman and VC holder > listen to or download Albert Ball’s biography
Charles Lucas, first recipient of the Victoria Cross > listen to or download Charles Lucas’ biography
Harry Patch, last surviving veteran of the First World War > listen to or download Harry Patch’s biography
Herbert Burden, WW1 soldier, executed for desertion > listen to or download Herbert Burden’s biography
2. Criminal and legal lives
Jack Sheppard, thief and prison-breaker > listen to or download Jack Sheppard’s biography
Lord Lucan, suspected murderer > listen to or download Lord Lucan’s biography
Kim Philby, spy > listen to or download Kim Philby’s biography
The Kray brothers, criminals > listen to or download the Kray brothers’ biographies
Harold Davidson, Church of England clergyman and circus performer > listen to or download Harold Davidson’s biography
Dr Crippen, murderer > listen to or download Dr Crippen’s biography
Princess Caraboo, nineteenth-century impostor > listen to or download Princess Caraboo’s biography
Alan May, physicist and Soviet spy > listen to or download Alan May’s biography
Robert Maxwell, businessman and swindler > listen to or download Robert Maxwell’s biography
Mervyn Griffith-Jones, barrister and judge at the Lady Chatterley trial > listen to or download Mervyn Griffith-Jones’ biography
Elizabeth Fry, penal reformer and philanthropist > listen to or download Elizabeth Fry’s biography
Anthony Blunt, art historian and spy > listen to or download Anthony Blunt’s biography
Walter Dew, policeman who arrested Dr Crippen > listen to or download Walter Dew’s biography
George Scorey, policeman, at the ‘White Horse Cup Final’, 1923 > listen to or download George Scorey’s biography
3. Stage and screen
Joe Orton, playwright > listen to or download Joe Orton’s biography
Arthur Lowe, actor > listen to or download Arthur Lowe’s biography
Jack Judge, composer of ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’, sung in August 1914 > listen to or download Jack Judge’s biography
Robert Newman, founder (with Henry Wood) of Proms concerts > listen to or download Robert Newman’s biography
Arabella Churchill, co-founder of the Glastonbury Festival > listen to or download Arabella Churchill’s biography
Ian Dury, popular singer, songwriter, and actor > listen to or download Ian Dury’s biography
Cary Grant, actor > listen to or download Cary Grant’s biography
Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, comedians and popular entertainers > listen to or download Morecambe and Wise’s biography
Alistair Cooke, broadcaster and writer > listen to or download Alistair Cooke’s biography
Aldwyn Roberts, calypso singer > listen to or download Aldwyn Roberts’ biography
Fanny Cradock, television chef > listen to or download Fanny Cradock’s biography
Jacqueline Du Pré, cellist > listen to or download Jacqueline Du Pré’s biography
Jimi Hendrix, rock musician > listen to or download Jimi Hendrix’s biography
George Harrison, musician and composer, of the Beatles > listen to or download George Harrison’s biography
Maurice Gibb, singer and songwriter, of the Bee Gees > listen to or download Maurice Gibb’s biography
Thora Hird, actress > listen to or download Thora Hird’s biography
Eric Thompson, actor and creator of the Magic Roundabout > listen to or download Eric Thompson’s biography
Lotte Berk, dancer and fitness trainer > listen to or download Lotte Berk’s biography
John Lennon, musician, composer, and political activist > listen to or download John Lennon’s biography
John Peel, broadcaster > listen to or download John Peel’s biography
Freddie Mercury, singer and song-writer > listen to or download Freddie Mercury’s biography
Audrey Hepburn, film actress > listen to or download Audrey Hepburn’s biography
Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician and broadcaster > listen to or download Humphrey Lyttelton’s biography
Sandy Denny, folk singer > listen to or download Sandy Denny’s biography
Sir Peter Pears, singer > listen to or download Peter Pears’ biography
Norman Painting, radio actor (Phil Archer in The Archers) > listen to or download Norman Painting’s biography
Amy Winehouse, singer and songwriter > listen to or download Amy Winehouse’s biography
4. Literary lives
Raymond Chandler, writer > listen to or download Raymond Chandler's biography
Eric Hobsbawm, historian > listen to or download Eric Hobsbawm's biography
W.G. Sebald, writer > listen to or download W.G. Sebald's biography
Penelope Fitzgerald, novelist and biographer > listen to or download Penelope Fitzgerald's biography
Dorothy Wordsworth, writer > listen to or download Dorothy Wordsworth's biography
Roy Porter, historian > listen to or download Roy Porter's biography
Rupert Brooke, poet > listen to or download Rupert Brooke's biography
Christopher Hitchens, journalist and author > listen to or download Christopher Hitchens' biography
Dylan Thomas, poet > listen to or download Dylan Thomas’ biography
Arthur Conan Doyle, writer > listen to or download Arthur Conan Doyle’s biography
Beryl Bainbridge, novelist > listen to or download Beryl Bainbridge’s biography
Christopher Isherwood, writer > listen to or download Christopher Isherwood’s biography
William Minor, military surgeon, asylum inmate, and contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary > listen to or download William Minor’s biography
Olaudah Equiano, author and slavery abolitionist > listen to or download Olaudah Equiano’s biography
George Orwell, political writer and essayist > listen to or download George Orwell's biography
J. R. R. Tolkien, writer and philologist > listen to or download J. R. R. Tolkien’s biography
Angela Carter, writer > listen to or download Angela Carter’s biography
James Murray, first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary > listen to or download James Murray’s biography
Ian Fleming, writer and creator of James Bond > listen to or download Ian Fleming’s biography
Alice Liddell, prototype of the character Alice (in Wonderland) > listen to or download Alice Liddell’s biography
Mills and Boon, romantic publishers > listen to or download the Mills and Boon podcast
Roger Hargreaves, children’s author and creator of the Mr Men and Little Miss books > listen to or download Roger Hargreaves’ biography
Helene Hanff, writer and Anglophile in the USA (84 Charing Cross Road) > listen to or download Helene Hanff’s biography
Dee Wells, journalist > listen to or download Dee Wells’ biography
Barbara Cartland, romantic novelist > listen to or download Barbara Cartland’s biography
Vita Sackville-West, writer and gardener > listen to or download Vita Sackville-West’s biography
Roald Dahl, writer > listen to or download Roald Dahl’s biography
Philip Larkin, poet, writer, and librarian > listen to or download Philip Larkin’s biography
Douglas Adams, writer > listen to or download Douglas Adams’ biography
Mary Wesley, novelist > listen to or download Mary Wesley’s biography
Sir Allen Lane, publisher > listen to or download Allen Lane’s biography
Malcolm Bradbury, writer and literary scholar > listen to Malcolm Bradbury’s biography
Ignatius Sancho, author > listen to or download Ignatius Sancho’s biography
Vera Brittain, writer > listen to or download Vera Brittain’s biography
P. G. Wodehouse, writer > listen to or download P. G. Wodehouse’s biography
Agatha Christie, writer > listen to or download Agatha Christie’s biography
Enid Blyton, children's writer > listen to or download Enid Blyton’s biography
Mrs. Beeton, writer on household management > listen to or download Mrs. Beeton’s biography
Arthur C. Clarke, writer > listen to or download Arthur Clarke’s biography
J.G. Ballard, writer > listen to or download J.G. Ballard’s biography
Sylvia Plath, poet > listen to or download Sylvia Plath’s biography
Nora Joyce, wife of James > listen to or download Nora Joyce’s biography
Elizabeth David, cookery writer > listen to or download Elizabeth David’s biography
Sir John Betjeman, poet laureate > listen to or download Sir John Betjeman’s biography
A.A. Milne, writer > listen to or download A.A. Milne’s biography
Mary Wollstonecraft, author and advocate of women's rights > listen to or download Mary Wollstonecraft’s biography
Nellie Boxall, cook and servant to Virginia Woolf > listen to or download Nellie Boxall’s biography
5. Political and royal lives
Women's Social and Political Union, campaigners for women’s suffrage > listen to or download the article on the Women's Social and Political Union
Alexandr Litvinenko, intelligence officer and dissident > listen to or download Alexandr Litvinenko’s biography
Founding Fathers, shapers of the United States > listen to or download the article on the Founding Fathers
Mary Wollstonecraft, author and advocate of women's rights > listen to or download Mary Wollstonecraft’s biography
Toldpuddle Martyrs, campaigners for trade union rights, 1834 > listen to or download the article on the Tolpuddle Martyrs
Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, diarist and political companion > listen to or download Margot Asquith’s biography
Catherine Gladstone, wife of William Gladstone > listen to or download Catherine Gladstone’s biography
Hanoverian Succession > listen to or download the article on the Hanoverian Succession
John Smith, Labour Party leader > listen to or download John Smith’s biography
Sir Gordon Reece, public relations consultant who created Mrs Thatcher’s image > listen to or download Sir Gordon Reece’s biography
Paul Robeson, US actor, singer, and political activist > listen to or download Paul Robeson’s biography
Denis Thatcher, prime ministerial consort > listen to or download Denis Thatcher’s biography
Mo Mowlam, New Labour politician > listen to or download Mo Mowlam’s biography
John Profumo, politician and social worker > listen to or download John Profumo’s biography
Nancy Astor, society hostess and politician > listen to or download Nancy Astor’s biography
Emily Wilding Davison, suffragette, killed at the Epsom Derby, 1913 > listen to or download Emily Davison’s biography
Gwyneth Bebb, pioneering legal reformer for women > listen to or download Gwyneth Bebb’s biography
Alfred Roberts, father of Margaret Thatcher > listen to or download Alfred Roberts’ biography
Diana, princess of Wales > listen to or download Diana's biography
Lionel Logue, speech therapist who treated George VI > listen to or download Lionel Logue’s biography
John Brown, Queen Victoria's servant > listen to or download John Brown’s biography
Wallis Windsor (Mrs Simpson), duchess of Windsor, who married Edward VIII > listen to or download Wallis Windsor’s biography
Henry Croft, inventor of pearly king's and queen's tradition > listen to or download Henry Croft’s biography
Constance Markievicz, Irish republican and first woman elected to UK parliament > listen to or download Constance Markievicz’s biography
Victoria Woodhull, women's rights campaigner and first female presidential candidate in the United States of America > listen to or download Victoria Woodhull’s biography
6. Science, invention, and business
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, physician > listen to or download the article on Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Ada Lovelace, mathematician and computer pioneer > listen to or download the article on Ada Lovelace
Lunar Society of Birmingham, scientific network from 1760s > listen to or download the article on the Lunar Society of Birmingham
Robert Watson-Watt, inventor of radar > listen to or download Robert Watson-Watt’s biography
George Hersee, television engineer and inventor of TV testcard > listen to or download George Hersee’s biography
Charles Rolls, motor car promoter and aviator; Sir Henry Royce, engineer and motor car designer > listen to or download Charles Rolls and Sir Henry Royce’s biographies
William Bowler, hatter and inventor of the bowler hat > listen to or download William Bowler’s biography
George Bennie, inventor of the railplane > listen to or download George Bennie’s biography
Forrest Mars, the man behind the Mars Bar > listen to or download Forrest Mars’ biography
Anne Darwin, daughter of Charles Darwin and subject of experiments into human behaviour > listen to or download Anne Darwin’s biography
Charles Macintosh, inventor of mackintosh waterproof fabrics > listen to or download Charles Macintosh’s biography
Percy Shaw, inventor of cats-eye road studs > listen to or download Percy Shaw’s biography
John Logie Baird, inventor of television > listen to or download John Logie Baird’s biography
Alexander Fleming, bacteriologist and discoverer of penicillin > listen to or download Alexander Fleming’s biography
Rosalind Franklin, crystallographer > listen to or download Rosalind Franklin’s biography
Reginald Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire aircraft > listen to or download Reginald Mitchell’s biography
William Morris, automobile manufacturer and philanthropist > listen to or download William Morris’ biography
Alan Turing, pioneer of computer science > listen to or download Alan Turing’s biography
Frank Pantridge, physician and inventor of the heart defibrillator, 1960s > listen to or download Frank Pantridge’s biography
Sir Rowland Hill, inventor of penny postage > listen to or download Sir Rowland Hill’s biography
Luke Howard, meteorologist and ‘namer of clouds’ > listen to or download Luke Howard’s biography
Edward Stone, 18th-century discoverer of the active ingredient in aspirin > listen to or download Edward Stone’s biography
Albert Durrant, designer of the London Routemaster bus > listen to or download Albert Durrant’s biography
Edwin Budding, inventor of the lawn mower > listen to or download Edwin Budding’s biography
Gustav Jaeger, dress reformer > listen to or download Gustav Jaeger’s biography
James Graham, quack physician > listen to or download James Graham’s biography
Anita Roddick, businesswoman and founder of the Body Shop > listen to or download Anita Roddick’s biography
Abram Lyle, shipowner and sugar refiner > listen to or download Abram Lyle’s biography
Ruth Belville, time seller > listen to or download Ruth Belville’s biography
Sidney Bloom, London restaurateur > listen to or download Sidney Bloom’s biography
Alan Sainsbury, retailer and bringer of supermarkets to Britain > listen to or download Alan Sainsbury’s biography
7. Explorers, pioneers, and founders
Captain Robert Scott, naval officer and Antarctic explorer > listen to or download Captain Scott’s biography
Captain Oates, Antarctic explorer on Scott’s 1912 expedition > listen to or download Captain Oates’ biography
Phyllis Pearsall, map publisher and creator of the London A to Z > listen to or download Phyllis Pearsall’s biography
Deen Mahomed, nineteenth-century founder of Britain’s first curry house > listen to or download Deen Mahomed’s biography
Amy Johnson, international aviator > listen to or download Amy Johnson’s biography
Lola Montez, adventuress in Latin America > listen to or download Lola Montez’s biography
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, civil engineer > listen to or download Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s biography
James Blyth, electrical engineer and inventor of the wind turbine > listen to or download James Blyth’s biography
Charles Fortnum and Hugh Mason, 18th-century grocers and founders of Fortnum and Mason’s, London > listen to or download Fortnum and Mason’s biography
William Penny Brookes, 19th-century originator of the Olympic movement > listen to or download William Penny Brookes’ biography
John Alcock and Arthur Brown, first people to fly non-stop across the Atlantic > listen to or download Alcock and Brown’s biography
William Hillary, founder of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) > listen to or download William Hillary’s biography
Constance Smith, reviver of Mothering Sunday, 1917 > listen to or download Constance Smith’s biography
Margaret Watt, founder of the first Women’s Institute, 1915 > listen to or download Margaret Watt’s biography
Grace Darling, heroine > listen to or download Grace Darling’s biography
Mary Whitehouse, schoolteacher and morality campaigner > listen to or download Mary Whitehouse’s biography
Thomas Barnardo, philanthropist and founder of Dr Barnardo's Homes > listen to or download Thomas Barnardo’s biography
Wallace Hartley, musician and bandleader on the RMS Titanic > listen to or download Wallace Hartley’s biography
Edward Smith, captain of the Titanic > listen to or download Edward Smith’s biography
Alice Ayres, domestic servant and heroine > listen to or download Alice Ayres’ biography
8. Sporting lives
Cuthbert Ottaway, sportsman and first man to captain an England football team > listen to or download Cuthbert Ottaway’s biography
Charles Miller, bringer of football to Brazil > listen to or download Charles Miller’s biography
Dorothy Levitt, pioneering woman motorist > listen to or download Dorothy Levitt’s biography
Lily Parr, pioneer of women’s football in 1920s > listen to or download Lily Parr’s biography
Stanley Matthews, football player > listen to or download Stanley Matthew’s biography
Matthew Webb, first person to swim the English Channel > listen to or download Matthew Webb’s biography
The Busby Babes, Manchester United footballers and victims of the Munich air crash > listen to or download the Busby Babes podcast
Fred Perry, tennis player > listen to or download Fred Perry’s biography
Bobby Moore, footballer and captain of England, 1966 > listen to or download Bobby Moore’s biography
Barry Sheene, racing motorcyclist > listen to or download Barry Sheene’s biography
Charles Blondin, tightrope walker > listen to or download Charles Blondin’s biography
Douglas Jardine, cricketer > listen to or download Douglas Jardine’s biography
George Best, footballer > listen to or download George Best’s biography
Alf Ramsey, footballer and football manager > listen to or download Alf Ramsey’s biography
Brian Clough, football manager > listen to or download Brian Clough’s biography
Lucy Morton, 1924 Olympic swimmer; first British woman to win a swimming gold medal > listen to or download Lucy Morton’s biography
Ludwig Guttmann, creator of the Stoke Mandeville Games, later Paralympics, 1945 > listen to or download Ludwig Guttmann’s biography
Ivo Bligh, cricketer and bequeather of the ‘Ashes’ > listen to or download Ivo Bligh’s biography
Archibald Leitch, designer of football stadiums > listen to or download Archibald Leitch’s biography
Albert Osman, doyen of pigeon racing > listen to or download Albert Osman’s biography
9. Arts and culture
Sutherland MacDonald, pioneering tattoo artist > listen to or download Sutherland MacDonald’s biography
Capability Brown, landscape architect and gardener > listen to or download Capability Brown’s biography
The Bluestocking Circle, intellectual network from 1750s > listen to or download the article on The Bluestocking Circle
James Maxwell and Charles Tuke, architects of Blackpool Tower > listen to or download James Maxwell and Charles Tuke’s biography
Vidal Sassoon, hairdresser > listen to or download Vidal Sassoon’s biography
Pannonica de Koenigswarter, musical patron > listen to or download Pannonica de Koenigswarter’s biography
Francis Bacon, painter > listen to or download Francis Bacon’s biography
Bunny Roger, couturier, socialite, and man of fashion > listen to or download Bunny Roger’s biography
Chitqua, Chinese artist and visitor to London in the 1770s > listen to or download Chitqua’s biography
Mr and Mrs Andrews, subjects of a painting by Thomas Gainsborough, c.1750 > listen to or download Mr and Mrs Andrews’ biography
Madame Tussaud, founder of London’s waxworks exhibition > listen to or download Madame Tussaud’s biography
Billy Butlin, fairground proprietor and founder of holiday camps > listen to or download Billy Butlin’s biography
Jock Kinneir, designer of modern British road signs > listen to or download Jock Kinneir’s biography
Julia Margaret Cameron, photographer > listen to or download the article on Julia Margaret Cameron
Barbara Hepworth, sculptor > listen to or download Barbara Hepworth’s biography
Charles Isham, bringer of garden gnomes to England > listen to or download Charles Ishams’ biography
10. Medieval and early modern lives
Alice Bryene, landowner and record keeper in 1420s > listen to or download Alice Bryene’s biography
The Salem Witches, accusers and accused in Salem Massachusetts, 1692 > listen to or download the article on The Salem Witches
Christina Carpenter, 14th-century religious recluse > listen to or download Christina Carpenter’s biography
St Godric, trader and hermit > listen to or download St Godric’s biography
Dick Whittington, merchant and mayor of London > listen to or download Dick Whittington’s biography
Margaret Clitherow, Roman Catholic martyr > listen to or download Margaret Clitherow’s biography
Elizabeth Pepys, wife of diarist Samuel Pepys > listen to or download Elizabeth Pepys’ biography
Thomas Parr, 17th-century centenarian, known as Old Parr > listen to or download Thomas Parr’s biography
Elizabeth Shackleton, Lancashire diarist of 1750s > listen to or download Elizabeth Shackleton’s biography
Thomas Farriner, baker in whose premises began the Great Fire of London > listen to or download Thomas Farriner’s biography
Robert Dover, organizer of the Cotswold Olimpick games from 1612 > listen to or download Robert Dover’s biography
William Weston, first Englishman to lead an expedition to North America > listen to or download William Weston’s biography
Pocahontas, Algonquian Indian princess > listen to or download Pocahontas’ biography
Nell Gwyn, actress and royal mistress of Charles II > listen to or download Nell Gwyn’s biography
Boudicca, queen of the Iceni > listen to or download Boudicca’s biography
Margaret Roper, scholar and daughter of Thomas More, Henry VIII's chancellor > listen to or download Margaret Roper’s biographyr >l
St Augustine, first archbishop of Canterbury, AD 596 > listen to or download St Augustine’s biography
Agnes Cowper, servant and vagrant in 1610s > listen to or download Agnes Cowper’s biography
Moll Cutpurse, Jacobean thief > listen to or download Moll Cutpurse’s biography
Bogo de Clare, medieval churchman and figure of scandal > listen to or download Bogo de Clare’s biography
Catherine Ferrers, alleged 17th-century highwaywoman > listen to or download Catherine Ferrers’ biography
Hannah Snell, 18th-century female soldier > listen to or download Hannah Snell’s biography
Christian Fletcher, royalist heroine of British civil wars > listen to or download Christian Fletcher’s biography
Friar Tuck, legendary outlaw and one of Robin Hood’s ‘Merrie Men’ > listen to or download Friar Tuck’s biography
Guy Fawkes, conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 > listen to or download Guy Fawkes’ biography
Margery Kempe, visionary and author of the first autobiography in English > listen to or download Margery Kempe’s biography
Wat Tyler, leader of the peasants' revolt, 1381 > listen to or download Wat Tyler’s biography
John Blanke, black trumpeter in Henry VIII's court > listen to or download John Blanke’s biography
Hadrian, Roman emperor > listen to or download Hadrian’s biography
Pasqua Rosee, founder of London’s first coffee-house, 1656 > listen to or download Pasqua Rosee’s biography
Fanny Coker, freed slave commemorated in Bristol > listen to or download Fanny Coker’s biography
11. Mystery and fictitious lives
Red Lady of Paviland, prehistoric man > listen to or download the Red Lady of Paviland’s biography
Britannia, allegory of a nation, emblem of empire, and patriotic icon > listen to or download Britannia’s biography
The Sutton Hoo burial, site of Anglo-Saxon ship and grave > listen to or download the Sutton Hoo burial podcast
Piltdown Man, archaeological hoax > listen to or download the Piltdown Man podcast
Spring-Heeled Jack, nineteenth-century mystery assailant > listen to or download the Spring-Heeled Jack podcast
Lindow Man, archaeological discovery, known as the ‘Body in the Bog’ > listen to or download the Lindow Man podcast
John Bull, fictitious epitomist of Englishness and British imperialism > listen to or download John Bull’s biography
Elizabeth Parsons, [called the Cock Lane Ghost], impostor > listen to or download Elizabeth Parsons’ biography
Sweeney Todd, legendary murderer and barber > listen to or download Sweeney Todd’s biography
