0:00:14 > 0:00:16APPLAUSE
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Thank you, and hello, and welcome to My Life In Books,
0:00:22 > 0:00:27a chance for our guests to talk about their favourite reads and why they're important.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31Now, my first guest tonight is comedian and actor Chris Addison,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35famous for playing the hapless, special adviser with the completely
0:00:35 > 0:00:39hopeless love life in the political comedy series The Thick Of It.
0:00:39 > 0:00:44Alongside him, Kate Silverton, she anchors BBC News at all times of day,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48but currently is experiencing a very early morning shift,
0:00:48 > 0:00:50she's just had her first baby.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52Welcome to you both.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54Thank you.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57APPLAUSE
0:00:59 > 0:01:00And just to remind you,
0:01:00 > 0:01:05this series is part of the BBC's celebration of World Book Day.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Kate, you're an Essex girl.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11I am. A very proud Essex girl, yes. Waltham Abbey.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13Big house, double drive?
0:01:13 > 0:01:15No, no, my parents, my dad was a cabbie.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17A black cab driver?
0:01:17 > 0:01:21A black cab driver, and my mum was a playschool teacher,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24so we grew up in a house that was less on the wealthy side,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27but a huge amount of love and support when we were growing up,
0:01:27 > 0:01:29my two sisters and I.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31And you were the other end of the country?
0:01:31 > 0:01:33Yes, well, yes. I was in Manchester.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37My dad was a doctor, a hospital doctor.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39A consultant?
0:01:39 > 0:01:43A consultant, yes, at the Children's Hospital in Manchester.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46And my mum did lots of things, she was a teacher, she was a social worker,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49and then later on she went back to, she went back to university
0:01:49 > 0:01:52which is what she missed out on, what she most wanted to do.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Were you read to as a small child?
0:01:54 > 0:01:55Oh, yeah, absolutely.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Yeah, yeah, that was, some of my favourite, kind of, memories.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03I think it's really important, reading to kids. I do that.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08That's my big thing now, it's to get home in time to read stories to my children.
0:02:08 > 0:02:09Your children are now...?
0:02:09 > 0:02:13They're five and three quarters, the three quarters is very important.
0:02:13 > 0:02:14Yes.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17And my daughter is, she's two,
0:02:17 > 0:02:22although she'll tell you that she's two and four quarters.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26Kate, you were quite an outdoor girl.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30I was the one who used to like playing in the brook and bringing things home in jam jars.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34I used to love nothing more than going off to Brownies and Guides and making fires.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39Oh, Brownies, come on, can you do a bit of the Brownie promise?
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Oh, don't, what was it?
0:02:42 > 0:02:44- I'm not asking you. - I wasn't in the Brownies.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49I have a feminine aspect but I was not actually in the Brownies.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55OK, it was, um, I promise that I will do my best, to do my duty to God,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59to serve the Queen, help other people, and to keep the Brownie Guide Law.
0:02:59 > 0:03:00Thank you very much.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02Can you do the Scouts?
0:03:02 > 0:03:05It's the same, but with Scouts where Brownies...
0:03:05 > 0:03:09Baden Powell was fundamentally quite lazy when it came to writing laws.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11We've got a picture of you, Kate.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Where's that?
0:03:13 > 0:03:16That was in Devon.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19My mum, again, bless her, wouldn't allow anything hairy into the house,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22we were only allowed to have a tortoise for a pet.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26So anywhere that we went that we had an animal,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29I was either petting it or jumping on it if it was a horse,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33and again, yes, loving the outdoors, and natural history in general.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36So, your first book is no surprise.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38My Favourite Animal Stories,
0:03:38 > 0:03:40collected by Gerald Durrell.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45Yes, he was a very well known natural historian and conservationist.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47And he wrote himself,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50but this is just a lovely, lovely book of his favourite stories,
0:03:50 > 0:03:55that includes things like Tarka the Otter and Moby Dick, which were also favourites of mine.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58It's quite sweet, when I was asked to come in the programme,
0:03:58 > 0:04:00I picked up the book and there's a little quote saying,
0:04:00 > 0:04:04"One of the first brilliant books I read, Kate, kiss."
0:04:04 > 0:04:07I obviously wrote that as I read it.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11- That's very sweet. - I used to love any book that would take me in,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13and take me off into another world.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16And just to, I suppose, evoke something in you, emotional.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21Just the very first story in here, I mentioned Tarka the Otter and others,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24but The Snapshot of a Dog was the one that really got me,
0:04:24 > 0:04:26it was about an American bull terrier called Rex.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30And the narrator is one of three brothers, and it was their dog,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34and was always getting into fights, and it was to the shame of the family.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37He was very stoic and polite about how he got into fights,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40he'd never go for the throat, but the ear to teach the other dog a lesson.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44He would never start a fight, he'd get involved if it was necessary.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48Even as I read it last night before coming on the programme,
0:04:48 > 0:04:49it made me cry again.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54Because it just talks about how Rex came home and walked up the path one day,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56and the owner knew that something was wrong,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00and Rex had obviously got into a fight and was the worse for wear.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04And he came into the house, and he was battered and bruised,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08but he could tell that one of his three masters wasn't home,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11and he battles, and it's a big description of how he battled,
0:05:11 > 0:05:16as he battled swimming upstream, as he battled in all the fights before,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19in that last hour to wait for his last master to come home.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21And when his third master finally came home,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24he lay down at his feet and he didn't get up again.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Oh, I hate it, a sad dog story. So sad.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30I know, and it just summarises that devotion
0:05:30 > 0:05:32and the link between man and dog.
0:05:32 > 0:05:38But, I suppose, that was why it was one of my best and most brilliant reads.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Well, it's well sold there.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Chris, meanwhile you're growing up in Manchester,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45and where do you come in the family?
0:05:45 > 0:05:49I am one of the children, and I'm the eldest of three.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53- Oh, you're the king baby? - King baby, yes. That is in fact, how I'm still referred to.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56And your mum suggested your first book?
0:05:56 > 0:06:01Yes, well, my first book is I, Claudius by Robert Graves,
0:06:01 > 0:06:04which I read when I was about 13 or 14, I guess.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09It pretends to be the autobiography of the Emperor Claudius,
0:06:09 > 0:06:11and the history of Rome in his lifetime.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15And my mum told me this, and told me how it was all about Romans.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17I liked Romans cos they were in Asterix,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20but I loved it, it's just a history of murder,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23and sex, although it's only ever mentioned,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27it's never described, because it was published in the 30s.
0:06:27 > 0:06:28It is sex and violence.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31It is, and it's astonishing, you go through it,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34you think, how, everybody you meet is dead within pages.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37But it's really beautifully done,
0:06:37 > 0:06:42and it really breathed life into, you know, the idea of history.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Have you seen the series, subsequently?
0:06:44 > 0:06:49- I have seen the series subsequently. - We've got a clip.
0:06:54 > 0:06:55What do you want?
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Your life, Lady, your husband's orders.
0:07:00 > 0:07:01No!
0:07:02 > 0:07:05He wouldn't do that! My husband wouldn't do that.
0:07:05 > 0:07:06Read it!
0:07:06 > 0:07:08It has his signature.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21I'm to offer you the dagger first, if you'll have it.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24And then to cut off your pretty head and put it on a spear.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29No!
0:07:29 > 0:07:30APPLAUSE
0:07:30 > 0:07:32That was Sheila White playing Messalina,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35when she received some not very good news.
0:07:35 > 0:07:36Nice bunch.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38That, that happened most episodes.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41It's lovely to see those, that's from 1976.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45It's lovely to see those old, studio-bound, very slow, ponderous, old dramas.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48I love that.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Kate, meanwhile, you're school in Essex?
0:07:51 > 0:07:55In Essex, West Hatch, yes, good comprehensive school.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57With ambitions?
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Well, I remember, people ask me, "When did you first want to become a journalist?"
0:08:01 > 0:08:04I'd always loved adventure, as we've discussed,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and anywhere that was vaguely dangerous appealed.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10So, when I had this insatiable curiosity about places,
0:08:10 > 0:08:13I wanted to go off, I'd heard about the Palestinian territories,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16so I went on a kibbutz and went down into the West Bank,
0:08:16 > 0:08:18and talked to people about the situation there.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22That's when I was quite young, 17. Of course, it gave my mother kittens.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24But I was always had that very curious nature
0:08:24 > 0:08:27I want to learn about what was going on in the world.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30And your second choice of book, did this encourage you?
0:08:30 > 0:08:32It's The Burning Shore by Wilbur Smith.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36Yeah, Wilbur Smith is always a guilty pleasure for people, seen as,
0:08:36 > 0:08:38but he was a journalist and grew up in South Africa.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43So everything he wrote, whether about Nelson Mandela, the setting up of the ANC,
0:08:43 > 0:08:47or this, The Burning Shore, which is about Namibia and a woman's journey.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50It's set in the time of the First World War,
0:08:50 > 0:08:53and it's a woman's journey across the Skeleton Coast.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57It was all done from his observations and all factually correct.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59So much so, that when I read this,
0:08:59 > 0:09:03I thought, it was set in Namibian, "I want to go there."
0:09:03 > 0:09:05So, the next year, having read the book
0:09:05 > 0:09:10I actually went off to Namibia, with two friends, just to see the burning shore myself.
0:09:10 > 0:09:11So that was when I really travelled,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14and I ended up travelling a lot in Africa,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17Zimbabwe most specifically with something called Operation Raleigh,
0:09:17 > 0:09:21which was a charity, you'd go off and build schools, and loos,
0:09:21 > 0:09:25and go off into the jungle and get stung by scorpions and things.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27Now, is that in Zimbabwe?
0:09:27 > 0:09:30That was in Zimbabwe, it was on the borders with Mozambique.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33And the night before that was taken I had been stung by a scorpion
0:09:33 > 0:09:36and lost the use of my left arm, as you do.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39So, the next day we had to climb out of this massive gorge,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42and you can see the worried look on the chaps face below me,
0:09:42 > 0:09:47he's one of out guides, we had no ropes, the crocodiles were all waiting beneath us,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49and I think everyone thought I was actually a goner.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54So, were there any scorpions at this point for you, Chris?
0:09:54 > 0:09:56Yes, my life was filled with scorpions.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58At university?
0:09:58 > 0:10:01Yeah, I was at the University of Birmingham studying English.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04A full life that was completely safe.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09I spent most of my time directing plays in my spare time,
0:10:09 > 0:10:11which is what I really wanted to do.
0:10:11 > 0:10:12And when you went back home,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16were there many ads in the Manchester Evening News for theatre directors?
0:10:16 > 0:10:19Turns out, no, there weren't, no.
0:10:19 > 0:10:26And, yes, you can do that, it's one of the things that you won't get an advert for,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28you actually have to do that yourself.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31It's dead easy to do that at school or university,
0:10:31 > 0:10:33because there are rooms you're entitled to use,
0:10:33 > 0:10:37and loads of like-minded people hanging about with time on their hands.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39And you can put stuff on relatively easily.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42Once you get out into the real world, after university,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and that black year of horror that no-one tells you about.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48- Very bleak.- It's an appalling year, the year after university,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52and nobody ever gets warned about this, but it's horrendous.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55And all of the stuff that was just open to you is gone.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59The minute you throw that mortarboard in the air at graduation, it's all gone.
0:10:59 > 0:11:04Your next choice of book, you read at university in your last year?
0:11:04 > 0:11:06It's The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11which is a novel from the early 80s set in California,
0:11:11 > 0:11:16it's about a group of young people in California trying to make their way in the world.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19The key thing about this book is, it's in verse.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24It's absolutely amazing, I didn't know it was in verse, I opened it and thought, "Oh, oh, dear."
0:11:24 > 0:11:27And I started to read it, and it's incredible.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29It's so light on its feet, and it's witty,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32and the way that he's managed to, you know,
0:11:32 > 0:11:36there's something really attractive about it, because of the puzzle that he's solving.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38How to say the things he wants to say,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41having giving him self the restriction of a rhyme scheme.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43- Making everything rhyme. - Yeah, and it's amazing.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47- It remains my favourite book. - Really?
0:11:47 > 0:11:51I reread it for this show, and it's just, it's a delight.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53- Would you like to give us an extract?- I will.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59This is after the meeting of John and Liz.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04"Who was it said, love is the friction of two skins,
0:12:04 > 0:12:05"from your place or mine,
0:12:05 > 0:12:09"there follow weeks of sweet addiction to insular, if sparkling, wine.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11"Liz, now addressed by John as Honey,
0:12:11 > 0:12:13"responds to him with, Funny Bunny.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17"Their diction has, alas, become incomprehensible and numb.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21"Their brains appear to be dissolving to sugary sludge as they caress.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24"In lieu of fire, force, finesse, we have a ballet now,
0:12:24 > 0:12:26"involving a pretty pas de deux instead,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29"with common walkmans on their head."
0:12:29 > 0:12:30That's wonderful.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33- Yes, it's brilliant. - It's quite happy.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38It is, but it's, the book is, it's elegiac and it's heartbreaking,
0:12:38 > 0:12:40and sad, and hopeful.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42And all sorts of things.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46And it really appealed to me at the time because it was young people making their way,
0:12:46 > 0:12:48and I knew it was the thing I have to do next.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51And, um, yeah, I can't recommend it highly enough.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Did you get any theatre jobs
0:12:54 > 0:12:58when you left university in this bleak year?
0:12:58 > 0:13:02No. Initially, I, I came to London, I tried to move to London
0:13:02 > 0:13:05so that I could realise my tremendous theatrical ambition.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08And I sold cigarettes in Selfridge's,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11for a little while.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15Then went back with my tail between my legs, to Birmingham,
0:13:15 > 0:13:17and tried to hang around there for a while,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19where I worked in market research,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22which is one of the great, soul destroying jobs of all time.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26- Yes, it's horrible.- But you did manage to do some performing.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29I did, I mean, because it was that horrible, bleak year.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31I just needed creative outlet,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34I needed something just to release the pressure.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36And the very simplest thing you can do,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39just from a logistical point of view, is stand-up.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41It's just, somebody else does everything,
0:13:41 > 0:13:46they sort out the lights, they publicise it, they get the place, the mic, all of that,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48you pitch up with some words and do your bit.
0:13:48 > 0:13:49What was your first gig?
0:13:49 > 0:13:54My first gig was Easter Monday, 1995,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56so it was slightly under a year after I graduated,
0:13:56 > 0:14:03in the Frog and Bucket pub, in Manchester, in the northern quarter.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06And it was horrendous, it was, um...
0:14:06 > 0:14:09My stomach, I can feel it already, the nerves.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Oh, yeah, it was, so, I turned up very early,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15I didn't know what time, I'd never been.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18The next people, eventually, finally, when somebody came in,
0:14:18 > 0:14:21were Caroline Aherne and her husband at the time, Peter Hook,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24the bassist in New Order, a band that I loved.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27So, two really important people to me came through the door.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30And I thought, "Oh. Oh."
0:14:30 > 0:14:35And I went up first after the interval,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39with a cigarette and an exaggeration of the northern aspects of my accent.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42For extra credibility.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45And it wasn't heckling, it wasn't heckling
0:14:45 > 0:14:48because the audience weren't a heckley audience that night,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51but they were just quiet, they were just silent.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55It was completely silent for five minutes, just a bunch of people doing that.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57And my clearest memory of it is Peter Hook,
0:14:57 > 0:15:02this bassist for the band that I loved, doing that.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06Just looking at me with boredom and contempt.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09And it was, it was horrendous.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13Can you remember any lines?
0:15:13 > 0:15:17Yeah, well, actually, the material I went on to use for years.
0:15:17 > 0:15:23I don't know whether it was a subsequent desire to prove them wrong, but I did.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28Now, your third book, very different from Vikram Seth.
0:15:28 > 0:15:29It's Daughters of the Desert,
0:15:29 > 0:15:34described as, "the remarkable life of Gertrude Bell,"
0:15:34 > 0:15:35by Georgina Howell.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37Tell us about Gertrude Bell.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40Well, yes, Gertrude Bell, really, in my view,
0:15:40 > 0:15:41and in a number of others,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45is probably the most unsung heroine of our time.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50She was a woman who was born and brought up into a very privileged family in the north-east,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53she turned her back on the debutante lifestyle to go off
0:15:53 > 0:15:57to become an explorer, an archaeologist, she was a spy, a linguist.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01- It was the turn-of-the-century, wasn't it?- Yes.- 1909, 1910?
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Yes, she was born in 1868.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07The author here, who is actually a fashion features writer for Vogue,
0:16:07 > 0:16:09but she also came under Gertrude's spell,
0:16:09 > 0:16:13and she wrote, I think she probably expresses it far more simply than me.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16"I just love the way she dressed and the way she lived,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19"so stylishly, a pistol strapped to her calf under silk petticoats
0:16:19 > 0:16:21"and dresses of lace and tucked muslin."
0:16:21 > 0:16:25There she is. "Her desert table laid with crisp linen and silver,
0:16:25 > 0:16:27"her cartridges wrapped in white stockings."
0:16:27 > 0:16:31And what she says, it wasn't money that got her a first at Oxford,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35or that then helped her survive these encounters with murderous tribes in the desert.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Or made her a spy, or a major in the British Army,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41or qualified her as a poet, a scholar, historian,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43mountaineer, photographer, archaeologist,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45gardener and cartographer.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48In each of these fields she excelled, and even pioneered.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50You can imagine her striding off in to the desert,
0:16:50 > 0:16:53and all these tribes, you know, murderous tribes,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55and she'd go along, she was fluent in Arabic.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59She'd sit down with them in their tents and take them, and they loved her.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02In fact, in Iraq, even today, she's on the national syllabus,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06because of what she did in helping form the modern-day Iraq.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10Did you read this book before joining the BBC?
0:17:10 > 0:17:13No, during, it was around about 10 years ago.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16So it was in the middle of all of that,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19It did make me think, I'd just come back from reporting in Iraq,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21so it was very timely, in that sense.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23And her grave, she lived in Iraq, is still there.
0:17:23 > 0:17:28How did you get started in journalism?
0:17:28 > 0:17:32Well, I knew Durham as an area very well, because I'd been to university there.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34And I phoned the BBC in Durham, I said,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36"Can I come and have a look around?"
0:17:36 > 0:17:40Two days later I walked in to the newsroom, everyone was swearing at each other
0:17:40 > 0:17:44and throwing bits of paper and I thought, "Oh, I'm home.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46"This is just it." I started at the bottom, I made tea,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49I answered the phones at three o'clock in the morning.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51And I believe in earning your stripes,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54you've got to learn the hard way and you've got to make mistakes.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58I probably did every job going in that building and built my way up.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02You went from traffic reporting, to reporting.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04- Yes.- And finally news and current affairs?
0:18:04 > 0:18:08At the BBC, yes, thankfully, still here.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Now, you've travelled for the BBC, you've been to Iraq, you've been to Afghanistan,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16we've got some footage, this is you in Afghanistan.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19Good morning, we're live in Afghanistan,
0:18:19 > 0:18:21in Helmand province, in Lashkar Gah,
0:18:21 > 0:18:23one of the main military bases here,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26I've also been out on the ground with British troops
0:18:26 > 0:18:29at the sharp end of the fighting in the green zone,
0:18:29 > 0:18:31finding out what life is like for them,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34and asking when will the British mission here end?
0:18:34 > 0:18:39- Oh, she's very serious, isn't she? - Well, she's reporting on quite a serious story, to be fair to her.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42No hair or make-up before you go on?
0:18:42 > 0:18:44No, everyone always thinks you've got people with you,
0:18:44 > 0:18:48but no, it's just a quick dash of blusher and you're on.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51- Did you get any training... - Bit of blusher.- Don't mind me.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Yes, but the army do the same, don't they?
0:18:53 > 0:18:56"Going on patrol, there we go."
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Did you get any training in how to cope out there?
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Yes, there was an added bonus, actually,
0:19:01 > 0:19:03from going out to Iraq in Afghanistan,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07because you have to do a course called the hostile environments course,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11which is a week-long course and you essentially get taken, kidnapped,
0:19:11 > 0:19:15and taken hostage and beaten a little bit to prepare you for the fact...
0:19:15 > 0:19:17This is a BBC course?
0:19:17 > 0:19:20Yes, I don't think they'll like me describing it like that.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24It's a good thing for stand up, isn't it, to learn how to get beaten up?
0:19:24 > 0:19:26Hostile environments course? Yes.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30It would be very different, a lot less beating up, a bit more swearing.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34It's essentially a course that prepares you for hostile environments,
0:19:34 > 0:19:36so, if you get shot, or kidnapped, taken hostage.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38What should you do?
0:19:38 > 0:19:42You shouldn't talk too much, which was my first mistake, try to make friends with people.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47No, you've got to be the grey person, and not make yourself...
0:19:47 > 0:19:50- Because? - Because the person who talks a lot will get shot first.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Well, that's worth us all knowing.
0:19:53 > 0:19:54Yeah.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58There was one added bonus though, because it's how I met my husband,
0:19:58 > 0:20:00because he was an instructor on the course.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03I joke that he tied me up and put a hood over my head,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05and that was it, I was smitten.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07LAUGHTER
0:20:07 > 0:20:08- Oh, that's lovely. - So, yeah.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11What were you fighting at this time?
0:20:11 > 0:20:15I suppose around this time I would have been taking stand-up shows to Edinburgh,
0:20:15 > 0:20:16to the Fringe, to the festival there.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19It's a long game. I'd been doing that for a few years.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22So, how did you become Ollie?
0:20:22 > 0:20:24Who we love.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26- Ollie, oh, poor Ollie. - In The Thick Of It.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28Well, Armando Iannucci...
0:20:28 > 0:20:30- The king of... - The king of British satire
0:20:30 > 0:20:33but he's also the man behind The Thick Of It.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35We met when I did the News Quiz on Radio 4,
0:20:35 > 0:20:41and at the time, Armando was thinking of putting together a, sort of, modernish Yes, Minister.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44He'd made a documentary about Yes, Minister.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46And, yeah, then I got a call to come in.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Normally, when you go in for castings, there's a script to read and what have you.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54But here I was just asked to improvise as an advisor.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56So, I'd never done any acting,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00and walked in to a room that had Armando, Peter Capaldi and Chris Langham,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02three men I had admired for years and years and years,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04brilliant at what they do.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09And, um, I was terrified. Everybody else in the room had acting, you know...
0:21:09 > 0:21:11- Credentials?- Yeah.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15After the second day, I was panicking and thinking, "I don't know how going to do this."
0:21:15 > 0:21:17I got a lift home with my wife,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20I went and met her from work and we drove home together.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22I said, "I don't know if I can do this."
0:21:22 > 0:21:26And she said, "OK, stop, stop. Describe the character."
0:21:26 > 0:21:28And I went, "Well, he's quite bolshy,
0:21:28 > 0:21:32"he sort of thinks he's a player but he's not, he's a bit of an idiot."
0:21:32 > 0:21:37And the more I described him, the more I thought, "Wait a minute!"
0:21:37 > 0:21:38I mean, yeah.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40LAUGHING
0:21:40 > 0:21:42Let's have a look.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47Could you meet me at the door tomorrow?
0:21:47 > 0:21:50- Oh, sorry. Yes, of course. - Like carrying two fridges in.
0:21:50 > 0:21:51Yes.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Right, so, the lunch, I've gone with The Guardian in the end,
0:21:55 > 0:21:56I thought maybe not The Mail,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00they might be nice to your face, but then brand you a man-hating, Euro slag.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05Ollie, if you had to choose three nasty adjectives that describe me,
0:22:05 > 0:22:06what would they be?
0:22:06 > 0:22:10- Sorry?- I was talking to Malcolm and he mentioned a pejorative word
0:22:10 > 0:22:13which I hadn't thought of before, so I'm just keen to get your take.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16- OK, top three?- Yes.
0:22:18 > 0:22:19Um...
0:22:20 > 0:22:23Sour? Uh...
0:22:23 > 0:22:24OK.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29..Frumpy and...uptight?
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Yeah, OK.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36APPLAUSE
0:22:37 > 0:22:41The Leopard is your third choice, Chris,
0:22:41 > 0:22:45- by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa. - That's him.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47I got it out.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52The Leopard which is an Italian novel from the 1950s, I think.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55It's about the end of the aristocracy in Sicily
0:22:55 > 0:22:58and about the coming of democracy, and about...
0:22:58 > 0:23:02The key phrase is, "If you want things to stay the same, everything must change."
0:23:02 > 0:23:07It's quite literary, but I found it a really easy read.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Even though I studied English, I'm a very slow reader,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13and I get confused easily, and I read at night.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17So, do that thing where you've read the same sentence six times,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20"I can't do this. Give me that Star Wars book."
0:23:20 > 0:23:25But this, somehow, there's something about the way that it's written,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28and the brilliance of the translation,
0:23:28 > 0:23:30that just completely sucked me in.
0:23:30 > 0:23:31As it is translated,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35do you think if you read it in its original form...
0:23:35 > 0:23:36Do you speak Italian?
0:23:36 > 0:23:41No, but, having read this and having gone to Italy,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44which we now, as a family, try to go every year, somewhere different.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46So, I wanted to learn Italian,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49and my ambition is to learn it well enough
0:23:49 > 0:23:51that I'll be able to read this.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54Oh, you can come back and explain it all to us again.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56But, whether that ever happens...
0:23:56 > 0:23:58is an entirely different thing.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Kate, I think your final choice of book is very interesting,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06because after Gertrude Bell,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10which is this woman who, who...
0:24:10 > 0:24:13is the pioneer for women.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17You go back to a book that was published 10 years ago
0:24:17 > 0:24:22by Alison Pearson - it's a wonderful book actually, I Don't Know How She Does It -
0:24:22 > 0:24:27but it is about trying to be a good mother, and to have a career.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Yeah, when I was pregnant, Sophie Raworth, newsreader,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33gave it to me, and she said, "Read this."
0:24:33 > 0:24:38I read it very quickly, but it depressed me. I can't tell you how much it depressed me.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40It's about a woman who works in the city,
0:24:40 > 0:24:42she has two children, long-suffering husband,
0:24:42 > 0:24:44She's trying to juggle,
0:24:44 > 0:24:49she gets up in the middle of the night to bash mince pies that she's bought from Sainsbury's
0:24:49 > 0:24:52to try to make them look like they're home-made, sprinkling icing sugar on them
0:24:52 > 0:24:54so she can put them to the school fete.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58Everyone saying they... this is the life we're now living.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01We're trying to do it all and we're failing.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06I became so depressed, I went to Sophie and said, "Tell me life is not like that with children."
0:25:06 > 0:25:07And she said, "It is."
0:25:07 > 0:25:09LAUGHTER
0:25:09 > 0:25:11And the saving grace is the end, which I won't...
0:25:11 > 0:25:14- No, no, don't. - No, I won't give away.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16It's in the form of e-mails.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18Yes, lots of e-mails to her friends, all very witty.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22I'm now in that club of women who are talking to each other saying,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25"How are we going to cope with childcare,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28"and raising children as well as having a job?"
0:25:28 > 0:25:33I suppose it spoke to me at a time when I hadn't really anticipated the hardship that parents face
0:25:33 > 0:25:36and the challenges they face when they've got children.
0:25:36 > 0:25:42And finally, Chris, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45by Gideon Defoe. Tell us about it.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48The story of the book is, the legend of the book is, Gideon Defoe,
0:25:48 > 0:25:53in an attempt to impress a girl one evening, said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm a bit of a writer.
0:25:53 > 0:25:54And she said, what are you writing?
0:25:54 > 0:25:59And he said, I've written a book, it's a story about pirates.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01She went, "Oh, I'd love to read that." He went, "OK".
0:26:01 > 0:26:04And, so, had to write it.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07And it's hilarious, it's a group of pirates
0:26:07 > 0:26:10who, in this book, there are four or five books now,
0:26:10 > 0:26:17in this book they help Charles Darwin defeat the evil Bishop of Oxford,
0:26:17 > 0:26:20who is attempting to suck the life force out of young ladies
0:26:20 > 0:26:22so he can remain younger.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24And it is...
0:26:24 > 0:26:26It's a boy's book.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31It's not, cos it's full of jokes. The story is relatively unimportant,
0:26:31 > 0:26:35it's just a series of brilliant, hysterical jokes. It's lovely.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38You've got an extract to sell it, finally.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40I will read you, from the beginning of the book,
0:26:40 > 0:26:45just after there's been an argument about shanties.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48"The pirate captain was secretly relieved when he heard the strains
0:26:48 > 0:26:51"of a rowdy shanty coming through the roof of the galley.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54"He'd been worrying about discipline on board the pirate boat,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57"and there was an old pirate motto - 'if the men singing a shanty,
0:26:57 > 0:26:59"'then they can't be up to mischief.'
0:26:59 > 0:27:04"'Come into my office for a moment', he told the pirate with the scarf, who was his second-in-command.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07"The captain's office was full of mementos from previous adventures.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11"There was a 10 gallon hat from the pirates' adventure with cowboys,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14"some old bits of tentacle from the pirates' adventure with squid
0:27:14 > 0:27:17"as well as post-it notes reminding the pirate captain to say things like,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20"'Splice the mainsail' or 'Hard about, lads!'
0:27:20 > 0:27:24"On the walls, there hung several paintings of the pirate captain.
0:27:24 > 0:27:30"One of them showed him looking anguished and cradling a dead swan, this painting was titled, 'Why?'
0:27:30 > 0:27:35"Another, another was of the pirate captain reclining naked except for a small piece of gauze,
0:27:35 > 0:27:36"and the third picture,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39"the pirate captain sharing a strange futuristic looking drink
0:27:39 > 0:27:42"with a lady who seemed to be made from metal."
0:27:42 > 0:27:44I think you should do the audio book.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47I would, I'd kill to do the audio books for these,
0:27:47 > 0:27:49they are wonderful.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51- Thank you both very much. - Thank you very much.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54Kate Silverton, Chris Addison.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56APPLAUSE
0:28:02 > 0:28:05And just to remind you, details from this series are, of course,
0:28:05 > 0:28:07on the BBC website.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13You can also hear our guests read a passage
0:28:13 > 0:28:16from their favourite children's book,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19and, please, join me again tomorrow. Good night.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd