RADIO FOUR’S JUSTIN WEBB MAKES THE NEWS IN TWICKENHAM
For many of a certain age and generation the soft, distinctive and reassuring voice of JUSTIN WEBB is the one we wake up to in the mornings between 6am and 9am for Radio Four’s long-running Today programme.
Justin, 64, who has worked for the BBC for 41 years will be in conversation with top journalist York Membery about his early morning starts, his life as a broadcaster, and his frank, widely-acclaimed childhood memoir, The Gift of a Radio, about growing up in 1970s Britain at Richmond Literature Festival at The Exchange on November 5th.
In publicity for the book it says: “Justin Webb’s childhood in the 1970s was far from ordinary.
“Between his mother’s un-diagnosed psychological problems, and his step-father’s untreated ones, life at home was dysfunctional at best. But with gun-wielding school masters and sub-standard living conditions, Quaker boarding school wasn’t much better.
“Candid, unsparing and darkly funny, Justin Webb’s memoir is as much a portrait of a troubled era as it is the story of a dysfunctional childhood, shaping the urbane and successful radio presenter we know and love now.”
Reviews have been full of praise. ‘Searingly honest… gripping… fascinating and hugely entertaining.’- Sunday Times
‘Moving and frank … A story of a childhood defined by loneliness, the absence of a father and the grim experience of a Quaker boarding school. It is also one of the most perceptive accounts of Britain in the 1970s.’- Misha Glenny
‘A crisp, unself-pitying memoir of a ‘trainwreck’ youth … I’ve always likes Webb on the radio. But I like him much more after reading this book. He offers precisely the kind of brisk honesty and considered analysis he expects from his interviewees. Our politicians should all read it, and step up their game.’ –Telegraph
Tickets can be purchased for £14 at: https://artsrichmond.org.uk/