Product Description

Libby Purves has had an ongoing love affair with the radio since her childhood, when she saved her pocket money to buy a d-i-y 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'. Her enthusiasm lasted through the teenage years of Radio Luxemburg and pirate station Caroline and while at university, Libby 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 past thirty years have seen Libby as one of the most successful and popular BBC Radio 4 broadcasters, with a string of credits to her name including the Today programme, Midweek and The Learning Curve. She takes us behind the scenes of these programmes with amusing and entertaining anecdotes about the personalities involved, near-disasters and triumphs, and also makes an impassioned plea for continued funding and support for radio. (20021206)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308418 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Woman & Home
'Always fascinating and, at times, very funny indeed.'

Review
'an insightful account of the history of the medium' (Press Gazette )

'The must-read . . . Always fascinating and, at times, vey funny indeed.' (Woman & Home )

'Does for radio what Joanne Harris did for chocolate' (Lynne Truss, Sunday Times )

'This book has a ready-made readership among dedicated Radio 4 listeners.' (Sunday Telegraph )

'studded with great behind-the-scenes anecdotes . . . Passionate, engaging and entertaining' (The Times )

'Always fascinating and, at times, very funny indeed.' (Woman & Home )

The Times
'studded with great behind-the-scenes anecdotes . . . Passionate, engaging and entertaining'

Customer Reviews

Radio: A True Love Story is an engaging read
Libby Purves loves radio and anybody who loves the medium will enjoy this book. It's autobiographical but not an autobiography. It focuses solely on Libby's life with radio: from building her own transistor set to hosting flagship Radio Four programmes Today and Midweek. Libby's delight with sound, and particularly voices - is unmistakable.

This book is not a history of radio nor is it a manual or how-to guide. It is, however, filled with delightful personal anecdotes about speach radio spanning the corridors of the BBC World Service in Bush House, through the early years of BBC Local Radio (she worked at Radio Oxford) to the heart of BBC Radio at Broadcasting House. Libby's joy in talk radio is clearly with the Radio Four style and her attitudes hark back to Lord Reith and the BBC's founding fathers. This is not a criticism for it makes an interesting backdrop to today's radio services. Not for Libby the shock-jock approach to the 'phone-in nor the music driven disc-jockey speak but the (apparently) slower-paced world of radio documentaries and features and the fast-moving news and current affairs departments are her chosen arenas. The book is filled with personal stories and she paints superb pictures of the characters that inhabit the world of the wireless (management, production staff and presenters). The book is also an appeal for speach radio which, she feels, is too easily overlooked in a BBC obsessed with television ratings in the digital era. Yet the book has hopes that this unique brand of public service radio will survive.

Radio: A True Love Story is an engaging read. It doesn't overpower the reader with names and places but peppers the tales with personalities who add colour to the tale. Libby's love of the medium comes through loud and clear and that is what makes this a joy to read and recommend.

Radio: A true love story
More autobiographical than a social history of the radio, this book will nevertheless satisfy the needs of those who enjoy digesting the detail of otherwise obscure subject matter (I was rather hoping for something along the lines of 'Cod' and 'Salt' -but was pleasantly surprised by what Purvess delivered).

The book takes a lighthearted look at Purvess' rise through the ranks of local radio before breaking through the glass ceiling of male dominated national serious radio. Interspersed throughout are some genuinely interesting snippets of social histroy charting the development of radio broadcasting from the early days of Reith through to the explosion of mass commercial radio later in the century.

Funny at times, Purvess intelligently manages to convey the importance that radio has had on our day to day lives.

Libby's love of the medium comes through loud and clear
Libby Purves loves radio and anybody who loves the medium will enjoy this book. It's autobiographical but not an autobiography. It focuses solely on Libby's life with radio: from building her own transistor set to hosting flagship Radio Four programmes 'Today' and 'Midweek'. Libby's delight with sound, and particularly voices - is unmistakable.

This book is not a history of radio nor is it a manual or how-to guide. It is, however, filled with delightful personal anecdotes about speach radio spanning the corridors of the BBC World Service in Bush House, through the early years of BBC Local Radio (she worked at Radio Oxford) to the heart of BBC Radio at Broadcasting House. Libby's joy in talk radio is clearly with the Radio Four style and her attitudes hark back to Lord Reith and the BBC's founding fathers. This is not a criticism for it makes an interesting backdrop to today's radio services. Not for Libby the shock-jock approach to the 'phone-in nor the music driven disc-jockey speak but the (apparently) slower-paced world of radio documentaries and features and the fast-moving news and current affairs departments are her chosen arenas. The book is filled with personal stories and she paints superb pictures of the characters that inhabit the world of the wireless (management, production staff and presenters). The book is also an appeal for speach radio which, she feels, is too easily overlooked in a BBC obsessed with television ratings in the digital era. Yet the book has hopes that this unique brand of public service radio will survive.

'Radio: A True Love Story' is an engaging read. It doesn't overpower the reader with names and places but peppers the tales with personalities who add colour to the tale. Libby's love of the medium comes through loud and clear and that is what makes this a joy to read and recommend.