Melvyn Bragg

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'Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg'

Born 6 October 1939 (1939-10-06) (age 68)
Wigton, Cumbria, England
Nationality British
Occupation broadcaster & author

Melvyn, Baron Bragg, FRSL, FRTS (born 6 October 1939) is a British author and broadcaster.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Bragg was born in Wigton, Cumbria, the son of Mary Ethel (Park), a tailoress, and Stanley Bragg, a stock keeper turned machinist.[1] He attended the Nelson Thomlinson School in Wigton and then read Modern History at Wadham College, Oxford in the late 1950s.

[edit] Broadcasting career

He started his career in 1961 as a general trainee at the BBC and in his role as writer and broadcaster in 1967, spending his first two years in radio at the BBC World Service, then at the BBC Third Programme and BBC Home Service.[2]. He then successfully applied to join the production team of Huw Wheldon's Monitor arts series on BBC Television.[2] He is perhaps best known for the London Weekend Television (LWT) arts programme The South Bank Show, which he has written, edited and produced since 1978.[3] He has been Controller of Arts at LWT since 1990 (including a stint as Head of Arts from 1982 to 1990). He is also known for his many programmes on BBC Radio 4, including Start the Week, which he presented for ten years, In Our Time, and The Routes of English, a history of the English language.

[edit] Honours

He was appointed to the House of Lords in 1998 as a Labour life peer, under the title Baron Bragg, of Wigton in the County of Cumbria.

In 1999 Bragg was appointed Chancellor of the University of Leeds. He is also President of the National Campaign for the Arts (since 1986), President of the mental health charity Mind, and a Governor of the London School of Economics (since 1997). He was made Domus Fellow, St Catherine's College, Oxford, in 1990, he received an Honorary Fellowship from Wadham College, Oxford in 1995 and he holds 13 honorary doctorates. He became a member of the Arts Council Literature Panel in 1969 and has since become Chairman.

[edit] Author

Lord Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays. He is president of the National Academy of Writing.

[edit] Family

Bragg married his first wife, Lisa Roche, when he was 21, and they had one child. He did not know that she had a history of suicide attempts; 10 years later, she killed herself . "I could have done things which helped and I did things which harmed," he told the Guardian in 1998. "So yes, I feel guilt, I feel remorse." [4]

Bragg's second wife, Catherine (Cate) Haste, whom he married in 1973 is also a writer, having, among other things, edited the 2007 memoir of Clarissa Eden, widow of Sir Anthony Eden, and collaborated with Cherie Booth, wife of Tony Blair, in a 2004 book about the wives of British Prime Ministers.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Fiction

  • For Want of a Nail (1965)
  • The Second Inheritance (1966)
  • The Cumbrian Trilogy:
  • The Nerve (1971)
  • Josh Lawton (1972)
  • The Silken Net (1974)
  • Autumn Manoeuvres (1978)
  • Love and Glory (1983)
  • The Maid of Buttermere (1987) (based on real Mary Robinson (Maid of Buttermere))
  • Without a City Wall (1988)
  • The Second Inheritance (1990)
  • A Time to Dance (1990)
  • Crystal Rooms (1992)
  • Credo (1996) also known as The Sword and the Miracle
  • The Soldier's Return Trilogy:
    • The Soldier's Return (1999)
    • A Son of War (2001)
    • Crossing the Lines (2003)
  • Remember Me... (2008)

[edit] Non-fiction

[edit] Children's books

  • A Christmas Child (1977)
  • My Favourite Stories of Lakeland (editor) (1981)

[edit] Filmography

As screenwriter:

[edit] Other information

  • Bragg is cited as the first person recorded to use the word "prat" to mean "fool". The earliest reference to this use is from his 1969 novel Without a City Wall.[5]
  • He is a friend of Tony Blair, the former Labour Prime Minister.

[edit] Awards and recognition

[edit] Awards

[edit] Recognition

  • On 17 October 2005 Bragg officially opened the "Melvyn Bragg Drama Studio", named in his honour, at Millom School, Millom, Cumbria.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Family detective: Melvyn Bragg - Telegraph
  2. ^ a b article by Melvyn Bragg in British Mensa Magazine, January 2002, page 7
  3. ^ ITV Fact File on The South Bank Show.
  4. ^ Plato or Nietzsche? You choose ...
  5. ^ Louise Jury What's in a word? When did we start going to the loo? The Independent 3 January 2007

[edit] External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
Katharine, The Duchess of Kent		 Chancellor of the University of Leeds
1999 – present		 Incumbent