George Weidenfeld

Writer and former publisher, Robert McCrum meets George Weidenfeld to talk about his extraordinary publishing life.

Weidenfeld left his native Austria at the time of the Anschluss in 1938, the last survivor of a remarkable band of European émigrés - including André Deutsch, Paul Hamlyn and Ernest Hecht - who transformed the clubby world of British publishing after the Second World War.

Gambler, opportunist, intellectual, socialite, and still working at 94, Weidenfeld is a living witness to the changes that have taken place in British publishing over the last century.

In 1955, the exiled Russian author Vladimir Nabokov's novel 'Lolita' was published in Paris. Graham Greene had recognised it as a masterpiece, but in England the story of an obsessive sexual relationship between a 12-year-old girl and a middle-aged man was too hot to handle.

Only Weidenfeld, an outsider standing apart from the Fifties cultural consensus, dared to take the gamble and defy the censor. 'Lolita' became Weidenfeld's first bestseller - 200,000 copies in hardback alone. It was a milestone for his publishing house and for English literature.

Featuring George Weidenfeld and Lady Antonia Fraser.

Produced by Melissa FitzGerald
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.