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Stella Rimington on Dorothy L Sayers

Dame Stella Rimington explains her fascination with the life and writing of Dorothy L Sayers. With Matthew Parris. From 2014.

Dame Stella Rimington, former director of MI5 and a celebrated crime writer herself, nominates for a Great Life that of Dorothy L Sayers.

Sayers' first Lord Peter Wimsey novel was published in the 1920s, the Golden Age of crime fiction, and he is still very much with us, appearing often on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

She went on to enjoy a huge popularity with her crime novels and then turned to writing Christian essays and plays, most notably the series for the BBC on the life of Christ – which stirred up a great controversy as no-one had before impersonated Jesus on the radio.

Dame Stella tells Matthew Parris why the paradoxes and contradictions in Dorothy Sayers' life fascinate her, and explains how Sayers' writing influences her own. With Seona Ford, chairman of the Dorothy L Sayers Society.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 3 May 202005:30

Credits

RoleContributor
PresenterMatthew Parris
Interviewed GuestStella Rimington
ProducerChristine Hall

Broadcasts

  • Wed 10 Sep 201409:00
  • Wed 10 Sep 201421:30
  • Tue 16 Sep 201416:30
  • Fri 19 Sep 201423:00
  • Thu 30 Apr 202018:30
  • Fri 1 May 202000:30
  • Sat 2 May 202007:30
  • Sat 2 May 202017:30
  • Sun 3 May 202005:30

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