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Episode details

Radio 4,09 May 2014,28 mins

Sir George Christie, Leslie Thomas, Elena Baltacha, Sir William Benyon and Deborah Rogers

Last Word

Available for over a year

Matthew Bannister on Sir George Christie, who ran the Glyndebourne opera at his family home in Sussex - and oversaw the rebuilding of the theatre. Leslie Thomas, the Barnado's boy who drew on his experience of National Service to write The Virgin Soldiers. Frederick Forsyth and Sir Tim Rice pay tribute. Deborah Rogers, agent to many leading writers. Ian McEwan and Dame Gail Rebuck remember her. Sir William Benyon, the Conservative MP who championed Milton Kenyes and re-built the family's estate. And Elena Baltacha, Britain's former number one tennis player, who died of liver cancer aged thirty.

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