As part of the so-called Britart generation of the early 1990’s, artist Sam Taylor-Wood, as she was then known, made her name with photographic and video pieces. Diagnosed with colon cancer in 1997, and then breast cancer three years later, she addressed her treatment and recovery in artworks she made at the time. She moved into filmmaking with her first feature Nowhere Boy, about the life of the young John Lennon in 2009. Other cinematic projects have included adaptations of the E L James novel 50 Shades Of Gray, the James Frey memoir A Million Little Pieces and, most recently, the Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black. Sam tells John Wilson about the experience of first seeing the Rothko Seagram paintings at the Tate gallery when she was nine years old, and the impact that they had on her in her creative imagination. Being introduced to Andy Warhol films such as Chelsea Girls and Empire made her realise that art and cinema are deeply intertwined and went on to influence her style as a director. John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence was the first film that made Sam want to be a cinematic filmmaker and she also reveals how Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella encouraged her to make her debut short film Love You More. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Sir Antonio Pappano is one of the world’s most acclaimed conductors. He started work at the age of ten as an accompanist for his father, who worked as a singing teacher. After leading orchestras in Brussels and Oslo, Pappano was appointed as musical director of the Royal Opera House in 2002. Stepping down after 22 years leading Covent Garden, he has joined the London Symphony Orchestra as chief conductor. Antonio Pappano was knighted in 2012 and conducted the orchestra at the coronation of King Charles III in 2023. An award winning recording artist, he has conducted on over 70 live and studio albums. Antonio Pappano tells John Wilson about his upbringing in a central London council flat, the son of Italian immigrants, and his love of music from an early age. He recalls the significance of receiving his grade 5 piano examination result by post, "a lightbulb moment” in which he realised what he wanted to do with his life. He also describes his parents' grief after the death of his baby sister, which led to the Pappano family moving to Connecticut, where Antonio continued his musical tuition under a local piano teacher called Norma Verrilli and composer Arnold Franchetti. His professional career was nurtured by conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim who employed Pappano as his assistant for six years, a period in which he learned the art of conducting. He also looks back at his 22 years leading the Royal Opera at Covent Garden and talks candidly of his concerns about the funding and championing of opera in the UK. Producer: Edwina Pitman Music and archive: Puccini, Turandot, Act 1 Ah! per l’ultima volta! Liszt, Consolations S.172 for piano no.3 in D flat major; Lento placid Monteverdi, Dolci miei sospiri Gershwin, The Man I love Prokofiev, Symphony No.1 in D Major, Op.25 for two pianos Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466 I. Allegro Wagner, Das Rheingold, Act 1, Rheingold, Rheingold! Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90, Act 3 Scene 2 O diese Sonne! Götterdämmerung, Act 3 Siegfrieds Trauermarsch Following Pappano, BBC Radio 4, September 2017 Puccini, La_Boheme, Act 1, Che gelida manina Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos, Opera Handel, Zadok the Priest, HWV 258 Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro, Act 3 Sull’aria che soave zeffiretto Vaughan Williams, Fantasia_on_a_Theme_by_Thomas_Tallis Ades, Three-piece Suite from Powder Her Face - Suite No.1

John Wilson talks to actor, comedian, broadcaster and writer Sir Michael Palin. A founding member of the hugely influential comedy troupe Monty Python’s Flying Circus, he wrote and performed in its five television series and three feature films including The Life Of Brian. Other big screen credits include A Fish Called Wanda, Brazil, The Missionary and The Death of Stalin. Michael is also a globetrotting documentary presenter and bestselling author. Michael recalls the early influence of listening to radio comedy as a child, especially the absurdist humour of The Goon Show devised by Spike Milligan. Meeting Terry Jones at Oxford University in 1962 proved to be a life-changing event as the two soon started working on sketches together and after graduating were hired for David Frost's satirical television show The Frost Report. It was on this programme that the duo first worked with future Python members John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle. Starring in Alan Bleasdale's 1991 ground breaking television drama GBH allowed Michael a departure from comedy but also set the bar high for future acting roles which he increasingly forwent in favour of writing and presenting documentaries, including a particular favourite about the Danish Painter Vilhelm Hammershøi. Producer: Edwina Pitman Archive : A Fish Called Wanda, Charles Crichton, 1988 Take It From Here, BBC Light Programme, 1954 The Goon Show, The Man Who Never Was, BBC Light Programme, 1958 Comic Roots, BBC1, 1983 That Was The Week That Was, BBC, 1963 The Frost Report, BBC1, 1966 Do Not Adjust Your Set, ITV, 1967 Monty Python’s Flying Circus, BBC1, 1969-1970 The Meaning of Life, Terry Jones, 1983 Friday Night, Saturday Morning, BBC2, 1979 The Life of Brian, Terry Jones, 1979 GBH, Alan Bleasdale, Channel 4, 1991 The Death of Stalin, Armando Iannucci, 2017 Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershøi, BBC4, 2008

Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos first emerged as part the so-called ‘weird wave’ of Greek cinema, and is known for unsettling themes and absurdist humour of his films. He made his mark internationally in 2009 with Dogtooth, which won a Cannes film festival prize and was nominated for an Oscar. Shifting into English language cinema with The Lobster, starring Colin Farrell and Olivia Colman, he continued to win awards and acclaim with The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and his historical comedy drama The Favourite. His most recent film Poor Things, starring Emma Stone, has been nominated for eleven Academy awards, including best film and best director. Yorgos Lanthimos tells John Wilson about his upbringing in Athens, the son of a professional basketball player who was part of the Greek national team, and how, after graduating from film school, he began making commercials and pop videos. He reveals why the work of the American photographer Diane Arbus, renowned for the underlying psychological tension of her portraits, was a major inspiration on the mood of his films. He also cites the influences of the German choreographer Pina Bausch on visual elements in his films, including dance routines seen in The Favourite and Poor Things. The plays of the British writer Sarah Kane, including Blasted and Crave, were also influential on the tone of his darkly humorous films. Producer: Edwina Pitman Diane Arbus' quote is from the documentary film Going Where I've Never Been: The Photography of Diane Arbus (1972), voiced by Mariclare Costello.

French actor Juliette Binoche is known for her portrayal of emotionally complex characters. Over a forty year career, her films have included Three Colours Blue, Les Amants de Pont Neuf, Chocolat, and The English Patient, for which she won her Academy Award. Her most recent film is The Taste of Things, a French drama about a cook and the gourmet she works for, in which she stars opposite Benoît Magimel. Juliette Binoche talks to John Wilson about an early moment of revelation, watching Peter Brookes' production of Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi at in Paris in 1977, which first made her realise she wanted to act. She explains the influence of her acting coach Véra Gregh, who helped her to understand the difference between "acting" and "being". She also recalls her experiences working with some of the most acclaimed film directors; Jean-Luc Godard on Hail Mary; Leos Carax on Les Amants du Pont-Neuf; Krzysztof Kieślowski on Three Colours: Blue; and Anthony Minghella on The English Patient. Producer: Edwina Pitman

A rare interview with Frank Auerbach, one of the world’s greatest living painters. At 92 years old, he has been painting for over 70 years and still works every day. A child refugee from Nazi Germany whose parents were killed in Auschwitz, he made his name alongside his friends and fellow painters Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Leon Kossoff in the 1950s. He’s well known for the thick layers of the paint used to create his portraits and images of the streets around the studio in Camden Town where he has worked since 1954. Frank Auerbach talks to John Wilson about his fragmentary memories of his early childhood in pre-war Berlin and his education at the boarding school Bunce Court in Kent, where he arrived aged 7. He recalls the huge impression that a black and white reproduction in a children's encyclopaedia of Turner's The Fighting Temeraire made on him as a boy, making him want to "do better and be less superficial". Auerbach also discusses the influence on him of the artist David Bomberg who taught him at London's Borough Polytechnic, and his friend and fellow student Leon Kossoff. He also talks about his friendships with Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud and why he still paints and draws in his studio seven days a week. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Born George O'Dowd, Boy George shot to pop stardom in 1982 as frontman with the band Culture Club and later as a solo artist. With his soulful vocals and flamboyant, androgynous looks, he became a massive star around the world with hits such as Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? and Karma Chameleon. His personal struggles with drug addiction and a prison sentence in 2009 meant he was rarely far from tabloid headlines. In recent years he’s been a judge on The Voice, survived the jungle in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and has just published a new memoir called Karma. He continues to record and perform as a prolific solo singer songwriter. George discusses the impact that David Bowie had on him as a teenager and recalls seeing him at the Lewisham Odeon during the Ziggy Stardust tour of 1973. He also talks about the important influence of club promoter Philip Sallon who introduced him to London's gay scene in the late 1970s. Meeting Quentin Crisp in New York with Andy Warhol was also a formative cultural moment. George talks to John Wilson candidly about coping with fame and rebuilding his life after addiction and prison. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Patricia Cornwell’s books have sold over 120 million copies in thirty-six languages in over 120 countries. She’s authored dozens of New York Times bestsellers. For over thirty years her protagonist, the forensic scientist Kay Scarpetta has been investigating murders across America, tracking down criminals by analysing evidence left on the bodies of victims. Cornwell has won the Sherlock Award, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development. She's also authored two books on the identity of Jack the Ripper. Her latest Kay Scarpetta novel is Unnatural Death. Patricia talks to John Wilson about her challenging childhood and upbringing in North Carolina. She reveals the influence of two works of literature on her own writing; Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an ancestor of Cornwell's; and William Golding's Lord of the Flies. She also talks about her interest in the Parthenon Sculptures and her fascination with the identity of Jack the Ripper. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Andrew Scott won a BAFTA as the evil Moriarty in Sherlock, but is equally loved for a divine television role as the hot priest in Fleabag. A prolific and versatile stage actor, he has starred in many plays by contemporary dramatists, including Port and Birdland by Simon Stevens. He played Hamlet to great critical acclaim and won an Olivier award for his starring role in Noel Coward’s Present Laughter. His latest film role is All Of Us Strangers, in which he plays a single gay man haunted by the death of his parents. Andrew Scott talks to John Wilson about his suburban Dublin childhood and the early creative influence of his mother, an art teacher. After landing a debut role in an independent Irish film called Korea, Andrew gave up a university place studying drama to pursue an acting career. He remembers small parts playing American soldiers in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and the television series Band Of Brothers. He discusses his love of Shakespeare and his approach to playing the role of Hamlet at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2017, and reveals how the music of Pet Shop Boys, and in particular their 1987 album Actually, are a reminder of a formative time of his life. Producer: Edwina Pitman

John Wilson's guest is the violinist Nigel Kennedy. A prodigy whose childhood talents were nurtured by Yehudi Menuhin, one of the greatest violinist of the 20th century, Kennedy himself became an international star in 1989 with his recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It sold over three million copies, topping the UK classical charts for a year and went on to be listed as the biggest selling classical album of all time in the Guinness Book Of Records. An unconventional classical musician from the outset, it wasn’t just his wardrobe, accent and attitude that set him apart. As well as recording all the major violin concertos, his repertoire includes jazz standards, folk tunes and Jimi Hendrix. He remains one of the world’s greatest virtuosos. For This Cultural Life, Nigel chooses his two violinist mentors; Yehudi Menuhin and the French musician Stéphane Grappelli with whom he shared a love of jazz and improvisation. Going to New York to study at the prestigious Juilliard School also proved a turning point for Kennedy, not so much for the teaching he received there, but for the legendary jazz musicians like Jimmy Rowles and Ellis Larkins that he sought out in clubs downtown and in Harlem. Nigel also discusses how being a fan of Aston Villa football club has made him think about crowd dynamics in his concerts and reveals the influence of his dog Huxley on his approach to his career. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Dame Judi Dench reflects on her career playing Shakespearean roles on stage and screen across seven decades. Judi Dench has spent her career bringing to life a hugely diverse array of characters. But she is, first and foremost, one of the greatest classical actors of our times. Her love of the work of William Shakespeare and the insight she has gained into his plays over the course of her career is explored in her new book The Man Who Pays The Rent, written with actor and director Brendan O'Hea. In a special edition of This Cultural Life to mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio in a BBC season of programmes celebrating Shakespeare, Dame Judi talks to John Wilson at her home in Surrey. With intimate insights into her relationship with the work of William Shakespeare, she recalls her pivotal experiences and influences that helped steer her career as one of Britain’s greatest classical actors. After seeing her older brother act in a school production of Macbeth, she knew Shakespeare was for her. She remembers her very first professional stage role, playing Ophelia in an Old Vic production of Hamlet in 1957. Despite bad reviews and losing the role when the production went on tour, she was undeterred. Joining the RSC, she worked her way through many of Shakespeare's plays, including a landmark production of Macbeth in 1976, directed by Trevor Nunn. Dame Judi recalls her Olivier award-winning performance of Lady Macbeth opposite Ian McKellen, and her later role of Cleopatra opposite Anthony Hopkins in 1987 at the National Theatre. Remembering her last stage appearance in a Shakespeare play, she discusses her dual roles of Paulina and Time in A Winter’s Tale, and how her degenerative eyesight condition affected her performance. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Werner Herzog is one of the most idiosyncratic, original and prolific filmmakers of modern times, having made nearly 80 films over six decades. His features include Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre Wrath of God and Rescue Dawn, and his documentaries include the multi award-winning Grizzly Man, Cave Of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss. Werner Herzog productions are the stuff of cinema legend, with stories of audacious shoots in inaccessible locations. He’s also written several books, including a newly published memoir called Every Man For Himself And God Against All. Speaking to John Wilson from Los Angeles where he lives, Werner Herzog recalls his impoverished childhood in a remote Bavarian valley at the end of the Second World War. He says that, as a teenager, his discovery of a book about the Lascaux cave paintings was ‘like a bolt of lightning’ to his creative imagination, and led to him making a documentary film about prehistoric cave art many years later. He describes how his films often start with a vivid or unusual image, and how he seeks to capture a sense of awe at the power of the natural world. Werner Herzog discusses the extremely arduous and dangerous conditions in which he made some of his best known films, including Fitzcarraldo and four other films starring the temperamentally volatile lead actor Klaus Kinski. Known for his deadpan, Bavarian-accented narration of his own documentary films, Herzog also reflects on how his distinctive voice has led to him being cast in menacing roles in Hollywood films, including Jack Reacher alongside Tom Cruise, and even a cameo in The Simpsons. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Lyricist Bernie Taupin is one half of one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of all time. For more than 50 years, he has written the lyrics for Elton John’s songs including Tiny Dancer, Candle In The Wind, Rocket Man, Your Song and hundreds more. Having first met in 1967, after they both answered an advert in the NME placed by a record company seeking new musical talent, Elton John and Bernie Taupin have sold more than 300 million albums globally. Born in Lincolnshire, Bernie Taupin has lived in States since the mid 1970s and became an American citizen in 1990. With the publication of a memoir called Scattershot, he made a rare visit to the UK to look back at his life in lyrics. For This Cultural Life, Bernie Taupin discusses his childhood fascination with narrative poetry and storytelling. Hearing the songs of 1950s American country singer Marty Robbins, which told stories of cowboys and outlaws, was a life changing experience for Taupin. He recalls the impact of seeing the Sam Peckinpah western movie The Wild Bunch in 1969, a film renowned for its violent portrayal of 19th century cowboy life, and how it influenced the themes explored in the lyrics of the third Elton John album, Tumbleweed Connection, in 1970. Bernie Taupin also explores the impact of literature on his lyric writing and how flawed protagonists in novels by W. Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene in particular helped inspire the characters and stories in his own songs. He tells John Wilson about the duo's unusual songwriting process in which he sends Elton John completed lyrics, who then composes the songs around the words, a method that they have used throughout their long partnership. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Born George Mpanga, George the Poet is a British spoken-word artist and podcast host. Having started out as a rapper, he made his name as a spoken-word performance poet after leaving Cambridge University. His debut collection Search Party was published in 2015. The same year he was nominated for the Brits Critics Choice Award and the BBC Sound Of 2015 poll. He was also offered an MBE but declined the honour. He launched a genre-defying podcast in 2019, which won a host of prizes including the Peabody Award, a prestigious American prize for broadcasting, becoming the first podcast from outside the States to win it. Have You Heard George’s podcast, as it’s called, interweaves stories of his own upbringing with detailed explorations of contemporary social and political issues. George talks to John Wilson about some of his most formative cultural influences including the grammar school that taught him the essay-writing skills he still puts to use when making his podcast. He reveals how Tupac Shakur’s 1998 song Changes ignited his interest in hip hop, and discusses the impact of rap and grime on his own verse. He also remembers how his local community radio station gave him his first break and encouraged the development as a performer. Producer: Edwina Pitman

One of the world’s most successful living choreographers, Sir Matthew Bourne shook up classical ballet in the mid 1990s with his ground-breaking company Adventures In Motion Pictures, later renamed New Adventures. His breakthrough production, a radical new version The Nutcracker, was followed by a production of Swan Lake where he replaced the traditional female swans with a male ensemble. After initial controversy in the press, it became a massive critical and commercial hit. Since then he’s continued to popularise classical dance with a succession of innovative productions, often drawing inspiration from movies or literature. He’s had hits with the Red Shoes, Edward Scissorhands, Dorian Gray and Lord Of the Flies, and has won Olivier and Tony Awards. Matthew Bourne was knighted in 2016 for services to dance. In This Cultural Life he talks about how his love of classic films musicals started with seeing The Sound of Music as a young boy, and falling in love with Julie Andrews. He recalls his teenage years as one of London’s top autograph hunters meeting the likes of Gene Kelly, Charlie Chaplin and his hero Fred Astaire. He also explains how he was a relative latecomer to ballet and only saw his first ballet - a Sadler's Wells production of Swan Lake - at the age of 18. Matthew Bourne also chooses Powell and Pressburger’s 1948 film The Red Shoes as one of his formative influences. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Renowned for tackling big themes on stage, Lucy Prebble made her name as a playwright in her mid-twenties when she wrote the hugely successful Enron. The play, which premiered in 2009 and explored the collapse of the American energy corporation eight years earlier, transferred to the West End and also played on Broadway. In 2019 she premiered A Very Expensive Poison which dramatized the assassination in London of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Lucy Prebble has also written for television, she devised and wrote the black comedy series I Hate Suzie with its star Billie Piper. She was also one of the writers of the Emmy, Golden Globes and BAFTA winning Succession, about the ageing media mogul deciding if and how to hand control of his corporate empire to his children. In conversation with John Wilson, Lucy recalls how an early job as an assistant to Nicholas Hytner in his first year as Director of the National Theatre helped her to begin her career as a writer. She reveals how Billy Bragg's song Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards is a continued inspiration in her work as a playwright and the influence that Bob Fosse’s 1979 film All That Jazz had on her TV series I Hate Suzie. She also discusses being part of the team that wrote the hit TV series Succession and what effect the experience has had on her and her work. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Author, poet and performer Michael Rosen is one of Britain’s best loved and most prolific children’s writers, having published hundreds of books over nearly fifty years, including his much-loved We’re Going On Bear Hunt, the story of an exciting family outing, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. As a broadcaster he is well known to Radio 4 listeners as the host of Word of Mouth. He was appointed as Children’s Laureate in 2007 and was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize in 2023, the citation noting his “ability to address the most serious matters of life in a spirit of joy, humour and hope”. In conversation with John Wilson, Michael recalls the early influence of his parents, who were both active members of the British Communist Party, and the many books that lined the walls of the Rosen family home. He chooses, as a key cultural inspiration, a reproduction of a 16th century painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder called Netherlandish Proverbs. Depicting ordinary people in various comic situations which represented well-known proverbs of the day, it captured the imagination of young Michael and his friends. He reveals how he started writing his own poetry in response to works by Gerard Manley Hopkins and D H Lawrence whilst at school, and remembers how We’re Going On A Bear Hunt was inspired by various folk tales from around the world. Michael also discusses the impact on his work of the death of his son Eddie at the age of 18 in 1999, and in discovering more about the fate of Jewish family members during the Holocaust. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Angélique Kidjo, often described as "the queen of African music", has recorded fifteen albums, worked with a diverse array of musical collaborators from Burna Boy and Alcia Keys to Philip Glass and Peter Gabriel, and won five Grammy Awards. In 2023 she was the recipient of the Polar Prize, regarded as one of the world’s prestigious musical awards. Born under French colonial rule in 1960 in Dahomey, Angelique first started singing professionally as a teenager. Amid violent political upheavals in the 1980s, she fled her country, which had been renamed Benin, and became an exile in Paris. It was there that she was discovered by legendary Island Record boss Chris Blackwell, who signed her to his label and launched her three decade career. Angélique Kidjo tells John Wilson about the early influence of her mother who ran a musical theatre company in her hometown, and encouraged her to first take to the stage at the age of six. Becoming a professional singer in her teens, she recalls how she was inspired by African musicians including Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. She chooses the American composer Philip Glass as another huge influence, having worked with him on Symphony 12, Glass’s reinterpretation of David Bowie’s Lodger album. Angélique also discusses her work with David Byrne and why she choose to record her own version of Remain In Light, the 1980 album by Byrne’s band Talking Heads. Producer: Edwina Pitman

One of the world’s most acclaimed ceramicists, Edmund de Waal is renowned for simple, hand-made porcelain pots and bowls which are usually displayed in meticulously arranged groups. His work has been shown in museums and galleries including the V&A, the British Museum, the Frick in New York, and at the Venice Biennale. In 2010 Edmund de Waal became widely known as a bestselling author, after the publication of his family memoir The Hare With Amber Eyes which retraced his Jewish European heritage. A dramatic and tragic story about art, exile and survival, it led him on a journey from Tokyo to Odessa via 19th century Paris and Nazi occupied Vienna. On This Cultural Life, Edmund de Waal tells John Wilson about being taken to a pottery class at the age of five by his father, an Anglican cleric who worked at Lincoln Cathedral. He immediately fell in love with the process of moulding wet clay into vessels and was determined to become a potter. After leaving school he spent five months in Japan studying the ancient traditions of pottery with various master ceramicists. He remembers how a visit to the Ryoan-ji Temple in Kyoto had a huge impact on his understanding of space, contemplation and spirituality. During his first visit to Japan he also met his great uncle Ignatius Ephrussi from whom Edmund first learned about his European Jewish heritage, his family’s exile from Vienna in the face of Nazi terror, and the collection of small Japanese figurines, known as netsuke, whose story was told in The Hare With Amber Eyes. Edmund chooses the ceramicist Lucie Rie, another Viennese exile in London, as a major influence on his practise. He describes his working routine in the ceramics studio, and how his pots are often made in response to poetry, citing the work of Romanian-born Paul Celan an American poet Emily Dickinson as particular influences. Producer: Edwina Pitman

French Moroccan author Leïla Slimani won critical acclaim and a reputation as an author of bold & brutal fiction with her first two novels. Adele is about a bourgeoise Parisian wife and mother who lives a sexually promiscuous secret life. In Lullaby, a nanny kills the children she’s employed to care for, a story currently being adapted as a drama series starring Nicole Kidman. Leïla has also written the first two in a planned trilogy of novels based on her own family history, and has published short stories and non-fiction. She has won France’s most prestigious literary award the Prix Goncourt, and in 2017 she was appointed as President Macron’s personal representative to Francophone countries. For This Cultural Life, Leïla Slimani tells John Wilson about her childhood in Rabat, the daughter of a prominent Moroccan economist and politician. She reveals how she was motivated to write novels after the death of her father who had been convicted of financial fraud and imprisoned, but who was posthumously cleared of any wrongdoing. She chooses her French-born maternal grandmother, who told stories to Leïla , as a formative influence on her creative imagination from a young age. Having covered the Arab Spring uprisings in Morocco and Tunisia as a journalist for Jeune Afrique magazine, Leïla discusses how news stories have inspired much of her work. Producer: Edwina Pitman