Melvyn Bragg
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Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg (born 6 October 1939, in Wigton, Cumbria) is a British author, screenwriter and television and radio host and journalist.
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Biography
Bragg read Modern History at Wadham College, Oxford.
He started his career in 1961 as a producer at the BBC; he moved into his role as writer and broadcaster in 1967.
He is known for the London Weekend Television (LWT) arts programme The South Bank Show, which he has written, edited and produced since 1978. 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.
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. He is a friend of Tony Blair, the current Labour Prime Minister.
In 1999 he became Chancellor of Leeds University. Bragg is also President of the National Campaign for the Arts (since 1986) and a Governor of the London School of Economics (since 1997). He was made Domus Fellow, St Catherine's College, Oxford, in 1990. He became a member of the Arts Council Literature Panel in 1969 and has since become Chairman.
Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays.
Bibliography
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 Manoevres (1978)
- Love and Glory (1983)
- The Maid of Buttermere (1987)
- 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:
Non-fiction
- Speak For England (1976)
- Land of The Lakes (1983)
- Laurence Olivier (1984)
- Cumbria in Verse (editor) (1984)
- Rich: The Life of Richard Burton (1988)
- King Lear in New York (1994)
- On Giants' Shoulders (1998)
- Two Thousand Years Part 1: The Birth of Christ to the Crusades (1999)
- Two Thousand Years Part 2 (1999)
- The Routes of English (2001)
- The Adventure of English (2003)
Children's books
- A Christmas Child (1977)
- My Favourite Stories of Lakeland (editor) (1981)
Filmography
As screenwriter:
- "Jesus Christ Superstar" (1973)
- "The Music Lovers" (1970) (aka "Ken Russell's Film on Tchaikovsky and the Music Lovers")
- "Isadora (1968) (with Clive Exton and Margaret Drabble)
- "Play Dirty" (1968)
Prizes and awards
- Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for Without a City Wall (1968)
- Time/Life Silver Pen Award for The Hired Man (1970)
- Bad Sex in Fiction Award for A Time to Dance (1993)
- BAFTA TV Award for An Interview with Dennis Potter (1995)
- WH Smith Literary Award for The Soldier's Return (2000)
External links
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- Biography (http://www.visitcumbria.com/mbragg.htm)
- Radio 4 biography (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/presenters/bragg_biog.shtml)