Val McDermid

Val McDermid joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The award-winning crime writer was inspired to write after reading Agatha Christie as a child. After attending Oxford University, Val started her career as a journalist and has drawn on these experiences in her latest thriller 1989. Kristin Mcilquham’s father suffered from a serious brain injury (three aneurysms) when she was child which changed her dad’s personality. Now an actor, she is performing her one-woman show Headcase about the impact this had on her life growing up, on her family and on her dad. Eileen Fitzgerald befriended The Rolling Stones as a teenager and exchanged letters with the fledgling rockers. Years later she sold the correspondence to help pay for her PhD. Trumpeter Alison Balsom shares her Inheritance Tracks: JS Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 by Trevor Pinnock with The English Concert and Con Alma by Dizzy Gillespie. Nihal Arthanayake started out as a recording artist before becoming an award-winning broadcaster. He talks about life growing up and why in his new book Let's Talk he's encouraging everyone to have better conversations. Producer: Claire Bartleet