Daisy Dunn

Is Matthew Parris the modern Plutarch? Radio 4’s Great Lives reviewed

Plus: top tips on how to play Hamlet

Conservationist, canoeist and English gentleman anarchist Roger Deakin. Photo: © Sheila Rock. All rights reserved 2023 / Bridgeman Images  
issue 21 January 2023

Whenever I listen to Great Lives on Radio 4, which is often, I am reminded of the gulf between fame and achievement. How is it that some people do so much, yet remain obscure, while others seem to be carried forward with perpetual momentum after doing just one thing? A good many of the lives dissected on the programme over the years have been completely unfamiliar to me.

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