Love changes everything at the Real Downton Abbey: Lady Carnarvon meets BGT Winner Colin Thackery MBE

Lady Carnarvon reflects on Highclere Castle’s first Literary Festival by spotlighting visiting authors and the origins of their stories. Hugh Bonneville discusses his commissioned Rory Sparkes children’s trilogy, how book two drew on learning his mother worked for MI6, and how he “pillaged” schoolchildren’s ideas; he reads an excerpt from The Spy Who Loved Tea. Shrabani Basu explains how researching curries led her to Victoria & Abdul, the challenge of burned letters, and her use of archi...

It seems a fitting tribute to share this podcast which reflects on the last fifty years of Jeffrey's fabulous story telling. We recorded this on the 29th September and had such a joyful morning together. Fifty years after fourteen publishers turned down Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, Jeffrey Archer joins Lady Carnarvon at Highclere to talk about Adam and Eve, the novel he says will be his last. He explains why he still writes every word by hand on a thirty-two-line Oxford pad in Majorca,...

I welcomed one of my hero authors, Michael Morpurgo, and his wife Clare, to Highclere Castle to talk about storytelling, history, the magic of reading, and the extraordinary charity they founded together — Farms for City Children. Michael shared how War Horse came to life and why understanding the First World War matters more than ever today. We recalled the unforgettable day Joey, the National Theatre's War Horse puppet, came to Highclere in 2014 — walking through the very library where Almi...

Today, I welcomed author Alex Norman to the podcast to talk about his book on De Havilland’s Moth and the thrilling world of aviation in the 1920s and 30s, a period with such wonderful links to Highclere. Alex shared his own family’s connections to early flying, including his grandfather’s aircraft and involvement in the London Aeroplane Club and explained how Geoffrey de Havilland’s ingenuity helped by Frank Halford’s lightweight Cirrus engine made the DH60 Moth a breakthrough for priv...

I’m delighted to welcome author and explorer Levison Wood to Highclere, where we talk about my great love; trees and his book, The Great Tree Story: how forests have shaped our world. Levison shares how studying the Grand Tour at university inspired his lifelong passion for travel and storytelling, from hitchhiking across Europe and Central Asia to serving as an officer in the Parachute Regiment and deploying to Afghanistan. He recalls founding a production company and undertaking extra...