The Envy Of The World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3

by Humphrey Carpenter

On 29 September 1946 the BBC Third Programme went on air, providing listeners with what the then Director General described as a high cultural level of programming. Written to celebrate the programmes's 50th anniversary, with unlimited access to the BBC's written and sound archives and the letters of such notable broadcasters as Bertrand Russell, Harold Nicolson and Dylan Thomas, and including excerpts from outstanding talks, documentries and drama, this book charts in detail the history of this very British institution and brings alive the personalities who have created the programme.

431 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J.R.R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inklings. He won a Mythopoeic Award for his book The Inklings in 1982.