As Chief News Correspondent for the BBC between 1989 and 2003 Kate Adie CBE DL reported from war zones around the world - one of her most significant assignments was reporting from the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. She took up her role as presenter of the BBC Radio 4 series From Our Own Correspondent in 1998 (broadcast weekly on Thursday 11am and Saturday 11.30am).
Kate fell in love with Dorset when she was working on a farming programme in the West Country at the start of her career in broadcasting back in the mid 1970s. Kate moved to the county in 2012 and resides in a pretty West Dorset village with her dog. She was appointed Chancellor of Bournemouth University in 2019. Her book Fighting on the Home Front: The Legacy of Women in World War One is published by Hodder at £12.99.
The Moon’s a Balloon by David Niven: Cheer yourself up with this entertaining memoir by British actor David Niven. Published in 1971 it covers his early years in Hollywood working and partying with the legends of the silver screen. Funny, charming and still sparkling. Try the sequel Bring on the Empty Horses if you want more.
Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives: You need to learn more about the serious stuff? Former Python member and historian Terry Jones is your guide to Medieval England, he takes the Plague in his stride, with humour.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson: A good novel? Kate Atkinson perfectly evokes the 1950s in this her first novel which won her the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1996, it is both original and fascinating. If you like it then read her detective series...
The Quest for Queen May by James Pope-Hennessy: Posh gossip - admit you like it, and get James Pope-Hennessy's The Quest for Queen Mary... 'royal persons are NOT like ordinary people...'
War Doctor - Surgery on the Front Line by David Nott: This is a book I read last year, and it has stayed with me ever since. Over the last 25 years David Nott OBE - a general and vascular surgeon with the NHS - has taken unpaid leave to volunteer in some of the world's most dangerous war zones - from Sarajevo under siege to clandestine hospitals in rebel-held eastern Aleppo. An extraordinary book by an extraordinary man.
Fighting on the Home Front by Kate Adie: How to get through a tough time? Researching for Fighting on the Home Front, I learned that women in World War One weathered prejudice, low status, hard work, and loss and then the Spanish flu - but they managed to come through, proved themselves capable, broke down barriers, and set women on the road to equality.
