Hello Again: Nine decades of radio voices

by Simon Elmes

It’s now ninety years since the BBC made its first broadcast and the British love affair with radio began.

This book is a journey through that fascinating history and a celebration of the many wonderful voices that were part of it: Marion Cran, who pioneered the first gardening programme in the 1920s; The Goons and Kenneth Horne, comedy greats of the 1950s; John Peel, Alan Freeman, Kenny Everett and other heroes of the pirate stations; all the way up to Eddie Mair, Fi Glover and Danny Baker, the much-loved voices of today.

A delightful blend of insight, history and nostalgia, Hello Again will appeal to any radio aficionado.

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 28, 2012

Reviews

[Mark Allinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a fun romp through the history of British radio with a focus on the names, voices and personalities which shaped it from the earliest days. Those who know their radio history will find plenty of familiar stories and few revelations but that makes for a pleasant read. If you don’t know the back story of radio this is a good place to start. At times the writing could be sharper, and in places this reads like a collection of obituaries, but overall it keeps moving forward quite compellingly. The greatest shame is the absence of a bibliography and it would have been fantastic to have links to some indicative recordings of the great voices of radio’s past, for whom this book is above all a worthy - and sometimes rightly critical - celebration.