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This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThis title was previously published in 2017 with the original title, 'What I Learnt'
Jeremy Vine has been presenting a BBC Radio 2 show since 2003 that attracts more than seven million listeners. In that time he calculates he has taken more than 25,000 calls on topical subjects - big issues and small ones: on life, love, lollipop ladies and poisonous plants. But what have the callers told him?
In the age of Brexit and Donald Trump, is the world now being run by Radio 2 listeners? If you listen to Radio 4, Brexit was a shock. If you are a Radio 2 listener it wouldn't have surprised you at all. Where Jeremy's callers once expressed a kind of resignation ('But what can you do?' or the gloomy rejoinder: 'You have to laugh'), now they tend to give him their views expecting to be heeded. They have not called in to entertain the audience. They expect to take the wheel of the car and drive.
Listener wisdom is far more valuable than most of what we hear from appointed spokespeople. What was the response when Jeremy asked: 'Have you ever been pecked in the eye by a gannet?' Which subjects are most likely to start pitched warfare between different sections of the audience? (Answer: old people using buses, old people NOT using buses, cellophane, or Tony Blair saying anything.)
In a book punctuated by vivid anecdotes and laugh-out-loud moments, Jeremy Vine explains what it's like to hit a button and hear - totally unvarnished and unspun - the voices of so-called ordinary people. And why they are not so ordinary after all.
Read by Peter Kenny and Introduced by Jeremy Vine
(p) Orion Recording Group 2017
Jeremy Vine presents the award-winning JEREMY VINE SHOW on Radio 2, weekdays at noon. He presents one of the BBC's longest-running quiz shows, EGGHEADS, as well as POINTS OF VIEW. He also does the BBC election graphics.
After starting his training at the COVENTRY EVENING TELEGRAPH, Jeremy became a BBC news trainee in 1987. He worked for many years as a reporter - in Westminster, Africa, and on the BBC Radio 4 TODAY programme. He was a presenter of NEWSNIGHT too. He lives with his wife Rachel and daughters Anna and Martha in west London.
Jeremy Vine presents the award-winning JEREMY VINE SHOW on Radio 2, weekdays at noon. He presents one of the BBC's longest-running quiz shows, EGGHEADS, as well as POINTS OF VIEW. He also does the BBC election graphics.
After starting his training at the COVENTRY EVENING TELEGRAPH, Jeremy became a BBC news trainee in 1987. He worked for many years as a reporter - in Westminster, Africa, and on the BBC Radio 4 TODAY programme. He was a presenter of NEWSNIGHT too. He lives with his wife Rachel and daughters Anna and Martha in west London.
As both actor and singer, PETER KENNY has worked widely in theatre and broadcasting, appearing with, amongst others, the Royal Shakespeare Company, A&BC, Coventry Belgrade, and the BBC Radio Repertory Company. He is a prolific audiobook reader and his titles include The Wasp Factory and Look To Windward by Iain Banks, and The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.