John Sutherland

The scholar and critic John Sutherland talks to Michael Berkeley about his passions for film, music, and Victorian literature.

An unsuccessful career at school and a backbreaking job laying railway tracks were an unlikely start in life for the future Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus of Modern English Literature at University College London.

John Sutherland is hugely respected for his academic work on Victorian literature, but his infectious passion for books has led him to write for a popular audience too - he is a regular contributor to the Guardian and other papers, and his many books include Can Jane Eyre Be Happy?, How to Read a Novel, and most recently an entertaining quiz book: How Good is Your Grammar?

He talks to Michael about his difficult childhood, the later devastating effects of alcoholism, and the books and music that he's loved throughout his life - including Vaughan Williams, Britten and Mahler.

Producer: Jane Greenwood A Loftus Production for BBC Radio 3.